General Characteristics

- direct contact with the audience > uses syntactical, lexical and phonetic devices

- direct address to the audience (e.g. ‘ladies and gentlemen’, ‘honourable members’; the use of the 2nd person pronoun ‘you’)

- special obligatory forms opening (e.g. ‘My Lords’, ‘Mr Chairman’, ‘Your Worship’) and closing an oration (‘Thank you for your attention’)

- rhetorical questions, questions-in-the narrative (to promote closer contact with the audience, to break the monotony of the intonation pattern and revive the attention of the audience)

- traditional metaphors, similes and parables (original images are more difficult to grasp and would divert the attention of the audience from the main point)

- sometimes colloquial words and contractions (e.g. I’ll)

- appeals both to the reason and emotions of the audience

31. A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand. (I.R. Galperin)

Quotations are usually marked graphically by inverted commas, dashes or italics, they are mostly accompanied by a reference to the author of the quotation. The reference is made either in the text or in a foot-note. Quotations need not necessarily be short.

E.g. Friends, Romans, countrymen

– Lend me your ears. (Shakespeare)

Quotations often turn into epigrams. E.g. To be or not to be? (Shakespeare)

Quotations used as an argumentative technique allow no modifications of meaning. Such quotations are especially frequent in scientific texts, in religious writing and in the journalistic style.

An allusion (Latin allusio ‘a playing with’) is an indirect quotation, reference or a hint by word or phrase to a historical, literary, mythological or biblical fact which is presumably known to the listener/reader.

As a rule no indication of the source of the allusion is given, which makes it different from quotations proper (direct quotations) and epigrams.

Another difference is of a structural nature: a quotation proper must repeat the exact wording of the original; an allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase which may be regarded as the key-word of the utterance.

‘Allusions,’ I.R. Galperin remarks, ‘are based on the accumulated experience and knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in the reader.’ Moreover, they add cultural value to the text. E.g. … for nothing removes the curse of Babel like food, drink, and good fellowship. (Priestley)

Allusions are a frequent device in advertisements and headlines. Besides, they may function within the literary text as similes, metaphors, metaphorical epithets, periphrases, etc. E.g. She has got a Mona Lisa smile.

32. Interaction of Dictionary And Contextual Logical Meaning

The relation between dictionary and contextual meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol - referent relations, or on opposition. Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is metaphor, on the second, metonymy and on the third, irony

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts. Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even in the auxiliary parts of speech, as in prepositions. Metaphor as any stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. e. g. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden. Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors e. g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears.

Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, their primary meaning is re- established alongside the new derivative meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word. e. g. Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down.

The verb " to bottle up " is explained as " to keep in check", to conceal, to restrain, repress. So the metaphor can be hardly felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb "to cork down". Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged. Stylistic function of a metaphor is to make the description concrete, to express the individual attitude.

Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on affinity, but on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent on a proximity

The proximity may be revealed:

1) between the symbol and the thing it denotes;

2) in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument;

e.g. His pen is rather sharp.

3) in the relation between the container and the thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.

4) the concrete is put for the abstract;

e. g. It was a representative gathering (science, politics).

5) a part is put for the whole;

e.g. the crown - king, a hand - worker.

Metonymy represents the events of reality in its subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite.

e.g.:" to earn one's bread", "to keep one's mouth shut".

Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are in opposition to each other. The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning. One thing is said and the other opposite is implied.

e.g. Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day).

34. Interaction of Logical and Nominative Meaning

Antonomasia. It is the result of interaction between logical and nominal meaning of a word.

The interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word is call-ed antonomasia. The two kinds of meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously.

Antonomasia (Gk. antonomasia 'naming instead) is usu. the substitution of the proper name of a person for another name in order to characterize him/her.

Casanova (for a ladies' man ), a Cicero (for an orator).

Function: characterization through name, creation of humorous atmosphere.

There exist 2 major types of antonomasia:

¨ A proper name is used as a common noun. Here belong:

• metaphorical antonomasia (when the proper name of a famous personage is applied to a person whose characteristic features resemble those of the well-known original or prototype).

E.g. ‘ I don’t pretend to be a great painter,’ he said. ‘I’m not a Michael Angelo

metonymic antonomasia (observed in cases when a personal name stands for something connected with the bearer of that name).

E.g. This is my real Goya. (Galsworthy)

I am fond of Dickens (= of Dickens' books).

The use of such antonomastic words demonstrates how proper nouns acquire new, logical meanings:

• Some of them are still spelt with capital letters, others are already spelt with small letters.

E.g. The word hooligan going back to a proper name of a person known for his lawless behavior.

• They can be used with an ‘ a’- article.

E.g. She was beginning to like … middle-aged men … but … really nice attractive ones … had hardly more than an occasional faint gleam of interest to spare for a Miss Matfield. (Priestley)

• They can be used in the plural.

E.g. It was a pity that silly young men did not amuse her, for there were plenty of Ivors about, whereas there were very few real grown-up men about …. (Priestley)

¨ A common noun acquires a nominal meaning and is used as a proper noun.

Insuch usages, which are also termed speaking or telling names, token or tell-tale names,the common noun origin is still clearly perceived.

E.g. Shark Dodson, Mr. Cheeky.

Like the rest of tropes antonomasia can also be trite (traditional), e.g. a traitor is referred to as Brutus, and genuine (contextual), e.g. Mrs. Cross.

35. Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meaning

Interjections and Exclamatory Words are words we use when we express our feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in language as conventional symbols of human emotions. In traditional grammars the interjection is regarded as a part of speech. But there is another view which regards the interjection as a sentence.
However a close investigation proves that interjection is a word with strong emotive meaning.
e. g. Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers?
The interjection oh, by itself may express various feelings such as regret, despair, disappointment, sorrow, surprise and many others. Interjections can be divided into primary and derivative.

Hyperbole

It is a deliberate over statement. Both the writer and the reader (or the speaker and the listener) are fully aware of the deliberateness of the exaggeration. The use of hyperbole shows the overflow of emotions in the speaker, and the listener is carried away by the flood.

Very often the hyperbole is used to create humorous or satirical effect and so to express the author’s attitude towards the described.

The epithet is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties.

The epithet can be expressed by an adjective, an adverb, a noun, a participle, etc. E.g. ‘What have I done now?’ she began indignantly (an adv., an adv. mod.). (Priestley)

Compositionally epithets fall into:

¨ simple or word-epithets, e.g. Happiness for him had a feminine shape. (Priestley)

¨ compound epithets(formed by compound adjectives), e.g. a crescent-shaped object; wild-looking young fellows (Priestley).

¨ two-step epithets(supplied with intensifiers), e.g. … fatally second class … public school … (Priestley)

¨ phrase epithets(also called hyphenated epithets when written through a hyphen), e.g. Now he was practically a four-hundred-a-year man instead of a three-hundred-a-year man. (Priestley) …

¨ reversed epithets ( composed of two nouns linked by an of-phrase where theattributive relation between the members of the combination shows that the SD is an epithet), e.g. a thick figure of a man (Priestley)

According to I.R. Galperin, semantically epithets may be divided into 2 groups:

¨ associated underlining the essential feature of the object, e.g. tremendous moustache. (Priestley)

¨ unassociated with the noun, unexpected and striking, e.g. the inhuman drawing-room. (Priestley)

¨

¨ fixed(trite, traditional, conventional, standing), e.g. a devoted friend, magic weather.

¨ figurative (transferred)that can be metaphorical, metonymic, ironical, etc., e.g. bushy eyebrows. (Priestley)

From the point of view of the distribution of epithets in the sentence, there can be distinguished a string of epithetswhose function is to give a multisided characterization. E.g. That she was not really a creature of that world only made her more fascinating, mysterious, romantic … (Priestley)

Oxymoron (Gk. oxus ‘sharp’ + moros ‘foolish’) is a combination of words that express two diametrically opposite notions.

E.g. Her cheerfulness was the cheerfulness of despair. (Maugham)

Oxymoron ascribes some feature to an object or phenomenon incompatible with it, that is why one of its two components can be said to be used figuratively.

E.g. О loving hate! (Shakespeare)

Semantically an oxymoron can be of two types:

¨ evident (composed of dictionary antonyms), e.g. beautifully ugly; and

¨ non-evident (composed of words that render mutually exclusive notions and become contextual antonyms), e.g. jolly starvation.

Function they disclose seeming or genuine discrepancies of objects and phenomena as well as the contradictions of life.

Sometimes they create an ironic or comical effect.

36.

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