Useful Phrases and Clichés

• to intensify the expression of… and help the reader gain an insight

• to bring home to the reader

• The simile serves to disclose/ portray/ reveal/ enhance the impression

• to expose the idea

• to render/ convey

• to create…

• to single out the components of simile

• to carry/ maintain/ expose expressive evaluation/ emotive explanation/ highly individual description

• to liken/ to be associated with

C. Analyse the given cases of metaphor from the point of view of their semantics, originality, structure; define their stylistic functions:

1. But the medical student cannot see it in this light. Examinations touch off his fighting spirit; they are a straight contest between himself and the examiners, conducted on well-established rules for both, and he goes at them like a prize-fighter.

2. Meanwhile, we despondently ticked the days off the calendar, swotted up the spot questions, and ran a final breathless sprint down the well-trodden paths of medicine.

3. But the viva is judgement day. A false answer, and the god’s brow threatens like imminent thunderstorm. If the candidate loses his nerve in front of this terrible displeasure he is finished: confusion breeds confusion and he will come to the end of his interrogation struggling like a cow in a bog.

4. … and his opposite, the Old Stager, who treated the whole thing with the familiarity of a photographer at a wedding. He had obviously failed the examination so often he looked upon the viva simply as another engagement to be fitted into his day.

5. My heart leaped hopefully.

6. I rallied my thoughts and stumbled through the answer…

7. Little shreds of success collected together and weaved themselves into a triumphant garland…

8. …failures would slink miserably out of the exit to seek the opiate oblivion.

9. The elder porter raised his voice.

10. I jumped and struggled my way to the front of the restless crowd. My pulse shot in my ears.

11. There was the Nonchalant, lolling back on the rear legs of his chair with his feet on the table.

Note:

Metaphor – is the result of transference of the name of one object to another object based on the associated likeness between the objects. It is the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously on the basis of at least one common semantic component (foundation).

Classification:

1. According to the pragmatic effect produced upon the addressee:

trite (hackneyed, stale, dead, language) are fixed in dictionaries: a neck of a bottle, a leg of a table, floods of tears;

genuine (fresh, original, speech) are created in speech and are first used.

2. According to the structure:

A

simple (elementary) consists of a single word or word-combination expressing indiscrete notion: The leaves were falling sorrowfully;

prolonged (sustained) is a sequence of simple metaphors offering a complex image.

B

one-member – only the vehicle is expressed explicitly, the tenor is implicit;

two-member – both the tenor and the vehicle are expressed explicitly

3. According to the semantics of the associated objects:

- personification (animate^V – inanimate^T)

- zoosemy (animal^V – human being^T)

- anthroposemy (human being^V – animal^T)

-synesthesia (one organ of sense perception – another organ of perception)

Functions: to create images, aesthetic and expressive functions; foregrounding expressive, evaluative, subjective connotations, prompted by the author’s subjective original view and evaluation of things.

Styles: naturally appears in poetry and emotive prose, occasionally in other styles.

Metaphor can be expressed by all notional parts of speech, and functions in the sentence as any of its members.

Read more:

1. Єфімов – с.54-57, 60

2. Kukharenko – pp.37-39