Interaction of Dictionary and Contextual Logical Meaning
The relation between dictionary and contextual meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol - referent relations, or on opposition. Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is metaphor, on the second, metonymy and on the third, irony.
A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts. Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even in the auxiliary parts of speech, as in prepositions. Metaphor as any stylistic device can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. E.g. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden. Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors e.g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears.
Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, their primary meaning is re- established alongside the new derivative meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word. E.g. “ Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down.”
The verb “to bottle up” is explained as “ to keep in check”, to conceal, to restrain, repress. So the metaphor can be hardly felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb “ to cork down”. Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged. Stylistic function of a metaphor is to make the description concrete, to express the individual attitude.
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on affinity, but on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent on proximity (contiguity).
The proximity (contiguity) may be revealed:
1) Between the symbol and the thing it denotes; crown, scepter;
2) In the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument; e.g. His pen is rather sharp.
3) In the relation between the container and the thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.
4) The concrete is put for the abstract; e.g. It was a representative gathering (science, politics).
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5) A part is put for the whole; e.g. the crown - king, a hand - worker.
Metonymy represents the events of reality in its subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite. e.g. “ to earn one's bread”, “to keep one's mouth shut”.
Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are in opposition to each other. The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning. Irony is based on the opposition of what is said to what is meant.
E.g. “The garden bore witness to a love of growing plants which extended to many types commonly known as weeds. (J.Wain). Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day).
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