3.4.2.2. Alliteration

Alliteration, a repetition of the same consonants at the beginning of neighbouring words or accented syllables. Alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself.

Alliteration in the English language deeply rooted in the traditions of English folklore. The traditions of folklore are exceptionably stable and alliteration as a structural device is often used as a well—tasted means not only in verse but in emotive prose, in newspaper headlines («Fighting Football Fans Face Fines») in advertisements («Buy Brown's Best British Biscuits»), the book titles (« Sense and Sensibility», «Pride and Prejudice» (Jane Austin), «The School for Scandal»(Sheridan), «Of Mice and Men» (J. Oldridge); in proverb and sayings, In so called binominals: ship-shape, mish-mash, rat race, chit-chat, wishy-washy,flip- flops, pitter-patter, creepy-crawly, spick and span, sink or swim, slowly but surely, tit for tat, blind as a bat, betwixt and between, forgive and forget, etc.

Problem Question:

What is achieved by the repetition of the same consonants in close succession? What is the stylistic power of alliteration a) in poetry; b) in prose?

How sweet it were,...

To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

To the music of mild-minded melancholy;

To muse and brood and live again in memory.

A. Tennyson. The Lotus Eaters

(the sound «m» is often used in the poem to give a somnolent effect)

The happiest women like the happiest nations have no history.

Litton

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Shakespeare

No pain, — no palm; no thorns — no throne; no gall – no glory; no cross — no crown.

W.Penn

Maners and money make a gentleman.

English proverb

Money makes the mare go.

English proverb

Money is the only monarch.

English proverb

Если бы щетина моей щеки коснулась шелка кашне, я бы лишился чувств.

Набоков. Истинная жизнь С. Найта.

Пер. Горянина и Мейлаха

Блевал... бледный библиотекарь.

Набоков. Приглашение на казнь

Built better by Burco for you.

ADVERTICEMENT

(Linen): Detail. Design. Desire.

ADVERTICEMENT

3.4.2.3. Assonance

Assonance is a SD based on agreement of vowel sounds in words close to each other.

Problem Question:

What is achieved by the repetition of vowels in the following R. Kipling's poem?

How is it connected with the Boer War (1899—1902), when the poem was created?

What is the stylistic and communicative function of the assonance?

Boots

(Infantry Columns of the Earlier (Boer) War (1899 - 1902)

We're foot — slog — slog — slog — sloggin' over Africa!

Foot - foot — foot — foot — sloggin' over Africa —

(Boots - boots — boots — boots, movin' up an' down again!)

There's no discharge in the war!

Seven – six — eleven — five — nine-an'- twenty mile to-day —

For – eleven — seventeen — thirty-two the day before —

(Boots - booots — boots — boots, movin' up an' down again!)

There's no discharge in the war!

Don't — don't — don't — don't — look at what's in front of you

(Boots — boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again!)

Men — men — men — men — men go mad with watchin' em,

An' there's no discharge in the war!

Try — try —try — try — think of something different —

Oh — my —God — keep me from goin' lunatic!

(Boots — boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again!)

There's no discharge in the war!

I — 've — marched — six — weeks in 'Ell an' certify

It — is — not — fire — devils, dark or anything

But boots — boots — boots — movin' up an' down again,

An' there's no discharge in the war!