If both ways led to terror and death, what good lay in choice?

Litotes (affirmation is expressed by denying its contrary)

Not hopeless. Not without love. Not a coward. Not too awful.

Phonetic devices

Alliteration (repetition of the same sounds) (phraseologies, advertisements, proverbs, titles)

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

Onomatopoeia (imitation of sounds they refer to, gives the impression of echoing)

Bow-wow

Rhyme (identity of sounds between syllables or paired groups of syllables, usually at the end of verse lines)

Monosyllabic (masculine rhyme)

Disyllabic (feminine rhyme)

Trisyllabic (glamorous rhyme)

Rhythm (pattern of sounds perceived as the recurrence of equivalent “beats” at more or less equal intervals)

There is grief in the sound

There is guilt in the fame (G. Byron)

Classification of lexical stylistic devices

Interaction of lexical meanings

Primary dictionary and contextual meaning (metaphor, metonymy, idiom, irony)

Primary and derivative meaning (Zeugma, pun)

Logical and emotive meaning (Epithet, Oxymoron)

Logical and nominal meaning (Antonomasia)

Intensification of a feature of thing or a phenomenon

Simile, Hyperbole, Periphrasis

Set expressions

Cliches, Proverbs, Epigrams, Quotations, Allusions, Decomposition of Set Phrases

Zeugma and Pun

Z. – blending together of two or more semantically incompatible word groups, having an identical lexical item.

She took her breakfast and her bath.

P. – bringing out different meanings of one word (polysemy) or using of words alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning (homophony). Paronomasia “word play”

She was too beautiful for wards

Oxymoron

Tenor and vehicle are diametrically opposite. Logical M. prevails but emotive is the result of clash between logical and illogical. (sim. – paradox)

The worse – the better, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength

Antonomasia

Proper name of a person, famous for some features is put for a person having the same feature.

PN as CN

Her husband is an Othello

CN as PN

Mr. Know-It-All

Speaking Names

Mrs. Dolittle, Mr. Murderstone

Simile

Intensification of some single feature of a thing by bringing one object (T) in contact with another (V), belonging to entirely different class of things.

Link words as, like

His face remained as immobile as stone

Link words as though, as if

It looked as though he had been tortured

Lexical means to express resemblance

He reminded Julia of an old dog lying in the sun

Trite and familiar

Behave like a bull in a china shop, innocent as a babe unborn

NOT logical comparison (one class of things)

Epithet

Interplay of emotive and logical meaning to give individual perception or evaluation of properties.

Simple or word-epithets

The room was old and tired and uncaring

Compound

Apple-faced woman

Two-step epithets (intensifier)

Marvelously radiant smile

Phrase (hyphenated)

I-am-not-that-kind-of-girl look

Reversed (of-phrase)

Shadow of a smile

Galperin (2 types)

Associated (feature essential to the object described)

Dark forest, careful attention

Unassociated (adds a feature unexpected)

Voiceless sands, smiling sun

Kukharenko

Fixed (through long repetition)

True love, merry X-mas

Figurative (formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes)

Sleepless pillow, dreamlike experience

Periphrasis

Roundabout way used to name some object or phenomenon

(traditional and artistic) – fair sex, better half

Logical periprasis (inherent properties of a thing)

Instruments of destruction

Figurative (imagery – metaphor or metonymy)

Tie a knot, in disgrace with fortune

Euphemistic (avoid mentioning of taboo words or unpleasant things)

To pass away = to die

Hyperbole and Irony

H. – deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential to the object

He’s written barrels of interesting stories

Understatement (smallness is exaggerated)

A woman of pocket size

Trite

Haven’t seen you for ages

I. – simultaneous realization of two meanings: the literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning.

Nice weather, isn’t it? (on a rainy day)

Negative meaning through positive concepts.

Metonymy

The name of a thing is replaced by the name of associated thing. One name is used instead of another. Existing relations between two objects.

Abstract stands for concrete

It was a representative gathering – science, politics, business

The container is mentioned instead of the contents

He drank one more cup

Material instead of the thing made of it

He examined her bronzes and clays

The maker for the thing made

He had several Picassos

Instrument is put for the agent

His pen is rather sharp

Part for the whole (synecdoche)

The crown = the king, the hand = worker

Trite

Earn one’s bread, to live by pen

Climax (gradation)

Climax (ascending series of words aimed at intensifying events step by step)

Not a dollar – not a penny of my money will I devote to anyone who could be guilty of such a crime.

Logical C. (each word is more intense than the previous one)

But for the M.R.C.P. it’s the most difficult medical exam in the whole school. It’s – it’s a murder! Tul! She’s a lamb, a dove, a fool to him

Emotional C. (words are more powerful from emotional p.o.v.)

She was a crashing, she was a stupendous, she was an excruciating bore

Qualitative C. (intensification of quantity in each group)

Mary had counted the months, the weeks, the days, the hours to Anthony’s return

Antithesis

Stressing certain qualities of the thing described by setting it against another thing possessing contrasting features. Antagonistic ideas are presented by dictionary or contextual antonyms

Developed antithesis

NOT contrast, but stylistically coloured opposition.

Set expressions

Cliché

Lost its originality or effectiveness because of frequent usage