11. Lexical stylistic devices

Meaning = grammatical (more abstract) + lexical (more concrete)

Lexical meaning = dennotational (exact naming of the idea) + connotational (emotiveness, expressiveness)

Lexical SDs reveal the following pattern:

- Interplay (interaction) of different types of lexical meaning;

- Intensification of characteristic features of the phenomena described;

- Intentional mixing of words of different stylistic aspects.

Metaphor is transference of meanings on the basis of similarity. It’s a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other.

E.g.: the land shouted with grass.

England has two eyes, Oxford and Cambridge.

Metonymy – contiguity of meaning, it’s a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it.

E.g.: to read Agatha Christy.

She saw around her red lips poor dear cheeks.

Types of possible association:

A part of a whole;

A symbol for the thing symbolized;

A material for the thing made of;

The author for his works.

Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object existing or imaginary. Describes the object basing on images.

E.g.: semantically – a cold-blooded murder; structurally – a lip-sticky smile.

Oxymoron is a variety of epithet. It is also an attributive or rarely adverbial word joined with an antonymic word in one combination.

E.g.: crowded loneliness. An ugly beauty. To shout silently. Trite – terribly sorry, awfully nice

Antonomasia is the use of a proper name in the function of common noun and vice a versa. The nominal meaning of the proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning acquires the new nominal component.

E.g.: Miss Simplicity. Some Tom-cat entered our room. I want to meet Count Something.

Pun is a figure, which consists in a humorous use of words identical in sound, but different in meaning or the use of different meanings of the same word.

E.g.: Have you been seen any spirit? Or taken any?

Did you hit a woman with a child? – No, I hit her with a stick.

Zeugma is the use of a verb or adjective in the same grammatical, but different semantic relations to two abjection nouns in the context, the semantic relation being on the one hand literal and on the other – metaphorical. Zeugma is a figure of speech, using a verb or adjective with two nouns, to one of which it is strictly applicable, while the word appropriate to the other is not used.

E. g.: And the boys took their places and their books. With wiping eyes and hearts.

Irony is based on interplay of two logical meanings: dictionary and contextual which stand in opposition to each other.

E.g.: As the champion of freedom he (the Englishman) annexes (завоевывает) half of the world.

She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator.

Hyperbole is a SD in which emphases is achieved through deliberate exaggeration.

E.g.: She was both angler and bones. The maw was like the Rock of Gibraltar.

13. The theory of intonation

It is the variation of tone used when speaking. There is no perfect definitioin but:

Intonation is used unconsciously by native speakers;

Intonation(al): it is the rises and the falls of the pitch of the voice.

Intonational language uses it syntactically to convey surprise&irony or to change a statement to a question (Russian, English).

Tonal language – to convey meaning, the syllabic are contrasted by pitch (Chinese).

Procody is embraced all the components of intonation and substitutes intonation. Every utterance together with its syllabic&phonemic structure has the certain procodic structure:

1. On the perception level Int is a complex formed by significant variations of pitch, loudness&tempo.

2. On the acoustic level pitch correlates with the fundamental frequency of the vibrations of the vocal cords; loudness correlates with the amplitude of the vibrations; tempo correlates with the time during which a speech unit lasts.

3. On the auditory level it is a unity of speech melody, sentence stress, the timbre of the speech which serves to express the speaker’s idea, will, emotional attitude.

American phoneticians: Int = melody + tone.

British (Palmer, Frees, Kingdom): Int = melody + stress.

Russian (Васильев): melody, sentence stress, timbre, tempo.

Melody (tone) is the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice in the process of speaking.

Falling => finality; rising => non-finality.

Sentence stress is a some prominent given to a syllable, word(s) in a sentence.

Usually stressed:

N, Adj, Num, notional V

Isn’t, wasn’t, hasn’t

Negative indefinite pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in some cases

Interrogative pronouns (who, where…)

Absolute form of possessive pronoun

Just, only, also, too

Usually unstressed:

Pronouns (personal, possessive, reflexive, indefinite)

Auxiliary v

Articles, particles, conjunctions

Rhythm is a kind of framework of speech organization, depends on the language. Basic rhythmic unit is a rhythmic group.

Tempo is the rate of the utterance & pausation. It can be slow, normal, fast. Pauses can be syntactic, emphatic, hesitational.

Syntagm is a sense group. Щерба: it is a word-group organized syntactically&phonetically to express a thought unit.

Structural characteristics (Gramont, Виноградов):

Prehead – unstressed or partially stressed syllables that precede the first strong syllables (types: low, high).

Head – the first stressed syllables which end before the nucleus tone (types: descending-stepping scale, sliding scale…)

Nucleus (terminal) – usually on semantically important words or on the last stressed syllables (low-fall, low-rise, rise-fall, fall-rise, high-wide falling…)

Tail – finally unstressed syllables.

Rising – enumeration, the sense isn’t complete, general question, polite request, greeting or remarks.

Falling – statement, special questions, exclamations, orders, commands.

Functions of intonations:

Organize a sentence;

Determines communicative types of sentence;

Divide a sentence into intonation groups;

Expresses contrasts and attitude.

Tone groups are syntagms which are formed according to some pattern.