Antithesis,
Anticlimax
Litotes
1. Antithesis is a semantic opposition emphasized in similar structures, often involving 2 antonyms: Don’t use big words. They mean so little. (O.W.) Antithesis is a SD based on the author's desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features. e.g. They speak like saints and act like devils.
Antithesis: an opposition or contrast of ideas arranged structurally as parallel constructions: “Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care…”
2. Anticlimax (bathos) represents climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought that defeats expectations of the reader / listener and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. (V.A.Kukharenko); it involves adding one weaker element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before (Y.M.Skrebnev).
Anticlimax (bathos) is the reverse of climax or defeated expectancy:
He was unconsolable – for an afternoon. (G.)
This was appalling – and soon forgotten. (G.)
Anticlimax causes a humorous or ironic effect due to the sudden break in the accumulation of logical or emotional importance of the utterance. “Early rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead” (T.Thurber)
Very close to bathos stands paradox, a stylistic device presenting a self-contradicting idea, which nonetheless seems true (in the words of Skrebnev, it is a “seemingly absurd though in fact well-founded statement”). The slogans from 1984 by George Orwell illustrate this.
I
n
the framework of the Inner Party’s perverted logic there still is a
certain sense in this nonsense: the less you know – the stronger
you are, as you will be unable to commit thought
crime;
being a slave, you do not have to be responsible for decisions made,
which is a true way to freedom; to avert the danger of an inner war
the country must be exhausted by a continuous and fruitless war with
equally omnipotent neighbours.
As many other stylistic devices, anticlimax also has a corresponding literary term, which names a similar phenomenon but on a larger scale. The one in question now is the effect of defeated expectancy, often met with in humorous, ironical and sarcastic stories.
3. Litotes - is a device - an affirmation is expressed by denying its contrary. Usually litotes presupposes double negation. One through a negative particle (no, not) the other - through a word with negative meaning. Its function is to convey doubts of the speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the object or a feeling.
e.g. It's not a bad thing - It's a good thing.
e.g. He is no coward. He is a brave man.
e.g. He was not without taste.
Seminar 5 Lexical Level of Stylistic Analysis Questions and tasks
Questions:
Discuss the semantic structure of a word. What lexical meanings of a word can you name? Which of them are stylistically relevant?
What SD’s are based on the use of the logical (denotational) meaning of a word?
What is a contextual meaning? How is it used in a SD?
What is the difference between the original and hackneyed SDs? Give examples of both.
What is a metaphor? What are its semantic, morphological, syntactical, structural and functional peculiarities?
What is a metonymy? Give a detailed description of a device.
What is included into the semantic group of SDs known as “play on words”?
Find examples of the discussed SDs in your home reading. Try to find peculiarities of usage of various SDs by different authors known to you from the courses of literature, home reading and analytical reading.
What is irony? What lexical meanings are employed in its formation?
What types of irony do you know? What is the length of the context needed for the realization of each of them?
What is most frequently observed mechanism of irony formation? Can you explain the role of the repetition in creating irony?
Name English, American, or Russian authors known for their ingenuity and versatility in the use of irony. Find cases of irony in books you read both for work and for pleasure.
What is antonomasia? What meanings interact in its formation?
What types of antonomasia do you know? Give examples of some speaking names from the books you read. Give examples of personages’ names used as qualifying common nouns.
What lexical meaning is instrumental in the formation of epithets?
What semantic and structural types of epithets do you know?
What parts of speech are predominantly used as epithets and why?
Give examples of the types and distribution of epithets; give your considerations as to what defines the quality and the quantity of epithets in a literary work.
What meaning is foregrounded in a hyperbole? What types of hyperbole can you name?
20. What is an oxymoron and what meanings are foregrounded in its formation?
21. Give examples of trite oxymorons. Where are they predominantly used?
22. Why are there comparatively few trite oxymorons and where are they mainly used? Find some examples of trite oxymorons.
23. What makes a hyperbole trite and where are trite hyperboles predominantly used?
24. What is understatement? In what way does it differ from hyperbole? Give examples of original hyperboles and understatements from your English reading.
Task 1
State the type of transfer of meaning used to create the following tropes. Discuss the type of each metaphor: conceptual, trite, genuine, or sustained (prolonged).
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. (Shakespeare)
Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast. (O.Wilde)
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. (F.Bacon)
Task 2
Analyze the poems and state the usage and stylistic functions of LSD.
Road in Life
Life is one long road,
Some days a motorway so straight and smooth,
With a fast lane for those who panic and are eager,
A slow lane for those with no destination, boredom overtakes,
While enjoying the past.
Other days, life’s like a crescent, with bends and turns,
Families laughing with rapture, all cozy and warm,
Sitting huddled together listening to cries of the new born.
But crisis occurs as quick as a flash, and the laughter fades,
The bend is upon us, but we search for a new road
Which sets life straight once again.
Quite often life is just a hill, a tough struggle to the top,
But once up, Success! Determination pays! The hard part is over,
Now it’s down hill all the way! (S.Shah)
Task 3
Analyze the following cases of irony, antonomasia, epithets, litotes, hyperbole and understatement and oxymoron. Define the types, structure and stylistic functions of these lexical SDs.
1. “It was an occasion for rejoicing, perhaps, but rather for a solemn, thankful, eyes-raised-to-heaven kind of rejoicing” (Wodehouse)
2.“For the Doctor Watson of this world, as opposed to the Sherlock Holmeses, success in the province of detective work must be, to a very large extent, the result of luck” (Wodenhouse)
3. “One after another those people lay down on the ground to laugh – and two of them died.” (M.Twain)
4. “What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favored country! – They let the paupers go to sleep” (Dickens)
5. “Lovers speak of living deaths, dear wounds, fair storms, and freezing fires.” (Sir Ph.Sidney)
Task 4
Name different EM and SD and comment on their stylistic functions in the sentences.
1. The girls were giggling and whispering in the hall. The pink muslin and the white silk rushed downstairs.
2. She had a kind heart, a gold tooth and a bank account.
3. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were made to give them light.
4. What sweet pain is to listen to her!
5. treacherous as a snake.
6. …uncertain rustling of the silky curtain.
7. They suffered a crushing defeat.
8. The fair sex.
9. In private I should call him a liar. In the Press you should use the words; ‘Reckless disregard for truth’.
10. Jingle, bells, jingle, bells, jingle all the way…
11. The principal production of these towns appears to be soldiers, sailors, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dock-yard men.
12. Youth is lovely, age is lonely; Youth is fire, age is frost.
13. Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk…
14. You just come home or I’ll…
15. Over and over he was asking himself; would she receive him?
16. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect.
17. She was lovely: all of her – delightful!
18. I woke early to see the kiss of the sunrise summoning a flush to the cliffs.
19. St. Paul’s cathedral dominated the urban space.
20. Dirk, an artist, thought he was skilled in cooking Italian dishes, and I confess that his spaghetti were much better than his pictures.