The Second Group of Lexical Stylistic Devices
Simile is a stylistic device in which a single feature of a thing is intensified and made the most significant. It characterizes the tenor by comparing it with the vehicle belonging to an entirely different class of things. The stylistic function is to intensify a particular feature and make a description vivid.
A stylistic device of simile shouldn’t be confused with a logical comparison that deals with objects belonging to the same class.
Cf., The girl is as beautiful as her mother (comparison)
His face was as immobile as a stone. (simile)
The relations between the tenor and the vehicle can be expressed in the following ways:
1) with the help of link-words as, like establishing the analogy categorically.
e.g. The wisps of cloud were like trails of candy-floss. (O’Flanagan)
Her body swayed while she danced, as a plant sways in water. (O.Wilde)
2) with the help of link-words as if, as though establishing slight similarity.
e.g. I stared upward, as though transfixed by this petrifying sight.
He had an odd feeling as if he were a giant looking at the valley of pygmies.
3) with the help of lexical means expressing sameness, difference or resemblance,
e.g. He resembled her an old bulldog ready to fight at any moment. (Baldacci)
The countryside seem s to faint from its smells.
English vocabulary abounds in similes that have become trite and familiar, like as innocent as a baby, as cool as a cucumber, as deaf as a stone, as mute as a statue, as pure as a lily, as red as a cherry, as straight as an arrow, as fit as a fiddle, as pale as ghost.
Similes may be of different types:
- descriptive, used to give vividness to the description
e.g. Her skin was like the skin of sucked grapes.
- associative evoking different associations in the mind of a listener;
e.g. The fire glowed suddenly like the eyes of a savage beast.
- ornamental used to extend the quality which is already given;
e.g. Her face was not closed any more, but open like a happy tulip on a spring day.
- proverbial used to express people’s wisdom and experience;
e.g. He is as poor as a church mouse.
Similes may be motivated as cold as a cucumber, as red as a
cherry or non-motivated. The function of simile depends on the style in which it is used: for example, in the belles-lettres style it is used for vivid descriptions, for evaluation, for humour, etc., in scientific prose its function is specifying or illustrative.
Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration of a certain feature essential to the object described. Many hyperboles used in speech have lost originality because of numerous repetitions and are fixed in dictionaries. They have lost the quality of a stylistic device and become units of the language as a system and are reproduced in speech ready-made, e.g. a thousand pardons, tired to death, immensely obliged, etc. Genuine hyperboles may be of two types: overstatements and understatements.
|
|
|
e.g. After an age she stood up from her chair. (Binchy)
The moment lasted forever. (Binchy)
Patrick had made enough toast to feed them for a week.
(O’Flanagan)
Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old.
(Fitzgerald)
A train was moving at a snail’s pace.
The aim of hyperbole is to intensify one of the features of an object to such a degree as to show its absurdity.
Periphrasis is a round-about way of naming things; it is a device in which a longer phrasing is used instead of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. There are many dictionary or traditional periphrases, which are familiar to everybody and are easily decoded, these are trite periphrases, e.g., My better half, the fair sex, to keep body and soul together. Genuine periphrases are used to attract the reader’s attention by their novelty and freshness. The stylistic function of this device is to convey subjective perception of the thing described, to add new understanding, cf ., He was growing fat. - His chin has already become doubled.
Proceeding from the semantic basis for the substitution one can differentiate among logical, figurative and euphemistic periphrases. Logical periphrases are based on the inherent properties of the thing described, on a certain feature characteristic of a thing,
e.g., a rifle - an instruments of destruction, to dismiss – to get off the payroll, love - the most pardonable of human weaknesses.
’Senior passenger services director – I’ll bet some bloke thought up that title! They needed something that sounded better than hostess!’ (O’Flanagan)
Figurative periphrases are based on imagery, either on metaphor or metonymy.
|
|
|
e.g., the punctual servant of all work – the sun, He would come back and marry his dream from Blackwood. He married a good deal of money.
Sometimes periphrases are used to create humour,
e.g. He is sleeping, his organs of vision have been closed for nearly twenty seconds. The subject of this instinctive trust (Gatsby) returned to the table and sat down. (Fitzgerald)
Euphemistic periphrases or euphemisms are words or phrases used to avoid mentioning of unpleasant or taboo things.
e.g. to die –to pass away, to be no more, to join the majority, to do one’s duty. Charles would live permanently in Winsyatt, as soon as the obstacular uncle did his duty.(Fowler)
toilet – a wash room, a rest room, public convenience,
to be pragnant to be in the family way, to be expecting,
old age – the evening of life,
death – a woman in black with a scythe.
Euphemisms may be divided into religious, moral, medical, parliamentary, etc., according to their spheres of their application.
Дата добавления: 2016-01-04; просмотров: 25; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!