2. Figures of Inequality

Their semantic function is highlighting differences.

Specifying, or clarifying synonyms.

Synonym used for clarification mostly follow one another (in opposition t replacers), although not necessarily immediately. Clarifiers may either arise in the speaker's mind or they occupy the same syntactical positions in two or mor parallel sentences.

Thus, roughly, in a 'synonymic repetition', as this phenomenon is ofte called, the idea recurs, but it is not exactly the same idea: a subsequen synonym complements its predecessor, both are complemented by th third, and so on.

"Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish dear fellow." (Dickens) Climax (or: Gradation). ideas in which what precedes is less than what follows. Thus the second element surpasses the first and is, in its turn, surpassed by the third, and so on.

To put it otherwise, the first element is the weakest (though not necessarily weak!); the subsequent dements gradually increase in strength, the last being the strongest.

"I am sorry, I am so very sorry, I am so extremely sorry." ( Chesterton )

Anti-climax (or: Bathos). 'back gradation'. it is the opposite to climax, but this assumption is not quite correct. It would serve no purpose whatever making the second element weaker than the first, the third still weaker, and so on.

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

Pun. This term is synonymous with the current expression 'play upon words'. "There comes a period in every man's life, but she is just a semicolon in his." The witticism is clear to him who recalls that period is not only 'lapse of time', but punctuation mark as well. Thus a woman may be less than a period in a man's life: a mere semicolon!

Zeugma. As with the pun, this device consists in combining unequal, semantically heterogeneous, or even incompatible, words or phrases.

Zeugma is a kind of economy of syntactical units: one unit (word, phrase) makes a combination with two or several others without being repeated itself: ^uShe was married to Mr. Johnson, her twin sister, to Mr. Ward; their half-sister, to Mr. Trench"

Tautology pretended and tautology disguised. repetition of th same word or word combination: the theme and the rheme are lexical! identical. ⁶ For East is East, and West is West...'

13. Figures of Contrast

They are formed by intentional combination, often by direct juxtaposition of ideas, mutually excluding, and incompatible with one another, or at least assumed to be. They are differentiated by the type of actualization of contrast, as well as by the character of their connection with the referent.

Oxymoron. Oxymoron discribes some feature to an object incompatible with that feature. It is a logical collision of notional words taken for granted as natural, in spite of the incongruity of their mean- ings. Ex: His honour rooted in dishonour stood

And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. (Tennyson)

Evidently an attributive or an adverbial combination forming oxy- moron is not devoid of sober sense despite its outward illogicality: it probably would be but for the fact that one of its two components is used figuratively.

This figure of speech is not too often met with; the more expressive is its stylistic effect. It is not absurd for absurdity's sake, but discloses the essence of the object full of seeming or genuine discrepancies.

"I liked him better than I would have liked his father... We were fellow strangers."

Sometimes, oxymoron becomes obliterated, as in "I'm a great little kidder. Don't pay attention to it" (Chase). In certain cases oxymoron displays no illogicality and, actually, no internal contradictions, but rather an opposition of what is real to what is pretended:

"I am preferably a man of mildness, but now and then, I find myself in the middle of extremities." (O. Henry)

Antithesis. This phenomenon is incomparably more frequent than oxymoron. It denotes any active con- frontation, emphasized co-occurrence of notions, really or presumably contrastive. The two opposed notions may refer to the same object of thought or to different objects. The former variety is logically related to oxymoron (the same referent gets mutually exclusive characteristics). The purpose of using this device is to demonstrate the contradictory nature of the referent, as in the following illustration:

"Large houses are still occupied while weavers' cottages stand empty." (Gaskell)

It must be admitted that classification of antitheses is on the whole risky due to the very general character of the notion of antithesis. The borderlines of the phenomenon are vague by their nature. Perhaps the surest way is to assume that antithesis is any identification of contrast meant to be perceived by the recipient. The most natural, or regular expression of contrast is the use of antonyms. We have already seen it: best — worst, wisdom — foolishness, light — darkness, everything — nothing. And yet, as already suggested, the notions opposed may be only apparently contrasting, i.e. opposite (or essentially divergent) from the particular viewpoint of the speaker or writer. This is observable in high fees and light lessons. High and light are not antonyms; moreover, they denote incompatible qualities, the former primarily pertaining to vertical dimensions, the latter, to weight. "You have a kind nucleus at the interior of your exterior after all." (O.Henry)

Antithesis is not only an expressive device used in every type of emotional speech (poetry, imaginative prose, oratory, colloquial speech), but also, like any other stylistic means, the basis of set phrases, some of which are not necessarily emphatic unless pronounced with special force: now or never, dead or alive, yes or no, black and white, from top to toe, the first and the last (a biblical expression), etc.

To conclude the chapter on semasiology of sequences, the devices outlined are presented below in a scheme showing their classification.

Every manual on stylistics acquaints the learner with specific features of various types of speech (various texts). Those published in this country just since the late 1950s contain collectively as much information of this kind as to make presumptuous any attempt at offering the reader anything more comprehensive than can be found elsewhere. Therefore the chapters to follow contain only a critical survey of some of the existing style classifications, analysis of the few concepts that disclose, in the author's opinion, the most essential 'principium divisionis', and finally, a brief description of several sublanguages singled out on the basis of that principle.