Hyperbole

Hyperbole (overstatement) is a SD which emphasises a certain feature of an object through its deliberate exaggeration.

In Hyperbole the emotional meaning dominates the logical one: the exaggeration reveals the emotions of the speaker.

E.g. a thousand pardons, scared to death, a killing dress

I'll give all the world to get it!

Hyperbole can also be geniune and trite.

Trite (language) hyperboles are common expressive means used in everyday speech:

e.g. I've told you a thousand times

I' m scared to death.

Trite hyperboles have lost their originality and are the signals of the emotional state of the speaker

Genuine hyperbole may be based on a metaphor or simile (she moved like a pregnant elephant; the tread of a rhinoceros) .

Hyperbole may be simple and sustained.

Hyperbole may be expressed by all notional parts of speech and even subordinate clauses:

E.g. The rain had thickened, fish could have swum through the air.

E.g. She wore a hat the size of a button

She was a sparrow of a woman

I want a drop of water (not much water)

UNDERSTATEMENT (Meyozis)

When some feature of an object (size, shape, dimensions, etc) is underrated, we deal with UNDERSTATEMENT (meyozis)- an intentional undervaluation.

Englishmen often use understatements in everyday speech:

E.g. I’m rather annoyed (= You made me angry)

I invite you to my little party (Gatsby’s parties were rich and extravagant)

“And what do you think of our little town?”asked Zizzibaum with the fatuous smile of the Manhattanite. (=New York) (O’Henry)

There are ready-made understatements in the English language:

It will cost you a pretty penny (=a great sum of money)

Peculiar use of Set Expressions.

Authors of literary and publicistic texts often use such ready-made units as idioms, proverbs, epigrams, quotations and allusions.

Proverbs, epigrams, quotations are supposed to be literary devices remotely connected with stylistics.

The stylistic effect of the use of a proverb lies in the fact that two meanings are simultaneously brought to mind: the primary m-g of the proverb and the extended one drawn from the context. The proverb becomes a vessel into which a new m-g is poured.

Epigrams are akin to proverbs, only they are coined by individuals whose names are known. They are witty true-to life statements, showing the ingenious turn of the mind of the author, they always have a literary-bookish character. Brevity is the essential quality of an epigram. Epigrams are self-sufficient (can be easily taken from the text) and have a generalising function.

E.g. A God that can be understood is no God (Maugham)

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

The most characteristic feature of an epigram is that the sentence gets accepted as a word-combination and often becomes part of the language-as-a-whole.

Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book or a speech, used as an illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation. A quotation must repeat the actual wording of the original though the meaning may be modified by the new context.

Quotation is always set against the other sentences in the text by its greater volume of sense and significance.

The use of quotations presupposes a good knowledge of the literature and culture of the given nation.

The stylistic value of a quotation lies in the fact that it comprises two meanings: the primary (which it has in its own context) and the one it acquires in the new context. A quotation serves as a ‘bridge’ connecting the new text with the primary one, thus enriching its meaning with the associations.

There are special dictionaries of quotations.

Set expressions may be used not only in their traditional form, but with some modifications. The use of a set unit in a modified form always attracts the attention of the reader, making him examine it more closely to get the idea. In this case we deal with the SD called decomposition of set phrases.