1.3 General characteristics of figures of speech in the English language

While writing a literary (or other kind of) work, each author tries to convey his idea precisely and accurately to the reader, to create a certain impression, evoke some feelings. But it's not an easy task to fulfill, as a few letters written on paper must convey both: sadness and joy, anxiety and delight, they should immerse the reader in the atmosphere of a story, encourage readers to adore or hate the heroes.

And this is where figures of speech can help an author. The usage of figures of speech is quite common in literature, as they exist not only to individualize author’s style, but also to enrich an artistic image with emotional colouring.

Figures of speech – are aesthetically marked language units, called in semasiology expressive means and stylistic devices.

Figures of speech in stylistic semasiology of English language can be divided into two large groups, which also have their subgroups:

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1. FIGURES OF SUBSTITUTION:

Figures of Quantity:Hyperbole – is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration aimed at intensifying any feature of the object.

Meiosis is opposite to hyperbole. It is a deliberate understatement, underestimating or diminishing of the features of the object in order to emphasize its insignificance.

Litotes differs from meiosis by both its contents and structure. It is an affirmative statement in the form of negation, which is used to weaken positive characteristics of an object and to express doubt or uncertainty as to the value or significance of the object described.

Figures of Quality:

Metonymical Group:

Metonymy – is a contiguity of nearness, real association of two objects. It can be lexical (when the name of an object is transferred to another object) and stylistic or contextual (which suggests a new unexpected association between the two objects). It is used to build up imagery.

Synecdoche – is a variety of metonymy in which the transfer is based on the association between a part and the whole, the singular and the plural.Both metonymy and synecdoche are used to achieve concreteness of description, with its help the author makes a reader to visualize the object or the character described.

Periphrasis – is a substitution of the word for the word combination, which describes its most essential features. It both names and describes. It can be traditional, logical (based on the logical associations) and figurative (a new genuine nomination of an object).

Euphemism – is a variety of periphrasis which is used to replace unpleasantly sounding word or phrase by a conventionally more acceptable. It can be religious, moral (connected with death), medical, political.Dysphemisms – are conspicuously rough, rude and impolite phrases or words. Both figures are used to cover up what the real situation is. Metaphorical group: Metaphor – is a transfer of a name of one object to another on the basis of similarity, likeness, affinity, associates. It can be nominative(one name substituted for by another), cognitive(a result of shift in the combinability of qualifying lexical units, when their meaning becomes more abstract), generalizing and figurative. According to its structure, metaphor may be simple and prolonged.

Antonomasia – is identification of human being with things; it is interplay between the logical and nominal meaning of a word. Two types can be distinguished: 1) the usage of a proper name for a common name and 2) the usage of common nouns as proper names. It is used to characterize a person simultaneously with naming him/her.

Personification – is ascribing human behavior and thoughts to inanimate objects. It is used to create imagery and can only be used in fiction.

Allegory – can be distinguished as extended personification; it is the expression of an abstract idea through a concrete image. Here belong proverbs and sayings, fables and fairy tales.

Epithet – is interaction of logical and emotive meanings which produce a subjective evaluation to characterize an object. Semantically epithets can be divided into associated or fixed; affective or emotive and figurative or unassociated. Structurally epithets can be simple, compound, two-step structured, phrasal or clausal and inverted or reversed (expressed by an “of-phrase”). Epithets are used to convey the subjective attitude of the writer.

Argumentative group is characterized by a transfer of meaning based on the difference of two meanings.

Irony – is the use of a word having a positive meaning to express a negative one.

Here also belong sarcasm, witticism, satire, cynicism etc.

FIGURES OF COMBINATION: Figures of Identity:

Simile – is an expressive comparison of two objects belonging to different spheres, which have common features.

Synonyms-substitutes – are words used to denote object or action, supplementing new additional details, which helps to avoid monotonous repetitions.Synonyms-specifiers – are used as a chain of words which express similar meanings.

Figures of Opposition:

Antithesis – is a confrontation of at least two phrases semantically opposite.

Oxymoron – is a combination of words which are semantically exclude each other.

Figures of Inequality

Climax – is an increasing gradation of logical meanings and emotions.

Anticlimax – is a decreasing arrangement of meanings.

Zeugma – is a figure of opposition. It takes place when parallel constructions are filled with opposite in meanings words.

Pun – is a device based on polysemy, homonymy or phonetic similarity, used to achieve a humorous effect.

Stylistic syntax deals with specific patterns of syntactic usage, i.e. syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices. Expressive means – are the result of unusual denotative reference of language units, that implies twofold or manifold application of meaning. Stylistic devices – are the result of unusual combination of language units on different levels of speech to achieve a particular effect.

Syntactical expressive means could be split into three major groups:

EM based on Reduction (results from the deliberate omission of some obligatory element(s) of the sentence structure)

Ellipsis – is omission of one/both main members of sentence, which might be clear from the context. It is typical for everyday informal communication and used by the author to reflect the authenticity of oral speech and to add connotations of intimacy and familiarity.

Asyndeton – is deliberate omission of structurally significant conjunctions or connectives. It imitates the spontaneity of oral communication, and makes the narrative measured, energetic and tense.

Nominative sentences – are one-member sentences where the predicate is omitted and the nucleus of the sentence is a noun or a noun-like element (prepositional noun-phrase, adverb, gerund, numeral). These are used to create dynamism of narration or to achieve the telegraphic style. Nominative sentences can be unextended (with a single element); extended (the basic component + one or more words modifying it); multicomponent (with two or more basic elements).

Aposiopesis – is a deliberate break-in-the-narrative – a sudden break in speech, while the thought is not completed, caused under the influence of strong emotions. This meaningful pause is used either to reflect the emotional or/and psychological state of the speaker or to focus the attention on what is left unsaid. Arnold also distinguishes suppression (apart from the aposiopesis) as a deliberate intention not to mention something [1,p.78].

EM based on Redundancy (results from the extension of sentence structure)

Repetition – is an expressive reiteration of the same word or phrase to lay an emphatic stress on certain parts of sentence. Repetition can be ordinary (a repetition of a word in close succession); framing or ring (the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the sentence or a group of sentences); catch repetition (a repetition of the last word in a sentence or clause at the beginning of the next one); chain repetition (a combination of catch repetitions). It is used to stress the monotony of action or to enhance the rhythmical aspect of the utterance.

Enumeration – is a repetition of the homogeneous words or word-combinations. It is used to show the clash of concepts and notions in describing a scenery or image.

Syntactical tautology – is a repetition of semantically identical elements of sentence, used to lay stress on a certain part of sentence.

Polysyndeton – is a repetition of the same conjunction before enumerated components, used to make the utterance more rhythmical. It also promotes a high-flown tonality of narrative. Unlike enumeration, polysyndeton disintegrates the elements showing them isolated rather than united and combined.

Emphatic constructions – is intensification of any part of the utterance, giving it an emotive charge. These are the cleft sentences. The emphatic construction with “do” is used as a predicate intensifier;the construction “it is smb/smth who/that” intensifies the subject;the construction “it is then that” stresses the adverbial modifier of time; “it is by/with/through smth that” makes prominent the adverbial modifier of manner;“It is to that/smth there that” brings to the foreground the object of the sentence.

Parenthetical clauses – are sentences and phrases inserted into a syntactical structure, without being grammatically connected with it. Its functions are those of exemplification, deliberation or reference. It may produce following stylistic effects: creating two layers of the narrative; emphasizing this or that fact; exemplifying certain points.

EM based on the Violation of Word-Order:

Inversion – is intentional violation of the fixed word order in the sentence. There are two major kinds of inversion: grammatical inversion (interrogative and exclamatory sentences) and stylistic inversion (a change of word order which gives logical stress or emotional coloring to the units placed in an unusual syntactical position). Inversion may be of two types: complete (comprising the principal parts of the sentence) and partial (influencing the secondary parts of the sentence).

Separation or syntactical split – is the split of a noun phrase by the attribute adjunct which is removed from the word it modifies. It is used to emphasize the phrase which was separated.

Detachment – is a deliberate isolation of some parts of the sentence with the aim of emphasizing them. The detached elements may be: attribute, apposition, direct objects, indirect objects, adverbial modifier.

The stylistic effect in syntax may be created not only due to the intrasentential relations, but also due to the intersentential relations within paragraphs and other supraphrasal unities. This can be achieved by the use of stylistic devices. Following groups can be distinguished:

SD based on the peculiar formal and semantic interaction of syntactical constructions

Parallelism – is the repetition of several identical syntactical patterns closely following one another. It usually serves as background for stylistic convergence and supported by polysyndeton and different types of repetition. It may be complete (the syntactical pattern of the sentence that follows is completely similar to the proceeding one) and partial (when either the beginning or the end of several neighboring sentences are structurally similar).

Chiasmus – is a reversed parallelism, where the word order of the sentence or clause that follows becomes inverted.

Anaphora – is the repetition of the first words of several succeeding sentences. It is used to create the background for the non-repeated unit.

Epiphora – is the repetition of the final words in succeeding sentences or clauses, used to foreground semantically important information.

SD based on the transposition of syntactical meaning

Rhetorical questions – are negative of affirmative statements used in the form of a question. These are usually used to describe the character’s inner state or to emphasize the speaker’s key ideas.

Exclamatory sentences with inversion

Negative sentences implying emphatic affirmation

Interrogative-affirmative sentences.

SD based on the transformation of the types and means of connection

Parcellation – is the deliberate break of the sentence structure into isolated parts, separated by a full stop. The main stylistic functions are : 1) specification of some concepts or facts; 2)characterization of the personages’ emotional state; 3)description of the events or giving the personages’ portrayal.

Subordination and coordination can be used one instead of another and help the author to show different planes of narration.

So, a diversity of stylistic devices serves to fulfill as precisely as possible the expression of the author's thoughts. Each of them contributes to the imagery and artistic work.