analiticheskoe_chtenie

occur in a literary text they are treated as elements of poetic speech, for in such a text (as we have shown by numerous examples in Chapter I) they acquire a meaningfulness conditioned by the whole poetic content of the literary text.

Among word-sequences that constitute a literary text there occur, however, such, which seem to be specifically patternedsemantically, lexically, syntactically, phonetically. These are the so-called tropes and figures of speech. Their patterned nature makes them different from all other

word-sequences of	the literary text	and more or less
easily recognizable	units of poetic	speech.

Tropes and figures of speech have been worked out in philology and rhetorics since ancient times. In the times of classicism when writing was greatly ornamented it was often thought that style itself consisted in their use.1

Nowadays, when writing (especially narrative prose) has become less decorative, the role of some of these typified patterns of expression has greatly diminished. Indeed, some of them have been almost completely abandoned or occur so rarely that the technical terms for them have been forgotten. But others remain essential elements of the literary text and their knowledge is indispensable for a more profound understanding of poetic content.

The principle manifested in tropes is that of analogy. Some similar feature in otherwise dissimilar things is discovered and the discovered similarity suggests an image of that which is described. Units of poetic speech that belong to tropes are: simile, metaphor, metonomy and metaphoricjmetonymic epithet. The other collective term for them is imagery.

Figures of speech are: parallel constructions, framing, anaphora, epiphora, alliteration, antithesis, aposiopesis and others. The organizing axes in these are recurrence, analogy /contrast, incomplete representation.

In a literary text units of poetic speech rarely represent a pure case of one or the other of the above mentioned groups, the bulk are of a mixed type. It may be due to this fact that the terms "imagery (tropes)" and "figures of speech" are sometimes indiscriminately used by scholars of style. 2

1	M. Mincoff. The Study of Style. "Naouka i iskustvo".
2	See, for instance: S. Mostkova, T. Smikalova, S. Chernyavskaya.

English Literary Terms. Leningrad, 1967.

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Types of Tropes

S i m i 1 ~ is the most rudimentary form of trope. It can be defined as a device based upon an analogy between two things, which are discovered to possess some feature in common otherwise being entirely dissimilar. For instance, G. Greene's simile "darkness when once it fell, fell like a stone" is based on the discovered similarity between "darkness" and "stone" the latter suggesting sud.denness, quickness and danger of the fallen darkness.

Other examples. (Lady Henry) "looking like a bird of paradise that had been out all night in the rain (flitted out of the room)." (0. Wilde) "Makes marriage vows as false as dicer's oaths." (W. Shakespeare)

The formal elements of a simile are: I) a pair of objects

(e. g. darkness+ stone; Lady Henry + a bird of paradise; marriage vows+ dicer's oaths); 2) a connective (like, as, as if, as though, such as, etc.). Not only conjunctions and adverbs but notional words (nouns, verbs, prepositional phrases) as well as affixes (suffixes - -wise, -like) and comma - the substitute of a conjunction -can have the function of a connective in a simile; e. g. "She seemed nothing more than a doll." (A. Huxley) "He resembled a professor in a five-elm college." (S. Lewis) "... clouds of tawny dust ...

flung themselves table-cloth-wise among the tops of parched trees." (R. Kipling) "M'Nab's back, through the front window, was stonily impressive, the back of a statue." (A. Huxley) "... with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot." (R. Stevenson)

All the above-mentioned formal elements make the simile an easily recognizable unit of poetic speech.

Me t a p h or, a most widely used trope, is also based upon analogy, upon a traceable similarity. But in the metaphor, contrary to the simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. The difference, though, is not merely structural. The absence of a formal indication of comparison in the metaphor makes the analogy it is based on more subtle to perceive. Thus, in the simile "The three with the medals were like hunting-hawks." (E. Hemingway) the element "like" lays bare the analogy between "those three

with medals" and "hunting-hawks". One,				who	knows what
a hunting-hawk	is can	easily	imagine what		those	three
were: they were	people	trained	to kill;	killing was		their

business. In the metaphor "I was not a hawk" (E. Heming-

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way) due to the absence of "like" or any other formal element of comparison the iwo objects "I" and "hawk" seem to merge, the scope of analogy widens.

This difference between simile and metaphor leads some scholars to the belief that metaphor is more emotional and consequently more expressive, that it is restricted to more literary style.1 The simile is believed to be heavier and more logical and therefore better fitted to lend precision to the expressed thought due to which it can be used in any type of style even in the most prosaic. 2 This assertion cannot be readily accepted because both poetical similes and poetical metaphors are individual creations, and their greater or lesser expressiveness depends entirely upon the freshness and novelty of the discovered association. Thus, with G. Greene, for instance, it is often a simile and not a metaphor that is based on a more sudden analogy and is, consequently, more expressive: 1) "Darkness when once it fell, fell like a stone. Then my head came over the earth floor and nobody shot at me and fear seeped away." 2) "She frightened him like an unlucky number. He wasn't

safe in the night nursery:		their passions had flooded it."
3) "Like	a small blunt	icicle in her white mackintosh
she stood	in the doorway. There she was, sniffing round

the area."

In purely linguistic terms the metaphor may be defined as a deviation from conventional collocation. E. g. "The last colours of sunset ... were dripping over the edge of the flat world." (G. Greene) The verb "drip" usually goes with such nouns as "water", "lard", "fat", in fact, with any name of liquid. All such nouns represent one lexico-semantic class. The noun "sun" does not belong to this class, its collocation with the verb "drip" is thus a deviation from the conventional. Consider other examples: "I saw him coming out of the anaesthetic of her charm." (J. Thurber) "Gusts of wind whispering here and there." (J. Keats) "Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." (J. Keats) "His two million dollars were a little nest egg for him." (Don Marquis) "Her .eyes were two profound and menacing gunbarrels." (A. Huxley)

A distinction is usually made between poetic metaphors

and	lexical	(dead, trite)	metaphors.
1 See, for		instance: M. )]..	I( y 3 H e u,	10.	M. C K p e 6 H e s.
CntJIHCI'HKa aHrJIHikKoro 513biKa. JI., 1960,				CTp.	13-14.
~	M. Mincoff. Op. cit,

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P o e t i c m e t ·a p h or is based upon a discovery of some new, fresh and striking analogy between two things~ This is a discovery made by an individual, that is to say, a poetic metaphor is always an individual creation. (See the above-given examples.) .

Lex i c a l met a p h or, on the contrary, is a commonly reproduced lexical unit. It is called d~ad or trite because it does not call forth any vivid associations, its function is rather that of an intensifier. E. g. Time flies. (Time passes very quickly.) He was flooded with happiness. (He was very happy.) As a rule, such a metaphor is an integral part of the word's semantic structure, constituting one of its figurative meanings. E. g. a puppy-a young dog (literal meaning); a vain, ill-bred young man

(figurative meanilig).

A distinction is also made between a s i m p l e o r e l em en tar y met a ph or and an extended or pro- l on g e d (sus t a i ne d) met a p h or. The metaphor is simple when it consists of just one word, or a wordgroup. A simple metaphor may be expressed by a noun or a noun-phrase: "anaesthetic of her charm"; by a verb: time flies; an adjective or adverb, in the latter case it is called a metaphoric epithet. (See below.) The metaphor is prolonged or extended when one word used in a transferred sense ·calls forth a transferrence of meaning in the whole sequence of words related to it. E. g. "... and I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted ... ". (E. Hemingway)

Personification, a kind of metaphor, is a device which endows a thing or a phenomenon with features peculiar of a human being: "At that time my virtue slumbered." (R. Stevenson) "Vice triumphant holds her sov'reign sway." (G. Byron) "My impatience has shown its heels to my politeness." (R. Stevenson)

Personification may take the form of a digressive address: "Thou, nature, art my goddess." (W. Shakespeare) "Oh Night, and Storm, and Darkness, ye art wondrous

strong." (G.	Byron)	Digressive			address	is called a p os-
trop he	no matter		whether it refers to a thing				or to
a person: "Awake,		ye	Sons	of	Spain!	awake! advance."
(G. Byron)					.
Units of	poetic	speeeh		called m e t o n o m y			(with

synechdoche and metonymic antonomasia as its variants) are also based upon analogy. But in them, contrary to the

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simile and the metaphor, there is an objectively existing relationship between the object named and the object implied.

Metonymic relations are varied in character. The name of an instrument may stand for the name of the

action this instrument produces or	is associated with,
e. g. "Friends, Romans, countrymen,	lend	me your ears."
(W. Shakespeare) or the name of a symbol		used instead of

that which this symbol denotes, as in: "(England) ...

sucked the blood of other countries, destroyed the brains and hearts of Irishmen, Hindus, Egyptians, Boers and Burmese." (J. Galsworthy), where the words "blood", "brains", "heart" stand Jor the economic, intellectual and spiritual life of the people referred to. That what the man possesses may be used for the man himself, e. g. "Director

Rippleton had	also married	money."	(S.	Lewis),	just
as a quality of	a thing may	stand for	the	thing	itself,

e. g. "Then she turned round and took a long mournful look at grandma's blackness and at Fenella's black coat." (K. Mansfield)

S y n e c h d o c h e is based on a specific kind of metonymic relationship, which may be considered as

quantitative. This	is	when	a part stands for the whole
or when the whole stands			for a part, an individual for
a whole class, or	a	whole	class for an individual, etc.

E. g. "The Goth, the Christian-Time-War-Flood and Fire, have dealt upon the seven-billed City's pride." (G. Byron)

What are our woes and sufference? Come and see The cypress-- hear the owl -and plod your way

O'er steps of broken thrones and temples - Ye! (G. Byron)

A n t o n o m a s i a is the	use	of a	proper name	for
a common one. Antonomasia	may	be	metaphoric,	i. e.

based upon a similarity between two things: "The Gioconda smile". (A. Huxley) It is metonymic when the name of a person stands, for instance, for the thing he has created, as. in: "Where one man would treasure a single Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Mr. Ferraro bought wholesale." (G. Greene)

The appeal to imagination in a metonomy (synechdoche and metonymic antonomasia) is believed to be much weaker than that contained in a metaphor or a simile. Nevertheless, the former, too, is a powerful means of poetic expression. Its force lies in the intense conciseness with which it can pick out one particular aspect of a corn-

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plex thing (or ide9) making the thing itself easier to comprehend. E. g. He has married money. He is the Napoleon of crime, etc.

E p i t h e t is an attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively nouns or verbs, e. g. "The glow of an artgry sunset." (Ch. Dickens) "Carrying himself straight and soldierly." (E. Hemingway) Sometimes epithets may be expressed by nouns, mostly in of-phrases: "They had the spirit of modesty." (J. Steinbeck) or compoundsequivalents of whole phrases: "Brian feeling a quiet I-told-you-so satisfaction at the unalterable laws." (A. Sillitoe)

There is one other type of epithet, as in: "Denis raised the enormous bulwark of the Times against the possible assault of Mr. Scogan." (A. Huxley) or in: "This Burns of a city." (Th. Dreiser) In such phrases the relation between the modifier and the modified is of a peculiar nature. What in essence is the modified stands in the position of the modifier: "of the Times", "of a city". The change in the position gives the modified noun high emotional colouring. Such epithets are, in a way, compressed similes (the bulwark of the Times - the Times was like a bulwa,rk; the Burns .of a city- the city was like Burns).

. Most manuals on style warn their readers to distinguish between a poetic epithet and a simple adjective. The former is·said to create an image, while the latter indicates one of the inherent properties of the thing spoken about. But, writes R. Jacobson, when in 1919 the Moscow Linguistic Circle discussed how to define and delimit the range of epitheta ornantia, V. Mayakovski rebuked them by saying that for him any adjective while in poetry was thereby a poetic epithet.l Indeed, a dividing line between the two is often hard to draw. Thus, for instance, in the wordgroup "young Tom"- "young" may merely define the age of one who is called Tom. In such a case it is a simple adjective. But the attribute "young" may also express the author's emotional attitude to Tom in which case "young"

is an	epithet.		.
Authors		whose writing		is not obvious, who refrain
from	direct	expression of		their emotional attitude often

1 See R. Jacobson. Op. cit.

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resort to marginal cases. In the title of G. Greene's story "Special Duties" the word "special" might be considered to define the duties performed, in which case it is a pure adjective, a sort of term, devoid of any connotation, cf. the Russian «ocoGbie IIopyY:eHHR». But on reading the story one comes to realize thal what seemed at first sight to be ·a mere term is, in fact, brimful of a subtle implication. It conveys the <lldhor's ironic attitude to the duties lVliss Saunders, llH'sccrct<Jry, was c>mployed to perform.

Epithets on the whole sl1ow pmc>ly individual emotional attitude of (lw speake1· towards (he object spoken of. It does not ddine a properly of tl1e ob.il'd spoken of, it describes ll1c> ubjed as it appc:1rs to ihe speaker.

Jl.11 L'pithet III<IY Ill' based on a11 analogy when certain properties of otw class of things are reflected 11pon a thing of anot!Iu· L"!a::;s. This is a meiaphoric epithet, e. g. "The

submari11e	lattgldl'f was		swelling, rising, ready to break
the surface	of siletiCl'."		(A. Huxlev), or: "The dawn with
silver-saw\;1]\cd		feet	crept like a	frightened	girl."
(0. Wildl')
Dut ill tllo"t casl's epithets are not based on analogy--
they just uwrl'ly		detiote	the speaker's	attitude to	what is

being spoken about: '"To fulfil this condition was hopelessly out of my powl'r." (B. Shaw) "The new and very serious and llyper-educalcd generation." (J. Joice)

There are also tile so-called conventional (standing) epithets, a sort n[ literary cliche. They mostly occur in folklore or in the works of individual writers based on or imitating folklore: my true love, merry old England, merry month of May, wide world, etc.

Per i ph r as is is a unit of poetic speech which both names and describes. We speak of a periphrasis when we have the name of a person or a thing substituted by a descriptive phrase. E. g. the better (fair) sexwomen, man in the street - an ordinary person, etc. It is when a periphrasis is represented by a metonomy or a metaphor that we refer it to the class of tropes. E. g. "His studw is probably full of the mute evidences of his failure." (M. J o- seph), where "mute evidences of his failure" stands for "paintings". The same thing, i. e. "paintings" is described as "his unappreciated efforts". Another example: "'For one thing', answered Richard rankling a little, 'it (money) won't buy one into the exclusive circles of society.' 'Oho! won't it?' thundered the champion of the root of evil.

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•You tell me where your exclusive circles would be if the first Astor hadn't had the money to pay for his steerage passage over?n' (0. Henry), where the "root of evil" is a metaphoric substitute for the word "money".

A periphrasis is euphemistic when it stands as a substitute for a ,concept or thing which the author finds too unpleasant or is too reticent to name directly. He,re is how E. Hemingway speaks of death in his "The Snows of Kilimanjaro": "Since the gangrene started in his right leg he had no pain and with the pain the horror had gone ...

For this, thaj: now was coming, he had very little curiosity. For years it obsessed him; but l)OW it meant nothing in itself." Instead of saying that Nick killed a troublesome mosquito with a lighted match E. Hemingway says: "The mosquito made a satisfactory hiss in the flame."

Periphrases, as all the other tropes, can be divided into original creations of individual authors (see examples above) and trite ones many of which have become part of

the general lexicon: the better sex; the	seven-hilted city
(Rome); organs of vision (eyes); the language of		Racine
(the French language).
Another unit of poetic speech based on analogy will be
mentioned in conclusion of our survey.
A 11 u s.i on is a reference to specific	places,	persons,

literary characters or historical events that, by some association, have come to stand for a c.ertain thing or an idea. The frequently resorted to sources are mythology and the Bible, e. g. "We are met here as the guests ofwhat shall I call them? - the Three Graces of the Dublin musical world. The table burst into applause and laughter at this allusion." (J. Joyce) The full impact of an allusion, the perception of the idea it is employed to suggest comes to that reader who is aware of the origin, i. e. the

original		sense of the word, phrase, place or character allud-
ed	to.	Thus, for instance, in the quoted example the
cause of		applause and laughter at the speaker's allusion
to	"the	Three Graces of the Dublin musical ·world" who
in	this	case are three elderly spinsters. is perceived by

him who knows that the three Graces in Roman mythology were goddesses of beauty, joy and female charm. Allusions may function within the literary text as metaphoric epithets, metaphors proper, similes, periphrases. Quotations embedded in the text are a type of allusion,. e. g. "The conversation which eventually followed on this

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topic was of such stuff as dreams are made of." (Th. Dreiser); "such stuff as dreams are made of" is a line from W. Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (Act IV, se. 1).

We are such stuff

As dreams are made of ...

The pleasure of reading increases when we recognize such stray phrases and recall their full meaning in their original context.

* * *

It should be emphasized that a trope is appreciated as poetic not for the inherent quality of the words that make it up but rather for how vividly it suggests an image. As for the words used in a trope they may be of the commonest, the plainest sort. Take, for instance, the following extended metaphor from G. Meredith's novel "The Egoist": "The Egoist is the Son of Himself. He is likewise the Father. And the son loves the father and the father the son: they reciprocate affection through the closest of ties". A very common "father" and "son" create a sudden and strikingly vivid metaphor when used as characteristics of the Egoist.

Types of Figures of Speech

Quite a number of figures of speech are based upon the principle of recurrence. Recurrent may be elements of different linguistic layers: lexical, syntactic, morphological, phonetic. Some figures of speech, as will be shown below, emerge as a result of a simultaneous interaction of several principles of poetic expression, i. e. the principle of contrast + recurrence; recurrence +analogy; recurrence+ incomplete representation, etc.

P a r a 1 1 e 1 i s m as a figure of speech is based upon a recurrence of syntactically identical sequences which lexically are completely or partially different. E. g. ·~she was a good servant, she walked softly, she was a determined woman, she walked precisely." (G. Greene) "They were all three from Milan, and one of them was to be a law-

yer, and		one was	to be	a painter, and		one	had	intended
to be	a	soldier .•. "	(E. Hemingway)		Parallelism			strongly
affects	the rhythmical			organization	of	an	utterance and

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gives it a special emphasis, so it is imminent in oratoric art as well as in impassioned poetry:

You've hit no traitor on the hip,

You've dashed no cup from perjured lip,

You've never turned the wrong to right,

You've been a coward in the fight. (Ch. Mackay)

The elements of the juxtaposed parts due to their juxtaposition merge to create one single image.1 (See the above quoted examples.)

Parallelism should not be mixed up with r e p e t i - t ion. As the word "repetition" itself suggests, this unit of poetic speech is based upon a repeated occurrence of one and the same word or word-group. E. g. "You cannot, sir, take from me anything I will more willingly part withal except my life, except my life, except my life." (W. Shakespeare) "I wouldn't mind him if he wasn't so conceited and didn't bore me, and bore me, and bore me." (E. Hemingway)

Depending upon the position a repeated unit occupies in the utterance there are distinguished four types of repetition.

I) An a ph or a - repetition of the first word or word-group in several successive sentences, clauses or phrases. E. g. "I love your hills, and I love your dales. And I love your flocks a-bleating." (J. Keats) "Justice waited behind a wooden counter in a high stool; it wore a heavy moustache; it was kindly and had six children ... ; it wasn't really interested in Philip, but it pretended to be, it wrote the address down and sent a constable to fetch a glass of milk." (G. Greene)

2) E p i p h or a - repetition of the final word or word-group. E. g. "I wake up and I'm alone, and I walk round Warlley and I'm alone, and I talk with people and I'm alone." (J. Braine)

3) A n a d i p 1 o s i s (catch repetition) - repetition at the beginning of the ensuing phrase, clause or sentence of a word or a word-group that has occurred in the initial, the middle or the final position of the preceding word-se- quence.

E. g. But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man. (W. Shakespeare)

1 See for reference: KpaTKall mnepaTypnaH 3Hl\HKJIOITe.l\Hl!. M.,

1968, T. 5, CTp. 591.

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