Lecture 7 Intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon

Aim: to improve students’ skills in the knowledge of SD and EM with other disciplines

Plan:

1. Simile

2. Periphrasis

3. Euphenism

4. Hyperbole

Recommendations:

1. Scrutinize the lecture and pay attention to the terms given in the lecture.
2. Pay attention to the reference literature.
3. Speculate on the implications which might arise upon the reading of the lecture.

Simile

The intensification of some one feature of the consept in question is realized ina divice called simile. “Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two devirse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by brining it into contact with another object beloning to an entirely different class of thing. Comparison takes into consederation all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects except one, which is made common to them. For example, ’The boy seems to be as clever as his mother’s ordinary comparison. ‘Boy’ and ‘mother’ belongs to the same class of objects - human beings -so this is not a simile but ordinary comparison.

Similes have formal elements in their structure: connective words such as like as, such as, as if, seem. Here are some examples of similes taken from various sources and illustrating the variety of structural designs of this stylistic device.

“His mind was restless,but it worked perversely and thoughts jerked through his brain like the misfiring of a defective carburetor “(Maugham)

The semantic nature of the simile-forming elements seems and as if is such that they only -remotely suggest resemblance. Quite different are the connective like and as. These are more categorical and establish quite straightforwardly the analogy between the two objects in question.

Sometimes the simile forming like is plased at the end of the phrase almost merging with it and becoming half-suffix, for example:

“Emily Barton was very pink,very Dresden-china shepherdess like.”

In simple non-figurative language,it will assume the following form:

“Emily Barton was very pink and looked like a Dresden -china-shepherdess.”

Simile may suggest analogies in the character of actions performed. In this case the two members of structural design of the simile will resemble each other through the actions they perform. Thus:

“The Liberals have plunged for entry without considering its

effect, while the Labour liders like cautious bathers have put a timor-

ous toe into the water and promtly withdrawn it.”

The simile in this passage from a newspaper article ‘like cautious bathers’ is based on the simultaneous realization of the two meanings of the word plunge. The primary meaning ‘to throw oneself into the water’-prompted the figurative periphrasis ‘have put a timorous toe into the water and promptly withdrawn it’ standing for ‘have abstained from taking action.’

In the English language there is long list of hackneyed similes pointing out the anology between the various qualities,staties or actions of a quality, etc., for example:

Tracherous as a snake, sly as fox, busy as a bee, industrious as an ant, blint as a bat, faithful as a dog, to work as a horse, to led like a sheep, to fly like a bird, to swim like a duck, stubborn as a mule, hungry as a bear, thirsty as a camel, to act like a puppy, playfull as a kitten, vain (prod) as a peacock, slow as a tortoise and many others of the same type.

These combinations,however, have ceased to be genuine similes and have become cliches in which the second component has become mererly an adverbial intensifier. Its logical meaning is only vaguely percieved.

From the point of view of the content trite simple can be classified into the following:

1. Simile describing the appearance of a person fat as a pig, fare as a lily.

2. Simile describing the features of the character industrious as an ant, faithful as a dog.

3. Simile describing the actions:busy as a bea, fleet as a dear, slow as a tortoise.

4. Simile describing the inner state feel like a fish out of water,blash as a sin, blush like rose.

Genuin simile is a comparison between seemingly uncompareable things

He felt lonely as a telephone ringing in an empty room.

The stylistic function of simile may be different:

1. to produce a humorous effect by its unexppectedness, hairless as a boiled onion.

2. imaginatine characterisation of a phenomenon.

Periphrasis

Periphrasis is a device, which, according to Webster’s dictionary, denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression.It is also called circumlocution due to the roud-about or indirect way used to name a familiar object or phenomenon. Viewed from the angle of it’s linguistic nature,perephrasis represent the renaming of an object and as such may be considered along with a more general group of word designations replasing the direct names of their denotata. One and the same object may be identified in different ways and accordingly acqure different appelations. Thus, in different situations a certain person can be denoted, for instance, as either ‘his benefactor’, or ‘this bore’or ‘the narrator’, or ‘the wretched witness’, etc. These names will be his only in a short fragment of the discourse, the criterion of their choice being furnished by the context. Such naming units may be called secondary, textually confined designations and are generally composed of a word-combination.

This device has a long history. It was widely used in the Bible and in Homer’s Iliad. As a poetic device it was very popular in Latin poetry. Here are some examples of well-known dictionary periphrases(periphrastic synonyms);

the cap and gown (students body);a gentlemen of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex (women); my better half (my wife).

For example, gave birth to a cluster of periphrastic synonyms of the word king, as: the leader of hosts;the giver of rings; the protector of earls; the victor lord. A play of swords meant ‘abatte’; a battle-seat was’a saddle’; a shield-bearer was ‘a warrior’.

Here are some such stylistic periphrases:

“I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who was been so premately deprived of what can never bereplased.”(Dickens)

The object clause ‘what can never be replased’is a periphrasis for the word mother. The concept is easily understood by the reader within the given context, the latter being the only code which makes the deciphering of the phrase possible.

Stylistic periphrasis can also be devided into logical and figurative. Logical periphrasis is based in one of the inheren properties or perhaps a passing feature of the object described, as in instruments of destruction (Dickens) - ’pistols’; the most pardonable of human weaknesses..(Dickens) - ’love’ the object of his admiration (Dickens); that proportion of the population which...is yet able to read words of more than one syllable, and to read them without perceptible movement of the lips - ’half-literate’.

Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or on metonymy, the key -word of the collocation being the word used figuratively, as in ‘the punctual servant of all work ‘(Dickens)^’the sun’; ’in disgrase with fortune and men’s eyes’ (Sheakspeare) - ’in misfortune’; ‘to tie the knot= to marry’.

There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy, on the one hand, and figurative periphrasis, on the other. It is the structural aspect of the periphrasis, which always presupposes a word-combination, that is the division.

Euphemism

Euphenism, as is known, is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one, for example, the word ‘to die‘ has bred the following euphemisms: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, to go to west. So euphenisms are synonyms, which aim at producting a deliberately mild effect.

The origin of the term ‘euphemism’ discloses the aim of device very clearly, i.e. speaking well (from Greek -eu=well+pheme= speaking).

Compare these euphenisms with following from Dickens’s “Pickwick Papers”:

“They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner.” The italicized parts call forth the word ‘steal’ (have stolen it).

Euphenism may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of application. The most recognized are the following:1) religious 2) moral 3) medical and 4) parliamentary.

The author further points out that certain words, for instance, traitor and coward, are specifically banned in the House of Commons because earlier Speakers have ruled them disorderly or unparliamentary. Speakers have decided that jackass is unparliamentary but goose is acceptable; dog, rat and swine are out of the order, but halfwit and Tory clot are in order.

As has already been explained, genuine euphenism must call up the word it stands for. It is always the result of some deliberate clash between two synonyms. If a euphemism fails to carry along with it the word it is intended to replace, it is not a euphenism, but a deliberate veiling of the truth. All these building up of labour reserves, savings, freew interprisers and the like are not intended to give referent it’s true name, but not to desort the truth. The above expression serve that purpose. Compare these word-combinations with real euphenisms,like to four-letter word (==an obscenity); or a woman of a certain type (==a prostitute, a whore); to glow (==to sweat), all of which bring to our mine! The other words (words) and only through them the referent.

This becomes particularly noticeable in connection with what are called political euphenisms. These are really understatements, the aim of which is to mislead public opinion and to express what is unpleasant in a more delicate manner. Sometimes disagreeable facts are even distorted with the help of a euphemistic expression.Thus the headline in one of the British newspapers “Tension in Kashmir” was to hide the fact that there was a real uprising in that area; “Undernourishment of children in India” stood for ‘starvation’. In A.J.Cronin’s novel “The Stars Look Down “ one of the members of Parliament,reffering to the words “Undernourishment of children in India” says: “Honorable Members of the House understand the meaning of this polite euphemism.” By calling undernourishment a polite euphenism he discloses the true meaning of the word.

Hyperbole

AnotherSD, which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object described, is hyperbole. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon. In its extreme form this exaggeration is carried to an logical degree, sometimes an absurd. For example:

“He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face.” (O. Henry) or “Those three words (Dombey and Son) conveyed the one idea of Mr. Dombey’s life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the center.” (Dickens).

In order to depict the width of the river Dnieper Gogol uses the following hyperbole:

“It’s a rare bird that can fly to the middle of the Dnieper.”

Like many stylistic devices, hyperbole may lose its quality as a stylistic device through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language -as -a -system, reproduced in speech in its unuttered form. Here are some examples of language hyperbole:

‘A thousand pardons’, ‘scared to death’, ‘immensely obliged’, ‘I’d give the world to see him’.

Byron says:

“When people say “I’ve told you fifty times”

They mean to scold, and very often do.”

Control questions:

1. What is Simile?

2. What is Periphrasis?

3. What is Euphemism?

4. What is Hyperbole?

Literature:

1. Л.Л. Нелюбин. Лингвостилистика современного английского языка. М., 2007г

2.Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского языка. М., 1990
3. Кухаренко В.П. Семинары по стилистике. М., 1985
4. Galperin I. R. Stylistics. М., 1981
5. Кухаренко В.П. Интерпретация текста. М., 1984.
6. Разинкина Н.М, Функциональная стилистика. М., 1989.
7. Телия В.Н. Теория метафоры. М., Наука, 1990.

8.Ullman, Stephen, Words and their use. Frederich Muller, Ldn. 1975, p. 107

9. Verhaar, John W.M., Proceedings of the Ninth international congress of linguistics, The Hague, 1986, p. 378

10.Foster, Brian, The changing English language, Penguin books, 1990, p.12

11.Barfield, Owen. Poetic diction. Lnd, 1979, 2nd. ed. p. 628

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