What are Stylistic Devices?

Stylistic devices are used in speech with the same aim of intensifying the emo-tional or logical emphasis that the information
transferred should convey. Stylis-tic devices are represented by two categories: I. "figures of thought" (tropes, from the Greek tropos
‘turning’), which de-viate from common usage mainly in the meaning of words, i.e. when a word (or a combination of words) is used
to denote an object that is not usually correlated with this word; this double meaning creates what is called an image; II. "figures of
speech" (rhetorical figures, or schemes), whose stylistic effect is achieved by means of an unusual arrangement of linguistic units,
unusual construction or extension of an utterance, etc.; in other words which deviate from normal language mainly in terms of
syntax. This arbitrary division of stylistic means into expressive means and stylistic devices does not necessarily mean that these
groups cannot overlap. On the contrary, the striking effect of many a stylistic device is based on the logical or emotional emphasis
contained in the corre-sponding expressive means and vice versa: a formerly genuine stylistic device can become an expressive
means (idioms at large).
Figurative Language is used to express a particular feeling or encourage imagi-nation by a well-developed means of creating
images, its purpose being to im-prove the effectiveness, clarity, and enjoyment of both written and oral commu-nication. Figurative
language has developed alongside rhetoric, both rooted as far back in history as the times of such classical rhetoricians as Aristotle,
Quintillion, and Cicero. Rhetoric is usually defined as the art of persuasion. Aristotle and Quintillion de-veloped a system of methods
and tools of persuasion claiming that a rhetorical discourse should consist of - "invention" (developing arguments) - "disposition"
(organizing one's subject) - "style" (the means of persuasion). In the modern era "style" and “disposition” (as well as “invention”,
though) are still very important form-making categories. They are known as stylistic language means.
…………………………………..
The zeugma and the pun
There are special SDs which make a word materialize distinct dictionary meanings. They are zeugma and the pun. Zeugma is the
use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations
being on the one hand literal, and on the other, transferred. e. g. Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle
of the room.
Zeugma is a strong and effective device to maintain the purity of the primary meaning when two meanings clash. The pun is another
S.D. based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or a phrase. It is difficult to draw a hard and fast distinction
between zeugma and pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two meanings
with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects ( direct and indirect). The pun is more independent.
Like any S.D. it must depend on a context. But the context may be of a more expanded character, sometimes even as large as a
whole work of emotive prose.
e.g.- Did you miss my lecture ?
- Not at all.
Pun seems to be more varied and resembles zeugma in its humorous effect only.

……………………………
Epithet as a stylistic device
Epithet (Greek - "addition") is a stylistic device emphasizing some quality of a person, thing, idea or
phenomenon. Its function is to reveal the evaluating subjective attitude of the writer towards the thing
described.
Let us have a look at the following sentences describing the participants of the episode from the John
Fowles novel. Focus on the words in bold type.

 Charles put his best foot forward, and thoughts of the mysterious woman behind him, through
the woods of Ware Commons.
 It was opened by a small barrel of a woman, her fat arms shiny with suds.
 He was a bald, vast-bearded man with a distinctly saturnine cast to his face; a Jeremiah.
 He plainly did not allow delicacy' to stand in the way of prophetic judgment.
 He seemed to Charles to incarnate all the hypocritical gossip — and gossips — of Lyme.
 Charles could hare believed many things of that sleeping face; but never that its owner was a
whore.
 What do all the structures have in common?
Cases like these are called epithets.

Epithets should not be confused with logical attributes, the latter having no expressive force but indicating
those qualities of the objects that may be regarded as generally recognized (for instance, round table,
green meadows, lofty mountains and the like). Though, it is sometimes difficult to draw a clear line of
demarcation between epithet and logical attribute. In some passages the logical attribute becomes so
strongly enveloped in the emotional aspect of the utterance that it begins to radiate emotiveness. though
by nature it is logically descriptive.

Epithets are deemed to be two-fold in nature as their striking effect is owed both to semantics and
structure. Thus. Galperin and Kukharenko classify epithets from at least two standpoints
- semantic and structural. The tables below illustrate the two possible ways of division.
Semantically epithets are looked at from different angles, which is reflected in the following:

 Galperin
Associated epithets are those that point to a feature which is essential to the object they describe: the
idea expressed is to a certain extent inherent in the concept of the object, as in: 'darkforest \ fantastic
terrors \ 'dreary midnight'.
Unassociated epithets are attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in it.
i.e. a feature which may be so unexpected as to strike the reader by its novelty. The adjectives do not
indicate any property inherent in the objects but fitting in the given circumstances only, as in 'heart-
burning smile',
'voiceless sands', 'bootless cries'._
Note: As far as novelty is concerned epithets can be trite and genuine. Through their long run some of the
latter have become fixed without losing their poetic flavour. Such epithets are mostly used in folk songs
and ballads.

 Kukharenko

Affective (or emotive proper) epithets serve to convev the emotional evaluation of the object by the
speaker. Most of the qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as effective epithets
(e.g. gorgeous, magnificent, atrocious)
Figurative for transferred; epithets are
formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives. Thus epithets can also be based
on similarity of characteristics, on nearness of the qualified objects, and on their comparison respectively.
The third and the first types can be found in this:
7 cannot imagine what Bosch-like picture of Ware Commons Mrs Pouiteney had built up over the years;
what satanic orgies she divined behind every tree...' (Fowles) As for the metonymic one. study this: 'Her
painful shoes slipped off (Updike)
Note: Skrebnev points out that epithets can be metaphorical, metonymic and ironical.
As far as structural division is concerned, the classifications of the scholars have more points in common.
Despite the differences in terms, hi essence they are very much alike. The table below contrasts these
two approaches.

Epithets [Structurally)

 Galperin
Simple
Simple (single) epithets are ordinary adjectives (one epithet is used at a time), as in ' the mysterious
woman'.

Compound
Compound epithets are built like some compound adjectives as in 'cloud-shapen giant \
Note: Some of them can be based on a simile, as in 'Bosch-like

Phrase
Phrase epithets can consist of a phrase or even a sentence, in which words are crammed into one
language unit. Structural elements generally include: (a) the words expression, air, attitude, and others
which describe behaviour or facial expression: (b) attributive clauses beginning with that. Phrase epithets
are usually hyphenated, thus pointing to the temporary structure of the compound word. They always
produce an original impression. For instance, 'a move-if-you-dare expression' (J. Baldwin)

String

The suing (chain) of epithets gives a many-sided description of the object. But in the enumeration of
comparatively homogeneous attributes there is always a suggestion of an ascending order of emotive
elements, culminating in the last one. as in 'You're a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old
creature' (Dickens).

Reversed
Reversed (inverted) epithets are composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective,
evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun described, as in 'a
small barrel of a woman'. The epithets like these are called reversed or inverted as what is syntactically
an attribute (of a woman) is, in fact, the word which is really defined.
 Kukharenko
Simple
Simple (single) epithets are ordinary adjectives (one epithet is used at a time), as in ' the mysterious
woman'.

Pair epithets
Pair epithets are represented by two epithets joined by a conjunction or asyndeti-cally, as in: 'wonderful
and incomparable beauty7' (Oscar Wilde) or 'a tired old town' (Harper Lee). They are often united by al-
literation, as in:'everyone would be on the lookout of a masked and muffled man' (H G. Wells).
Phrase-Attributes
Phrase epithets can consist of a phrase or even a sentence, in which words are crammed into one
language unit. Structural elements generally include: (a) the words expression, air, attitude, and others
which describe behaviour or facial expression: (b) attributive clauses beginning with that. Phrase epithets
are usually hyphenated, thus pointing to the temporary structure of the compound word. They always
produce an original impression. For instance, 'a move-if-you-dare expression' (J. Baldwin)
The chain of epithets gives a many-sided description of the object. But in the enumeration of
comparatively homogeneous attributes there is always a suggestion of an ascending order of emotive
elements, culminating in the last one. as in 'You're a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old
creature' (Dickens).
Inverted
Inverted epithets are composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective, evaluating,
emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun described, as in 'a small barrel of
a woman '. The epithets like these are called reversed or inverted as what is syntactically an attribute (of
a woman) is, in fact, the word which is really defined.
Two-step
Two-step epithets are called so because The process of qualifying seemingly passes two stages:
The qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself as in 'a distinctly saturnine
cast'.
Two step epithets have a fixed structure of Adv + Adj model.

Read the sentences that follow. Discuss the structure and semantics of epithets used in them in terms
covered above. Follow this plan:
1. Structure:
a) Syntactic function or / and part of speech
b) Structural type
2. Semantics;
a) Associated / non-associated type
b) Affective /figurative
c) The type of the figurative epithet.
1. He lias that unmistakable tall lanky "rangy" loose-jointed graceful close-cropped formidably clean
American look. (Murdoch)
2. Across the ditch Doll was having an entirely different reaction. With all his heart and soul, furiously,
jealously, vindictively, he was hoping Queen would not win. (Jones)
3. During the past few weeks she had become most sharply conscious of the smiling interest of
Hauptwanger. His straight lithe body - his quick, aggressive manner - his assertive, seeking
eyes. (Dreiser)
4. He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (Dickens)
5. The Fascisti. or extreme Nationalists, which means black-shirted. knife-carrying, club-swinging, quick-
stepping, nineteen-year-old-pot-shot patriots, have worn out their welcome in Italy. (Hemingway)
6. Where the devil was heaven? Was it up? Down? There was no up or down in a finite but expanding
universe in which even the vast, burning, dazzling, majestic sun was in a state of progressive decay that
would evennially destroy the earth too. (Hawkes)
7. She has taken to wearing heavy blue bulky shapeless quilted People's Volunteers trousers rather than
the tight tremendous how-the-West-was-won trousers she formerly wore. (Barthehne)
8. Harrison - a fine, muscular, sun-bronzed, gentle-eyed, patrician-nosed, steak-fed. Oilman-Schooled,
soft-spoken, well-tailored aristocrat was an out-and-out leaflet-writing revolutionary at the time. (Barth)
9. In the cold. gray, street-washing, milk-delivering, shutters-coming-oii-tlie-shops early morning, the
midnight train from Paris arrived in Strasbourg. (Hemingway)

10. She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (Cronin)

11. And she still has that look, that don't-you-touch-me look that women who were beautiful cany with
them to the grave. (Barth)
12. Ten-thirty is a dark hour in a town where respectable doors are locked at nine. (Capote)
13. He loved the afterswim salt-and-sunshine smell of her hair. (Banyan)
14. I was to secretly record, with the help of a powerful long-range movie-camera lens, the walking-along-
the-Batteiy-in-the-simshine meeting between Ken and Jerry. (Uhnak)
15. "Thief!" Pilon shouted. "Dirty pig of an untrue friend!" (Steinbeck)
16. She spent hausfrau afternoons hopping about in the sweatbox of her midget kitchen. (Capote)
17. He acknowledged an early-afternoon customer with a be-with-you-in-a-minute nod. (Uhnak)
18. He thoroughly disliked this never-far-from-tragic look of a ham Shakespearian actor. (Hemingway)
19. "What a picture!" cried the ladies. "Oh! The lambs! Oh. the sweets! Oh. the ducks! Oh. the
pets!" (Mansfield)
20. A branch, cracking under his weight sent through the tree a sad cruel thunder. (Capote)
21. There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the
human nervous system. (Clarke)
22. His shrivelled head bobbed like a dried pod on his frail stick of a body. {Gardner)
23. The children were very brown and filthily dirty. (V. Wool/)
24. Liza Hamilton was a veiy different kettle of Irish. Her head was small and round and it held small and
round convictions. (Steinbeck)
25. He sat with Daisy in his amis for a long silent time. (Fitzgerald)
…………………………………….
Oxymoron, Antithesis, Irony - stylistic devices of contrast.
Examples from Literature
Oxymoron (Greek oxys + moros - "pointedly foolish") is a stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to
clashes. It involves a combination of two contrasting ideas within the same syntactical whole, thus ascribing some features to an
object incompatible with it.
Antithesis (Greek anti + thesis - "opposition") is a stylistic device involving the use of a parallel construction, the two parts of which
must be semantically opposed to each other.
Irony (Greek eironeia - "mockery concealed") - as a trope - is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word
is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning.
The following information will provide more info on the peculiarities of each stylistic device.
 Oxymoron

As a rule, one of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature which is universally observed and acknowledged while the
other one offers a purely subjective individual perception of the object. Kukharenko names three structural patterns that are possible
(the first three points in the table below), the forth is mentioned in the text-book Stylistics by Galperin:
The structural pattern The examples
a. attributive structures "with careful carelessness" (Dickens)
(the most widely known structure)
b. verbal structures "to shout mutely" fining Shaw) "to cry
silently"(Wilson)
c. non-attributive structures "the street damaged by improvements"
(O. Henry) "silence was louder than
thunder"
(Updike)
d. adverbial-attributive structures "awfully pretty" (Cusack)
Oxymora rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other and oppose repeated use. There are few
colloquial oxymora. all of them showing a high degree of the speaker's emotional involvement in the situation, as in "damn nice."
"awfully pretty".
For instance: pay attention to the structure and semantics of the oxymora. Also notice which of their members conveys the
individually viewed feature of the object and which one reflects its generally accepted characteristic:
1. If out of my meager vocabulary only the term unenthusiastic excitement comes anywhere near describing the feeling with which
all my thoughts were suffused, you must resolve my meaning from that term's dissonance.(Earth)
2. "Heaven must be the hell of a place. Nothing but repentant sinners up there, isn't it?" (Delaney)
3. He opened up a wooden garage. The doors creaked. The garage was full of nothing. (Chandler)
4. He caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks. (Jones)
5. Sprinting towards the elevator he felt amazed at his own cowardly courage. (Markey)
6. They were a bloody miserable lot - the miserablest lot of men I ever saw. But they were good to me. Bloody good. (Steinbeck)
7. Harriet turned back across the dim garden. The lightless light looked down from the night sky. (Murdoch)
8. It was an open secret that Ray had been ripping his father-in-law off. (Uh-nak)
9. A neon sign reads "Welcome to Reno - the biggest little town in the world." (A. M.)
10. Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield are Good Bad Boys of American literature. (Vallins)
11. He was sure the whites could detect his adoring hatred of them. (Wright)
 Antithesis
In contrast to oxymoron the two opposed notions of an antithesis can refer to the same object of thought or to different objects.
Antithesis is based on the use of antonyms, both usual (registered in dictionaries) and occasional or contextual. It is essential to
distinguish between antithesis and what is termed contrast. Contrast is a literary (not linguistic) device, based on logical opposition
between the phenomena set one against another.
Discuss the semantic centers and structural peculiarities of the following antitheses:
1. Don't use big words. They mean so little. (Wilde)
2. ... quite frequently, things that are obvious to other people aren't even apparent to me. (Barth)
3. ... drunkenness was an amusing but unquestioned vice: churchgoing a soporific but unquestioned virtue. (Barth)
4. I like big parties. They are so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy. (Fitzgerald)
5. Rup wished he could be swift, accurate, compassionate and stem instead of clumsy and vague and sentimental. (Murdoch)
6. His coat-sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too short, he appeared ill at ease in his
clothes. (Dickens)
7. It is safer to be married to the man you can be happy with than to the man you cannot be happy without. (Esar)
8. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair: we had everything before us. we had nothing before us. we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going
direct the other way - in short the period was so far like the present period, that some of its nosiest authori ties insisted on its being
received for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. (Dickens)
9. His fees were high: his lessons were light. (O. Henry)
 Irony

Irony occurs when a person says one Thing but really means something else. There fore, irony does not exist outside the context.
Irony is a wide-ranging phenomenon and may be achieved both by linguistic and extra-linguistic means. Three kinds of irony are
usually distinguished.
Verbal (or linguistic) irony is a figure of speech involving discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. The context is
arranged so that the qualifying word reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a
negative qualification and (much rarer) vice versa.
Besides, according to Skrebnev, irony can be based on stylistic incongruity. It happens when high-flown, elevated linguistic units are
used in reference to insignificant, socially low topics.
In cases of extra-linguistic irony it is usually extended over a whole story.
In dramatic irony the contrast is between what a character says and what the reader knows to be true. The value of this kind of irony
lies in the comment it implies on the speaker or the speaker's expectations.
In irony of situation (or irony of life) the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or
between what is and what would seem appropriate.
Thus, irony makes it possible to suggest meanings without stating them. It can be used to convey both the seriousness and humour
of situations.

In the following excerpts you will find mainly examples of verbal irony. Explain how the context makes the irony perceptible. Try to
indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning.
1. She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (Steinbeck)
2. The book was entitled Murder at Milbury Manor and was a whodunit of the more abstruse type, in which everything turns on
whether a certain character, by catching the three-forty-three train at Hilbury and changing into the four-sixteen at Mil-bury, could
have reached Silbury by five-twenty-seven, which would have given him just time to disguise himself and be sticking knives into
people at Bilbury by six-thirty-eight. (Woodhouse)
3. When the war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and. with some solemnity, hung it in the men-
servants" lavatory: it was her own combative action. (Murdoch)
4. From her earliest infancy Gertrude was brought up by her aunt. Her aunt had care fully instructed her to Christian principles. She
had also taught her Mohammedanism, to make sure. (Leacock)
5. She's a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair since Coolidge's second term.
I'll eat my spare tire, rim and all. (Chandler)
6. With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds apparently hoping to see him
gag. (Chandler)
7. Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds and specific personality differences, we're just one
cohesive team. (Uhnak)
8. I had been admitted as a partner in the firm of Andrews and Bishop, and throughout 1927 and 1928 I enriched myself and the firm
at the rate of perhaps forty dollars a month. (Barth)
9. But every Englishman is bom with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. As the great champion of
freedom and national independence he conquers and annexes half the world and calls it Colonization.(Bernard Shaw)

Identifying oxymoron, antithesis, and irony as well as defining the function performed in the following examples:
1. Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy; Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend. (Cory)
2. Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (Lewis)
3. Bookcases covering one wall boasted a half-shelf of literature. (Capote)
4. You have got two beautiful bad examples for parents. (Fitzgerald)
5. A very likeable young man with a pleasantly ugly face. (Cronin)
6. There were some bookcases of superbly unreadable books. (Waugh)
7. I liked him better than I would have liked his father... We were fellow strangers. ( Greene)
8. All this blood and fire business tonight was probably pan of the graft to get the Socialists chucked out and leave honest business
men safe to make their fortunes out of murder. (Charteris)
9. I'm interested in any number of things, enthusiastic about nothing. (Barth)
10. Ah. me. Everything. I'm afraid, is significant, and nothing is finally important. (Barth)
11. A local busybody, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, asked an expectant mother point-blank whether she was going to
have a baby. '"Oh. goodness, no." the young woman said pleasantly. "I'm just carrying this for a friend." (Wodehouse)
12. I also assure her that I'm an Angry Young Man. A black humorist. A white Negro. Anything. (Richler)
13. Last time it was a nice, simple. European-style war. (Irving Shaw)
……………………………………………………………………..
Allegory a stylistic device based on metaphor
Allegory (Greek alegoria - "description of one thing under the name of another'') has a two-fold meaning:
as a stylistic term. i.e. pertaining to the realm of rhetoric, and as a denomination for a genre in literature
and art on the whole (painting, sculpture, dance, etc). It means expressing abstract ideas through
concrete pictures, the transfer based on similarity of objects.
One shouldn't mistake allegory for metaphor and vice versa as the former is generally presented by a
more or less complete text, whereas the latter is usually used within a lengthy text in combination with
other expressive means. Speaking figuratively, metaphor is usually a brick in the structure of the text,
where allegory is the cornerstone, as a rule.
The shortest allegorical texts are represented by proverbs, where we find a precept in visual form. The
logical content of the precept is invigorated by the emotive force of the image. Thus the proverb Make hay
while the sun shines implies a piece of advice having nothing in common with haymaking or sunshine:
'Make use of a favourable situation: do not miss an opportunity: do not waste time.'
Note. One should not confuse proverbs with maxims, i.e. with non-metaphorical precept, such as A friend
in need is a friend indeed. Tins maxim names things directly rather than figuratively. It is understood
literally, word-by-word, whereas a proverb can be interpreted just as an inseparable.

 Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

 The road (way) to hell is paved with good intentions.
 Every cloud has a silver lining.
 What will be will be! or Come what may!
 You never know what you can do till you tiy.
 No rose without a thorn.
 Never promise a fish until it's caught.
 If you can't have the best make the best of what you have.
 Dot your i's and cross your t's.
 Before you choose (make) a friend, eat a bushel of salt with him.
 There's no place like home.
 Better late than never.
 Look before you leap.
 Beauty lies in lover's eyes.
 When your deed is once begun never leave it till it's done.
 All is not gold that glitters.
 Early to bed. early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
 Every dog returns to its vomit.
 There's many a slip between the cup and the lip.
 Good fame sleeps, bad fame creeps.
 If you want to make friends be one. Appetite comes with eating. Poverty is no vice (sin.
disgrace).
As you see proverbs are a means of expressing some truth in a figurative way. Some literary genres, fairy
tales andfables among them, cany out the same function. Special attention should be paid to the latter.
Seemingly simple on the surface, they contain a more serious idea to render, i.e. they always embody a
moral truth.
…………………………………………..
Periphrasis
The stylistic device that is in charge of renaming of the kind is called periphrasis.
Periphrasis is a stylistic device that consists in the renaming of an object by a phrase that brings out
some particular feature of it. Rendering a purely individual perception of the object the device can be
decipherable only in context. If a periphrastic locution is understandable outside the context, it is not a
stylistic device but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily decipherable periphrases are also
called traditional, dictionary or language periphrases.
e.g. 'My dear Tina, we have paid our homage to Neptune. He will forgive us if we now turn our backs
on him.'

Though this periphrasis is not strikingly genuine, it is still rather difficult to grasp the speaker's idea. One
needs context to perceive that Charles Smithson. the main male character in The French Lieutenant's
Woman by John Fowles. Suggests to his companion that they stop gazing at the sea and go back to
town.
Writers of past epochs employed periphrasis a great deal, seeing in it a more elegant manner of
expression. No wonder, it was one of the most favourite devices of Victorian writers. The same can be
attributed to all the educated people of the time, hypocrisy being its distinguishing feature - the thing
Oscar Wilde made the object of his ridicule in the play quoted above.

Read the following fragments and identify logical and figurative (both metaphoric and metonymical)
periphrases, and comment on the effect achieved.
The 'sixties had been indisputably prosperous: an affluence had come to the ar-tisanate and even to the
labouring classes that made the possibility of revolution recede, at least in Great Britain, almost out of
mind. Needless to say, Charles knew nothing of the beavered German Jew quietly working, as it so
happened, that very afternoon in the British Museum library: and whose work in those sombre walls was
to bear such bright red fruit. Had you described that fruit, or the subsequent effects of its later
indiscriminate consumption. Charles would almost certainly not have believed you — and even though, in
only six months from this March of 1867. the first volume ofKapitcri was to appear in Hamburg.
………………………………………………
Euphemistic periphrases
The cases like those presented below are called euphemistic periphrases.

'Good heavens. I took That to be a fisherman. But isn't it a woman?'

'By jove. look at this.' 'Bv heavens. I'm not sitting with a socialist. am I?1
'Heaven forbid. I have heard terrible account of them/
'Sam! I am an absolute one hundred per cent Heaven forgive me damned fool!

The social practice of replacing The Taboo words with words or phrases that seem less straightforward,
milder, more harmless (or at least less offensive) exists in any language, whereas genuine euphemisms
are often an effective stylistic means.
Euphemism (Greek - "speaking well") is a stylistic device that consists in the substitution of an unpleasant
word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one.

PRACTICE
Read one more passage from the novel and do the tasks to follow.
Charles put his best foot forward, and thoughts of the mysterious woman behind him. through the woods
of Ware Commons. He walked for a mile or more, until he came simultaneously to a break in the trees
and the first outpost of civilization. This was a long thatched cottage, which stood slightly below his path.
There were two or three meadows round it. miming down to the cliffs; and just as Charles came out of the
woodlands he saw a man hoying a herd of cows away from a low byre beside the cottage. There slipped
into his mind an image: a deliciously cool bowl of milk. He had eaten nothing since the double dose of
muffins. Tea and tenderness at Mrs. Tranter's called: but the bowl of milk shrieked ... and was much
closer at hand. He went down a steep grass slope and knocked on the back door of the cottage.
It was opened by a small barrel of a woman, her fat aims shiny with suds. Yes. be was welcome to as
much milk as he could drink. The name of the place? The Dairv. it seemed, was all it was called. /.../
Charles remembered then to have heard of the place. Its cream and butter had a local reputation; Aunt
Tranter had spoken of it. He mentioned her name, and the woman who ladled the rich milk from a chum
bv the door into just what he had imagined, simple blue-and-white china bowl, glanced at him with a
smile. He was less strange and more welcome.
As he was talking, or being talked to. by the woman on the outside the Dairy, her husband came back
driving out his cows. He was a bald, vast-bearded man with a distinctly saturnine cast to his face; a
Jeremiah. He gave his wife a stem look. She promptly forwent her chatter and returned indoors to her
copper. The husband was evidently a taciturn man. though spoke quietly enough when Charles asked
him how much he owed for the bowl of excellent milk. A penny, one of those charming heads of the
young Victoria that still occasionally turn up in one's change, with all but that graceful head worn away by
the century's use. passed hands.

Analyse the fragment in terms to follow. Expressive means:

• Comment on the usage of words. What layers of language do they belong to? Why?
Comment on the choice of words. Are they mostly bookish or neutral? Up-to-date or obsolete? What
effect does John Fowles pursue and why? Analyse the personages speech. What conclusions can you
come to in regard to their social status and educational level?
• Comment on the grammar and syntax of this piece of prose. Find grammatical expressive means and
say how they contribute to the intended effects.
Are the grammar constructions employed more typical for the nineteenth or twentieth century?
Are the rules of reported speech usage always obsen'ed or not? What is achieved? Stylistic Devices
(periphrasis among them):

• Find stylistic devices belonging to the metaphoric group and comment on the effect produced.
 metaphor
 personification
 antonomasia
 allusion (the sources referred to)

Find example(s) of metonymy. What type of transfer is (are) it (they) based upon?
Find example(s) of periphrasis. Identify its kind.
Summing Up (Base your opinion on all the excerpts quoted if necessary):
• Make character sketches of the people portrayed.
Charles: Does he conform to the tastes of the time? If not what seems to repel him in it? Is he in any way
different from his contemporaries? The dairyman: are his values and manners with or against the con-
ventional stream of the period? Take his social status into account. Dwell upon the social role of woman
in Victorian society.
………………………………………………………….
Antonomasia can be in a way a variety of allusion
The choice of the names for the personages is by no means accidental. Characters' names can also
become a meaningful vehicle for rendering the author's ideas, the stylistic device being
called antonomasia or "speaking names".
Antonomasia (Greek antonomasia-"naming instead") is a trope in which a proper name is used instead of
a common noun or vice versa, i.e. a stylistic device, in which the nominal meaning (naming one single
individual object) of a proper noun is suppressed by its logical meaning (classifying objects into classes)
or the logical meaning acquires The new - nominal - component. There are two Types of
metaphorical antonomasia possible*.
First, antonomasia can be in a way a variety of allusion. IT is The use of The name of a historical, or
biblical personage applied to a person whose characteristic features resemble Those of a well-known
original. Thus, a traitor's name may be referred To as Brutus, a ladies' man deserves the name of Don
Juan.
Second, at The basis of antonomasia There can be a metaphor, i.e. The use of a common noun as a
proper name. For instance, Becky Sharp, Lady Snake, Miss Ape, etc. Antonomasia of this kind is created
mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (as in "Dr. Fresh Air") or phrases (as in "Mr.
What's-his-name")
Note: in lexicology there exists the so-called metonymic antonomasia (for more details on metonymy refer
to Part 2 of the unit) which is usually trite and stylistically neutral. It is observed in cases when a personal
name stands for something connected with the bearer of that name who once really existed. Study the
following examples: He has sold his Vandykes (Hurst) or This is my real Goya (Galsworthy). Some former
proper names are now even spelt with a small letter. For example: mackintosh, sandwich, ohm (each
originating from a proper name).
Antonomasia is a much-favoured device in the belles-letters style. In an article called What's in a
name? Mr. R. Davis says: "In deciding on names for his characters, an author has an unfair advantage
over other parents. He knows so much better how his child will turn out".

To do the following task one needs logic rather than intuition only. Read the excerpts given below
substituting the letters with the names from the previous activity. Be ready to defend your hypothesis. The
first one has been done for yon as an example.
Example: Mr. and Mrs. X = Mr. and Mrs. Dursleys; Y = Dudley
A suggested explanation; In the first place Dursley is a small town in Britan (by the way. the people
depicted in the book are "perfectly normal" and from the activities they are engaged in one can assume
that they should in no way be associated with anything global and capital). Besides. Dursley can be
interpreted as consisting of D" (a French preposition similar to the English 'of) and 'Ursa* (Major/ Minor),
the name of the constellation (Great/ Little Bear). It is interesting that the adjective 'ursaT is often used to
name a person who resembles a bear, is clumsy and awkward. Is it not possible that the father and the
son are mockingly compared with Great and Little Bears? What is more. Dudley is a play on 'dud', which
is British slang for a 'boring person*. As for Mrs. Dursley*s first name, which is Petunia, it is meaningful as
well. She is named after the flower that symbolizes anger and resentment.

1.Mr. arid Mrs. X, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank
you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious,
because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.
Mr. X was the director of a firm called Gmnnings. which made drills. He was a big. beefy man with hardly
any neck, although he did have a veiy large mustache. Mrs. X was thin and blonde and had nearly twice
the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over
garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The X had a small son called Y and in their opinion there was no
finer boy anywhere. [...]
Y looked a lot like Uncle Vernon (his father). He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, wateiy blue
eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia (his mother) often said
that Y looked like a baby angel - Hany often said that Y looked like a pig in a wig.

2.The roadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new
Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one." she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy
brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron. but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the
wand in his hand.
"Oh. are you doing magic? Let's see it. then."
She sat down. Ron looked taken aback. [...]
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow. Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells
just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all. it was ever such a surprise
when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course. I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft
there is. I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course. I just hope it will be enough -
I'm c cl by the way. who are you?"
She said all this very fast.

3.Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they
looked like bodyguards.
"Oh. this is Crabbe and this is Goyle." said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Hany was looking.
"And my name's b. a b."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. A b looked at him.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have
red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
He turned back to Hany. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others. Potter.
You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Hany didn't take it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks." he said coolly.
A b didn't go red. but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
………………………………………………….
Simile emphasizes likeness while metaphor may assert or
suggest identity
Simile (Latin simile "like") is a stylistic device that draws a comparison between two different objects
belonging to dissimilar classes yet having something in common. The comparison is made explicit by
using some special markers, which makes simile different from metaphor, where affinity is implicit. Simile
emphasizes likeness while metaphor may assert or suggest identity. Compare these examples from a
Ray Bradbury stoiy:
• The pilot lifted his head, which signaled the lift of the helicopter to swivel and rush away. The white cliffs
of Dover vanished. They broke over green meadows so wove back and forth, a giant dragonfly
excursioning the stuffs of winter that sleeted their blades.
• And a billion monarch butterflies in June rising up like celebrations tossed on parades to the sea.
What do these two comparisons differ in? What signal indicates simile?
Hence, the general formula for the simile includes the tenor, the vehicle, as well as the element
expressing the comparative juxtaposition of the two: Xis like Y. That means that the simile is both lexical
and syntactical stylistic device, as a definite structure is involved. Like is just one of the words possible to
invoke a simile. Here are a few of the possibilities:
X is like у
X is more/less than у
X is similar to у
X is the same as у
X resembles у
X is y-like/looking
X is not like у
as if X were у
as though X were у
X is у like z
X has a quality of у
X is as y as z
X is less у than z
X does y: so does z
X is more у than z

But a simile can sometimes be implied, or as it is often called, submerged. In such cases no comparative
word is needed. Besides, as well as metaphors, similes can be extended. Study the example to follow:
When I think of the English final exam, I think of dungeons and chains and racks and primal screams.

The following examples of simile identifying the tenor, vehicle, and ground for comparison as well as the linking word.
2) The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea. (Wilde)
3) With the quickness of a long cat. she climbed up into the nest of coolbladed foliage. (Lawrence)
4) He reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat. (Galsworthy)
5) Huddled in her grey fiir against the sofa cushions, she had a strange resemblance to a captive
owl. (Galsworthy)
6) Mr. Witters method of paying off debts would be a form of feeding a dog with bits of its own
tail. (Nesfield)
7) It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Harry's heart. (J.
K. Rowling)
8) Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a
pig in a wig. (J. K. Rowling)
9) It was a glorious morning, late spring or early summer, as you care to take it. when the dainty sheen of
grass and leaf is blushing to a deeper green: and the year seems like a fair young maid trembling with
strange, wakening pulses on the brink of womanhood. (Jerome K. Jerome)
10) He is as beautiful as a weather-cock. (Wilde)
11) A little after midnight Dolores Lane came in and stood holding a microphone the way a drowning man
hangs on to a lifebelt. (Chase)
12) They eased me through a door as if I were a millionaire invalid with four days to live, and who hadn't
as yet paid his doctor's bill. (Chase)
Blow. blow, thou winter wind. Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude.
(Shakespeare)
The seas are quiet when the winds give o're:
So calm are we when passions are no more. (Waller)
It was that moment of the year when the countryside seems to faint from its own loveliness, from the
intoxication of its scents and sounds.
(Galsworthy)
……………………………………………………………….
Litotes and meiosis as a figures of quantity
There was an Old Man of Coblenz,
The length of whose legs was immense;
He went with one pronce,
From Turkey to France,
That surprising Old Man of Coblenz.
What makes it funny? What relations are distorted for the sake of the humorous effect?
This rhyme is an example of figures of quantity, which according to Skrebnev are considered the most primitive type of renaming as
their basis is disproportion of the object and its verbal evaluation. There are two main relations possible - those of over- and
understatement. The figures of quantity include these: hyperbole, meiosis, and litotes.
Read the limerick the drawing illustrates
There was an Old Man in a Barge,
Whose nose was exceedingly large;
But in fishing by night,
It supported a light,
Which helped that Old Man in a Barge.
The logical and psychological opposite of hyperbole is meiosis, or understatement.
Meiosis (Greek - "lessening") is a deliberate use of understatement, the aim of which is to lessen, weaken, reduce the real
characteristics of the object so that to show its insignificance.
A specific form of meiosis is called litotes.
Litotes (Greek - "plainness, simplicity") is an understatement that shows the insignificance of the object by means of a peculiar use
of negative constructions, due to which the assertion of a positive feature is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the
word or expression which otherwise would be used. As a result, the positive feature is somehow diminished by the negation.
The structural pattern can be as follows:
"not" /"no"/ N. / Adi. / Adv. (the notional part should be

"never"/ etc. ~ negative either in form or in meaning)

Analyse the structure, the semantics and the functions of litotes:

1. "To be a good actress, she must always work for the truth in what she's playing," the man said in a voice not empty of
selflove. (Mailer)
2. It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment. (Waugh)
3. I was quiet, but not uncommunicative: reserved, but not reclusive: energetic at times, but seldom enthusiastic. (Bunyan)
4. He had all the confidence in the world, and not without reason. (O'Hara)
5. Kirsten said not without dignity: "Too much talking is unwise." (Christie)
6. I felt I wouldn't say "no" to a cup of tea. (Mansfield)
7. "J don't think you've been too miserable, my dear." (Priestley)
8. Still two weeks of success is definitely not nothing and phone calls were coming in from agents for a week. (Ph. Roth)

Distribute the examples of figures of quantity in accordance with the type they belong to (hyperboles, meioses, litotes):
1) "Yeah, what the hell." Anne said and looking at me. gave that not unsour smile. (Warren)
2) The girls were dressed to kill (Braine)
3) Newspapers are the organs of individual men who have jockeyed themselves to be party leaders, in countries where a new party
is bom eveiy hour over a glass of beer in the nearest cafe. (Reed)
4) The idea was not totally erroneous. The thought did not displease me. (Murdoch)
5) Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody smiled ... To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of
twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well. (Jane Austen)
6) The car which picked me up on that particular guilty evening was a Cadillac limousine about seventy-three blocks
long. (Baldwin)
7) Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse. (Jonathan Swift)
8) "It isn't verv serious. I have this tinv little tumor on the brain" (Salinger)
9) Four loudspeakers attached to the flagpole emitted a shattering roar of what Benjamin could hardly call music, as if it were played
by a collection of brass bands, a few hundred fire engines, a thousand blacksmiths' hammers and the amplified reproduction of a
force-twelve wind. (Saxton)
10) Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (Fitzgerald)
11) She was a giant of a woman. Her bulging figure was encased in a green crepe dress and her feet overflowed in red shoes. She
carried a mammoth red pocketbook that bulged throughout as if it were stuffed with rocks.(O'Connor)
12) A figure lean or corpulent, tall or short, though deviating from beauty, may still have a certain union of the various parts, which
may contribute to make them on the whole not unpleasing. (Sir Joshua Reynolds)
13) "No. I've had a profession and then a firm to cherish." said Ravenstreet. not without bitterness. (Priestley)
14) Babbitt's preparations for leaving the office to its feeble self during the hour and a half of his lunch-period were somewhat less
elaborate than the plans for a general European War. (Lewis)
15) I wouldn't say "no" to going to the movies. (Waugh)
16) The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hands solemnly on her middle. (Galsworthy)
17) If anyone comes to me. and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and
even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26 (NASB))
18) We danced on the handkerchief-big space between the speak-easy tables.
(Warren)
19) She was a sparrow of a woman. (Larkin)
20) And if either of us should lean toward the other, even a fraction of an inch, the balance would be upset. (Wilde)
21) He smiled back, breathing a memory of gin at me. (W. S. Gilbert)
22) She busied herself in her midget kitchen. <Capote)
23) The rain had thickened, fish could have swum through the air. (Capote)
Figures of quantity can often be the final effect of another stylistic device as in:
"He didn't appear like the same man; then he was all milk and honey - now he was all starch and vinegar." (Dickens)
In this sentence the hyperbole appears on top of metaphor.
……………………………………………………………….
Hyperbole as a figure of quantity
Hyperbole (Greek- "excess, exaggeration") is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of
which is to intensify qualitive or quantitative aspects of the object to such a degree as to show its utter
absurdity.
There was a Young Lady whose chin
Resembled the point of a pin;
So she had it made sharp,
And purchased a harp,
And played several tunes with her chin.
There was a Young Lady whose eyes
Were unique as to colour and size;
When she opened them wide,
People all turned aside,
And started away in surprise.

There was an Old Person of Buda,

Whose conduct grew ruder and ruder,
Till at last, with a hammer
They silenced his clamour,
By smashing that Person of Buda.

Hyperbole is one of The most common expressive means of our everyday speech. The feelings and
emotions of the speaker are so ruffled that s/lie resorts in his/her speech to intensifying.
Skrebnev points out that linguistic means of expressing exaggeration are varied. He considers
certain tautologies (pleonastic, overburdened structures using more words than are necessary to express
the meaning conveyed) to be examples of hyperbole, as in the following instance:
There was an old person of Dutton,
Whose head was so small as a button;
So to make it look big,
He purchased a wig,
And rapidly rushed about Dutton.

Note that the redundancy of expression of the kind can be merely a fault of style-Hyperbole should not be confused
withgrotesque. Though the both are based on overstatement there is a clear line of demarcation between them. It lies
in the speaker's / writer's attitude to the thing described. Grotesque is necessarily negatively charged. Its object is a
certain negative feature inherent in the object, whereas hyperbole is used to exaggerate both - the positive and the
negative, with no criticism leveled in the latter case. The only aim it strives to gain is provoking laughter and
amusing the audience.
…………………………………………………….
Metaphor
Metaphor (Greek metaphora – “transference’) is a trope that involves the use of words (word-combinations) in transferred meanings
by way of similarity, re-semblance or analogy between them. Let us study the following metaphor: Front Settin in the Baltic to Trestie
in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. (Winston Churchill) Technically. The subject to which the
metaphor is applied is the tenor ("political situation, resulting hi the division of the world into two antagonistic parts" in the example
above), whereas the metaphorical term is the vehicle ("an iron curtain"). The third notional element of metaphor is the ground, i.e.
the bas|is for drawing the comparison, the feature the tenor and the vehicle have in common. There are three types of metaphorical
transfer possible: 1. the transfer of the name of one object to another: e.g. Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player...
(Shakespeare) 2. the transfer of the mode of action: e.g. / hope this will hare cushioned your loss. Leaving Daniel to his fate, she
was conscious ofjoy springing in her heart.(Bennett) 3. the transfer of the typical characteristics: e.g. The fog comes on little cat feet.
(Sandburg) Let us consider the following examples of metaphor identifying the tenor, vehicle and ground for comparison as well as
naming the type of metaphorical transfer:
1) She looked down on Gopher Prairie. The snow stretching without break from street to devouring prairie beyond, wiped out the
town's pretence of being a shelter. The houses were black specks on a white sheet. (Lewis)
2) I was staring directly in front of me. at the back of the driver's neck, which was a relief map of boil scars. (Salinger)
3) She was handsome in a rather leonine way. Where this girl was a lioness, the other was a panther - lithe and quick. (Christie)
4) Wisdom has reference only to the past. The future remains for ever an infi¬nite field for mistakes. You can't know beforehand.
(Lawrence)
5) The man stood there in the middle of the street with the deserted dawnlit boulevard telescoping out behind him. (Howard)
6) He smelled the ever-beautiful smell of coffee imprisoned in the can. (Steinbeck)
7) We talked and talked and talked, easily, sympathetically, wedding her experience with my articulation. (John Barth)
8) She and the kids have filled his sister's house and their welcome is wearing thinner and thinner. (John Updike)
9) He had hoped that Sally would laugh at this, and she did. and in a sudden mutual gush they cashed into the silver of laughter all
the sad secrets they could find in their pockets. (John Updike)
As far as structure is concerned, metaphor can be conveyed through any notional part of speech and in any pait of the sentence.
Metaphors can be divided into genuine and trite (dead).
Thus, metaphors, which are almost absolutely unexpected and unpredictable, are genuine ones, whereas those that are common in
speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite ones. For instance, the
metaphor 'an iron curtain ' used to be very striking and truly genuine at the time of Winston Churchill, but has lonle since become
trite. Some once-genuine metaphors have become pan and parcel of modem language (especially of its colloquial layer). The
classic example of a metaphor's turning into an idiom is 'a green-eyed monster'used by William Shakespeare in relation to Othello.
Now it is applied to any jealous person. The sentences below contain trite metaphors, many of which are. In fact, frequently-used
idioms. By its structure a metaphor can be simple (one-step) or sustained (prolonged, extended, a chain of metaphors). A simple
metaphor consists of one word or word-group whereas a prolonged one is sustained by some additional images.
For example, let us consider the afore-mentioned verse from Macbeth where, in fact, we deal with two extended metaphors: Life's
but a walking shadow; a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an
idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing...
A sustained metaphor may consist of trite metaphors (idioms) expressing or implying a certain logical development of ideas, and yet
the objects mentioned in each of them pertain to different semantic spheres, due to which the links of the chain seem disconnected
with one another. The general impression is incongruous, clumsy and comical. This phenomenon - a harsh metaphor involving the
use of a word beyond its strict sphere or incongruence of the parts of a sustained metaphor - is called cata-chresis (ox mixed
metaphors). e.g. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear (Mac Arthur. Farewell Address) So much attention has been paid to metaphor as
its importance in rhetoric can hardly be overestimated. Not only it is one of the most frequently used stylistic devices, it also plays
essential role in building many other tropes that rename objects on the basis of similarity. The following presents other stylistic
lexical devices that belong to the so-called metaphorical group: Personification; Allusion; Allegory; Simile; Antonomasia.
…………………………………………………….
Meaning of: Irony, Hyperbole, Litotes, Euphemism, Genteelism
It is connected with strengthening disapproving evaluative connotation which can become pail of the denotative meaning. This
process is determined by social and psychological factors. It is mostly observed in the names of persons and reflects disdain of
some social group, e.g. wench - daughter -orphan girl - morally bad girl.

Irony means expressing one's meaning by words having an opposite meaning, e.g.. You've got us into a nice mess. A pretty
mess you've made of it. These words may develop the opposite ironic meanings in their semantic structures.

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be understood literally but expressing an intensely emotional attitude of the
speaker to what he is speaking about. Hyperbole is a characteristic feature of women's speech. Some of the most emphatic words
are: absolutely, awfully, terribly, lovely, magnificent, splendid. For example, I haven't seen you for ages. You will be the death of me.

Litotes means expressing the affirmative by the negation of its contrary, e.g. not bad, not half bad. Sometimes there is no negation
in the litotes, but a word expressing a smaller degree of some quality is used to express a high degree. Litotes is a characteristic
feature of men's speech, e.g. Rather/very -I could do with a cup of tea.

Euphemism means substitution of words with mild connotation for rough, unpleasant, or otherwise unmentionable words.
Euphemism is due to social, religious and cultural factors. Taboo is one of these factors. The word lavatory has produced many
euphemisms – loo, powder room, washroom, restroom, retiring room, public station, comfort station, ladies', gentlemen's, water-
closet (WC), public convenience. Windsor Castle (a comical phrase). Pass away is a euphemism for die, agent for spy,
dentures for false teeth.
Euphemisms are particularly common for the processes of reproduction and excretion and for activities, people, and parts of the
body involved in these processes. People vary in what they consider to be offensive, and toleration for blunt language also varies
from period to period. A euphemism may eventually acquire unpleasant associations and give way to later euphemisms: toi-
let and lavatory. Themselves euphemisms are frequently replaced by other euphemisms, such as cloakroom. Euphemisms can be
used legitimately for politeness and tact, but they are dishonest when they are used to avoid facing unpleasant activities or to
conceal and deceive. Dishonest uses are frequent in political and military language: Hitler's plan for the extermination of the Jews
was called the final solution; protective custody has been used for imprisonment, industrial action for stickers. police
action for war, andarmed reconnaissance for bombing.

Genteelism is a kind of euphemism, which means the substitution of a mild or indirect expression for one that might be offensive.
Many euphemisms are entirely justified. We use them not only for decency, with reference to bodily parts and functions, but out of
generous feelings towards people whom we should otherwise have to callpoor, fat, old, crippled, or stupid. But the kind of
euphemism here called genteelism is favoured by people who think the frank and obvious word is vulgar. Since the most effective
users of the language are seldom afraid of being frank, it is a mistake to try to sound genteel
……………………………………………..
Synecdoche is a trope consisting in the usage of a part to signify the whole, or the genus - the species,
and vice versa.
As well as metonymy, synecdoche can be trite (as in All hands on deck! and The army included two
hundred horse and three hundred foot), and genuine. Study the example of the latter:
'She saw around her, clustered about the white tables, multitudes of violently red Hps, powdered cheeks,
cold, hard eyes, self-possessing arrogant faces, and insolent bosoms.' (Bennett)
What picture does the author create? How can people depicted in such a manner be characterised?
1. Study the following examples of metonymy identifying the type ofmetonymi-cal transfer:
1) I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. (Churchill)
2) The leaves dropped off his imaginary crown of laurel, he turned to the gate, leaned against it. and cried
bitterly. (Th. Hardy)
3) Give every man thine ear and few thy voice. (Слушай каждого, а говори с
немногими). (Shakespeare)
4) 'Good morning, sir.' Authority has suddenly changed into subservience. -T hear you had some trouble
with the turnstiles this morning." said Evelyn benevolently. - 'Trouble, sir? Turnstiles?' replied
subservience, as if quite at a loss, to understand the sinister allusion. 'They've told you
wrong... subservience sprang round the comer. (Bennett)
5) She is coming, my life, my fate. (Tennison)
6) We smiled at each other, but we didn't speak because there were ears all around us. (Chase)
7) 'Save your breath.' I said. 1 know exactly what you have been thinking.' (Chase)
8) Except for a lack of youth, the guests had no common theme, they seemed strangers among
strangers; indeed, each face, on entering, had struggled to conceal dismay at seeing others
there. (Capote)
9) Dinah, a slim, fresh, pale eighteen, was pliant and yet fragile. (Holmes)

10) The man looked a rather old forty-five, for he was already going grey. (Prichard)
11) The delicatessen owner was a spry and jolly fifty. (Ramon)
12) 'Did he say where he was going?' - 'No. He paid his rent and beat it. You don't ask Joe questions
unless you want a new set of teeth. (Clifford)
13) There was something so agreeable in being so intimate with such a waistcoat: in being on such off-
hand terms so soon with such a pair of whiskers that Tom was uncommonly pleased with
himself. (Dickens)
14) 'Well. Mr. Weller. says the gentl'mn. you're a very good whip, and can do what you like with your
horses, we know.' (Dickens)
15) Miss Tox's hand trembled as she slipped it through Mr. Dombey's arm. and felt herself escorted up
the steps, preceded by a cocked hat and a Babylonian collar. (Dickens)
16) She wanted to have a lot of children, and she was glad that things were that way. that the Church
approved. Then the little girl died. Nancy broke with Rome the day her baby died. It was a secret break,
but no Catholic breaks with Rome casually. (O'Hara)
17) "You have nobody to blame but yourself. "The saddest words of tongue or pen." (I. Shaw)
18) Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark man... Definitely,
the moustache and I had nothing in common.
(Lessing)
19) ... Ralph could make out a familiar rhythm. - "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" - The tribe
was dancing. (Golding)
………11111111111111111111111111111111111111
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two
adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal, and, on the
other, transferred. "Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the
room". (B. Shaw) 'To plunge' (into the middle of a room) materializes the meaning 'to rush into' or
'enter impetuously'. Here it is used in its concrete, primary, literal meaning; in 'to plunge into
privileged intimacy' the word 'plunge' is used in its derivative meaning. The same can be said of
the use of the verbs 'stain' and lose' in the following lines from Pope's "The Rape of the Lock":
"...Whether the Nymph Shall stain her Honour or her new Brocade Or lose her Heart or necklace
at a Ball." This stylistic device is particularly favoured in English emotive prose and in poetry. The
revival of the original meanings of words must be regarded as an essential quality of any work in
the belles-lettres style. A good writer always keeps the chief meanings of words from fading
away, provided the meanings are worth being kept fresh and vigorous. Zeugma is' a strong and
effective device to maintain the purity of the primary meaning when the two meanings clash. By
making the two meanings conspicuous in this particular way, each of them stands out clearly.
The structure of zeugma may present variations from the patterns given above. Thus in the
sentence:. "...And May's mother always stood on her gentility, and Dot's mother never stood on
anything but her active little feet" (Dickens) The word 'stood' is used twice. This structural variant
of zeugma, though producing some slight difference in meaning, does not violate the principle of
the stylistic device. It still makes the reader realize that the two meanings of the word 'stand' are
simultaneously expressed, one primary and the other derivative.

The pun IS another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a
word or phrase. It is difficult do draw a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and the pun.
The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two
meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects (direct or
indirect). The pun is more independent. There need not necessarily be a word in the sentence to
which the pun-word refers. This does not mean, however, that the pun is entirely free. Like any
other stylistic device, it must depend on a context. But the context may be of a more expanded
character, sometimes even as large as a whole work of emotive prose. Thus the title of one of
Oscar Wilde's plays, "The Importance of Being Earnest" has a pun in it, inasmuch as the name of
the hero and the adjective meaning 'seriously-minded' are both present in our mind. Here is
another example of a pun where a larger context for its realization is used: "'Bow to the board,"
said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were lingering in his eyes; and seeing'-
no board but the table, fortunately bowed to that'. (Dickens) In fact, the humorous effect is
caused by the interplay not of two meanings of one word, but of two words. 'Board' as a group of
officials with functions of administration and management and 'board' as a piece of furniture (a
table) have become two distinct words. Puns are often used in riddles and jokes, for example, in
this riddle: What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? (One trains the
mind and the other minds the train.) Devices of simultaneously realizing the various meanings of
words, which are of a more subtle character than those embodied in puns and zeugma, are to be
found in poetry and poetical descriptions and in spe- , culations in emotive prose. Men-of-letters
are especially sensitive to the nuances of meaning embodied in almost every common word, and
to make these words live with their multifarious semantic aspects is the task of a good writer.
Those who can do it easily are said to have talent. In this respect it is worth subjecting to stylistic
analysis words ordinarily perceived in their primary meaning but which in poetic diction begin to
acquire some additional, contextual meaning. This latter meaning sometimes overshadows the
primary meaning and it may, in the course of time, cease to denote the primary meaning, the
derived mean-ing establishing itself as t:he most recognizable one.
22222222222222222222222222222222222
Lexical stylistic devices

Content

Introduction

Lexical stylistic devices

Metaphor

Metonymy

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains, nonsense of non-sequence

Irony

Antonomasia

Epithet

Hyperbole and understatement

Oxymoron

Introduction

Lexical stylistic device is such type of denoting phenomena that serves to create additional expressive, evaluative, subjective connotations.
In fact we deal with the intended substitution of the existing names approved by long usage and fixed in dictionaries, prompted by the
speaker’s subjective original view and evaluation of things. Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device called also a trope .

This act of substitution is referred to transference – the name of one object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity (of
shape, color, function, etc.) or closeness (of material existence, cause/effect, instrument/result, part/whole relations, etc.).

Lexical stylistic devices

Metaphor

The most frequently used, well known and elaborated among lexical stylistic devices is a metaphor – transference of names based on the
associated likeness between two objects, as in the “pancake”, “ball” for the “sky” or “silver dust”, “sequins” for “stars”. So there exist a
similarity based on one or more common semantic component . And the wider is the gap between the associated objects the more striking
and unexpected – the more expressive – is the metaphor.

If a metaphor involves likeness between inanimate and animate objects, we deal with personification , as in the “face of London” or “the pain
of the ocean”.
Metaphor, as all other lexical stylistic devices, is fresh, original, genuine when first used, and trite, hackneyed, stale when often repeated. In
the latter case it gradually loses its expressiveness.

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

When the speaker (writer) in his desire to present an elaborated image does not limit its creation to a single metaphor but offers a group of
them, this cluster is called sustained (prolonged) metaphor.

Metonymy

Another lexical stylistic device – metonymy is created by a different semantic process. It is based on contiguity (nearness) of objects.
Transference of names in metonymy does not involve a necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic
structures as is the case with metaphor but proceeds from the fact that two objects (phenomena) have common grounds of existence in
reality. Such words as “cup” and “tea” have no semantic nearness, but the first one may serve the container of the second, hence – the
conversational cliche “Will you have another cup?”.

Metonymy as all other lexical stylistic devices loses its originality due to long use.

The scope of transference in metonymy is much more limited than that of metaphor, which is quite understandable: the scope of human
imagination identifying two objects (phenomena, actions) on the grounds of commonness of their innumerable characteristics is boundless
while actual relations between objects are more limited. One type of metonymy – namely the one, which is based on the relations between
the part and the whole – is often viewed independently as synecdoche .

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns (less frequently – by substantivized numerals) and is used in syntactical functions characteristic
of nouns ( subject, object, predicative ).

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence are united into a small group as they have much in common both in
the mechanism of their formation and in their function.

In the stylistic tradition of the English-speaking countries only the first two (pun and zeugma) are widely discussed. The latter may be viewed
as slight variations of the first ones. The foursome perform the same stylistic function in speech and operate on the same linguistic
mechanism. Namely, one word-form is deliberately used in two meanings. The effect of these lexical stylistic devices is humorous.
Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization of two meanings.

The formation of pun may vary. One speaker’s utterance may be wrong interpreted by the other due to the existence of different meaning of
the misinterpreted word or its homonym. For example, “Have you been seeing any spirits?” “Or taking any?” The first “spirits” refers to
supernatural forces, the second one – to strong drinks. Punning may be also the result of the speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s
expectation.

We deal with zeugma when polysemantic verbs that can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups are deliberately used with
two or more homogeneous members which are not connected semantically , as in such example: “He took his hat and his leave”. Zeugma is
highly characteristic of English prose of previous centuries.

When the number of homogeneous members , semantically disconnected but attached to the same verb increases we deal with semantically
false chains, which are thus a variation of zeugma. As a rule, it is the last member of the chain that falls out of the semantic group, producing
humorous effect. The following case may serve an example: “A Governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Rumanian, Italian, Spanish,
German, Music and Mining Engineering”.

In most examples of zeugma the verb loses some of its semantic independence and strength being considered as member of phraseological
unit or cliche.

Nonsense of non-sequence results in joining two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence, as in: “Emperor Nero played the
fiddle, so they burnt Rome”. Two disconnected statements are forcibly linked together.

In all previously discussed lexical stylistic devices we dealt with various transformations of the denotational meaning of words, which
participated in the creation of metaphors, metonymies, puns, zeugmas, etc. Each of these lexical stylistic devices added expressiveness and
originality to the nomination of the object. Their subjectivity relies on the new and fresh look at the object mentioned and shows the object
from a new and unexpected side.

Irony

In irony subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon . The essence of irony consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the
evaluative meaning. Irony thus is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary
meaning.

The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation and a positive meaning is understood as
a negative one and (much-much rare) vice versa. “She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator”. The word ”sweet” reverse their positive
meaning into the negative one due to the context. So, like all other lexical stylistic devices irony does not exist outside the context.
There are two types of irony: verbal irony and sustained irony. In the stylistic devise of verbal irony it is always possible to indicate the exact
word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. And we deal with sustained irony when it is not possible to
indicate such exact word and the effect of irony is created by number of statements by the whole text. This type of irony is formed by the
contradiction of the speaker’s (writer’s) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes.

Antonomasia

Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa. Logical meaning serves to
denote concepts and thus to classify individual objects into groups (classes). The nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its
logical meaning and acquires the new – nominal – component. Nominal meaning has no classifying power for it applies to one single
individual object with the aim not of classifying it constituting a definite group, but, on the contrary with the aim of singling it out of the group
of similar objects, of individualizing one particular object. The word “Mary” does not indicate if the denoted object refers to the class of
women, girls, boats, cats, etc. But in example: “He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary, something…” the attribute “each”, used with the
name, turns it into a common noun denoting any woman. Here we deal with a case of antonomasia of the first type .

Another type of antonomasia we meet when a common noun is still clearly perceived as a proper name. So, no speaker of English today has
it in his mind that such popular English surnames as Mr.Smith or Mr.Brown used to mean occupation and the color. While such names as
Mr.Snake or Mr.Backbite immediately raise associations with certain human qualities due to the denotational meaning of the words “snake”
and “backbite”.

Antonomasia is created mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (as in “Dr.Fresh Air”) or phrases (as in “Mr.What’s-his-
name’).

Epithet

Epithet is a lexical stylistic device that relies on the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. The emotive meaning of the word is foregrounded
to suppress the denotational meaning of the latter. The characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker
himself. Epithet gives opportunities of qualifying every object from subjective viewpoint, which is indispensable in creative prose, publicist
style and everyday speech.

Like metaphor, metonymy and simile epithets are also based o n similarity between two objects, on nearness of the qualified objects and on
their comparison .

Through long and repeated use epithets become fixed . Many fixed epithets are closely connected with folklore. First fixed epithets were
found in Homer’s poetry (e.g. “swift-footed Achilles”).

Semantically, there should be differentiated two main groups. The biggest one is affective epithets. These epithets serve to convey the
emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as affective epithets.
The second group – figurative epithets . The group is formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes and expressed predominantly by
adjectives (e.g. “the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”), qualitative adverbs (e.g. “his triumphant look”), or rarely by nouns in exclamatory
sentences (e.g. “You, ostrich!”) and postpositive attributes (e.g. “Richard of the Lion Heart”).

Two-step epithets are so called because the process of qualifying passes two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of
the qualification itself, as in “an unnaturally mild day”. Two-step epithets have a fixed structure of Adv+Adj model.

Phrase-epithets always produce an original impression (e.g. “shutters-coming-off-the-shops early morning”). Their originality proceeds from
rare repetitions. Phrase-epithet is semantically self-sufficient word combination or even a whole sentence which loses some of its
independence and self-sufficiency, becoming a member of another sentence.

Hyperbole and understatement

Hyperbole is a lexical stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration .

Hyperbole is one of the common expressive means of our everyday speech (e.g. “I have told it to you a thousand times”). Due to long and
repeated use hyperboles have lost their originality.

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech .

It is important that both communicants should clearly perceive that the exaggeration serves not to denote actual quality or quantity but
signals the emotional background of the utterance. If this reciprocal understanding is absent, hyperbole turns into a mere lie.

Hyperbole is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality. When it is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, dimensions,
characteristic features of the object are not overrated, but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement . English is well known for its
preference for understatement in everyday speech. “I am rather annoyed” instead of “I’m infuriated’, “The wind is rather strong” instead of
“There’s a gale blowing outside” are typical of British polite speech, but are less characteristic of American English.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is lexical stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes (e.g. “cold fire”, “brawling love”).
The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive . But there are also others, in which verbs are employed. Such verbal structures
as “to shout mutely” or “to cry silently” are used to strengthen the idea.

Oxymoron may be considered as a specific type of epithet.

Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures which also (not infrequently) are used to
express semantic contradiction as in “the street was damaged by improvements”, “silence was louder than thunder”.

Oxymorons rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other and oppose repeated use. There are few colloquial
oxymorons, all of them show a high degree of the speaker’s emotional involvement in the situation, as in “awfully pretty”.

1. Y.M.Skrebnev. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1994

2. I.R.Galperin. Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1981
3. V.A.Kukharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1986

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Лексические приемы экспрессивной речи (Lexical Stylistic
Devices)

министерство образования российской федерации

Столичный институт переводчиков

факультет английского языка

Материал

lexical stylistic devices

Выполнила:

Научный руководитель:

Москва

2000

content

Introduction 3

Lexical stylistic devices Metaphor 3

Metonymy 3

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains, nonsense of non-sequence 4

Irony 5

Antonomasia 6

Epithet 6

Hyperbole and understatement 7

Oxymoron 8

Introduction

Lexical stylistic device is such type of denoting phenomena that serves to create additional expressive, evaluative, subjective connotations. In fact we deal with the
intended substitution of the existing names approved by long usage and fixed in dictionaries, prompted by the speakers subjective original view and evaluation of
things. Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device called also a trope.

This act of substitution is referred to transference the name of one object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity (of shape, color, function, etc.) or
closeness (of material existence, cause/effect, instrument/result, part/whole relations, etc.).

Lexical stylistic devices

Metaphor

The most frequently used, well known and elaborated among lexical stylistic devices is a metaphor transference of names based on the associated likeness between two
objects, as in the “pancake”, “ball” for the “sky” or “silver dust”, “sequins” for “stars”. So there exist a similarity based on one or more common semantic component.
And the wider is the gap between the associated objects the more striking and unexpected the more expressive is the metaphor. If a metaphor involves likeness between
inanimate and animate objects, we deal with personification, as in the “face of London” or “the pain of the ocean”.

Metaphor, as all other lexical stylistic devices, is fresh, original, genuine when first used, and trite, hackneyed, stale when often repeated. In the latter case it gradually
loses its expressiveness.

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

When the speaker (writer) in his desire to present an elaborated image does not limit its creation to a single metaphor but offers a group of them, this cluster is called
sustained (prolonged) metaphor.

Metonymy

Another lexical stylistic device metonymy is created by a different semantic process. It is based on contiguity (nearness) of objects. Transference of names in
metonymy does not involve a necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic structures as is the case with metaphor but proceeds
from the fact that two objects (phenomena) have common grounds of existence in reality. Such words as “cup” and “tea” have no semantic nearness, but the first one
may serve the container of the second, hence the conversational cliche “Will you have another cup?”.

Metonymy as all other lexical stylistic devices loses its originality due to long use.

The scope of transference in metonymy is much more limited than that of metaphor, which is quite understandable: the scope of human imagination identifying two
objects (phenomena, actions) on the grounds of commonness of their innumerable characteristics is boundless while actual relations between objects are more limited.
One type of metonymy namely the one, which is based on the relations between the part and the whole is often viewed independently as synecdoche.

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns (less frequently by substantivized numerals) and is used in syntactical functions characteristic of nouns (subject, object,
predicative).

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence are united into a small group as they have much in common both in the mechanism of their
formation and in their function. In the stylistic tradition of the English-speaking countries only the first two (pun and zeugma) are widely discussed. The latter may be
viewed as slight variations of the first ones. The foursome perform the same stylistic function in speech and operate on the same linguistic mechanism. Namely, one
word-form is deliberately used in two meanings. The effect of these lexical stylistic devices is humorous. Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization
of two meanings. The formation of pun may vary. One speakers utterance may be wrong interpreted by the other due to the existence of different meaning of the
misinterpreted word or its homonym. For example, “Have you been seeing any spirits?” “Or taking any?” The first “spirits” refers to supernatural forces, the second
one to strong drinks. Punning may be also the result of the speakers intended violation of the listeners expectation. We deal with zeugma when polysemantic verbs that
can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups are deliberately used with two or more homogeneous members which are not connected semantically, as
in such example: “He took his hat and his leave”. Zeugma is highly characteristic of English prose of previous centuries.

When the number of homogeneous members, semantically disconnected but attached to the same verb increases we deal with semantically false chains, which are thus
a variation of zeugma. As a rule, it is the last member of the chain that falls out of the semantic group, producing humorous effect. The following case may serve an
example: “A Governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Rumanian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and Mining Engineering”.

In most examples of zeugma the verb loses some of its semantic independence and strength being considered as member of phraseological unit or cliche. Nonsense of
non-sequence results in joining two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence, as in: “Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome”. Two
disconnected statements are forcibly linked together.

In all previously discussed lexical stylistic devices we dealt with various transformations of the denotational meaning of words, which participated in the creation of
metaphors, metonymies, puns, zeugmas, etc. Each of these lexical stylistic devices added expressiveness and originality to the nomination of the object. Their
subjectivity relies on the new and fresh look at the object mentioned and shows the object from a new and unexpected side.

Irony

In irony subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon. The essence of irony consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. Irony
thus is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning. The context is arranged so that the
qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation and a positive meaning is understood as a negative one and (much-much rare) vice versa. “She turned
with the sweet smile of an alligator”. The word ”sweet” reverse their positive meaning into the negative one due to the context. So, like all other lexical stylistic devices
irony does not exist outside the context.

There are two types of irony: verbal irony and sustained irony. In the stylistic devise of verbal irony it is always possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual
meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. And we deal with sustained irony when it is not possible to indicate such exact word and the effect of irony is
created by number of statements by the whole text. This type of irony is formed by the contradiction of the speakers (writers) considerations and the generally accepted
moral and ethical codes.

Antonomasia Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa. Logical meaning serves to denote
concepts and thus to classify individual objects into groups (classes). The nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning and acquires the new
nominal component. Nominal meaning has no classifying power for it applies to one single individual object with the aim not of classifying it constituting a definite
group, but, on the contrary with the aim of singling it out of the group of similar objects, of individualizing one particular object. The word “Mary” does not indicate if
the denoted object refers to the class of women, girls, boats, cats, etc. But in example: “He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary, something…” the attribute
“each”, used with the name, turns it into a common noun denoting any woman. Here we deal with a case of antonomasia of the first type.

Another type of antonomasia we meet when a common noun is still clearly perceived as a proper name. So, no speaker of English today has it in his mind that such
popular English surnames as Mr.Smith or Mr.Brown used to mean occupation and the color. While such names as Mr.Snake or Mr.Backbite immediately raise
associations with certain human qualities due to the denotational meaning of the words “snake” and “backbite”.

Antonomasia is created mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (as in “Dr.Fresh Air”) or phrases (as in “Mr.Whats-his-name).

Epithet

Epithet is a lexical stylistic device that relies on the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. The emotive meaning of the word is foregrounded to suppress the
denotational meaning of the latter. The characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself. Epithet gives opportunities of
qualifying every object from subjective viewpoint, which is indispensable in creative prose, publicist style and everyday speech.

Like metaphor, metonymy and simile epithets are also based on similarity between two objects, on nearness of the qualified objects and on their comparison. Through
long and repeated use epithets become fixed. Many fixed epithets are closely connected with folklore. First fixed epithets were found in Homers poetry (e.g. “swift-
footed Achilles”).

Semantically, there should be differentiated two main groups. The biggest one is affective epithets. These epithets serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the
object by the speaker. Most of qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as affective epithets. The second group figurative epithets. The group is
formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes and expressed predominantly by adjectives (e.g. “the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”), qualitative adverbs (e.g. “his
triumphant look”), or rarely by nouns in exclamatory sentences (e.g. “You, ostrich!”) and postpositive attributes (e.g. “Richard of the Lion Heart”).
Two-step epithets are so called because the process of qualifying passes two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in
“an unnaturally mild day”. Two-step epithets have a fixed structure of Adv+Adj model.

Phrase-epithets always produce an original impression (e.g. “shutters-coming-off-the-shops early morning”). Their originality proceeds from rare repetitions. Phrase-
epithet is semantically self-sufficient word combination or even a whole sentence which loses some of its independence and self-sufficiency, becoming a member of
another sentence.

Hyperbole and understatement

Hyperbole is a lexical stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration.

Hyperbole is one of the common expressive means of our everyday speech (e.g. “I have told it to you a thousand times”). Due to long and repeated use hyperboles have
lost their originality.

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech.

It is important that both communicants should clearly perceive that the exaggeration serves not to denote actual quality or quantity but signals the emotional
background of the utterance. If this reciprocal understanding is absent, hyperbole turns into a mere lie.

Hyperbole is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality. When it is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are
not overrated, but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement. English is well known for its preference for understatement in everyday speech. “I am rather
annoyed” instead of “Im infuriated, “The wind is rather strong” instead of “Theres a gale blowing outside” are typical of British polite speech, but are less
characteristic of American English.

Oxymoron Oxymoron is lexical stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes (e.g. “cold fire”, “brawling love”).

The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive. But there are also others, in which verbs are employed. Such verbal structures as “to shout mutely” or “to
cry silently” are used to strengthen the idea. Oxymoron may be considered as a specific type of epithet.

Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures which also (not infrequently) are used to express semantic
contradiction as in “the street was damaged by improvements”, “silence was louder than thunder”.

Oxymorons rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other and oppose repeated use. There are few colloquial oxymorons, all of them
show a high degree of the speakers emotional involvement in the situation, as in “awfully pretty”.

1. Y.M.Skrebnev. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1994

2. I.R.Galperin. Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1981

3. V.A.Kukharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. M. V.Sh. 1986

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TYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY OF THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE

(Методичні вказівки до семінарських та практичних занять зі стилістики англійської мови для студентів IV курсу. (Видання
2) . Уклад. Воробйова О.П., Бойцан Л.Ф., Ганецька Л.В. та інш. - К.: Вид. центр КНЛУ, 2001. - С. 28-33.)

1. Semasiology is a branch of linguistics which studies semantics or meaning of linguistic units belonging to different language
levels.
Lexical semasiology analyses the meaning of words and word combinations, relations between these meanings and the
changes these meanings undergo.
Stylistic semasiology is concerned only with those semantic relations and changes which form the basis of EM and SD.
The subject-matter of stylistic semasiology is stylistic semantics, i.e. additional meanings of a language unit which may be given rise
to by:
1) the unusual denotative reference of words, word-combinations, utterances and texts (EM); or
2) the unusual distribution of the meanings of these units (SD).
Semasiological EM are figures of substitution, i.e. different means of secondary nomination. The latter is based on the usage of
existing words and word-combinations to denote new notions or to give a new name to the already known objects.
Secondary nomination is not completely arbitrary, it is carried out according to certain principles or rules. Most commonly the
transfer of a name occurs: 1) on the basis of similiarity or likeness (real or imaginary) of two objects belonging to different areas of
reality, which are regarded as such due to individual or collective perception (rat-spy, rabbit- coward);
2) on the basis of contiguity or some logical (usually objective) relations or associations between different objects (chicken –
food, hat – man in a hat).
Figures of substitution are secondary nomination units which either exist in the language as a system or are formed in speech on
the basis of recurrent patterns. Secondary nomination units or tropes stand in paradigmatic (synonymic, or rather homofunctional)
relations to corresponding primary nomination units. They are marked members of stylistic oppositions because they have
connotations or additional stylistic meanings. Figures of substitution in English can be presented in the following table:

FIGURES OF SUBSTITUTION
FIGURES OF SUBSTITUTION FiGURES OF QUALITY (QUALITY)
Metaphor
Metonymy
Antonomasia
Meiosis Synechdoche
Hyperbole Personification Irony
Litotes Periphrasis
Allegory
Euphemism
Epithet

2. FIGURES OF QUANTITY
Here we refer tropes and figures of speech based on the comparison of two different objects or phenomena having a common
feature expressed with a certain degree of intensity, if this feature characterizes the referent in a deliberately greater degree, it
may be regarded as hyperbole, if this feature is ascribed to the referent in a deliberately less degree, it is considered to be meiosis
or litotes, as a structural variety of the latter.
Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration aimed at intensifying one of the features of the object in question. An
overstatement may be considered hyperbole only when the exaggeration is deliberate and both the speaker and the listener are
aware of it. Hyperbole is mainly used to intensify physical qualities of objects or people: size, colour, quantity, age etc., e.g. Her
family is one aunt about a thousand years old (F.Sc. Fitzgerald).
The use of hyperbole may show the overflow of emotions, e.g. I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their
quantity of love, make up my sum (W.Shakespeare).
Hyperbole in oral speech is often used to intensify a statement, e.g. She was a giant of a woman (Fl. O'Connor).
Hyperbole, as any other semasiological EM, may become trite through frequent repetition: e.g. for ages, scared to death, I beg
thousand pardons etc.
Meiosis is a figure of speech opposite to hyperbole. This is a deliberate understatement, or underestimation of some feature of
an object or phenomena with the aim of intensifying the expressiveness of speech. The features stressed are usually size, volume,
distance, time etc. Meiosis is mainly used in oral speech where it usually emphasizes the insignificance of an object, e.g. She wore a
pink hat, the size of a button (J.Reed), a pretty penny, Tom Thumb etc.
Litotes differs from meiosis by both its contents and structure. Litotes presents a statement in the form of negation. Like
rhetorical questions, litotes can be regarded as the transposition of a syntactical construction. Litotes has a specific semantic and
syntactic structure: the usage of not before a word with a negative prefix, e.g. Julia was not dissatisfied with herself (W.S.
Maugham).
This EM is used in oral speech to weaken positive characteristics of a thing or person; to convey the speaker's doubts as to the
exact value or significance of the object of speech, e.g. Her face was not unpretty (K. Kesey).
In scientific prose litotes underlines carefulness of judgement or stresses the writer's uncertainty.

3. FIGURES OF QUALIFICATION
To this group we refer tropes and figures of speech based on comparison of features and qualities of two objects, belonging to
different areas or classes, which are perceived as having a common feature. The basic tropes in this group are metaphor,
metonymy, and irony.
Metaphor and metonymy are universal means of reinterpretation and transfer of a name from one denotate to another. The
difference between them is that while in metaphor this transfer is realized on the basis of likeness (real or imaginary) of the two
objects (e.g. He is a brick, a log, a bear), in case of metonymy it is realized on the basis of contiguity between the two objects (e.g. I
like Beethoven).
The latest linguistic investigations prove that metaphorical and metonymical transfers differ not only semantically but
syntactically and lexically as well.
Metonymy is more often found in the subject and object groups, while metaphor is commonly found in the predicate group
(e.g. The hat is still here. She is a monkey.) When metaphor is used as a subject, it takes on an anaphoric pronoun, e.g. He is a bear.
That bear broke the vase. Irony is also a transfer of meaning, but if metaphor is based on similarity and metonymy on contiguity,
irony is based on opposition of the two meanings of a speech unit.
To the Metonymical Group we refer metonymy, synechdoche, periphrasis, and eu-phemism.
Metonymy as a secondary nomination unit is based on the real association of the object of nomination with the object whose
name is transferred. The simplest kind of metonymy is lexical metonymy, when the name of an object (most often, a proper name)
is transferred to another object (Lewis, Makintosh, volt, amper). Such metonymies have no stylistic value as they become common
nouns. Stylistic metonymysuggests a new, unexpected association between the two objects. In metonymy, the associations
between the object named and the object implied vary. They may bring together some features of a person and the person
him/herself; an article of clothing and the person wearing it; an instrument and the action it performs; the two objects whose
functions coincide, e.g. She was a sunny, happy sort of creature. Too fond of the bottle (A. Christie); He made his way through the
perfume and conversation (I. Shaw).
Synecdoche is a variety of metonymy in which the transfer is based on the association between a part and the whole, the
singular and the plural. This type of metonymical relationship may be considered a quantitative one, e.g. Since I left you, mine eye
is in my mind (W. Shakespeare).
Metonymy and synecdoche as genuine EM are used to achieve concreteness of description. By mentioning only one seemingly
insignificant feature or detail connected with the object, person, or phenomenon, the author draws the reader's attention to it and
makes him/her visualize the object or the character he describes.
Periphrasis (Greek: peri – around; phraseo – speak) is a stylistic figure which substitutes a word designating an object for a
word-combination which describes its most essential and characteristic features. Periphrasis both names and describes. Every
periphrasis indicates a feature which the speaker or writer wants to stress and often conveys an individual perception of the object
or phenomenon named, e.g. The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products {the wounded} of the fighting in
Africa (I. Shaw).
As a result of frequent repetition, periphrasis can become well-established as a synonymous expression for the word generally
used to designate the object. It is called traditional, dictionary or language periphrasis, e.g. gentlemen of the long
robe (lawyers), the better (fair, gentle) sex, my better half (my spouse), the minions of the law (police).
Euphemism (Greek: eupheme – speaking well) is a variety of periphrasis which is used to replace an unpleasant word or
expression by a conventionally more acceptable one.
Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to the spheres of usage:
1) religious euphemisms: God may be replaced by Goodness, Lord, Jove, Heaven etc.; Devil - by the dence, the dickens, old Nick, old
Harry;
2) euphemisms connected with death: to join the majority, to pass away, to go the way of all flesh, to go west, to breathe one's last,
to expire, to depart etc;
3) political euphemisms, widely used in mass media: undernourishment for starvation, less fortunate elements for the
poor, economic tunnel for the crisis etc.
Euphemisms as well as periphrases have no direct reference to the denotate, which is known to both the author and the reader.
The euphemistic transfer of a name is often based on metaphor or metonymy. In fiction, euphemisms are used to give more positive
characteristics to the denotate, e.g. Jean nodded without turning and slid between two vermilion-coloured buses so that two drivers
simultaneously used the same qualitative word (J. Galsworthy).
In colloquial speech euphemisms are typical of more cultured and educated people.
Metaphor is a secondary nomination unit based on likeness, similarity or affinity (real or imaginary) of some features of two
different objects. Metaphor is usually used in the predicate group, because it aims at individualization and characterization of the
object.
Linguists distinguish four types of metaphor, the stylistic value of each type being different:
1) nominative metaphor, i.e. one name which is substituted for by another. In this case, nominators or identifying lexical units
undergo metaphorization. The nominative metaphor gives a new name to a class of objects. Such metaphors are a mere technical
device for extracting a new name, from the old word-stock, e.g. the apple of the eye, a leg of the table, an arm of the clock, the foot
of the hill.
2) cognitive metaphor is created as a result of the shift in the combinability of
qualifying lexical units, when their meaning becomes more abstract. In this case, objects named are ascribed the features of quite
different objects, sometimes even alien qualities, e.g. black night (water, heat, despair etc). It may be based on implied simile,
e.g. Time flies (as a bird).
3) generalizing metaphor leads to polysemy as it destroys the borderline between different notions. In this case, predicative lexical
units undergo metaphorization and transform into identifying lexical units. This metaphor is somewhat artificial and it indicates the
feelings some artefacts can evoke in the customers rather than the qualities of some goods. Its stylistic effect is weak,
e.g. восторгаться → шоколад "Bocmopг".
4) figurative or image-bearing metaphor presupposes that identifying lexical units are transferred into the predicate-slot and, as a
predicate, refer to other objects or a class of objects. Here, metaphor is a means of individualization, evaluation, and discrimination
of the shades of meaning. Such metaphor appeals to the reader's intuition, giving him/her a chance to interpret the text creatively.
The stylistic effect of this metaphor is great, e.g. They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to
communicate (W.S. Gilbert).
According to its structure, metaphor may be:
a) simple or elementary, which is based on the actualization of one or several features common for two objects;
b) prolonged or sustained, which is not confined to one feature that forms the main, central image but also comprises other features
linked with and developing this image in context, e.g. He was surprised that the fire which flashed from his eyes did not melt the
glasses of the spectacles (A. Huxley). In this example, subsidiary images flashed and melted are connected with the main image
expressed by the word fire.
According to the peculiarities of its semantics, metaphor may be trite (traditional, language) and genuine (speech). Stylistic
functions of metaphor are twofold. By evoking images and suggesting analogies, it:
1) makes the author's thought more concrete, definite, and clear, and
2) reveals the author's emotional attitude towards what he/she describes.
The main function of figurative metaphor is not merely communicative but aesthetic. It appeals to imagination rather than gives
information.
Antonomasia (Greek: antonomasia – renaming) is a peculiar variety of metaphor. There are two types of antonomasia:
1) the usage of a proper name for a common noun (Othello, Romeo, Hamlet);
2) the usage of common nouns or their parts as proper names (Mr.Snake, Mr.Backbite etc.), e.g. "Don't ask me,” said Mr. Owl Eyes
washing his hands off the whole matter (F.Sc. Fitzgerald).
The main stylistic function of antonomasia is to characterize a person simultane-ously with naming him/her.
Personification (Latin: persona – person, facere – do) is also a variety of metaphor. It is based on ascribing some features and
characteristics of a person to a thing, e.g.
Autumn comes
And trees are shedding their leaves
And Mother Nature blushes
Before disrobing
(N. West)
Unlike metaphor, personification:
1) is used only in fiction while metaphor can be found practically in every style; 2) can appear only within context, no matter how
short.
Allegory is another variety of metaphor. It differs from metaphor as it is mainly used in fiction and it differs from personification
as it appears only in a text, no matter how short it may be (e.g. proverbs, fables or fairy tales).
Irony (Greek: eironeia – concealed mockery). The difference between metaphor and metonymy, on the one hand, and irony, on
the other, can be defined as follows: in metaphor and metonymy, the transfer is based on affinity of the objects, in irony, it is based
on their opposition. The relations of opposition here are not objective but subjective because irony always suggests evaluation. It is
positive in form but negative in meaning.
In a narrow sense, irony is the use of a word having a positive meaning to express a negative one. In a wider sense, irony is an
utterance which formally shows a positive or neutral attitude of the speaker to the object of conversation but in fact expresses a
negative evaluation of it, e.g. She was a gentle woman, and this, of course, is a very fine thing to be; she was proud of it (in quite a
gentlewomanly way), and was in the habit of saying that gentlefolk were gentlefolk, which, if you come to think of it, is a profound
remark(W.S.Maugham).
In contrast with metaphor and metonymy, irony does not employ any particular syn-tactical structure or lexical units. In context,
there are usually some formal markers of irony pointing out to the meaning implied.
In oral speech, a word used ironically is strongly marked by intonation and other paralinguistic means. In written speech, such
markers are not easily found.
Language irony comprises words, word-combinations and utterances which, due to regular usage, have acquired connotative
ironical meaning which does not depend on context, e.g. to orate, a speechmaker, too clever by half, mutual admiration society.
More often, however, words or word-combinations acquire ironical meaning due to particular syntagmatic relations between the
meanings of different speech units in macrocontext (a fragment of a text) or megacontext (the whole text), e.g. An Ideal Husband, A
Devoted Friend, The Quiet American. The ironical meaning appears, when lexical units expressing positive evaluation in a certain
context acquire a negative meaning, e.g. This naturally led to some pleasant chat about... fevers, chills, lung diseases ... and
bronchitis (J.K. Jerome).

4. FIGURES OF COMBINATION
Figures of combination are SD of semasiology. They are stylistically relevant semantic means of combining lexical, syntactical
and other units (including EM) belonging to the same or different language levels. So, the realization of the figures of combination is
possible only in context. Frequently, these figures of speech are the result of the interaction of word meanings or the meanings of
word-combinations, seldom – of paragraphs or larger text fragments. There are three basic types of semantic relations between
words, phrases, and utterances:
1) those involving similar (synonymous) meanings of such units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text the units whose
meaning he/she considers similar, thus figures of identity are formed;
2) those based on opposite (antonymous) meanings of the units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text two semantically
contrasting units. As a result, figures of opposition are formed;
3) those comprising somewhat different meanings of the units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text lexical units
denoting different but close notions. As a result, the figures of unequality are formed.

FIGURES OF COMBINATION
FIGURES OF IDENTITY FIGURES OF OPPOSITION FIGURES OF INEQUALITY
Climax
Simile
Antithesis Anticlimax
Synonyms-substitutes
Oxymoron Pun
Synonyms-specifiers
Zeugma

5. FIGURES OF IDENTITY
Relations of identity are realized in context where close or synonymous units referring to the same object, or phenomenon are
used. Here we refer simile and two kinds of synonyms – specifying and substituting ones.
Simile (Latin: simile - similar) is a partial identification of two objects belonging to different spheres or bringing together some of
their qualities. The objects compared are not identical, though they have some resemblance, some common features. Emphasizing
their partial identity gives new characteristics to the referent.
Simile is a structure consisting of two components: the subject of comparison, and the object of comparison which are united by
formal markers: as, as … as, like, as though, as if, such as etc., e.g.Unhappiness was like a hungry animal waiting beside the track
for any victim /G.Greene/.
If formal markers are missing but the relations between the two objects are those of similarity and identity, we have implied
simile. In such similes notional or seminotional words (verbs, nouns etc.) substitute formal markers (Cf: to resemble, to remind, to
seem, resemblance etc.: e.g. H.G.Wells reminded her of the nice paddies in her native California (A.Huxley).
 We should distinguish simile which is stylistically charged from logical comparison which is not. The latter deals with the notions
belonging to the same sphere and it states the degree of their similarity and difference. In case of comparison, all qualities of the
two objects are taken into consideration, but only one is brought to the foreground, e.g. He was a big man, as big as Simon, but with
sandy hair and blue eyes (D.G-arett).
Both simile and metaphor are based on comparison. Metaphor is often called a compressed simile which differs from simile
proper structurally. However, the difference between the two is not only structural but semantic as well. Simile and metaphor are
different in their linguistic nature:
1) metaphor aims at identifying the objects; simile aims at finding some point of resemblance by keeping the objects apart;
2) metaphor only implies the feature which serves as the ground for comparison, simile, more often than not, indicates this feature,
so it is semantically more definite.
Synonyms-substitutes (substituting synonyms) are words used to denote objects or action, supplementing new additional
details, which helps to avoid monotonous repetitions, e.g. But he had no words to express his feelings and to relieve them would
utter an obscene jest; it was as though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the tension. Mackintosh
observed this sentiment with an icy disdain /W.S.Maugham/.
Substituting synonyms are characterized by contextual similarity giving rise to emotive-evaluative meaning. That is why some
synonyms can be treated as such only in context. Synonyms-substitutes are widely used in publicist style. They are also regarded as
situational synonyms.
Synonyms-specifiers (specifying synonyms) are used as a chain of words which express similar meanings. Such synonyms are
used for a better and more detailed description of an object or person, when every other synonym adds new information about it.
There are two ways of using specifying synonyms: 1) as paired synonyms, and 2) as synonymic variations, e.g. …the intent of which
perjury being to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a plantation-patch, their only stay and support in their
bereavement and desolation /M.Twain/.
These synonyms specify the utterance, adding some new information. Though the given synonyms are very close in their
meaning, they are different in stylistic colouring. Synonymic variations specify the utterance, intensifying its emotional value. Such
synonyms are widely used in fiction and the publicistic style. In scientific prose and official style, their usage is limited.

6. FIGURES OF OPPOSITION
This group of semasiological SD is characterized by the combination in context of two or more words or word-groups with
opposite meanings. Their relations are either objectively opposite or are interpreted as such by the speaker. Here we refer
antithesis and oxymoron.
Antithesis (Greek - opposition) is a stylistic device which presents two contrasting ideas in close proximity in order to stress the
contrast. There are several variants of antithesis based on different relations of the ideas expressed:
1) opposition of features possessed by the same referent, e.g. Some people have much to live on, and little to live for (O.Wilde);
2) opposition of two or more different referents having contrasting features, e.g. Their pre-money wives did not go together with
their post-money daughters /E.Hemingway/;
3) opposition of referents having not only contrasting feature but embracing a wider range of features, e.g.New England had a
native literature, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agricultural /Th.Dreiser/.
Antithesis often goes along with other stylistic features: anaphoric repetition, parallelism, chiasmus, in particular. It is widely used
in all kinds of speech: fiction, publicistic, scientific, and colloquial English. It performs various stylistic functions: stressing the
contrast and rhythmically organizing the utterance. Due to the last quality antithesis is widely used in poetry in combination with
anaphora, epiphora, and alliteration.
Oxymoron – (Greek: oxymoron – witty – foolish) is also a combination of opposite meanings which exclude each other. But in this
case, the two semantically contrasting ideas are expressed by syntactically interdependent words (in predicative, attributive or
adverbial phrases), e.g. He was certain the whites could easily detect his adoring hatred to them /R.Wright/.
Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its elements discloses some objectively
existing feature while the other serves to convey the author’s personal attitude towards this quality (pleasantly ugly, crowded
loneliness, unanswerable reply). Such semantic incompatibility does not only create unexpected combinations of words, violating
the existing norms of compatibility, but reveals some unexpected qualities of the denotate as well.
As soon as an oxymoron gets into circulation, it loses its stylistic value, becoming trite: pretty bad, awfully nice, terribly good.
Original oxymorons are created by the authors to make the utterance emotionally charged, vivid, and fresh, e.g. Oh brawling
love! Oh loving hate! Oh heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! /W. Shakespeare/.

7. FIGURES OF UNEQUALITY
Relations of unequality are the relations of meanings of words and word-combinations with differ in their emotive intensiveness or
logical importance. To this group we refer:
1) figures based on actualizing the emotional power of the utterance (climax or anticlimax);
2) figures based on two different meanings of words and word-combinations (pun, zeugma).
Climax, or gradation, (Latin: gradatio – gradualness; Greek: climax – a ladder) is a structure in which every successive word,
phrase, or sentence is emotionally stronger or logically more important than the preceding one, e.g. Like a well, like a vault, like a
tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside /Ch.Dickens/.
There are three types of climax:
1) the arrangement of some lexical units characterizing the object in the same emotional direction, e.g. As he wondered and
wondered what to do, he first rejected a stop as impossible, then as improbable, then as quite dreadful. /W.S.Gilbert/;
2) the arrangement of lexical units with logical widening of notions, e.g. For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in
the house, in the world, besides themselves. /M.Wilson/;
3) emphatic repetition and enumeration, e.g. Of course it is important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately important /D.Sayers/.
Gradation is widely used in fiction and the publicistic style. It is one of the main means of emotional and logical influence of a text
upon the reader and listener.
Anticlimax presents a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is emotionally or logically less strong than
the preceding one, e.g. Fledgeby hasn’t heard anything. "No, there’s not a word of news,” says Lammle. "Not a particle,” adds
Boots. "Not an atom,” chimes in Brewer /Ch.Dickens/.
We can distinguish two types of anticlimax:
1) gradual drop in intensity;
2) sudden break in emotive power. In this case, emotive and logical importance is accumulated only to be unexpectedly brought up
to a sudden break, e.g. He was unconsolable – for an afternoon /J.Galsworthy/.
Anticlimax is mostly used as a means of achieving a humorous effect.
Pun is a device based on polisemy, homonymy, or phonetic similarity to achieve a humorous effect.
There are several kinds of pun:
1) puns based on polysemy. They had the appearance of men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat – seamy on both
sides. /O.Henry/;
2) puns based on complete or partial homonymy:
Diner: Is it customary to tip a waiter in this restaurant?
Waiter: Why-ah-yes, sir.
Diner: Then hand me a tip. I’ve waited three quarters of an hour.
3) puns based on phonetic similarity:
-I’ve spent last summer in a very pretty city of Switzerland.
-Bern?
-No, I almost froze.
 Pun is used for satirical and humorous purposes. Many jokes are based on puns.
Zeugma (Greek: zeugyana – to join, to combine) are parallel constructions with unparallel meaning. It is such a structural
arrangement of an utterance in which the basic component is both a part of a phraseological unit and a free word-combination. So,
zeugma is a simultaneous realization within the same short context of two meanings of a polysemantic unit, e.g. If the country
doesn’t go to the dogs or the Radicals, we shall have you Prime Minister some day /O.Wilde/. The verb "to go” here realizes two
meanings: to go to the dogs (to perish) and to go to the Radicals (to become politically radical).
Zeugma combines syntactical and lexical characteristics. Syntactically, it is based on similar structures, semantically it comprises
different meanings, which leads to logical and semantic incompatibility. Zeugma is mainly a means of creating a humorous effect.