Mr Smb Smth Mr What’s –his –name

Dr Rest Dr Diet Dr Fresh Air

e.g. Miss Blue byes was a beauty, one of the most beautiful girls at the party.

) a round-about phrase stands for a proper name

e.g. the pride of the school (Miss Brown) went forward – (periphrasis)

In fact, antonomasia is a revival of the initial stage in naming individuals. It is a much favoured device in belles-lettres style.

e.g. The only child was the hope of the family.

Lexical sDs: Intensification of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon Hyperbole. Understatement. Periphrasis. Euphemism. Simile

In this group of stylistic devices, we find that one of the qualities of the object in question is made to sound essential. The quality picked out may or may not be seemingly unimportant, transitory [ t’r nzit ri] but for a special reason it is elevated to the greatest and made into a telling feature.

Hyperbole

(From the Greek ‘hyperbole’ - преувеличение)

Hyperbole can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential to the object or phenomenon. Like many SDs, hyperbole may lose its quality as a SD through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language-as-a-system, reproduced in speech in its unaltered form.

e.g. (language hyperbole) - a thousand pardons

scared to death

immensely obliged

I’d give worlds to see him

Hyperbole differs from mere exaggeration as it is intended to be understood as an exaggeration.

Understatement

Unlike hyperbole which is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality, understatement is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are not overrated but intentionally underrated. The mechanism of its creation and functioning is identical with that hyperbole. It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker/writer.

English is well-known for its preference for understatement in everyday speech:

e.g. instead of ‘I’m infuriated’ – I’m rather annoyed

‘There’s a gale [geil] blowing outside’ – The wind is rather strong.

Periphrasis

Periphrasis [p ‘rifr sis] Is a device in which a longer phrasing is used instead of a shorter and plainer/simpler form of expression. It is a round-about, indirect way of naming a familiar object or phenomenon.

The essence of the device is that it is decipherable only in context. If periphrasis is understandable outside the context, it is not a SD but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily decipherable periphrases are also called traditional, dictionary or language periphrases = periphrastic synonyms:

e.g. the cap and gown = student body

a gentleman of the long robe = a lawyer

the fair sex = women

one’s better half = one’s wife

Traditional (trite) periphrasis (or cliche) [‘kli: ei] is often found in newspaper language:

e.g. to tie the knot = to marry

Stylistic periphrasis can be divided into logical and figurative. Logical periphrasis is based on one of the inherent [in’hi r nt] properties of the object described.

e.g. instruments of destruction = pistols (Dickens)

the object of admiration = love

Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or metonymy.

e.g. the punctual servant of all work = the sun (Dickens)

There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy in a figurative periphrasis.