Violation of phraseological units

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

1. metaphor – analogy between two things (no formal element)

- metonymy (association connecting two concepts represented by dictionary and contextual meaning)

e.g.

crown – king, queen

“… the round game table … was happy… “

- personification (analogy between human qualities and inanimate objects

e.g.

The night swallowed him.

- antonomasia – interplay of logical and nominal meaning, leading feature is used as a proper name

e.g.

Angle (mathematician), Silvercup (race-winner)

2. simile – some common features; It must have some formal elements:e.g. cunning as a fox

He has a tongue like a sword and a pen like a dagger.

3. irony – dictionary and contextual meanings stand in opposition

e.g.

How clever of you!

“ It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.”

4. zeugma (semantically false chains) – the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to other words in the context

(usually verb+object)

e.g.

Шел дождь и два студента

“Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room…”

5. pun (play of words) – interaction of well-known meanings, homonyms -> in riddles, jokes:

e.g.

What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? – One trains the mind and the other minds the train.

There comes a period in every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his.

We called him Tortoise because he taught us.

If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have so many branches?

A cannibal is a man who sometimes has his friends for dinner.

She went to Arizona for her asthma. – Why? Couldn’t she get it here?

6. epithet – interplay of emotive and logical meaning

(do not confuse with logical attributes – white snow)

e.g. voiceless sand, the shadow of a smile, unbreakfasted morning

8. oxymoron - contradictory words appear in conjunction

e.g.

awfully sorry

a deafening silence

violation of phraseological units

e.g.

“ Come!” he said, “milk’s spilt”

(there’s no use crying over spilt milk)

The young lady who burst into tears has been put together again.

10. periphrasis – a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression

e.g.

the fair sex

“…the little boy … who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced … “

Euphemisms can also be examples of periphrasis:

e.g.

“They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner … “

11. hyperbole – deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature (ad absurdum) e.g.

haven’t seen you for ages

“He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face…”

Opposite type - understatement

e.g.

a woman of pocket size

12. bathos (intentional mixing of stylistic aspects of words)

e.g.

“Will you oblige me by keeping your trap shut, darling?” he retorted.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13