Lexical SDs. Lexico-syntactical SDs

Lecture 3 - continued

8. Pun

is the humorous use of a word in 2 different senses;

is more independent than zeugma and freer in the use of its members (can be

based on any part of speech).

Puns

Can be based on: simultaneous realisation of 2 different

meanings: similarity of sound between two

words with different meanings.

9. Epithet

- a stylistic device based on the interplay of the emotive and logical meanings in an attributive or adverbial word,

used to characterize a thing with the aim of giving an individual

evaluation of its properties and features.

is always subjective and evaluative, revealing the author’s attitude and feelings towards the thing described.

Epithet

According to the degree of freshness:

Traditional epithets - have been used so frequently with certain nouns that they have become stable word-combinations or clichés: sweet smile, rosy-fingered dawn.

Fresh/Genuine epithets – are expressive and emotional:

a ghost-like face, a sleepless pillow

Epithet

According to the compositional structure: Simple (1-word epithets): at its inhuman height Compound: sea-wet sand Two-step epithets - are supplied with an

intensifier: a marvelously radiant smile

Reversed epithets: two nouns linked by “of”. The noun defined is contained in the “of-phrase”, the epithet is expressed by the 1st noun: a shadow of a smile; a memory of a voice.

The reversed epithet is metaphoric.

Epithet

Phrase epithets (hyphenated): He was back in the role of the

humble-man-trying-to-please; She had one of those take-all-the-

bloom-off-the-girl affairs.

The phrase, transferred into a hyphenated epithet loses its independence and assumes a new stylistic quality, which is revealed both in the intonation pattern and graphically.

Epithet

According to distribution in the sentence: Single (a dry look); Pairs (a delightful and merry holiday); Streams (the wonderful, cruel, enchanting,

fatal, great city [O’H.])

The main feature of an epithet is their aptness, freshness, pictorial quality.

10. Oxymoron

a combination of two words in which the meanings of the two clash being opposite in sense.

e.g. deafening silence; sweet sorrowvirtual reality

Such contrasting compositions reveal the discrepancy of reality of life itself.

Oxymoron

According to the degree of freshness: Genuine – reveals new shades of meaning,

joining words of contradictory meaning in an unexpected context;

Trite – through frequent repetition has lost its stylistic quality and has become a word-combination (an intensifier + a word intensified). They belong to the language-as-a-system: Terribly sorry. Awfully nice.

Oxymoron

According to structure: Noun + noun: speed limit adj. + noun: irregular pattern adv. + adj.: pretty ugly prep. phrases: alone in the crowd adj. + adj.: bittersweet days adv. + noun, adj. + adv., adv. + verb.

11. Hyperbole

a conscious/deliberate exaggeration, the aim of which is to intensify one of the

features of the object described. It produces clarity and vividness,

sharpens the reader’s ability to grasp the author’s message.Those dark mornings, which burst over unhappy London like gigantic bombs, filled with dirty water. They sweep, lash and machine-gun the streets with rain.

Hyperbole

According to the degree of freshness: hyperbole may lose its aesthetic expressive

quality through frequent repetition and become a unit of language-as-a-system. Examples of trite hyperbole: thousand pardons, million thanks, Haven’t seen you for ages, scared to death.

fresh/genuine hyperboles

12. Understatement

the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the objects are not overrated, but intentionally underrated

(a stylistic device opposite to hyperbole)

a pocket-size woman; He was knee-high to a grass-hopper

13. Periphrasis

Is the renaming of an object by a phrase that foregrounds some particular feature

of the object.

Too long and vague periphrases are called circumlocutions (разглагольствование).

Periphrasis

There are 3 structural types of periphrasis: Logical is based on 1 of the inherent

properties of the object described: the instruments of destruction (guns/weapons/pistols);

Imaginative is based either on metaphor or on metonymy: to tie a knot (get married);

Euphemistic P. is used to replace an unpleasant or indecent word or expression: to possess a vivid imagination (to lie); to get something in a dishonest manner (to steal).

Periphrasis

According to the degree of freshness: Genuine Traditional: is understandable outside the

context, it is not a stylistic device, but merely a synonymous phrase:

gentlemen of the long robe (lawyers); the fair sex, my better half.

1. Antithesis2. Climax

3. Anticlimax

Lexico-Syntactical Devices

1. Antithesis

- a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting

words, clauses, sentences or ideas.

Man proposes, God disposes. Search other for their virtues,

thyself for thy vices.

Antithesis

Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another for emphasis: A saint abroad and a devil at home.

The opposition is based on relative opposition, which arises from the context. Youth is lovely, age is lonely;

Youth is fiery, age is frosty. (Longfellow)

Antithesis

Antithesis is used in parallel constructions, e.g.: It was the best of times, it was the worst of

times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.

He ordered a bottle of worst possible port wine at the highest possible price.

Don’t be afraid your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!

Antithesis

Functions: rhythm-making/forming (parallel constructions), dissevering, comparative, copulative.

Types: antithesis proper in cases like: Mrs. N. had a large

home and a small husband; and developed antithesis (presents completed

statements or pictures semantically opposite to one another).

2. Climax / Gradation

Arrangement of sentences (or the homogeneous parts of the sentence), which secures a gradual increase in significance,

importance, emotional tension in the utterance. Each successive unit is perceived as stronger

that the previous one. In climax we observe parallelism of

constructions of three or more steps: For that one instant there was no one in the

room, in the house, in the world besides themselves.

Climax

There are 3 types of increase of significance: Logical climax is based on the relative

importance of component parts regarding the concepts they express. This relative importance may be evaluated both objectively and subjectively. It was a mistake, a blunder, a lunacy! Say yes. If you don’t I’ll break into tears, I’ll

sob, I’ll moan, I’ll groan.

Climax

Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning. Of course, it is important. Incredibly, urgently,

desperately important. I am a bad man, a wicked man, but she is worse. She is

bad, she is badness. She is Evil. She not only is evil, but she is Evil.

Quantitative climax is achieved by numerical increase/decrease. They looked at hundreds of houses, they climbed

thousands of stairs, they inspected innumerous kitchens.

3. Anticlimax

Is a sudden reversal of expectations roused by a non-completed climax.

The ideas may be arranged in an ascending order of significance, they may be poetical, elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be culminating, is trifling or farcical. Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck,

a good physique and not too much imagination.