The First Group of Lexical Stylistic Devices
The 1st subgroup
Metaphor means transference of some quality from one object to another on the basis of likeness. It is realization of two meanings simultaneously. A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena, things or events are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some properties of one object to the other.
When the qualities proper to people are transferred to inanimate things we deal with the case of personification.
e.g. The sea breathed again a long slow sigh.
Memory whispers someplace in that jumbled machinery.
If the qualities of some animal are attached to human beings, these are cases of zoonification.
e.g. I will not have that great, drunken, ignorant ape if he were the last man on earth. (Binchy)
Metaphors can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness into genuine and trite. Metaphors, which are absolutely unexpected, unpredictable are called genuine.
e.g. The sun slipped behind the buildings and spilled red-gold across the sky.
Those, which are commonly used in speech and are even fixed in dictionaries, are trite, or hackneyed, or dead metaphors. Genuine metaphors are regarded as speech metaphors while trite metaphors belong to language as a system. ‘ Rays of hope, a flood of tears, a wave of sympathy, a shadow of a smile ’ are examples of trite metaphors.
e.g. ...it made him feel a wave of sympathy.
Genuine metaphors are mostly found in poetry and emotive prose; they are usually created by authors.
Metaphors can be subdivided into simple and sustained, or prolonged, or developed metaphors. In a simple metaphor only one central image can be found. In a sustained metaphor the central image is supported by contributory ones.
e.g. " I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent ". The words ’spur, to prick, the sides’ create the image of a steed with which the speaker’s intent is identified.
" The splash of sun on the wall above him slowly knives down, cuts across his chest, becomes a coin on the floor and vanishes. "
”Her voice struggled on through the heat, beating against it, molding its senselessness into forms.” (Fitzgerald)
Metaphors also vary according to the part of speech in which it is embodied. All notional parts of speech can produce metaphors, so we may speak about nounal, verbal, adjectival, etc., metaphors. 'A ray of hope, a splash of sun 'are noun metaphors, ' the splash of the sun knives down, cuts across' are verb metaphors, ‘ cold comfort, sweet voice’ are adjectival metaphors, etc.
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Metaphors may be classified on a structural basis and subdivided into four structural types:
- mere replacement e.g. The witch shall die.
- appositive e.g. A coo-coo – messenger of spring
- copulative e.g. When I left her she was a lily, and
when I returned she looked a pine.
- of-phrase e.g. a sky of sapphire
Metonymy is based on the identification of the tenor and the vehicle; the type of identification is that of proximity. Different types of relations may create the ground for metonymy, the most common are:
- a concrete thing used instead of an abstract notion,
e.g. the word ‘ crown ’ may stand for ‘monarchy’;
- the container used instead of the content,
e.g. The hall applauded. He drank more than one cup. The hotel was also annoyed. Half Harley Street had examined her, and found nothing.
- the relations of proximity,
e.g. The round game table were boisterous and happy. ‘Bow to the board,” said Bumble.
- the material instead of the thing made of it,
e.g. I lost one paper. She was dressed in silk and nylon.
- the instrument instead of the doer of the action,
e.g.… you are a very good whip, and can do what you like with your horses, you know.
The buses are on strike.
- a part instead of the whole,
e.g. We need some new faces here.
Irony is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two meanings - dictionary and contextual - on the ground of identification of associated phenomena, but the two stand in opposition to each other.
e.g. He smiled the sweet smile of an alligator.
It must be pleasant to know you’re going to die in a moment
especially with your daughter watching you pass away.(D.Baldacci)
Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning, opposite to its literal signification. The stylistic function of irony is to create a humorous effect, but it shouldn’t be confused with humour, which always causes laughter.
e.g. It must be delightful to find oneself in a city without a penny in the pocket.
Usually the words containing irony are strongly marked by intonation and bear an emphatic stress, e.g. How clever of you! Due to the intonation pattern, the word ‘clever’ conveys a sense opposite to its literal meaning. Bitter irony is referred to as sarcasm.
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e.g. The merit of many a great artist has never been acknowledged until after he was starved and dead.(M. Twain)
The 2nd subgroup.
It is known that the majority of words in English are polysemantic, so the primary and the derived meanings of words under certain circumstances may interact. Derived meanings interweave with the primary one and this network of meanings constitutes a stylistic device based on the polysemantic effect.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal, and, on the other, transferred.
e.g. He took his hat and his leave.
Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room…
‘Is anything broken?’ ‘Just my pride, and may be a rib or two.’
The Rich arrived in pairs and also in Rolls-Royces.
She was seen washing clothes with industry and a cake of soap.
The stylistic function of zeugma is to create a strongly humorous or ironic effect.
Pun is the use of a word so as to brings out different meanings or applications, or the use of words alike or nearly alike in sound form but different in meaning. It is often called play on words.
e.g. She often glances up, and glances down, and doesn’t know where to look, but looks all the prettier.
Militant families grumble about the history as it was always his-story, not hers.
The young lady who burst into tears has been put together again.
The best way to avoid washing the dishes is to have your husband eat out of your hands.
The stylistic function of pun is the same of zeugma.
The 3rd subgroup.
Epithet is a lexical stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meanings of an attributive or adverbial unit. Epithets should be differentiated from logical attributes, which are purely objective and non-evaluating.
e.g. a black cat – black jealousy,
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a silent girl – a silent morning,
a dog with a big head – a pig-headed dog.
The function of the epithet is to give an individual perception or subjective evaluation of some features or properties of the things described.
Structurally epithets may be divided into some groups from the point of view of their composition and distribution. From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets are grouped into:
- simple, or word epithets expressed by nouns, adjectives or participles;
e.g. He looked at them in animal panic.
The room was old and tired.
Why would she want to tie herself down to the humdrum existence? (O’Flanagan)
- compound epithets, built like compound adjectives, practically always they are written hyphenated;
e.g. an apple-faced woman, joy-filled eyes
But you know Damien, he’s pig-headed. (O’Flanagan)
- two-step epithets, epithets used with intensifiers;
e.g. marvelously radiant smile
That McMohan girl was remarkably attractive nowadays (Binchy)
- phrase-epithets;
e.g. We did the ‘what do you do’ conversation. (O'Flanagan)
I’m one of those ‘can’t even boil an egg’ men. (O’Flanagan)
It (the wedding) would be small but not hole-in-the-corner.
A ‘boy-meets-girl’ kiss, a dog-in-the-manger wife (Binchy)
- reversed epithets, usually composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase
e.g. the shadow of a smile, a devil of a job, a cow of a girl;
The door was opened by a small barrel of a woman.
(Fowler)
From the point of view of the distribution of the epithets in the sentence, I.R.Galperin singles out string epithets and transferred epithets. The string of epithets usually gives a many-sided description of the object described.
e.g. Such was the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city.
A New Man. Sensitive, caring, loving, gorgeous.
(O’Flanagan)
A fine woodsmoked autumn day (Kesey)
Transferred epithets are logical attributes generally describing the state of a human being, but made to refer to inanimate things,
e.g. sleepless pillow, merry hours, disapproving finger, smoked up and gray and deserted eyes.
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Semantically epithets may be divided into several groups:
a) anthroponymic, or personifying epithets: broad-shouldered houses, singing grass;
b) animalistic, or zoonymic epithets: mousy Philip;
c) synthetic epithets combining different senses: watery smile, bleak voice, cold look, etc.,
d) epithets based on aural images created by onomatopoeia, e.g. a sing-song accent, rustling silk, a girl hissing insults, or by alliteration, e.g. fresh and fragrant, crisp and cold, huge helpless hands;
e) epithets based on antonomasia: a Mona Lisa smile.
I.R. Galperin divides epithets into those associated with the noun following and those unassociated with it. Associated epithets point to a feature which is essential to the objects they describe, e.g. dark forest, drear y midnight, careful attention. Unassociated epithets are attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in it, i.e., a feature which may be so unexpected so as to strike the reader by its novelty, e.g. heart-burning smile, voiceless sands, smiling sun.
V.A. Kukharenko differentiates 1) figurative, or metaphorical epithets that are based on metaphor, e.g., the iron hate, a dream-like experience;
2) transferred epithets which transfer the quality of one object upon its nearest neighbour thus characterizing both of them, e.g., a tobacco-stained smile;
3) fixed epithets, such as true love, merry Christmas.
Oxymoron is a lexical stylistic device based on a combination of contradictory notions, the tenor and the vehicle are diametrically opposite, usually expressed by a word-combination, e.g. horribly beautiful, adoring hatred, a low skyscraper. From the point of view of the relations between the words oxymoron may be evident or non-evident. In an evident oxymoron words of favorable and unfavorable colouring are opposed, e.g. horribly beautiful. The words horrible and beautiful are opposed even taken out of the context A non-evident oxymoron combines the words that are not antonymous, they are not opposed if taken in isolation, e.g. gay starvation. The word gay is not normally antonymous to the word starvation
The main structural types of oxymoron are:
Adjective + noun: delicious torment, painful pleasure, the poorest millionaire.
e.g. And painful pleasure turns to pleasing pain. (Spenser)
Adverb + adjective: horribly beautiful, awfully nice, horrifically good.
e.g. He was horrifically good at talking up a market.(O’Flanagan)
She found Simon Cochrane devastatingly handsome. (O’Flanagan)
Verb + adverb: shout silently, look blindly.
e.g. She looked blindly at him and said nothing. (O’Flanagan)
Adjective + in... a way: ugly in a pleasant way,
Adjective + kind of: a sweet kind of torture.
The stylistic function of oxymoron is to emphasize the contradictory character of the things described or to express the speaker’s ironic attitude.
The 4th subgroup
Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in which the proper name of a person who is famous for some feature is put for a person having the same feature. Antonomasia may be of two types:
3) when a proper name is used as a common noun,
e.g. Her husband is an Othello.
Roger and Jack are sure to turn into the modern and even more ambitious Hitlers. (Golding)
Oh, he is a real faint-hearted Don Juan. (Priestley)
4) when a common noun is used instead of a proper name,
e.g .. I agree with you, Mr. Logic.
A common noun acquires nominal meaning. The interaction of logical and nominative meanings is displayed in the fact that the logical meaning of the common noun is fully or partially preserved.
e.g. Oh, my lovely Miss Beauty! (Baldacci)
What kind of ice-cream would you prefer, my Ms. Sweet-Tooth? asked Charlie. (Baldacci)
Orla hadn’t been Miss Prissy like Kit was being. (Binchy)
You have attracted thousands of eyes, Miss Shining Smile.
(Fitzgerald)
The main function of antonomasia is to characterize a person simultaneously with naming him. In every language there is a special group of speaking or tell-tale names, like Miss Sharp, Lady Teasel, Mr. Know –All, etc.
Structurally antonomasia may consist of one word or it may be a combination of words including different parts of speech:
Adjective + Noun: Sweet Tooth, Shining Smile
Noun + Noun: Headstone
Adverb + Adjective: Evergreen
Phrase: Mr. Know – All
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