Stylistics is one of the most useful and memorable subjects for me.Despite the fact that we had a little time on this subject we took as much knowledge as we can,and it is big contribution of our teacher.The great pleasure makes this fact that stylistics helps us even in our out of university life,I mean when we read books we meet a lot of SD and EM and think about their meanings, in speech of people we began notice them too)))Thank you Yulia Olegovna!

Repetition

Repetition as a stylistic device is a direct successor of repetition as an expressive language means, which serves to emphasize certain statements of the speaker, and so possesses considerable emotive force.

It is not only a single word that can be repeated but a word combination and a whole sentence too.

As to the position occupied by the repeated unit in the sentence or utterance, we shall mention four main types, most frequently occurring in English literature:

1)       anaphora - the repetition of the first word of several succeeding sentences or clauses (a …, a …, a …)

"I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to aerobicize."
(Weird Science, 1985)

2)       epiphora - the repetition of the final word (… a, … a, … a)

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised."
(Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean)

3)       anadiplosis or catch repetition - the repetition of the same unit (word or phrase) at the end of the preceding and at the beginning of the sentence (…a, a …)

"My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain."

The combination of several catch repetitions produces a chain repetition.

4)       framing or ring repetition - the repetition of the same unit at the beginning and at the end of the same sentence (a …, … a).

"Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow"
(Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Itylus")

Stylistic functions of repetition are various and many-sided. Besides emphasizing the most important part of the utterance, rendering the emotions of the speaker or showing his emotive attitude towards the object described, it may play a minor stylistic role, showing the durability of action, and to a lesser degree the emotions following it.

Repetition, deliberately used by the author to better emphasize his sentiments, should not be mixed with pleonasm - an excessive, uneconomic usage of unnecessary, extra words, which shows the inability of the writer to express his ideas in a precise and clear manner.

Morphological repetition, that is the repetition of a morpheme, is to be included into the stylistic means.

e.g. I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye power, good-bye the silly handsome dreams.

Litotes

Litotes – a two – component structure, in which two negations are foined to give a positive evaluation.For example, rather than saying that something is attractive (or even very attractive), one might merely say it is "not unattractive".

In this figure of speech, the usages are intentional, ironical and provide emphasis to the words. In literary circles, plenty of poets as well as writers have used this concept to convey strange and vivid images. It changes the thought process and thereby beautifies and adorns the literary works. Most of the literary works describe litotes in such a way that the words described are not false, but do not come near a complete description of the action in question. Rather, they are presented in a passive tone and demand more careful attention from the reader. Even figurative language use litotes to convey messages in a clear and impressive manner.

Examples Of Litotes In Poems

-       In the lines from the poem 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger, 'It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain', you can see litotes.

-       Alexander Pope in his lines says , ' If you can tell the fair one's mind, it will be no small proof of your art, for I dare say it is more than she herself can do.

-        He who examines his own self will not long remain ignorant of his failings.

-        Overall the flavors of the mushrooms, herbs, and spices combine to make the dish not at all disagreeable to the palate.

Antithesis

"You agree to disagree to the solution, which Jack gave you the previous day?" Well, you can see the way the statement has an opposite opinions placed in one line. This is called antithesis - a figure of speech which contrasts ideas, words and concepts in one sentence. However, contrasting words like bittersweet, dark-light, etc. aren't antithesis. To be an antithesis, a sentence should have contradicting words positioned in a balanced way in a phrase or a clause. Antithesis examples can be commonly spotted in novels, poems and quotes. In fact, you can find people often using quotes like 'to err is human, to forgive is divine' to inculcate good acts in others, which is a very valid example of antithesis. Antithesis is normally used to give out the exact opposite meaning of something. Opposites are not always for arguing or conflicting with each other; it is just the way you use to describe two different moods. Read on to get a clear idea on antithesis.

• Many are called, but few are chosen.
• Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. - Goethe
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. - MartinLuther King, Jr.
• One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind.
• You're easy on the eyes, Hard on the heart.

Polysyndeton and Asyndeton.

Polysyndeton is the use of conjunctions between all of the elements requiring coordination.

EX:Visitors to lpeds.com will find Lars Peterson’s resume and a portfolio and contact information and a blog about writing.

Asyndeton is the absence of conjunctions between the elements requiring coordination.

At www.lpeds.com, visitors can see Lars Peterson’s resume, his portfolio, his contact information, his blog about writing.

Asyndeton and polysyndeton are not limited to coordinating items in a series. Both can be used with phrases and clauses, too.

Phrases and Polysyndeton:

A successful freelance project requires understanding client goals and developing familiarity with the material and transforming both into a compelling read.

…and Asyndeton:

A successful freelance project requires an understanding of client goals, familiarity with the material, solid language skills.

Clauses:

Polysyndeton:

The freelance writer, who has worked in publishing and who has worked in education and who has worked in fishing and who has worked in shipbuilding, brings lessons learned from all of his experiences to each of his projects.

Asyndeton:

The freelance writer has worked in publishing, he has worked in education, he has worked in fishing, he has worked in shipbuilding, and he brings lessons learned from all of his experiences to each of his projects.

http://lpeds.com/2008/05/22/syndeton-polysyndeton-asyndeton/

http://fos.iloveindia.com/antithesis-examples.html

A pun is a phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-soundingwords for humorous or rhetorical effect.                                                                                                                                          A pun may also cause confusion between two senses of the same written or spoken word, due to homophony, homography, homonymy, polysemy, or metaphorical usage. Walter Redfern has said: "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms". ["Puns", Blackwell, London, 1984] Another definition has said that a pun is a word that has two sources used simultaneously (example origin). For example, in the phrase, "There is nothing punny about bad puns", the pun takes place in the deliberate confusion of the implied word "funny" by the substitution of the word "punny", a heterophone of "funny". By definition, puns must be deliberate; an involuntary substitution of similar words is called a malapropism.Puns are a form of word play, and can occur in all natural languages. A person who is fond of making puns is called a punster.

Punning, 'the humorous use of words to suggest different meanings', has been a feature of language at least since the time of Aristotle, who approved of them in some kinds of writing. Some famous historical examples include the description by Pope Gregory I (6th century) of English slaves as Non Angli, sed angeli('not Angles, but angels') and, from a much later date (1843) the reputed message of Sir Charles Napier to the British War Office reporting his conquest of the Indian province of Sind with the single Latin word Peccavi ('I have sinned'). About 3,000 puns occur in the works of Shakespeare, among them Mercutio's dying words in Romeo and Juliet (iii.i.98; modernized spelling): Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. An intentionally dreadful pun can be found in a mock epitaph of Byron, dated 1807, for John Adams, a carrier of Southwell, who died of drunkenness: For the liquor he drank, being too much for one, He could not carry off,—so he's now carri-on. In modern usage, puns occur frequently in casual conversation and are much loved by writers of newspaper headlines.

Zeugma is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases. The result is a series of similar phrases joined or yoked together by a common and implied noun or verb. In a modern sense, the zeugma has been classified as a synonym for syllepsis, a particular kind of zeugma, although there is a clear distinction between the two in classical treatises written on the subject. Henry Peacham praises the “delight of the ear” in the use of the zeugma in rhetoric, but stresses to avoid “too many clauses.” The zeugma is categorized according to the location and part of speech of the governing word.

• -"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit."
  (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

-"Kill the boys and the luggage!"
(Fluellen in William Shakespeare's Henry V)

Irony isthe use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of itsliteral meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I hadto work all weekend.

Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized:                                                            Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.                                                       Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.                                                                                                     Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story.

For example:

"Stay Awake" sung by Mary Poppins to magically put children to sleep.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet speaks from her balcony, not realizing Romeo can hear her.

A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes,"^[1] rather than "electoral votes".

Distinguishing features

An instance of mis-speech is called a malapropism when:

1. The word or phrase that is used meaning something different from the word the speaker or writer intended to use.
2. The word or phrase that is used sounds similar to the word that was apparently meant or intended. For example, using obtuse (wide or dull) instead of acute (narrow or sharp) is not a malapropism; using obtuse (stupid or slow-witted) when one means abstruse (esoteric or difficult to understand) would be.
3. The word or phrase that is used has a recognized meaning in the speaker's or writer's language.
4. The resulting utterance is nonsense.

Examples in English language

Mrs. Malaprop

All of these examples are from Sheridan's play The Rivals.

• "...promise to forget this fellow - to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory." (i.e.obliterate; Act I Scene II Line 178)
• "...she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying." (i.e. comprehend; Act I Scene II Line 258)
• "...she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile." (i.e. alligator; Act III Scene III Line 195)
• "Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nicederangement of epitaphs!" (i.e. apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets)

• To make their characters look foolish, authors and playwrights sometimes utilize malapropism. The name come from the character Mrs. Malaprop, from the play The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Mrs. Malaprop, perhaps the most amusing character in this 18th century comedy, constantly abuses the English language.
• Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Mrs. Malaprop:
• "We will not anticipate the past, our retrospection will now be all to the future."
• "The pineapple of politeness" (Instead of "pinnacle of politeness.")
• "She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (Instead of "alligator on the banks of the Nile.")

Simile is, a comparison (usually introduced by like or as) between two things that are generally not alike--such as a line of migrant workers and a wave, or onion skins and a swarm of butterflies.Writers use similes to explain things, to express emotion, and to make their writing more vivid and entertaining.



Metaphors also offer figurative comparisons, but these are implied rather than introduced by like or as. See if you can identify the implied comparisons in these two sentences:

The farm was crouched on a bleak hillside, where its fields, fanged in flints, dropped steeply to the village of Howling a mile away.
(Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm)
Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
(Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo)

The first sentence uses the metaphor of a beast "crouched" and "fanged in flints" to describe the farm and the fields. In the second sentence, time is compared to a doctor attending a doomed patient.                                                                                                                              Similes and metaphors are often used in descriptive writing to create vivid sight and sound images, as in these two sentences:

Over my head the clouds thicken, then crack and split like a roar of cannonballs tumbling down a marble staircase; their bellies open--too late to run now!--and suddenly the rain comes down.
(Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire)
The seabirds glide down to the water--stub-winged cargo planes--land awkwardly, taxi with fluttering wings and stamping paddle feet, then dive.
(Franklin Russell, "A Madness of Nature")

The first sentence above contains both a simile ("a roar like that of cannonballs") and a metaphor ("their bellies open") in its dramatization of a thunderstorm. The second sentence uses the metaphor of "stub-winged cargo planes" to describe the movements of the seabirds. In both cases, the figurative comparisons offer the reader a fresh and interesting way of looking at the thing being described.                                                A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek word meaning to "transfer" or "carry across." Metaphors "carry" meaning from one word, image, or idea to another.

Some people think of metaphors as nothing more than the sweet stuff of songs and poems--Love is a jewel, or a rose, or a butterfly. But in fact all of us speak and write and think in metaphors every day. They can't be avoided: metaphors are built right into our language.For example, advertisements:                                                                    1."Life is a journey, travel it well."(United Airlines).                                                    2"Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride (Nissan)                                                             Metaphors are also ways of thinking, offering  readers  fresh ways of examining ideas and viewing the world.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       -"Love is the wild card of existence."
(Rita Mae Brown, In Her Day)                                                                                   -"Time, you thief"
(Leigh Hunt, "Rondeau")                                                                                                                                                     --"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."
(Austin O'Malley)                                                                                                                                                                       -"Life is a zoo in a jungle."
(Peter De Vries)



Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, as in describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual.

Examples of metonymy in poems is as follows

'He is a man of cloth', which means he belongs to a religious order.

'He writes with a fine hand', means he has a good handwriting.

'We have always remained loyal to the crown', that means the people are loyal to the king or the ruler of their country.

'The pen is mightier than the sword' refers that the power of literary works is greater than military force.

'The House was called to order', refers to the members of the House.

List of metonyms

Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.

Examples:

• Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there. - Proverb
• And like the flowers beside them chill and shiver, Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone - Robert Frost
• Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing, through all her works, gave signs of woe. - John Milton
• My computer hates me.
• The camera loves me.
• Art is a jealous mistress.
• Wind yells while blowing.
• Opportunity knocked on the door.
• The sun greeted me this morning.
• Snow had wrapped a white blanket over the city.
• Time never waits for anyone.
• Trees were dancing with the wind.
• The radio stopped singing and continued to stare at me.
• The picture in that magazine shouted for attention.
• Plants were suffering from the intense heat.
• The flowers were crying for my attention.

Hello!I'm very glad to join you!!!

Stylistics is a science which deals with expressive means and stylistic devices.The main purpose of the discipline to be able to know these concepts and be able to distinguish them.I think Stylistics will be very usefull for us.It is very close to such disciplines as Interpretation and Analysis of the text,knowledge of Stylistics will help us here(Interpretation and Analysis of the text).Also it will help us during reading any book.