In the system of any l there are two main sources and two minor ones.

Main:

synonymical relations:

parent-father-daddy

commence-begin-go ahead

роптать-жаловаться-ныть

темница-тюрьма-тюряга

relations between the direct and figurative meaning (Работать спустя рукава – Don’t be such a pig)

Minor:

relations of formal similarity (crash, dash, splash; glare, glitter, glimmer, glisten; grim, growl, grumble)

restriction – a word is naturally expected in more or less narrow environment (stylistic – extremely married) (cyclotron, to hibernate)

Literally S makes use of these sources of language Connotation and adds many others. For instance, repetition (Boots, boots, boots, boots – R. Kipling – пыль, пыль, пыль, пыль от шагающих сапог); defeated expectancy – в чем откладывать – в деньгах или рублях.

Lexical Stylistic Devices

Vocabulary as the main source of imagery.

Approaches to classifying tropes.

The main components of a trope.

Characterization of each trope.

Stylistic use of set expressions.

Imagery is created in a text especially a literary one by all the layers of the language. Ex, specific phonetic arrangement – rhythm or rhyme or sound repetition. A light purse is a heavy curse – rhyme. By hook or by crook. Image is also built by syntactical devices, such as parallel constructions, rhetorical questions and other patterns of arrangement. But the main role in imagery building belongs to vocabulary. The greater part of V devices are associated with figurative meaning. These are called tropes. Yet there are some lexical devices which create connotation without being based on figurative use. For instance, use of synonyms especially if they increase in intensity, She was beautiful, irresistible or antonyms Любовь и ненависть, смех и слезы, надежда и отчаяние; violation of predictability, when words are used in unexpected collocations (Орфей и Эвридика – какие одержал он пораженья, какие он победы потерпел).

Classification is a very controversial issue. And Arnold gives up any attend to classify it.

metaphor	irony	Periphrasis
epithet	personification	Hyperbole
Synecdoche + metonymy	Allegory	Understatement (=meiosis (мейоз)-litotes)
	antonomasia
Simile (худ.сравнение), oxymoron (сочетание противоположных по значению слов), pun (каламбур), zeugma (зевгма – использование слова в нескольких значениях сразу)

Galperin offers a semantic classification of tropes. It shoes how different types of meaning interact.

Kuznetz, Skrebnev – functional classification

Every trope is based on the following four components:

the tenor – (metal carcass) – обозначаемоe

the vehicle - обозначающее

the ground – обоснование

the mechanism of comparison

The old man (tenor) is as cunning (ground) as a fox (vehicle). – as as – mechanism.

Thus all the components are given explicitly. But it is not necessary for all of them to be actually expressed. For instance, the same analogy can be simplified (The old man is like a fox – there is no ground). The old is a fox (tenor and vehicle). Beware of the old fox, he may betray you - (the vehicle). No vehicle – no image.

Simile – is a lexical device based on explicit comparison of two objects of phenomena belonging to different classes. (tall as post). Sometimes S can compare objects of the same class if one of them is concrete and the other is an abstract concept. The nurse looked after him like a mother. It the most explicit of all tropes, it either possesses 3 or 4 components with the ground implied. But the mechanism is always present explicitly. Now tropes and simile is no exception can be either trite, that is belong to the language (старо как мир, седой как лун), or genuine (textual, original, fresh).

His eyes were so much too small for his moon of a face that they seemed to have been originally made for someone else (Dickens).

He stood……as hard and cold as the weather (Dickens).

He had no more idea of money than a cow (Goldsworthy)

He had reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat. (Goldsworthy).

Metaphor- sometimes looked upon as an implied simile. (Человек человеку волк).

Actually, there are at least three main theories of metaphor.

Substitution (replacement) theory – we use one word or expression instead of another if we lack a lexical unit that nominates the object directly.

comparative theory

interaction theory - the tenor and the vehicle interact and as a result some qualities of the vehicle are discarded as useless and others sieved. They compliment each other. Any notional part of speech can be used metaphorical. The lawyers tripped each other on slippery precedents. Walls of words (словесное нагромождение). Дверь жалобно скрипнула.

Like a simile, a M may have a vehicle belonging to the same sphere of experience. For instance, She’ll make someone a nice husband (Osgood).

M do not only occur in literature, but in cinema, painting.

Trite M – the leg of a table, the hands of a clock, a heart of gold.

Genuine M – The clouds are crying. He spat out every word. She retreated into the armor of silence.

M can be simple or sustained (prolonged – The rose-bush was splashing the darkness with great spilt stars pure white). (D. H. Lawrence) (разбрызгивал)

Metonymy is also based on association, but it is not association through analogy. It is association through contiguity. The tenor and the vehicle have really existing connections and thus the vehicle represents the tenor. M is based on a variety of principles.

Mentioning a part for the whole (to live under the same roof)

characteristic feature for its owner (to be on friendly terms with such a pair of whiskers)

container for the contained (the hall applauded)

object for the doer (his prolific pen)

a symbol for what it stands for (взойти на трон, сойти в могилу)

emotion or attitude is mentioned instead of a person causing or experiencing this emotion or attitude (“Love on his knees before beauty”)

There are cases when metaphor and metonymy for all their differences may sometimes converge within one image. (Волка ноги кормят)

Epithet – an attributive word or word combination which contains an expressive characteristic of the object it describes. Grammatically it is either an attribute, or an adverbial modifier of manner. (Дверь жалобно скрипнула).

E are often tried and ancient greeks who were the first to use E disregarded the idea of fresh original E. The G spoke of two kinds of E. The so-called epitheton necessarium (such words were used to distinguish the bearers of the same name, to ordinals after the name – Richard the Lionheart; Alexander the Great) and ornamental or decorative.

An epithet (Greek) is a descriptive word or phrase that has become a fixed formula (merry old English, красна девица, добрый молодец).

E are often metaphoric such as devouring time, spilt stars.

Genuine E can be non-metaphoric too. If they possess emotive or expressive connotation – inconsolable grief, несметные богатства.

E can be transferred or non-transferred. T E - when the emotion experienced by the speaker or character is ascribed to an inanimate object. (He tossed on his sleepless pillow). We spent many merry hours there.

Associated – an attributive word which shares some semantic features with the object or phenomenon it describes. (dreary midnight, careful attention)

Non-associated.

The structure of E – it can be represented by a single word or a word combination. Usually it is noun 1 of noun 2 (a ghost of a smile (бледное подобие улыбки), his moon of a face, scarecrow of a suit (law suit)).

E sometimes can be presented as a sentence – a don’t-touch-me-or-I-shall-bite-you look.

Irony is a device which is based on the contrast between the primary dictionary or contextual meaning and I consists in saying exactly the opposite of what we mean. Usually we say a good thing such a compliment meaning criticism and seldom it is visa verse.

I can vary in tone, from gentle and friendly irony to biting or bitter irony.

A gentleman in a white waistcoat said he was a fool. Which was a capital way of raising his spirits, and putting him quite at ease.

Usually it is one word, sometimes two, which bear the weight of irony and irradiate it through all the context coloring it ironically.

Sometimes we come across both gentle and bitter I within one context. They converge in intensifying each other.

He was keeping his birthday in the coal-cellar with a select party of two other young gentlemen (G), who.....had been locked there for atrociously presuming (B) to be hungry.

There is also such a phenomenon as a dramatic irony. It is maybe found in the lines of a personage who attributes one meaning to his words whereas the other characters and the readers interpret them in a totally different way. In such cases the speaker usually exposes himself to ridicule. Что может случиться там, когда я здесь.

Sheridan, School for Scandal: “Madam, you had no taste when you married me”.

Dramatic irony is not always funny, it can be tragic. (I will cleanse the city of the filthy thing which pollutes it, Oedipus).

I should not be mixed up with SARCASM. S has no linguistic mechanism, so it is not a trope. S is always acid. And S means what it says, but it produces an effect by being placed in a context which foregrounds the S. (They contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited amount of water).

Personification consists in attributing human qualities or emotions or attitudes to inanimate objects, so that this thing really comes alive and has a personality of its own.

The fog comes

On little cat’s feet.

It sits looking

Over harbor and city

On silent haunches,

And then moves on. (Sandburg)

One of the same object may be personified in absolutely different ways.

Linguistically, P is sometimes marked by the use of capital letters and by the use of pronoun he and she instead of it. Even in a serious article - Nature may take her revenge on us. And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

The bookcase…..repudiated all familiarities.

Allegory is a piece of discourse with a double meaning. On one hand, it means what it says. On the other hand, it tells quite a different story, that is it is used symbolically. As a trope, A is found on the sentence level and mostly manifests itself through proverbs. (Не говори гоп, пока не перескочишь. Don’t cross the bridge before you come to it. Цыплят по осени считают).

On the textual level A is found in such genres as fables and parables.

There even are models, which are allegoric. A classical example is Путешествие Гулливера. On the sentence level we can distinguish between metaphorical and metonymical allusion. Sometimes we have both (Волка ноги кормят). Sometimes it is easy to distinguish – No rose without a thorn (метафора). The way to a man’s heart lies through his stomach (metonymical). Язык - враг мой (метонимия)

Lecture 4 28.09.2010

Periphrasis – перифраз(а) – an umbrella term which includes a number of related phenomena. (euphemism, dysphemism, political correctness, “doublespeak”, poetic periphrasis, kenning).

Еuphemism – эвфемизм – a word or expression which we use instead of another which seems to be coarse or which may hurt the listener’s feelings. It can be trite and genuine (to die – to pass away, lavatory – bathroom, powder my nose)

Dysphemism - the use of rougher word instead of a neutral expression (my old man\folks, рожицы). It can be used for the sake of informality of tone or to avoid sentimentality.

Political correctness – imposed on the language community by the current cultural and ethics – Negros, Nigger – x, Black – o, then comes Afro-Americans – African-Americans. Invalids – handicapped.

“Doublespeak” – P for political purposes. It is meant to channel public perception, to hide, to camouflage some aspect of life. (He was placed on a non-duty, non-ay status – he lost his job).

Poetic periphrasis consists in using a lengthy and flowery\high-flown expression instead of a plainer and shorter one. The purpose is often humorous or ironic. The item of mortality whose name is prefaced to the head of this mortality. There was considerable difficulty in inducing Oliver to take upon himself the office of respiration (to breathe). He lay gasping on a little mattress, rather unequally poised between this world and the next, the balance being decidedly in favor of the latter (=on the point of dying).

Kenning – is a kin to metaphor. It appears in Old English and Scandinavian poetry. Whale-road=sea; God’s beacon=sun; ring-giver=king.

Hyperbola – exaggeration, which is meant to be understood as such. It can be trite and genius too. Trite – thousand pardons, for ages. G – literary – My God, it could reach up and grab the moon! (Bradbury). She was like a wind-mill, six hands, and six arms, too, all of them moving clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time (Saroyan).

Hyperbole+dramatic irony:

Mummy, I’ve just seen a dog run by as big as a horse!

I told you a thousand times not to exaggerate!

A cat-size pony. – reversed hyperbole.

Understatement – stating something in restrained terms, or as less than it is. It can be expressed lexically. (C ней неприятность случилась в тюрьме (Булгаков). The rumors of my death were slightly exaggerated (Twain). That was some game!)

Meiosis – using a seemingly weaker form of expression to gain a greater emphasis.

It is often structioned as litotes (as a kind of meiosis) – we use negation not or no or +un, in, il, ir +N\antonym far from, devoid of. (She was not a little upset. Such things are not uncommon).

Oxymoron – (stupid wicked) – a combination of two words, usually an adjective and a noun or an Adj and adv modifier (gracefully clumsy), which contrast in meaning, sharply opposed. (Живой труп, Eyes wide shut, Sweet pain). The 1^st word in this collocation is always foregrounded and has a metaphorical meaning, because it is used out of place. (Deafening silence, Горячий снег).

Every O is an unusual collocation. But not every unusual collocation is O.

She is so deliciously low, so horribly dirty! – Shaw

An interminable brief -Dickens

Though the words clash in meanings, they do not clash as antonyms.

Pun – каламбур – paronomasia – simultaneous realization of 2 meaning of a word or of 2 homonyms. It is a play upon words. It is a narrower term.