Глава 15. Lexical stylistic devices

A SD may be defined as a pattern according to which the peculiarities of the language may be materialized.

Lexical SDs reveal the following pattern:

- Interplay of different types of lexical meaning;

- Intensification of characteristic traits of the phenomena described;

- Contamination (нагнетать) 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.

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.

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

E.g.: a pretty young girl. A lipsticky 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.

Antonomasia is the use of a proper name in the function of common noun and vice a versa – the use of a common noun as a proper name. E.g.: Miss Simplicity. Some Tom-cat entered our room. I want to meet Count Something.

Zeugma is a stylistic device of using 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.

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.

Глава 16. Lexico-syntactical stylistic devices

Litotes is a lexico-syntactical SD, which consists in the affirmation of the contrary by negation (two negations are joined to give appositive evaluation). Не возражаю – соглашаюсь.

Simile is a lexico-syntactical SD, which consists in the imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes.

Antithesis is a lexico-syntactical SD, based on parallel construction with contrasted words. Великий человек на малые дела.

*Ellipses is a linguistic process, the omission of a word in a phrase and the meaning of the whole word-group is transferred to the remaining component. Люби меня, как я тебя <люблю>.

*Climax is a figure in which each next word-combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger or more explicit.

*Anticlimax is a climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought, which defeats expectations of the reader and ends incomplete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea.