Trite metaphors are sometimes revived, i.e. their primary meaning is re-established alongside with the new meaning. E.g.

Revived metaphors

Trite metaphors are sometimes revived, i.e. their primary meaning is re-established alongside with the new meaning. E.g.

3) “Mr.Pickwick bottled up (закупоривать, сдерживать, скрывать)his v e ngeance (месть, мщение) and corked it down”. The verb to bottle up is explained in dictionaries as follows: “to keep in check”, “to conceal, to restrain, repress”. So the metaphor can hardly be felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb to cork down.

Metaphor has no formal limitations: it can be a word, a phrase, any part of a sentence, or a sentence as a whole.

Metaphor can be expressed by all notional parts of speech, and functions in the sentence as any of its members:

4) 1)“The human tide is rolling westward.” (Dombey and son)

2)“The leaves fell sorrowfully ”.

3)“In the slanting beams that streamed through the open windows, the dust danced and was golden (The Picture of Dorian Gray).

Sustained metaphors

There are also sustained, or prolonged or extended metaphors (развернутые) – clusters or groups of metaphors, each supplying another feature of the described phenomenon:

5) “Mr.Domby’s cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment, however, that he felt he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the dust in the by-path of his little daughter.”

In this sustained metaphor the trite metaphor cup of satisfaction is revived by the additional images full, drop, contents, sprinkle (брызнуть, разбрызгивать).

This is a day of your golden opportunity, Sarge. Don’t let it turn to brass.

The functions of metaphor:

Metaphor is one of the most powerful means of creating images. This is its main function

The other functions are:1)esthetic (aesthetic), 2)evaluative, 3)specifying, 4)characterizing.

Personification.

It is a particular case of metaphor. It consists in attributing life and mind to inanimate objects. Besides the actual objects of Nature abstractions of the mind, such as life, death, truth, wisdom, love, evil, hope, etc. are frequently personified. Thus, personification is ascribing human properties to lifeless objects.

The function of personification

Personification is used to impart the dynamic force to the description or to reproduce the particular mood by which the events described are coloured. Personification is also an important device used to depict the perception of the outer world by the lyrical hero.

Allusion

It can be also regarded as a kind of metaphor. An allusion is an indirect reference to a historical, literary, mythological or biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life. The use of allusion presupposes that the reader is familiar with the fact or event mentioned. As a rule no indication of the source is given.

Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and knowledge in the reader. But the knowledge stored in our minds is called forth by an allusion in a peculiar manner. All kinds of associations we may not yet have realized cluster round the facts alluded to.

E.G. “Martian chronicles” - from The Economist, April 7^th 2001. About planned research of Mars by America’s space agency NASA.

The translation of metaphors.

Metaphor is used in all emotionally-coloured styles of speech. But in emotive prose there are mainly genuine metaphors. Dead (trite) metaphors are generally used in newspaper articles as expressive means. Original metaphors are rather rare.

In some cases metaphor can be translated without any transformations:

“a flight of imagination”, “in the heat of the argument”, “to prick up one’s ears”.

These are mainly trite metaphors. But in case of fresh, genuine metaphors very often we have to resort to some transformations, because the translation of genuine metaphor in emotive prose is obligatory.

6) They passed so, that semblance of a thrush and a hawk in terrific immobility in mid-air, this an apparition-like suddenness: a soft clatter of hooves in the sere needle, and were gone, the man stooping, the woman leaning forward like a tableau of flight and pursuit on a lightening bolt.

Они появились неожиданно как духи, и так же неожиданно исчезли в мягком стуке копыт по сухим сосновым иглам; женщина устремилась вперед, мужчина ее преследует – две птицы, застывшие в быстром как ветер полете, коршун и его добыча.

The image is preserved, but the structure of the passage is changed completely.

Sustained (or prolonged) metaphor is more frequent in English texts (fiction, publicist writings, newspapers) than in Russian ones. That’s why it is often possible to omit some parts of prolonged metaphors to comply with the requirements of Russian stylistics.

7) Armies of dark pines march up the steep slopes in serried ranks.

Темные сосны, словно солдаты, поднимаются сомкнутыми рядами по крутым склонам.

Or another example, now from publicist writing, when it’s impossible to convey all images of a sustained metaphor due to the norms of the Russian stylistics:

8) Robert Boothby said “The Prime Minister had played a new tune which had brought hope to millions but then he had fallen ill and his flute had been muted. Our main hope is to learn the tune of these fresh and clear notes, and then orchestrate it, for it ios the best tune any of us are likely to hear for a long time, and perhaps it is the only tune that can save civilization.

Премьер министр исполнил новую мелодию, которая возбудила надежду у миллионов людей, но затем он заболел и его флейта смолкла. Мы должны уповать на то, чтобы выучить кристально-свежие ноты этой мелодии и затем оркестровать ее, ибо это наилучшая мелодия из всех тех, которые мы слышим в течение долгого времени и, пожалуй, это единственная мелодия, которая может спасти цивилизацию.

The bad translation. We should omit some parts of sustained metaphor and make some substitutions:

В речи премьер-министра прозвучали новые нотки, которые пробудили надежду у миллионов людей, но затем он заболел и его голос смолк. Но мы не должны забывать того нового, что прозвучало в его речи, и претворить это в жизнь. Ибо вряд ли мы скоро услышим что-либо подобное. И может быть только таким путем можно спасти человечество.

9) From the dim woods on either bank, Night’s ghostly army, the grey shadows, creep out with noiseless tread to chase away the lingering rear-guard of the light, and pass, with noiseless unseen feet, above the waving river-grass.

С приближением ночи из потемневшего леса, охватившего реку с обеих сторон, серыми призраками крадутся сумеречные тени. Словно рыцари, теснящие отступающего противника, они бесшумной поступью продвигаются все дальше по водной глади и вот уже где-то вдали победоносно завершают свою рукопашную схватку с потускневшим светом уходящего дня.

Very often metaphor can be replaced by simile.

Metonymy

Metonymy is based on contig u ity (смежность, соприкосновение, контакт) - of objects or phenomena. Metonymy is applying the name of and object to another object in some way connected with the first.

Two kinds of metonymy can be distinguished:

1) – linguistic metonymy

2) – stylistic metonymy.

1) Linguistic metonymy is a means of nomination and it serves to enrich lexical means of the language.

Arterial roads, railway lines, building estates, factories, hundreds of separate townships with their churches, municipal and shopping centers were all linked together by continuous masonry and seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon.

Here we have a linguistic metonymy masonry – каменная кладка. When translating it’s impossible to preserve this linguistic metonymy.

Магистрали, железнодорожные пути, жилые кварталы, заводы, сотни отдельных городков, каждый со своей церковью, муниципалитетом и торговым центром – все они слились в одно целое благодаря бесконечному множеству домов, простиравшихся до самого горизонта.

2) Metonymy as a stylistic device is a deliberate intensification of some feature, is emphasizing some process or phenomenon.

“Miss Tox’s hand trembled as she slipped it through Mr.Dombey’s arm, and felt herself escorted up the stairs, preceded by a cocked (треуголка) hat and a Babylonian collar ”. (Dickens) (огромный, красный)

The function of this substitution is to point out the insignificance of the wearer, for his personality is reduced to his externally conspicuous features, the hat and the collar.

“My brass will call your brass”, says one of the characters of A. Hailey’s Airport to another, meaning “My boss will call your boss”. The transference of names is caused by both bosses being officers, wearing uniform caps with brass [bra:s] cock a des.(кокарда)

Classification

Many linguists tried to define the types of relation which metonymy is based on. The following are most common:

1.A c o ncrete thing used instead of an abstract notion.

2.The container instead of the thing contained. The hall applauded.

3.The relation of proximity: The round game table was boisterous and happy.

4.The material instead of the thing made of it: The marble spoke.

5.The instrument which the doer uses in performing some action; “As the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last”.

6.The place instead of the event.

7.The name may be used for works of the person.

8.An item of the clothes used for the person.

The scope of tr a nsference in metonymy is much more limited than that of metaphor, because the scope of human imagination identifying two objects on the grounds of commonness of one of their innumerable characteristics is boundless. And actual relations between objects are more limited. This is why metonymy is a less frequent SD, than metaphor.

Sometimes it might be rather difficult to differentiate between metaphor and metonymy. There is one way to do it: metaphor can be easily transformed into simile, and in case with metonymy it is impossible.

As a rule metonymy is expressed by nouns and is used in syntactical functions of nouns (subject, object, predicate). Metonymy can be expressed by different parts of the sentence. Metonymy can be a 1) noun, 2) an adjective, 3) a verb.

1) You see, there was my uniform, and one thing and another. My lady put me into collars and cuffs (ошейник, хомут, наручник).

2) At this moment music stopped and they went to sit on two chairs against the wall. Leila tucked her pink satin feet under and fanned herself.

In this example the object (feet) is characterized by a feature (pink, satin) of some other object (shoes) which is in the metonymic relations with the first object (feet). (The relation of contiguity - смежность, соприкосновение).

Feet

Pink, satin

Shoes

Another example:..Rosemary stepped forward and said to that dim person beside her:” Come to tea with me”.

Dim person – person standing in a dim light.

3) The woman paused on the step, looking both ways before stepping down and clicking across the cobbles to Christe.

Another example: “It’s her fu-fur which is so funny,” giggled the girl. “It’s exactly like a fried whiting. (мерланг)“

The verb metonymy represents the action through some feature accompanying this action.

Synecdoche

One type of metonymy is viewed independently – it is synecdoche – the mention of a part for the whole: to be a comrade with a wolf and owl – in this example “wolf” and “owl” stand for wild beasts in general. Hands wanted –нужны рабочие руки.

Stylistic functions: descriptive, humorous, ironic, characteristic.

Antonomasia.

It can be also regarded as a kind of metonymy. It is a lexical SD in which a proper name (имя собственное) is used instead of a common noun (имя нарицательное существительное) or vice versa. E.g. Th. Dreiser wrote::

“He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary, shortly after she arrived, something…”.The attribute “each”, used with the name, turns it into a common noun denoting any woman. Here we deal with a case of antonomasia of the first type.

Another type of antonomasia we meet when a common noun serves as an individualizing name:

“There are three doctors in an illness like yours. I don’t mean only myself, my partner and the radiologist who does your X-rays, the three I’m referring to are Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet and Dr. Fresh Air”.

Another type of antonomasia is presented by the so-called “speaking names” – names whose origin from common nouns is still clearly perceived.

Such names from Sheridan’s School for scandal as Lady Teazle or Mr. Surface immediately raise associations with certain human qualities due to the denotational meaning of the words “to tease” and “surface”.

This double role of the speaking names is sometimes preserved in translation, E.g. the names from another of Sheridan’s plays, The rivals: Miss Languish (languish – томность) – Мисс Томнэй, Mr. Backbite (to backbite – злословить, клеветать)– М-р Клеветаун, Mr.Credulous (credulous – доверчивый, легковерный)– М-р Доверч.

Some examples in Russian literature: Коробочка, Собакевич, Вральман.

The use of antonomasia is now not confined to the belle-lettres style. It is often found in publicist style, e.g.

“I say this to our American friends. Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world (The Times).

Antonomasia is created mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (“Miss Blue-Eyes”), or phrases (“Mr. What’s his name”).

Stylistic function: to point out the leading, most characteristic features of a person or an event.

The translation of metonymy

A) Linguistic metonymy.

Metonymy is widely used in Russian as well. So there are a number of metonymic equivalents, which do not present any difficulties: the Pentagon, the White House. But other metonymies of the same type like the Elysee instead of the president of France are not used in Russian:

It is the Elysee which exercises control over the interministerial committee for Europe

Контроль над межминистерским комитетом по делам Европы осуществляется президентом.

In other cases we have to transform the sentences. E.g.:

This city, by night so ghostly and deserted, is still one and only historic London. The hundred-odd miles of surrounding brickworks - with the exception, of course, of Westminster – are mere accretions, suburbs, bedrooms.

Этот город. Такой призрачный и пустынный ночью, только он и есть единственный, настоящий, исторический Лондон. Раскинувшиеся на сто с лишним квадратных миль окружающие его дома, конечно, за исключением Вестминстера кажутся всего лишь наростами, предместьями, домами, где люди только и спят.

Metonymies brickwork and bedrooms are omitted, but in the second case we have a periphrasis – где люди только спят.

B) Stylistic metonymy:

The one in the brown suit gaped at her. Blue suit grinned, might even have winked. But big nose in the grey suit still stared – and he had small angry eyes and did not even smile. (Priestley)

Синий костюм ухмыльнулся, и даже как бы подмигнул. А носатый в сером костюме продолжал сверлить ее своими маленькими злыми глазками и даже не улыбнулся.

(humorous effect)

But sometimes it’s impossible to preserve and convey stylistic metonymy.

So the pink sprigged muslin and the champagne voile ran downstairs in a hurry…

It’s hardly possible to translate it as follows:

Розовый муслин в цветочках и палевая кисея сбежали по лестнице.

Traditional ways of translating metonymy produce a humorous or ironic effect in Russian. But when there is no humour or irony in the discourse, some special methods should be applied, e.g. transformation – namely explication. (экспликация – замена лексической единицы исходного языка словосочетанием, дающим более или менее полное объяснение этого значения). E.g.

As the two miles of pompous grief passed through the streets of London, every citizen stood at his doorway holding a lighted taper (тонкая восковая свеча).

В то время как пышная похоронная процессия, растянувшаяся на две мили, проходила по улицам Лондона, в дверях каждого дома стоял его хозяин с зажженной свечой в руках.

Linguistic metonymy and stylistic metonymy in the English language are very widely used and can be regarded as a peculiar feature of the language.

The epithet.

Epithet is a SD used to express a characteristic of an object, both existing and im a ginary. Its basic feature is its emotiveness and subjectivity, because the characteristic attached to the object is always chosen by the speaker himself. The epithet makes a strong impact on the reader, so that the reader unwillingly begins to see and evaluate things as the writer wants him.

In epithet the emotive meaning of the word is foregrounded to suppress the denotational meaning of it.

Logical attributes and epithets.

Epithet usually is an attr i butive word, phrase or even sentence. We should distinguish epithet as a SD from logical attributes. Logical attributes are objective and non-evaluating, they indicate an inherent or prominent feature of a thing or phenomenon. Thus in green meadows, white snow, pale complexion, and the like the adjectives are more logical attributes than epithets. They indicate generally recognized qualities of an object.

But in such examples as wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile the adjectives do not point to inherent qualities of the objects. They are subj e ctively evaluative.

Classification.

Epithets may be classified from different standpoints: semantic and structural.

Semantically epithets may be divided into two main groups:

1).Emotive epithets.

They convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of the qualifying words from the dictionaries can be and are used as emotive epithets (gorgeous, nasty, magnificent…).

2)Figurative (transferred epithets) смещенный эпитет – Арнольд

In this case some features of people (and sometimes phenomena or events) are transferred onto inanimate objects, which are somehow connected with people.

E.g. a sleepless pillow”. You actually mean a man or a woman, who hasn’t been sleeping on this pillow. So “a sleepless pillow” is a transferred epithet, a pillow cannot have such a feature as sleepless, this feature is not inherent in it. A soft pillow will be all right, but not a sleepless pillow.

Transferred epithets are formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives. E.g. the smiling sun, voiceless sands, the tobacco-stained smile, the unbreakfasted morning…

Like metaphor, metonymy and simile, corresponding epithets are also based on similarity of characteristics of two objects in the first case, on nearness of the objects in the second case, and on their comparison in the third case.

In any combination of words there are various degrees of closeness. When the words are so closely linked that the components become inseparable, we are dealing with a set expression. When the link between the components is comparatively close, we say that there is a stable word combination. And when we can substitute the word for any other of the same grammatical category, we say that is a free combination of words.

With regards to epithets this division is very important. The aim of the epithet is to make the desired impact on the reader, and so the ties of the epithet with the noun are generally contextual.

But there are combinations, in which the ties between the attribute and the noun are very close, and such a combination is viewed as a linguistic entity. Combinations of this type are the result of the frequent use of certain definite epithets with certain definite nouns. They became stable word combinations: e.g. bright face, valuable connections, sweet smile, unearthly beauty. They are called fixed epithets. The predictability of such epithets is very great.

The function of these epithets is to show the evaluating, subjective attitude of the writer. For this purpose the author does not create his own, new, unexpected epithets. He uses so called “language epithets”, which belong to the language – as – a system. So epithets may be divided into language epithets and speech epithets. Examples of speech epithets are: slavish knees, sleepless bay.

Structural classification

Structurally epithets can be divided into simple, compound, phrase epithets and a string of epithets.

1) Simple epithets are ordinary adjectives.

2)Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives, e.g. heart-burning sigh, curly- headed good-for-nothing.

3) Phrase epithets. A phrase and even a whole sentence may become an epithet if the main formal requirement of the epithet is maintained, i.e. its attr i butive use. Phrase epithets are always placed before the nouns they refer to. E.g., the following situation: a guy who is looking for something which has rolled under his bad. “Yes, here it is” he said in the-lying-on-the-floor voice. These epithets are usually hyphenated. (or at least they are traditionally hyphenated. In some modern books these epithets are not hyphenated, that could be done on some sort of stylistic purpose.)

Another structural variety of the epithet is so called reversed, or inverted epithet. It is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase., e.g. “the shadow of a smile”, “her brute of a brother”, “…he smiled brightly, neatly, efficiently, a military abbreviation of a smile”, “A little Flying Dutchman of a cab”.

How to translate these epithets;

A dream of a house - не дом, а мечта, дом – просто мечта, дом – настоящая мечта

One more example of this kind:

We carried that big ox of a Harry aboard.

Such epithets should not be confused with an ordinary of-phrase. Here the article with the second noun can help in doubtful cases: “the toy of the girl” (the toy belonging to the girl); “the toy of a girl” (a small, toylike girl).

There is another very interesting structural peculiarity of epithets. That is when they perform predicative function. E.g. “her voice was full of money”.

This is a transferred epithet. And syntactically this is of course a predicate “full of money”. There isn’t a very tangible border-line between metaphors and epithets in some cases. It’s very hard to draw a line of demarcation between prediction and attribution. So it’s rather difficult to say whether in the sentence “her voice was full of money” we have a predicate, or a metaphor, or it is still an attribute.

So sometimes transferred epithets very closely border on metaphors, and some scholars regard these cases as metaphors.

4)A string of epithets. For example, in his depiction of New-York O. Henry gives the following string of epithets:

“Such was the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, [feitl] great city”. The string of epithets gives a many-sided depiction of the object. In such strings there is generally an ascending scale, which culminates in the last epithet. Here it is fatal.

In conclusion we should note, that the epithet is a direct and straightforward way of showing the author’s attitude towards the things described. Other SDs reveal the author’s evaluation only indirectly. That is why when an author wants to show objectivity and impartiality in depicting their heroes he uses few epithets.

Realistic authors use epithets sparingly. And Romanticism, on the other hand, may be characterized by its abundant use of epithets.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a combination of two words in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense: a nice rascal, a deafening silence from Whitehall, a bitter sweet taste, an ugly beauty. These two incompatible characteristics produce a certain new feeling. These two characteristics are not just mutually exclusive. They present somewhat like a unity of simultaneously existing contradictory qualities in the described phenomenon.

As a rule, one of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature which is universally observed, while the other one offers a purely subjective individual perception of the object. Thus in an oxymoron we also deal with the foregrounding of emotive meaning.

Structures of oxymoron.

The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive. There may be one (a deafening silence) or two attributes to one object (It was a pleasing dreadful thought).

The next structure includes a verb: to shout mutely, to cry silently.

There are possible some other structures as well.

Originality of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures, which are used to express semantic contradiction. E.g.: “the street damaged by improvements” (O.Henry), or “silence was louder than thunder”. Or “You are wrong in the right way”.

Oxymorons rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other and oppose repeated use.

There are few colloquial oxymorons, all of them showing a high degree of the speaker’s emotional involvement in the situation, as in “damn nice”, awfully pretty”.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a SD in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration. The feelings and emotions of the speaker are so ruffled that he resorts to intensifying the quantitative or the qualitative aspect of the mentioned object. Hyperbole is one of the most common expressive means of our everyday speech. When we describe our admiration or anger and say “I would gladly see this film a hundred times” or “ I have told it to you a thousand times” – we use trite language hyperboles, which through long and repeated use have lost their originality and remain signals of the speaker’s roused [rauzed] emotions.

Hyperbole may be the final effect of another SD – metaphor or irony (He has the tread of a rhin o ceros [rain o seres]).

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech.

In case of hyperbole it is very important for both communicants to realize, that one of them is exaggerating not to denote actual quality or quantity, but to signal the emotional background of the utterance. If this mutual understanding is absent, hyperbole turns into a mere lie.

Types of hyperbole.

Usually we distinguish two types of hyperbole: 1) quantitative and 2) qualitative.

Quantitative hyperbole is usually less striking, less emphatic and less interesting. It’s trite hyperbole. E.g.: “I told you thousand times” or “She is a hundred years old”. These are mostly pure exaggerations.

The second type is much more interesting and expressive. It is often used to achieve a humorous effect. Some feature can be overstated to such a degree that it borders on absurdity. For example, a passage about a girl who was eavesdropping. She strained to overhear somebody’s conversation and the author says: “if her ear rotates much further to the left she’ll be picking up CNN on satellite”.

Understatement

Semantically hyperbole is opposed to the understatement. (недоговоренность, преуменьшение). If hyperbole is defined as a deliberate overstatement of some feature or quality, or even quantity, the understatement is the opposite - it’s the deliberate turning down of some quality which is basically neutral. E.g. a situation after some banquet where young people, say, “the cream of society” let themselves go (дать себе волю, разойтись), and there was a kind of fight because one of the guys poured clam juice (сок мидий) down the back of a girl. And she was “just a little annoyed” as another girl put it. So this is a sort of understatement.

Another word for these understatements is litotes. We’ll come across it later when we look at lexico-syntactical SD.

So understatement does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.

English is well known for its preference for understatement in everyday speech. “I’m rather annoyed” instead of “I’m infuriated”, “The wind is rather strong” instead of “There is a gale blowing outside” are typical of British polite speech, but are less characteristic of American English. I think you remember the scene in the film when Winifred (Soames’ sister) exclaimed “It’s not so good!” after her furniture had been taken because of Dartie’s debts.

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