Appendix 1. Glossary of stylistic terms

Allegory is an extended metaphor through an entire speech or passage so that objects, persons, and actions in the text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text. In Aesop’s fables and in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, the animal characters represent people.

e.g. The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches there of (Mattew; 13:31-32).

It is used:

• to enlighten the hearer by answering questions and suggesting some principles;

• for the purpose of moral instruction.

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sound in two or more words following each other immediately or at short intervals.

e.g. For my part, I abominate all honorable respectable toils, trials and tribulations of every kind whatsoever. (H. Melville)

It is used:

- to emphasise certain words or a line;

- to unite words through a kind of repetition;

- to make phrases catchy;

- to achieve a melodic or emotional effect;

- to enhance the rhythm of the sentence;

- as a substitute for rhymes.

Allusion is a reference to a fact that the writer thinks the reader already knows. Allusions can be made to matters of general knowledge such as sports, to characters and incidents connected with well-known works of literature, Bible, to historical events and characters.

e.g. Out she swept like the bad fairy at the christening. (Driddle)

It is used:

- to characterise through analogy;

- to broaden the nominal meaning of a word or a phrase into a generalised

concept.

Anadiplosis is the repetition of the final unit of one utterance at the beginning of the next utterance.

e.g. I was home in a sleeping world, a world as harmless as a sleeping cat. (R. Chandler)

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window. (R. Chandler)

It is used:

- to attract the reader’s attention to the key-word of the utterance;

- to give rhythm to the utterance.

Anaphora implies identity of one or several initial elements in some successive sentences.

e.g. Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant. Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gaunly. (R. Wright)

It is used:

- to attract the reader’s attention to the key-word of the utterance;

- to give rhythm to the utterance.

Anticlimax consists in adding one weaker element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before.

e.g. Not all men are annoying. Some are dead. (anonymous)

In twenty minutes you can sink a battleship, down three or four planes, hold a double execution. You can die, get married, get fired and find a new job, have a tooth pulled, have your tonsils out. In twenty minutes you can even get up in the morning. (R. Chandler)

It is used:

- to produce “defeated expectancy” effect;

- to attract the reader’s attention;

- to produce humorous or satirical effect;

- to decline from a noble (pompous), impressive tone to a less exalted one.

Antithesis consists in putting together two ideas that are quite opposite.

e.g. Imagination was given to man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humour to console him for what he is. (anonymous)

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. (R.W. Emerson)

It may be used:

- to create certain rhythmic effect;

• to compare two objects or to set a contrast between them;

• to connect words, clauses or sentences and to unite their senses;

• to disconnect words and disunite their senses.

Antonomasia is the use of a common name as a proper name and vice versa.

e.g. He is still Mr. New Broom, slightly feared. (D. Lodge)

Mr. Altruism. Mr Al Truism. (P. Auster)

It may serve:

- to characterise the bearer of the name;

- to create some humorous effect.

Aposiopesis denotes intentional break in the narrative.

e.g. He had a gopher-wood stave with which… well, some of the animals carry stripes to this day. (J. Barnes)

He almost smiled. And I was grateful. He is a source of guilt and annoyance to me now, but he was my friend, and – … (J. Banville)

It is used to convey:

• the emotional state of the speaker depriving him of the ability to express himself in terms of language;

• unwillingness to proceed;

• the speaker’s uncertainty as to what should be said;

• hint, warning, promise.

Assonance is the repetition of the same stressed vowels followed by different consonants in two or more neighbouring words.

e.g. Strips of tinfoil winking like people.

It is used:

- to enrich ornament within the line;

- as a substitute for end-rhyme;

- to give the poet more flexibility as it doesn’t so much determine the

structure or form of a poem.

Asyndeton is deliberate omission of conjunctions.

e.g. The day, water, sun, moon, night – I do not have to purchase these things with money (T.M. Plautus)

It is used:

- to impart dynamic force to the text;

- to produce strong rhythmic impact.

Chiasmus is a kind of parallelism (reverse parallelism) in which the word order followed in the first phrase or clause is inverted in the second.

e.g. Few rich men own their own property. The property owns them. (R.G. Ingersoll)

It is used:

- to bring in some additional meaning;

- to emphasise certain parts of the utterance;

- to break the monotony of parallel constructions;

- to contribute to the rhythmical quality of the utterance.

Climax (Gradation) denotes such an arrangement of notions, expressed by words, word-combinations or sentences in which what precedes is less significant than what follows.

e.g. I am not in recession. I’m doing fine. I’m well-off. I’m almost rich. (D. Lodge)

It is used:

- to intensify the logical importance or emotional (nervous) strain;

- to show the increase in the volume, quantity, size, etc.

Detachment is tearing a secondary part of the sentence away from the word it refers to, and gaining some independence and greater degree of significance. Detached parts are separated by means of commas and dashes.

e.g. She set her face and gazed under half-dropped lids at the funeral, stoic, fate-like. (D.H. Lawrence)

It is used:

- to emphasise a word or a phrase;

- to impart some additional syntactical meanings to the word or a phrase.

Ellipsis means the omission of one or both principle parts of a sentence.

e.g. If word got out, just think what would happen. Dogs as smart as men? A blasphemous assertion. (P. Auster)

It is used:

- to reproduce the direct speech of characters;

- to impart brevity, a quick tempo and emotional tension to the