Quasi-identity.

Another problem arises if we inspect certain widespread cases of 'active identification' usually treated as tropes; when we look at the matter more closely, they turn out to be a special kind of syntagmatic phenomena - 'tropes predicated' or perhaps 'tropes pre-deciphered':

Your neighbour is an ass

Jane is a real angel

Other types of illogical identification: cases when the subject (theme, topic) and the predicative (rheme, comment) do not imply comparison, do not claim similarity, but expressly point out a real connection between the two objects:

"That old duffer? He's oil, I guess."

"Caracas is in Venezuela, of course." "What's it like?"

"Why, it's principally earthquakes and Negroes and monkeys and malarial fever and volcanoes." (O’ Henry)

Some of quasi-identities manifest special expressive force, chiefly when the usual topic — comment positions change places: the metaphoric (metonymical) name appears in the text first, the direct, straightforward denomination following it:

"The machine sitting at that desk was no longer a man: it was a busy New York broker." (O’ Henry)

"... she shot at me with two blue pellets which served her as eyes." (Chandler)

Synonymous replacements – the use of synonyms or synonymousphrases to avoid monotony or as situational substitutes:

He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless stories. (Thackeray)

I was trembly and shaky from head to foot.

You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O’Henry)

Figures of inequality:

Specifying, or clarifying synonyms:

"You undevout, sinful, insidious hog," says I to Murkison. (O’Henry)

"Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish dear fellow." (Dickens)

Climax (gradation of emphatic elements growing in strength).

What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned? (O’Henry),

Anti-climax (back gradation - instead of a few elements growing in intensity without relief there unexpectedly appears a weak or contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or ridiculous):

Awoman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse—goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning. (Twain)

Zeugma (combination of unequal, or incompatible words based on the economy of syntactical units):

She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens)

"At noon Mrs. Turpin would get out of bed and humor, put on kimono, airs and the water to boil for coffee." (O’Henry)

Pun (play upon words based on polysemy or homonymy):

What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward you? - Long ones.

OFFICER. What steps [= measures] would you take if an enemy tank were coming toward you?

SOLDIER. Long ones.

DICKIE: I suppose you are thinking of Ada Fergusson.

PENELOPE: I confess she hadn't entirely slipped my mind.

DICKIE: Hang Ada Fergusson.

PENELOPE: I think it's rather drastic punishment.

CANNIBAL COOK: Shall I stew both those cooks we captured from the steamer?

CANNIBAL KING: No, one is enough. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Disguised tautology (semantic difference in formally coincidental parts of a sentence, repetition here does not emphasize the idea but carries a different information in each of the two parts):

For East is East, and West is West... (Kipling)

"'Well,' he said vaguely, 'that's that,' and relapsed into a thoughtful silence." (Christie)

"Make yourself an honest man and then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world”. (Carlyle)

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