Understanding headlines.
The purpose of a headline is to summarize the news content of an article in very few words. The headline should report the topic, and perhaps a main fact. It should also present the information in an interesting way, so that the reader is encouraged to read the article itself. All headlines include one or more of the following elements that attract a reader’s interest: newness or unusualness, personal relevance or consequences, and emotions.
Sometimes one headline is not enough to summarize the important information, so a second headline, in smaller letters, is added below the first. It is called a subheadline.
Syntax: newspaper editors differ somewhat as to the types of headlines they prefer. In the Times the average headline (8 to 9 words) is longer than in most papers, and it strongly favors the syntax (structure) of a typical English sentence: subject-verb-(completion). U.S. bombs Bagdad.
The second form for headlines is a noun phrase without a verb: Killer’ cane!
Or, more often, they are or include a prepositional phrase: Sting on the jungle.
A headline is often elliptical; that means that some words have been omitted from the sentence or phrase in order to make it shorter. [The] Prime ministers of [the] two Koreas agree to meet. The verb is often left out: Otsuki [is] found guilty of murder.
Verbs: are usually in a present tense, which emphasizes the immediacy of the report.
Infinitives are used to convey future: Liz Taylor, 8th husband [are] to be wed this week.
Present tense headlines are sometimes written in the passive voice to emphasize the object. Westchester mayor said to be near death.
Numbers may appear alone, they refer to a number of people: Anti-smoking efforts will save 3 million. Or age: Boy, 6, killed by 18-wheeler.
Fun with words.
Alliteration: Get fat as a pig & feel fit as a fiddle … say experts. Sad Sox Battle Bronx Bombers.
The Style of Official Documents and its Substyles.
1) Language of business letters;
2) Language of legal documents;
3) Language of diplomacy;
4) Language of military documents;
The aim:
1. to reach agreement between two contracting parties;
2. to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding. Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms. Legal documents: military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols.
The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with.
Business letters contain: heading, addressing, salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical features of business letters are - the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members.
Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.
The Scientific Prose Style.
The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:
1) the style of humanitarian sciences;
2) the style of "exact" sciences;
3) the style of popular scientific prose.
Its function is to work out and ground theoretically objective knowledge about reality.
The aim of communication is to create new concepts, disclose the international laws of existence.
The peculiarities are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality, unemotional character, exactness.
Vocabulary. The use of terms and words used to express a specialized concept in a given branch of science. Terms are not necessarily. They may be borrowed from ordinary language but are given a new meaning.
The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.
Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of thought manifests itself in a developed feature of scientific syntax is the use of established patterns.
- postulatory;
- formulative;
- argumentative;
The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose style is revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences. In humanities we may come across constructions but few.
The parallel arrangement of sentences contributes to emphasizing certain points in the utterance.
Some features of the style in the text are:
- use of quotations and references;
- use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.
Humanities in comparison with "exact" sciences employ more emotionally coloured words, fewer passive constructions.
Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities: emotive words, elements of colloquial style.
Belles-lettres style. (the style of fiction) embraces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l style or the style of imaginative literature may be called the richest register of communication: besides its own lan-ge means which are not used in any other sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of speech. Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the b-l style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful and carries additional info. Boundless possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the b-l style a highly attractive field of research for a linguist.
The belles-lettres style, in each of its concrete representations, fulfils the aesthetic function, which fact singles this style out of others and gives grounds to recognize its systematic uniqueness, i.e. charges it with the status if an autonomous functional style.
Social, stylistic & regional variants of English.
Local varieties of English on the British isles.
On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English, which developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them: Lowland /Scottish/, Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. The local population uses these varieties in oral speech. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/.
One of the best-known dialects of British English is the dialect of London - Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the first act of "Pigmalion" by B. Shaw, such as:
- interchange of /v/ and /w/ (wery vell);
- interchange of /f/ or /v/ and /th/ (fing/thing, fave/father);
- interchange of /h/ and /-/, ("eart" for "heart" and "hart" for "art");
- substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ ("day" is pronounced /dai/);
- substituting /au/ by /a:/ ("house" is pronounced /ha:s/)
- substituting /ou/ by /o:/ ("don’t" is pronounced /do:nt/)
Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: "hat" is "tit for tat", "wife" is "trouble and strife", "head" is "loaf of bread" etc.
Peter Wain in the "Education Guardian" writes about accents spoken by University teachers. It has some characteristic features: the vowels are more central than in English taught abroad ("bleck het"/for "black hat"/), some diphthongs are also different ("house" is pronounced /hais/). There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/.
The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out, such as:
There is no distinction between /a/ and /a:/ in words: "ask", "dance" "sand" "bad", both phonemes are possible.
The combination "ir" in the words: "bird", "girl" "ear" in the word "learn" is pronounced as /oi/ (/boid/, /goil/, /loin/).
In the words "duty", "tune" /j/ is not pronounced (/du:ti/, /tu:n/).
25. British and American English.
There are some differences between British and American English in the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week.
- BE requires "on" /I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is no preposition /I start my vacation Friday/.
- In BE we use "by day", "by night"/"at night", in AE the corresponding forms are "days" and "nights".
- In BE we say "at home", in AE - "home" is used.
- In BE we say "a quarter to five", in AE "a quarter of five".
- In BE we say "in the street", in AE - "on the street".
- In BE we say, "to chat to somebody", in AE "to chat with somebody".
- In BE we say "different to something", in AE - "different from something".
There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the same notions.
- BE - "trousers", AE -"pants";
- In BE "pants" are "трусы" which in AE is "shorts", while in BE "shorts" are outwear. This can lead to misunderstanding.
There are some differences in names of places (BE-AE):
passage – hall
pillar box – mail box
studio – bad sitter
flyover – overpass
pavement – sidewalk
cross-roads – intersection
the cinema – the movies
one room – apartment
tube – underground
underground – subway
Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms.
- BE "public school" is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not controlled by the local education authorities. AE "public school" is a free local authority school.
- BE "elementary school" is AE "grade school".
- BE "secondary school" is AE "high school".
- In BE "a pupil leaves a secondary school", in AE "a student graduates from a high school". In BE you can graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails getting a degree.
- A British student specializes in one main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honors degree. An American student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.
Differences of spelling.
The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first dictionary in 1806.
Those of his proposals which were adopted in the English spelling are as follows:
- the deletion of the letter "u" in words ending in "our", e.g. honor, favor;
- the deletion of the second consonant in words with double consonants, e.g. traveler, wagon,
- the replacement of "re" by "er" in words of French origin, e.g. theater, center,
- the deletion of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g. catalog, program,
- e) the replacement of "ce" by "se" in words of Romanic origin, e.g. defense, offense,
- d) deletion of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.
Differences in pronunciation.
In American English we have r-colored fully articulated vowels, in the combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE before fricatives and combinations with fricatives "a" is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is pronounced /e/ e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.
There are some differences in the position of the stress:
BE AE BE AE
add`ress adress la`boratory `laboratory
re`cess `recess re`search `research
in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess `excess
Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation:
BE AE BE AE
/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail / /dos l/
/kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig / /figyer/
/ `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/ /lu:tenant/
/ nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/ /skedyu:l/
Stylistics and translation.
As we already know, stylistic devices that can be used in a text are manifold and various. That, certainly, does not mean that the problems a translator will have to solve while dealing with stylistic peculiarities of the text being translated from the source language (SL) into the target language (TL) are no less numerous. Surprisingly, despite the obvious diversity of stylistic means, in reality we can speak of only two stylistic aspects of translation. First, a translator is supposed to preserve in the target text those stylistic features of the original that manifest the appurtenance of the source text to a certain functional style. Yet, one reservation is to be made here: preserving properties characteristic of the given functional style in SL in the final text, i.e. the text of translation, must conform to the requirements to the same functional style in TL. One should bear in mind that one and the same functional style may have somewhat different features in SL and TL. That means that it would not be too wise just to transfer stylistic features from the source text into the target text. As a rule, some stylistic transformations are necessary to make the target text comply with the requirements of the genre and style in TL.
Second, there always exists a problem of rendering a certain stylistic device (mainly figures of speech and stylistically colored lexical units) from one language into another. Not all of them have correspondences in other languages. And even when they do have them, those correspondences may be found to be inappropriate in the target text as they are not in conformity with the requirements of the given functional style in TL or they may be just incoherent for the reader of the final text. As the saying goes, "What's good for a Russian kills a German". Thus, in each particular case a translator is expected to come to a decision as to what means he would use to preserve in translation the stylistic coloring created by a certain device in the original without violating the rules imposed by the functional style in TL and making the text incoherent and incomprehensible.
It is noteworthy, though, that texts belonging to different functional styles employ different' sets1 of not quite identical stylistic devices, which simplifies the process of translation in some cases and makes it more difficult in other cases. Appurtenance of a text to a certain functional style is a factor of great importance in translation. Due to this factor the two stylistic aspects of translation get interrelated and interwoven to such an extent that in practice it is just impossible to separate them.
The following exercises will help a student of translation to understand how the two tasks mentioned above may be solved in practice.
Allegory. A long metaphor continued through whole sentences or even through a whole discourse. Example: The ship of state has sailed through rougher storms than the tempest of these lobbyists.
Alliteration: Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "wild and woolly" or the line from Shelley's The Cloud. The aim is imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The possessive instinct never stands still. (J. Galsworthy). Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before. (E. A. Poe). Does not bear any lexical or other meaning.
Allusion. A indirect reference to a person, event or piece of literature. Example: Plan your actions beforehand, remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. I wash my hands of it. The use of allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of the reader or listener.
Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence. For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas and hath not left his peer.
Anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. In contrast, an epistrophe (or epiphora) is repeating words at the clauses' ends. See also other figures of speech involving repetition. Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! Strike as I would have struck those tyrants! Strike deep as my curse! Strike! and but once (Byron).
Antanaclasis. Is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Example: She is nice from far, but far from nice. We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition. In setting the opposite, an individual brings out of a contrast in the meaning by an obvious contrast in the expression. Listen, young men, to an old man to whom old men were glad to listen when he was young. It is based on the author's desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features. They speak like saints and act like devils.
Antonomasia is a substitution of any epithet or phrase for a proper name, such as "the little corporal" for Napoleon I. It is the result of interaction between logical and nominal meaning of a word. When the proper name of a person, who is famous for some reasons, is put for a person having the same feature. Her husband is an Othello. A common noun is used instead of a proper name. I agree with you Mr. Logic. My Dear Simplicity.
Aposiopesis is a rhetorical device wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. Get out, or else! Break-in-the narrative. Sudden break in the narration has the function to reveal agitated state of the speaker. On the hall table there were a couple of letters addressed to her. One was the bill. The other...
Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to define or modify the other. In the phrase "my friend Alice," the name "Alice" is in apposition to "my friend".
Assonance: The relatively close position of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus a vowel rhyme, as in the words, date and fade.
Asyndeton is a stylistic scheme in which conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses. Veni, vidi, vici. It is a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions in constructions in which they would normally used. He couldn't go abroad alone, the sea upset his liver, he hated hotels. Asyndeton helps the author to make each phrase or word sound independent and significant.
Cacophony (cack-AH-fuh-nee): Discordant sounds in the jarring position of harsh letters or syllables, sometimes inadvertent, but often deliberately used in poetry for effect.
Chiasmus – reversed parallel construction – is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism. Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves? He knowingly lied and we blindly followed. It is based on repetition of syntactical patterns, but it has a reversed order in one of the utterances. She was a good sport about all this, but so was he. Chiasmus is sometimes achieved by a sudden change from active voice to passive or vice versa. In the days of old men made the manners, manners now make men. Syntactical chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. It brings some new shade of meaning or additional emphasis.
Cliché is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. It has lost its precise meaning by constant reiteration: in other words it has become stereotyped. Cliché is a kind of stable word combination which has become familiar and which has been accepted as a unit of a language e. g. rosy dreams of youth, growing awareness.
Climax (gradation) is an ascending series of words or utterances in which intensity or significance increases step by step. Every racing car, every racer, every mechanic, every ice - cream van was also plastered with advertising.
Consonance is a stylistic device, most commonly used in poetry and songs, characterized by the repetition of the same consonant two or more times in short succession, as in "pitter patter" or in "all mammals named Sam are clammy".
Detached constructions. Sometimes one of the secondary members of the sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it refers to. Being formally independent this secondary member acquires a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. She was gone. For good. I have to beg you for money. Daily! Only secondary parts of the sentence, generally attributes, adverbial modifiers and apposition, may be used in isolation. In written speech isolated members are separated from the words they modify by graphic means: by a comma, brackets, dash, and even a full stop. Isolated members of the sentence give prominence to some words and help the author to laconically draw the reader’s attention to a certain detail or circumstance or help the author to emphasize his emotional attitude toward what he describes.
Ellipsis or elliptical construction refers to the omission from a clause of one or more words that would otherwise be required by the remaining elements. John can play something, but I don’t know what. It is the omission of a word necessary for the complete syntactical construction of a sentence, but not necessary for understanding. The stylistic function of ellipsis used in author's narration is to change its tempo, to connect its structure. You feel all right? Anything wrong or what?
Enumeration separates things, properties or actions brought together and form a chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous parts of the utterance. She wasn't sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her work, her future.
Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of every clause. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.
Epithet. Is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying the name of a person or a thing becomes a fixed formula. Sweet victory. It is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into: simple: He looked at them in animal panic; compound: apple-faced man; sentence and phrase epithets: It is his do-it-yourself attitude; reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an ofphrase: a shadow of a smile. Semantically according to I. Galperin: associated with the noun following it, pointing to a feature which is essential to the objects they describe: dark forest; careful attention; unassociated with the noun, epithets that add a feature which is unexpected and which strikes the reader: smiling sun, voiceless sounds.
Euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or to make it less troublesome for the speaker. To pass away - to die. The word 'to die' has the following euphemisms: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone, to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost. So euphemisms are synonyms which aim at producing a deliberately mild effect. They very soon become closely associated with the referent. Political euphemisms – tool of political correctness.
Euphony is such a combination of words and such an arrangement of utterance which produces a pleasing acoustic effect, that is a pleasing effect on the ear. Euphony is generally achieved by such phonetic stylistic devices as alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme.
Gap - sentence – link. It presents two utterances the second is brought into the focus of the reader's attention. e. g. She and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they were in I tally.
Hyperbole. Is a deliberate exaggeration of a statement. Example: I have told you that thousand times. I am so hungry, I could eat an elephant. The aim is to intensify one of the features of the object in question to such a degree as to show its utter absurdity. Hyperbole may lose its quality through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language as a system, reproduced in speech in its unaltered from. A thousand pardons, scared to death, immensely obliged. Hyperbole sharpens the reader's ability to make a logical assessment of the utterance.
Intonation and stress are very important means in oral speech where they are expressed directly by the speaker. In written speech they are conveyed indirectly by graphical expressive means and by a special syntactical arrangement of utterance (such as inversion, isolated members, parallel construction, etc.). Intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. (Compare tone.) Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody.
Inversion. The English word order is fixed. Any change which doesn't influence the meaning but is only aimed at emphasis is called a stylistic inversion. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the inevitable satellite of inversion. Dark they were and golden-eyed. Patterns: The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies: With fingers weary and worn. The predicate is placed before the subject: A good generous prayer it was. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence: My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject: In went Mr. Pickwick.
Irony. Creating a trope through implying the opposite of the standard meaning. Example: Describing poverty as "good times". The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning. Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day). It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket. The word containing the irony is strongly marked by intonation. Irony must not be confused with humor, although they have very much in common. Humor always causes laughter. The function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence like "How clever of you!" where, due to the intonation pattern, the word 'clever' conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret. A word used ironically may sometimes express very subtle, almost imperceptible nuances of meaning.
Litotes. Emphasizing the importance of a statement by denying its opposite. Example: It's not bad. I feel not well. An affirmation is expressed by denying its contrary. Usually litotes presupposes double negation. One through a negative particle (no, not) the other - through a word with negative meaning. Its function is to convey doubts of the speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the object or a feeling. It's not a bad thing - It's a good thing. He is no coward. He is a brave man. He was not without taste.
Metaphor. An explanation of an object or idea through comparison of disparate things with a similar characteristic. Example: A describing of a courageous person – heart of a lion. It 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. Metaphors, which are commonly used in speech and are fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors. A flight of fancy, floods of tears. Structural metaphors. A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept. Your claims are indefensible. Orientational metaphors. An orientational metaphor is a metaphor in which concepts are spatially related to each other. I'm feeling up. Ontological metaphors. An ontological metaphor is a metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an object, substance, container, or person. How did Jerry get out of washing the windows? Genuine metaphors. Metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden. Stylistic function of a metaphor is to make the description concrete, to express the individual attitude.
Metonymy. Is a figure of speech used in rhetoric, in which a thing or a concept is not called by its name, but the name of something, immediately associated with that thing or concept. Example: The whole country thinks the way you do. Actions of the White House. The crown represents the tradition. It 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 a proximity. The proximity may be revealed: between the symbol and the thing it denotes; in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument: His pen is rather sharp; in the relation between the container and the thing it contains: He drank one more cup; the concrete is put for the abstract: It was a representative gathering (science, politics). St. func.: Metonymy represents the events of reality in its subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite: to earn one's bread, to keep one's mouth shut.
Onomatopoeia (ahn-uh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh): is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.) by things (machines or tools, etc.) by people (singing, laughter) and animals. There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect. Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, burr, bang, cuckoo. Words can be used in a transferred meaning: ding – dong – the sound of bells rung, also noisy, strenuously contested. Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain." (E. A. Poe), where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.
Oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. They appear in a range of contexts, from extremely average to same different. Speaking silence, cold fire, living death. Close to oxymoron is paradox - a statement that is absurd on the surface. War is peace. The worse - the better. Trite oxymoron. Awfully beautiful. If the primary meaning of qualifying word changes the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. In oxymoron the logical meaning holds fast because there is no true word combination.
Parallel construction is identical or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of sentence. It is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with the syntactical whole and the paragraph. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of sentence. Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallel arrangement is the repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses. Complete parallel arrangement, also called balance, maintains the principle of identical structures throughout the corresponding sentences.
Parallelism means to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Parenthesis is an explanatory or qualifying word, inserted into a passage with which it doesn't necessarily have any grammatical connection, and from which it is usually marked off by round or square brackets, dashes, or commas. Billy-bob, a great singer, was not a good dancer.
Periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a free morpheme, instead of being shown by inflection or derivation. For example, the English future tense is periphrastic: it is formed with an auxiliary verb (shall or will) followed by the base form of the main verb. It is a round-about way of speaking used to name some object or phenomenon. Longer-phrase is used instead of a shorter one. Some periphrasis is traditional. The fair sex. My better half. Periphrasis are divided into: Logical - based on inherent properties of a thing: Instrument of destruction, the object of administration. Figurative - based on imagery: metaphor, metonymy: To tie a knot - to get married; in disgrace of fortune - bad luck.
Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person. The sun shone brightly down on me as if she were shining for me alone. A personification is a figure of speech that gives an inanimate object or abstract idea human traits and qualities, such as emotions, desires, sensations, physical gestures and speech. In business and political news reportage, personification is commonly used to convey a sense of agency for otherwise abstract entities like nations, machines or corporations: US Defends Sale of Ports Company to Arab Nation. In English literature, personification is oft-used as a literary device: In John Keats's To Autumn, the fall season is personified as "sitting careless on a granary floor" and "drowsed with the fume of poppies".
Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted. He ran and jumped and laughed for joy. It is an identical repetition of conjunctions: used to emphasize simultaneousness of described actions, to disclose the author's subjective attitude towards the characters, to create the rhythmical effect. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect.
Proverbs are short, well-known, supposedly wise sayings, usually in simple language. e.g. Never say never. You can't get blood of a stone. Proverbs are expressions of culture that are passed from generation to generation. They are words of wisdom of culture- lessons that people of that culture want their children to learn and to live by They are served as some symbols, abstract ideas. Proverbs are usually dedicated and involve imagery. e.g. Out of sight, out of mind. Epigram is a short clever amusing saying or poem. e.g. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. It is difficult do draw a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and the pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects (direct or indirect). The pun is more independent. The title of one of Oscar Wilde's plays, "The Importance of Being Earnest": the name of the hero and the adjective meaning 'seriously-minded'. Puns are often used in riddles and jokes: What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? (One trains the mind and the other minds the train.)
Question in the narrative. Changes the real nature of a question and turns it into a stylistic device. A question in the narrative is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author. It becomes akin to a parenthetical statement with strong emotional implications. e. g. For what is left the poet here? For Greeks a blush - for Greece a tear. As is seen from these examples the questions asked, unlike rhetorical questions do not contain statements. Question in the narrative is very often used in oratory. This is explained by one of the leading features of oratorical style - to induce the desired reaction to the content of the speech.
Quotation is a phrase or sentence taken from a work of literature or other piece of writing and repeated in order to prove a point or support an idea. They are marked graphically: by inverted commas: dashes, italics.
Represented speech coveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, his thoughts and feelings. This device is also termed represented speech. To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author's language "uttered represented speech", and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character unuttered or inner represented speech.
Rhetorical questions is one that expects no answer. It is asked in order to make a statement rather than to get a reply They are frequently used in dramatic situation and in publicistic style. e. g. What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere?
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines. Identity and similarity of sound combinations may be relative: full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes. Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh - fresh -press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth - forth, tale - tool -treble - trouble; flung - long.
Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc. characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements of features" (Webster's New World Dictionary). Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. Inverse rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong stress. A rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed, unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments of speech. Rhythm intensifies the emotions.
Simile. Is an expressive device, which represents the act of comparison of two or more thing as phenomena. Example: Fresh as a rose. Beautiful like dawn. The intensification of some feature of the concept is realized. Similes set one object against another regardless of the fact that they may be completely alien to each other. The simile gives rise to a new understanding of the object. The properties of an object maybe viewed from different angles, its state, its actions, manners. Similes have formal elements in their structure: connective words such as like, as, such as, as if, seem.
Structural metaphors. A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined concept. He attacked every weak point in my argument.
Suspense is the deliberate slowing down of the thought, postponing its completion till the very end of the utterance. Suspense unfolding the thought in process, enhances the logical and emotive force of the final words of a sentence or paragraph for, due to the intervening elements, the reader is left in suspense and uncertainly as to the possible completion of the thought. Very often the stylistic device of suspense is formed by various kinds of parenthetical words and sentences. e.g. I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me, not so much for my own sake as for the sake of criticism in general.
Synecdoche. Creates a play on words by referring to something with a related concept. Example, referring to the whole with the name of a part, such as "hired hands" for workers; a part with the name of the whole, such as "the law" for police officers; the general with the specific, such as "bread" for food; the specific with the general, such as "cat" for a lion; or an object with the material it is made from, such as "bricks and mortar" for a building.
Understatement. Is a form of speech in which the lesser expression is used than what would be expected. A polite phrase.
Word play is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relation being, on the one hand, literal, on the other, transferred: "Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room". Шёл дождь и три студента, первый – в пальто, второй – в университет, третий – в плохом настроении. And May's mother always stood on her gentility, and Dot's mother never stood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens)
Repetition is just the simple repetition of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, this is to make emphasis. This is such a common literary device that it is almost never even noted as a figure of speech.
Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linked
to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody.
(Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues, 1962)
Epizeuxis or palilogia is the repetition of a single word, with no other words in between. This is from the Greek words, "Fastening Together"[1] "Words, words, words." (Hamlet)
Conduplicatio is the repetition of a word in various places throughout a paragraph. "And the world said, disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences ... and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world." (George W. Bush)
Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence. "This, it seemed to him, was the end, the end of a world as he had known it..." (James Oliver Curwood)
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of every clause. Comes from the Greek phrase, "Carrying up or Back".[3] "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender." (Winston Churchill).
Epiphora – the repetition of the final word (… a, … a, … a);
Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of every clause. "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us." (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word or phrase at the middle of every clause. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed..." (Second Epistle to the Corinthians)
Diaphora is the repetition of a name, first to signify the person or persons it describes, then to signify its meaning. "For your gods are not gods but man-made idols." (The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus)
Epanalepsis is the repetition of the initial word or words of a clause or sentence at the end. "The king is dead, long live the king."
Diacope is a rhetorical term meaning uninterrupted repetition of a word, or repetition with only one or two words between each repeated phrase.
Framing or ring repetition – the repetition of the same unit at the beginning and at the end of the same sentence (a …, … a).