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12:27, 23 ноября 2012

Lexical SDs and EMs

To summarize all our knowledge concerning the big block named "Lexical stylistic devices and expressive means", I want to make something of conclusion.

Stylistic means (the term used by I. R. Galperin, V. A. Kukharenko, and other Soviet linguists dealing with stylistics) are means at the disposal of the author that help him to achieve the utmost expressiveness of his language and lend the desired emotional colouring to the description. Stylistic means help the reader to disclose the author’s attitude to the events described and to see a lot between the lines of the literary work.

According to Yu. M. Skrebnev they are also named figures of speech, or tropes; according to Edgar V. Roberts - rhetorical figures.

I. R. Galperin, V. A. Kukharenko, and other Soviet scholars classified all stylistic means of the English language into stylistic devices (SDs) and expressive means (EMs). Yu. M. Skrebnev dividem his figures of speech into stylistic units (having paradigmatic nature) and stylistic sequences (having syntagmatic nature). But I will hold the opinion of I. R. Galperin, because I consider his classification simpler and more understandable.

I. R. Galperin subdivided stylistic means into the three main groups:

1) Phonetic SDs - onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonce, rhyme, rhythm;

2) Lexical  SDs and EMs - metaphor, metonymy, polysemy, zeugma and pun, epithet, oxymoron, antonomasia, simile, periphrasis, euphemism, hyperbole, clichés, proverb and saying, quotation, allusion;

3) Syntactical SDs and EMs - inversion, detached constructions, parallel constructions, chiasmus, repetition, enumeration, suspense, climax, antithesis, asyndenton, polysyndeton, gap-sentence, ellipses, aposiopesis, question on the narrative, represented speech, rhetorical  questions, litotes.

Lexical stylistic devices and expressive means are such types of denoting phenomena that serve to create additional expressive, evaluative, subjective connotations. In fact we deal with the intended substitution of the existing names approved by long usage and fixed in dictionaries, prompted by the speaker’s subjective original view and evaluation of things.

This act of substitution is referred to transference the name of one object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity (of shape, color, function, etc.) or closeness (of material existence, cause/effect, instrument/result, part/whole relations, etc.).

If you need, you can find all theoretical part in English Stylistics manual by Yuliya Gafiatulina or other different books on Stylistics. I want to concentrate your attention on the practical part more.

In this table I tried to represent you all examples (which I could find) of various lexical stylistic devices and expressive means from English Stylistics manual (pages 36 - 48) by Yuliya Gafiatulina.  As you can see the major portion belongs to metaphors, similes and epithets.

 

Metaphor

– transference of the characteristics of one phenomenon to another, showing likeness/similarity in things that are basically different. It is an expressive characterization of an object.

16. The impulse swept over me.

17. Their long tongues shooting in and out as they lapped.

18. I took my courage in both hands.

21.  I screwed up my courage.

26.  The canes went through them.

29. Brain had grasped the situation.

38. Pride is a terrible thing, a seed.

39. Little silvery bells tinkled in my ears.

63. She was the hiss of steam, the clink of a cup, she was a certain hour of the night and the promise of rest.

77. Life is a journey.

83. He was a mass of quivering sensibilities.

84. His thoughts, sympathies and emotions leapt and played.

87. His heart was melting with sympathetic tenderness.

101. The springs shot out.

104. She’s a breath of fresh air.

107. Hindley had room in his heart for two people.

117. You’re a mouse.

118. I’ll try to break both their hearts by breaking my own.

126. Words will burn forever in my memory.

127.  In the depth of despair

129. I gave him my heart, and he destroyed it.

130. This tiny child won his heart.

141. The wild tulip blows out...

145. She was old news.

147 Huge heart was crying out for a bit of affection.

149. Swallowing her natural aggression

151. She had seen fear.

152. A face could curdle milk.

154. Susan was a bundle of nerves.

162. The shame was eating her from inside.

165. His sister’s boy was the apple of his eye.

166. She basked in the compliment.

175. She was a diamond. Barry gave her piece and quiet and affection.

178. She felt the icy grip of fear around her heart.

183. He drank half a glass in a single gulp.

190. The roof of stars

The moon shed rays of light.

192. Her heart hammered.

196. A small snake of irritation

198. Moral, judgments were simply thrown out.

200. Mrs. Beer catches Frank’s eye.

201. Tutin caught his breath and gathered his nerve.

206. Two large tears fell down her face.

214 Fireproof the hiding place undoubtedly was, and thiefproof it had proved. – D. Francis

215. I let the dust and debris and the mental tensions of the week run away in the soft bombardment of water.

216. The words died away on his lips. He hid a guilty gin in his gray beard.

217. His dry lips shaped the words.

221. What I felt was a – a mental chill; a sort of sudden dread.

222. He fought the sea.

231. She was a rose in full bloom.

234. Their eyes met.

252. It’s the ruin of my whole life.

255. The morning drew on. The sun touched the mist.

 

Simile

- the imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to different classes.

1. Finding a flat in Dublin was like finding gold in the gold rush.

14. Lake Gladys lay like a sheet of quicksilver before me.

17. Their long tongues like red ribbons.

26. The canes went through like knitting needles through a pat of butter.

27. His thin figure and long limbs struggled and fluttered like a chicken being dragged from a coop.

41. The great reptilian hearts lay as large as a cushion.

42. A vision of four adventurers was floating like a string of sausages.

52. Soldiers were like two wild birds.

62. He looks like a skinned rabbit.

64.  Their bones were as fragile as a bird’s.

65. They were like a butterfly in a room.

67. Innocence is like a dumb leper.

73. The night was as black as the ace of spades.

75. Your touch is like a butterfly: mine is as heavy as a carthorse.

78. Her husband was like a playful pup.

84. His thoughts, sympathies and emotions leapt and played like lambent flame.

91. My love for Edgar is like the leaves on the trees; my love for Heathcliff is like the rocks in the ground not beautiful, but necessary and unchanging.

94. My brother’s death seemed scarcely a hiccup.

98. He’d had a mind like a labyrinth.

103. He’s as dark as the devil!

114. Hindley and his son Hareton seemed like lost sheep to me.

122. Four miles were like an ocean.

125. She’s like an insect under my foot.

128.  He howled like a wild animal.

135.  Her face felt as cold as ice.

136. My Mama moved among the days like a dream walker in a field.

137. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

138. The feeling was like a cancer, constantly eating away inside..

139. Thy sweet voice to me is like music on the waters.

141. Great red bell is like a thin clear bubble of blood.

142. My heart is like a singing bird.

My heart is like an apple tree.

145. She was like a newspaper read from cover to cover.

146. Stretching like a long-limbed cat, June looked at herself in the mirror.

147 She was a lovely little thing, plain as a pikestaff.

156. The slap on her cheek was like a gunshot in the quiet of the room.

158. You got a face like a wet weekend in Brighton.

159. Mother and daughter were clawing like wildcats.

162. The shame was inside her like a black cancer, eating her from inside.

163. Debbie’s eyes were like saucers as she looked at her father.

164. Her dismissive words were like a knife through his brain.

167. She felt like a million dollars.

168. My mouth feels like the bottom of a bird’s cage.

186. The sheets were like blankets of dry snow.

188. She was now limber as a shoestring in the wind.

189. She [the snake] quivered like a leaf in the lazy wind.

193 The pupils of them [her eyes] were like bright bird’s eggs.

194. At once he felt his body tighten like a bowstring.

195. She perched high on a rock like some fabulous red-gold sea creature.

198. Moral, judgments were simply thrown out like packets from a slot machine.

203. She seems a stupid animal.

206. Two more were on the way like raindrops on a window.

212. London at weekends is a graveyard.

213. His small sitting room looked like the path of a hurricane.

220. The sea was as flat as a plate-glass window.

229. She looked like a lily of the valley.

230. It diverted her to play lightly, like a harpist running his fingers across the strings of his harp.

231. She was like a rosebud.

235. I was shaking like a leaf.

255. It shone whitely like the ghost of snow on a dying star.

259. The moon has a face like the clock in the hall.

260. The sun and rain were playing hide-and-seek together.

 

Comparison

- the comparison of two objects belonging to same classes.

63.  She was again the same as she used to be.

124. Catherine has a heart as deep as mine!

176. She cried like a baby.

258. Wounded vanity can make a woman more vindictive than a lioness robbed of her cubs.

 

Personification

- the qualities of a living thing (either animal or human) given to an inanimate lifeless object to visualize it.

20.  The foolish pride fought against that very word.

38.  Pride bears two vines.

61. The electric train was waiting.

68.  The immense courtyard lay open to the sky.

259. The moon has a face.

 

Epithet

- an unusual description of a phenomenon.

3. blindingly bright

6. come-home-at-once, what-are-you-doing-by-yourself-up-in-Dublin, everyone-knew-you-couldn’t-manage-by-yourself

7. friendly all-girls-together

20.  foolish pride

24. strange clicking

31. twelve–year–old’s

33. not–his–right–name

34.  frightening

34.  frightening

36. dead

37. red and tired

39. thin opal-tinted

51. old fish–face’s

55. heavy–footed

62. puckered-up old man’s

72. hundred-year-old American

87. sympathetic

89. long Christmas-a-birthday-card

95. bright and quizzical

100. romantic; prosaic rubber

109. gathered, wide-eyed and rudderless

111. terrible

112. confident, intelligent expression/ rough

115. angry

119. cold

120. icy

124. deep

139. sweet; great red

146. a long-limbed

147. lovely little; plain

161. tiny dead

177. big blue

178. icy

182. let’s-not-get-all-excited

186. dry

189. riddled

193. bright bird’s; mottled and stenciled green and orange brown.

195. fabulous red-gold sea

198. rougher, cruder

214. Fireproof the hiding place undoubtedly was, and thiefproof it had proved. – D. Francis

215. long, luxurious and much needed

216. guilty

222. seemingly endless

224. curious red-lipped

233. quiet, toneless voice

248. wounded

255. dying

260. fickle

 

Metonymy

– the substitution of one object by another on the basis of their common existence in reality.

49. (I drank) half the glass.

50. There were many Austrian guns…

66. The French were playing.

69. A flashy and false blond

113. She could not take her eyes of Heathcliff.

129. (I gave) my heart.

130. (This child won) his heart.

201. (Tutin caught his) breath and (gathered his) nerve.

253. Her night (was tortured with strange dreams).

258. The dead (have been awakened).

261. The hand (rocked the cradle).

 

Antonomasia

– a proper name used for a common one or vice versa.

19. They are Chesterfields (compared to this crowd).

51. (That was) old fish–face’s room.

 

Synecdoche

– the use of a part to denote the whole or vice versa.

27. His thin figure and long limbs (struggled and fluttered).

29. Challenger’s brain (had grasped the situation).

30. Savage heads snarled at us out of the bushes.

71. I’ll send all the hands out.

119.  faces around me

181. Doreen’s voice was shocked.

209. I found it (car).

210. Vaccaro leaves no mouths alive to chatter.

217.  His dry lips (shaped the words).

218.  His eye (heavy with sleep).

236. (She was afraid of her) mother’s bitter tongue.

 

Oxymoron

– two successive words (mostly an adjective and a noun, or an adverb and an adjective), the meanings of which clash, being opposite in sense.

44. awfully damned nice

47. awfully cheeky

57. terrifically hungry

59. awfully funny

86.  An eternal second

228. deliciously tired’

235. simply wonderful

250. awfully hard

251. awfully good

 

Interjections

– words used to express strong feelings.

54. Hey!

132. God!

 

Periphrasis

– the use of a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of one word to convey a purely individual perception of the described object.

76. To the utility in his pocket

96. Baby computer

 

Euphemism

– a variety of periphrases, “a whitewashing device” – a word/phrase used to replace an unpleasant or tabooed word/expression by a conventionally more acceptable, mild, or less straightforward one.

80.  Who removed William Lush from this world.

81. I’m not ungrateful.

199. She is out, she went away, she turned to an angel, she went on some kind of trip, she’ll never return.

261 The hand has kicked the bucket.

 

Hyperbole

– a deliberate exaggeration/overstatement of an object feature to such a degree that will show its utter absurdity.

10.  She waited for ages.

56. I haven’t a thing in the world.

68.  The immense courtyard

133. I love him more than anyone else in the world.

134.  Her father’s room had become her whole world.

147.  huge heart

148. She was kissing and hugging her mother for ages.

150. two fat tears

176. big fat tears

204.  a huge lump of glass

206. two large tears

226. He lived a year in a minute.

264. He’s so crooked he has to screw his socks on.

 

Understatement,

or meiosis – the exaggeration of smallness.

84.  The slightest impact

130. This tiny child

 

Irony

– a direct contrast of two notions: the notion named and the notion meant.

116.  “Well, well!” replied Heathcliff, looking scornfully at Mr. Edgar’s small figure.

132. “God! What a beautiful creature!” laughed Heathcliff scornfully. “That’s worse than I expected.”

 

Zeugma

– the use of one word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations: on one hand literal, and on the other, transferred.

88... taking the shock in lightheadedness and a constricted throat.

208. I healed everywhere fast, bones, skin and optimism.

Pun

or quibble, or paronomasia – a play on words – the use of one word in two different applications/meanings, or the use of two different words, which are pronounced alike.

 

If you have something to add or change, you are welcome.

Task: choose 3 examples of metaphors, similes and epithets (from each of them), and 1 example from each of other lexical SDs and EMs. Write their full classifications.

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