II. Point out similes in the following sentences. Say whether they are trite and banal, or fresh and genuine. State whether they are elevating or degrading.
Lesson 5. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices (2)
Interjections, Epithet, Oxymoron
Hyperbole, Periphrases.
Allusion.
Interjections, Epithet, Oxymoron
Interjections are pure signs of emotions; they are void of any logical meaning. They express emotion in a general way. Without any demarcation – positive or negative – OH! can convey polar feelings – joy and sadness.
For stylistics the indefiniteness of interjections is relevant, for it makes the reader seek additional comments on the feelings expressed. With strong emotive meaning, interjections make up a very specific layer of v-ry.
Epithet is not so direct as interjection; it actually conveys the subjective meaning attitude of the writer. E. is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in the attributive word. It characterizes an object and points out to the reader some features of an object and gives an individual perception and evaluation of these features. Through long and repeated use epithets become fixed. Many fixed e-s are closely connected with folklore and can be traced back to folk ballads. Ex., “true love”, “Merry Christmas”, etc.
Epithets can be divided into: a) language epithets (dark forest, dreary night) because they point the feature which is essential to the object described; b) speech epithets. (They characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in it (sleepless bay).
Structurally epithets can be divided into: 1) simple; 2) compound; 3) phrase epithets
Simple are ordinary, logic attributes (green meadow). Compound – ex. mischief-making monkey.
Phrase epithets are placed before the noun they refer to. Sometimes they contain the whole sentence.
The structure and semantics of e-s are extremely variable which is explained by their long and wide use. Semantically, there are two main groups, the biggest of them being affective (or emotive proper). They serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of the qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as affective e-s. Ex., “gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, etc.
The 2d group – figurative or transferred e-s (metaphoric) – is formed by metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives. Ex., “the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless pillow”, etc. Like m-r, m-my and simile, corresponding e-s are also based on similarity of characteristics of two objects in the 1st case, on nearness of the qualified objects in the 2nd one and on their comparison in the third.
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Еpithets are used singly, in pairs, in chains, in two step structures and in inverted constructions, also as phrase-attributes. All previously given examples demonstrated single e-s. Pairs are represented by two e-s joined by a conjunction or asyndetically as in “wonderful and incomparable beauty” or “a tired old town”. Chains (strings) of e-s present a group of homogeneous attributive varying in number from 3 up to sometimes 20 or even more. Ex., “You’re a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature”.
Two-step e-s are so called, b-sethe process of qualifying seemingly passes two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in: “an unnaturally mild day”. Two-step e-s have a fixed structure of Adv. +Adj. Model.
Phrase e-s always produce an original impression. Ex., “the sunshine – in – the – breakfast – room smell”.
A different linguistic mechanism is responsible for the emergence of one more structural type of e-s, namely inverted e-s, (reversed). Ex., instead of “this devilish woman”, - the inverted e-t is “this devil of a woman”. The model is "N +N". Ex.: the giant of a man, a sparrow of a woman.
Oxymoron – is the combination of 2 words (adjective + noun or adjective + adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash being opposite in sense. “Poorest millionaire”, “The peopled desert”; “populous solitude”; “Proud humility”, etc.
Hyperbole, Periphrases
Hyperbole – a SD in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration, - like epithet relies on the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. The feelings and emotions of the speaker are so ruffled that he resorts in his speech to intensifying the quantitative or the qualitative aspect of the mentioned object. In “I would gladly see the film a hundred times”, - we use trite language hyperboles which, through long and repeated use, have lost their originality and remained signals of the speaker’s roused emotions.
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H. may be the final effect of another SD – m-r, simile, irony, as in “The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar”.
H. is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality when it is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, characteristic features of the object are not overrated but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement. For example: “The woman was of a pocket size.”It is not the actual diminishing or growing of the object that is conveyed by a H or understatement. It is a transient subjective impression that finds its realization in these SD-s. They differ only in the direction of the flow of roused emotions.
Periphrasis – is a very peculiar SD which basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one, i.e. of using more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word. Depending on the mechanism of this substitution, p-s are classified into figurative (metonymic and metaphoric) and logical. Ex., “The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa”, where the extended metonymy stands for “the wounded”.
Logical periphrases are phrases synonymic with the words which were substituted by p-s: “Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires”. Because the direct nomination of the not too elegant feature of appearance was substituted by a roundabout description, this periphrasis may be also considered euphemistic, as it offers a more polite qualification instead of a coarser one.
The main function of periphrasis is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object. Often repeated periphrasis become trite and serve as universally accepted periphrastic synonyms: “the gentle (soft, weak) sex” (women); “my better half” (my spouse), etc.
Allusion.
Allusion is a reference to specific places, people, literary characters, historical events, that by some associations one have come to stand for a certain thing of the idea the frequently resorted to sources, are mythology and the Bible. E.g. Shakespeare talks of the herald Mercury. (Byron)
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The term allusion denotes a special variety of metaphor. It is an indirect reference to some literary, historical, mythological, biblical, commonly known fact or event, e.g.:
Scarlett, this tiny young creature, if you can credit it, runs my entire household as if she were Ivan the Terrible.
-- Alexander Ripley
The speaker merely mentions some detail of what he thinks analogous in fiction or history to the topic discussed. Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in the reader.
Questions:
1. Give the classification of epithets.
2. What is the function of hyperbole?
3. What is a euphemism?
4. Give the definition of the term cliché.
5. Give the definition of proverbs.
6. Give the definition of quotation.
Assignments for self-control
I. Comment on the litotes in the following sentences:
1. You are not unloved because Ireland is our love of loves. (A. R.)
2. Her glance was mild, for she was not unsympathetic… (E.G.)
3. It was no mean passion, but without money, and a good deal of it, likely to remain a love as airy as her skirts… (J. G.)
4. He had a short, rather stocky figure, and a square, not uninteresting face… (E.G.)
5. … he was never unprepared to take his place in those missions to a foreign country which are devised to establish amicable relations between writers of different nationalities. (W.S.M.)
6. Yet even to Rose Emily, married to Nathan, life was not without sweetness. (E.G.)
7. A plastic ball, in white and yellow stripes, rolled softly and with deceptive slowness from one dry tuft of dune-grass to another, not at all unlike a big bored snail… (S.B.)
II. Point out similes in the following sentences. Say whether they are trite and banal, or fresh and genuine. State whether they are elevating or degrading.
1. They all did, even India, bleating at me like a goat. (A.R.)
2. Mr Belby seemed to sniff the air like a hound. (J.G.)
3. Now he wanted to reach his mother’s house quickly, and not to reveal, in his face or his bearing, a trace of the news that had numbed him like the concussion of a bomb. (D.C.)
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4. Only a week ago his attention would have flattered her, but to-day she had other things to think of and his admiring ox-like stare made her impatient. (E.G.)
5. Her heart was aching as if it were full of knives. (A.R.)
6. They were as close as two fingers on a hand the whole time they were growing up. (A.R.)
7. The Tarleton girls like a bunch of red-haired tabby kittens looking at a bowl of cream. (A.R.)
III. Say what kind of epithet is used in the following sentences:
1. It was set on a little rise, a biggish box of a house […]. (R.P.W.)
2. Miss Texanna, having nothing to do but knit in her box of a post office, had caught the whistle as far away as Turkey station…(E.G.)
3. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man… (F.S.F.)
4. A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby’s house… (F.S.F.)
5. The long drought had scorched the leaves of the trees, and even the needles on the pines looked rusty against the metallic blue of the sky. (E.G.)
6. He is a boy of nineteen, quick, nervous, taut and likeable. (P.Sh.)
7. Nodding dreamily, he gazed away from us, above us, his acornlike eyes scanning the sky-fringed, breeze-fooled leaves. (T.C.)
IV. Point out instances of oxymoron in the following sentences:
1. … her green eyes blazed like cold flames. (A.R.)
2. … her eyes in a sort of soft gray agony were fixed on Val. (J.G.)
3. Robert Jordan looked at the big brown-faced woman with her kind, widely set eyes and her square, heavy face, lined and pleasantly ugly… (E.H.)
4. And it gave him a sort of grim pleasure to hear the sigh which seemed to come from the bottom of the heart. (J.G.)
5. Or it resembled a greedy, avid, delicious quagmire which would swallow up the lost, benighted traveler with a last tired, liquid, contented sigh. (R.P.W.)
6. Few boys had more narrowly escaped being expelled – the engaging rascal. (J. G.)
7. As I rubbed on the mint-flavoured aftershave in the mirror of the Orient Express I looked at myself with affectionate misgivings. (L.D.)
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