Figures of substitution

the use of a word or phrase denoting one kind of idea or object instead of another word or phrase for the purpose of suggesting a likeness between the two; transference of meaning, based upon likeness:

This money burnt a hole in my pocket. (T.Capote)

A particular kind of metaphor is personification – representation of inanimate objects or abstract ideas as living beings:

The face of London was now strangely altered… the voice of Mourning was heard in every street. (D.Defoe)

Sometimes personification may take a form of a digressive address (apostrophe), no matter whether it refers to a theme or to a person:

Thou, Nature, art my goddess! (W.Shakespear)

Awake, ye Sons of Spain! awake! advance! (G.Byron)

There is also a distinction between a simple (elementary) metaphor and a sustained/developed/extended/prolonged metaphor:

The slash of sun on the wall above him slowly knifes down, cuts across his chest, becomes a coin on the floor and vanishes. (J.Updike)

- antonomasia

the use of a proper name for a common one:

● metonymic – the name of a person stands for a thing he has created:

“Some remarkable pictures in this room, gentlemen. A Holbein, two Van Dycks, and, if I am not mistaken, a Velasquez. I am interested in pictures!” (A.Christie)

● metaphoric – based upon similarity:

Every Caesar has his Brutus. (O.Henry)

● speaking names and nicknames are used to characterize a person simultaneously with naming him:

Ms. Becky Sharp (W.Thackeray)

Scarlett (M.Mitchell)

Lady Teazle (R.Sheridan)

Mr. Beanhead (S.Leacock)

Wolf Larsen (J.London)

- metonymy

reflects actually existing relations between two objects and thus it is based on their contiguity. Metonymic relations are various in character:

● naming the instrument instead of the action this instrument produces or is associated with:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! (W.Shakespear)

● naming the symbol instead of the phenomenon this symbol denotes:

England sucked the blood of other countries, destroyed the brains and hearts of Irishmen, Hindus, Egyptians, Boers and Burmese. (J.Galsworthy)

● something what a person possesses instead of the man himself:

He had also married money.

I never saw a Phi Beta Kappa wear a wrist watch… (J.O’Hara)

He made his way through the perfume and conversation. (I.Shaw)

A particular kind of metonymy is synecdoche (figurative locution whereby a part is made to stand for the whole, the whole for a part, the species for the genus and vice versa):

fifty head of cattle

The President’s Administration contained the best brains in the country.

- irony

a clash of two diametrically opposite meanings within the same context which is sustained in oral speech by intonation. It can take the following forms:

● verbal irony (a contrast between what is stated and what is really meant);

It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.

Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator. (J.Steinbeck)

But every Englishman is born 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. (B.Shaw)

He could walk and run, was full of exact knowledge about God, and entertained no doubt concerning the special partiality of a minor deity called Jesus towards himself. (A.Bennett)

● situational irony (a contrast between what is expected to happen and what does happen);

● dramatic irony (a contrast between what the character believes to be true and what the audience or reader knows to be true).

Thus irony can be not only purely a stylistic device, but the general approach, author’s view, the main mood of the text. In this case contextual irony is realized within not only a sentence but a paragraph, an extract, a chapter or even the whole literary work, and thus almost any stylistic device can provide irony.

As to particular examples of situational and dramatic irony, they are generally too vast to be presented here. Examples of situational irony can be found, for instance, in Graham Greene’s works (see “Special Duties”, page ## of the given textbook). Dramatic irony is evident in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King”.

- allusion

a reference to specific places, persons, historical events, literary works that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. The most common sources of allusions are Greek mythology and the Bible. The meaning of this stylistic device is completely realized only in the context.

the widow’s mite

the Napoleon of crime (T.S.Eliot)

They sighed and smiled and felt good – like a Hemingway hero after the seventh beer… (S.Lewis)

b) figures of quantity:

- hyperbole

a form of inordinate exaggeration according to which a person or thing is depicted as being better or worse, larger or smaller than is actually the case:

Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (Sc.Fitzgerald)

I’d cross the world to find you a pin. (A.Coppard)

The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hand solemnly on her middle. (J.Galsworthy)

- litotes

the use of a negative for the contrary (double negation):

She looked at him not without love.

He was laughing at Lottie but not unkindly. (A.Hutchinson)

Joe Clegg also looked surprised and possibly not too pleased. (A.Christie)

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