Decomposition of a set phrase ONOMATOPOEIA Direct: Buzz, bang, mew. Indirect: white horses and black horses and brown horses trotted tap-tap-tap-tap-tappety-tap Paronomasia A young man married is a man that's marred (Shakespeare); Gentlemen wanted their bankers prudent but not prudish. Spoonerism You've hissed my mystery lessons, you've tasted the worm and you'll have to leave by the town drain. (interchange) ALLITERATION A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning. (Disraeli) Assonance How sad and bad and mad it was (R. Browning); 2) ... the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -/Nameless here for evermore (E.A. Poe). RHYME might-right; needless-heedless (full rhyme) incomplete rhymes flesh-fresh-press (vowel rhyme) tale-tool; treble-trouble (consonant rhyme) (repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words) METAPHOR Art is a jealous mistress (Emerson). (implied comparison) Application of a name or a descriptive term to an object to which it is not literally applicable. antonomasia(a variant of METAPHOR) Every Caesar has his Brutus (O'Henry). Use of a proper name to denote a different person who possesses some qualities. Metonymy “from the cradle to the gravies” a SD based on association, the name of one thing is used in place of the name of another, closely related to it. SYNECDOCHE(a variant ofMETONYMY) Two heads are better than one; 2) The hat went away. Irony You’re in complimentary mood today, aren’t you? First you called my explanation rubbish and now you call me a liar; I’m very glad you think so, Lady Sneerwell; Jack: If you want to know, Cecily happens to be my aunt.- Algernon: Your aunt; ( Ironic use of words is accompanied by specific suprasyntactic prosody.) Zeugma (a variant of SYLLEPSIS ) 1) to kill the boys and / destroy / the luggage; 2) with weeping eyes and / grieving / hearts; 3) Michael ... suggested to the camera that it would miss the train. It at once took a final photograph of Michael in front of the hut, two cups of tea at the manor, and its departure (J. Galsworthy). Pun (or PLAY UPON WORDS) “Have you been seeing any spirits?” – inquired the old gentleman. “Or taking any?” – added Ben Allen. Interjections and exclamatory words Heaven, good gracious!, dear me!, God!, Come on! Look here!, dear, by the Lord!, God knows!, Bless me!, Humbug! (conventional symbols of human emotions).. Epithet – fixed (logical/usual/objective) epithets sweet smile; blue sky; – affective (emotive) -gorgeous, nasty, magnificent; – figurative (transferred/metaphoric) epithets the smiling sun. – simple epithets (built like simple adjectives): true love; wide sea; – compound epithet (built like compound adjectives): heart-burning sigh; – phrase/sentence epithets –a move-if-you-dare expression (“a move-if-you-dare” expression); She looked at me with that please-don’t-touch-me look of hers. (She looked at me with that “ please don’t touch me” look of hers); – reversed (inverted) epithet- this devil of a woman; the prodigy of a child; – chain of epithets –her large blue crying crasy eyes. Attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon. Oxymoron 1) To live a life half-dead, a living death (Milton); 2) Thou art to me a delicious torment (Emerson); 3) And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true (A. Tennyson). 4) Contradictory words (notions) are combined. LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES PECULIAR USE OF SET EXPRESSIONS STYLISTIC FUNCTIONING OF MORPHOLOGIVAL FORMS Simile (or LITERARY COMPARISON) 1) Bees flew like cake-crumbs through the golden air, white butterflies like sugared wafers (Laurie Lee); 2) Marjorie… appeared quite unconscious of the rarity of herself ... wearing her beauty like a kind of sleep (Laurie Lee). 4) “cute as a kitten,” comparing the way someone looks to the way a kitten looks 5)“as busy as a bee” comparing someone’s level of energy to a fast-flying bee 6)"as snug as a bug in a rug" comparing someone who is very cozy to how comfortable a bug can be in a rug Periphrasis 1)I dearly love but one day – And that's the day that comes between A Saturday and Monday; I understand you are poor and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced (Dickens). figurative (metonymic and metaphoric): The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa (I.Sh.); logical -Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires (M.St.).( synonymic phrases) Euphemism 1)With my various friends we had visited most of these tiny, dark, smoky bars, and drunk drinks of minute size and colossal price and watched the female ‘hostesses’ at their age-old work (G. Durrell). 2)They think we have come by this horse in some dishonest manner (Dickens). 3) Passed away instead of died Correctional facility instead of jail Departed instead of died Differently-abled instead of handicapped or disabled Fell off the back of a truck instead of stolen Ethnic cleansing instead of genocide Turn a trick instead of engage in prostitution Hyperbole 1)The function is to intensify the feature: Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old (Sc. Fitzgerald). 2) I am so hungry I could eat a horse. I have a million things to do. I had to walk 15 miles to school in the snow, uphill. I had a ton of homework. If I can’t buy that new game, I will die. He is as skinny as a toothpick. meiosis (deliberate understatement) - sparrow of a woman; a tiny apartment.
2. "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Mark Twain 3. "You know, Einstein was not a bad physicist." 4. "The pond" as a name for the Atlantic Ocean. decomposition of a set phrase 1)– I'm eating my heart out. – It's evidently a diet that agrees with you. You are growing fat on it (Maugham). 2) first you borrow.then you beg. Allusion “The town gossips called her Virgin Jekyll and Miss Hyde.” (N.Mailer) The allusion here is to R.L. Stevenson’s story “a strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” |