7.2.1. Simile
The intensification of some one feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called simile (2). Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness of difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to different class of things. Comparison considers all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects except one which is made common to them. For example, 'The boy seems to be as clever as his mother' is ordinary comparison. 'Boy.' and 'mother' belong to the same class of objects— human beings— so this is not a simile but ordinary comparison.
"Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare" we have a simile. 'Maidens' and 'moths' belong to heterogeneous classes of objects and the concept moth indicates one of the secondary features of the concept maiden, i.e. being easily lured. Of the two concepts brought together in the simile—one characterized (maidens), and the other characterizing (moths) — the feature intensified will be more inherent in the latter than in the former. The object characterized is seen in quite a new and unexpected light, because the writer imposes this feature on it.
Similes set one object against another regardless of the fact that they may be completely alien to each other. The simile gives rise to a new understanding of the object characterizing as well as of the object characterised.
Similes may be based on adjective-attributes, adverb-modifiers, verb-predicates.
Similes have formal elements in their structure: connective words such as like, as, such as, as if, seem.
"His mind was restless, but it worked perversely and thoughts jerked through his brain like the misfirings of a defective carburettor." (Maugham)
In the English language there is a long list of hackneyed similes pointing the analogy between the various qualities, states or actions of a human being and the animals supposed to be the bearers of the given quality:
treacherous as a snake, sly as a fox. busy as a bee, industrious as an ant, blind as a bat, faithful as a dog 'to work like a horse, to be led like a sheep, to fly like a bird, to swim like a duck, stubborn as a mule, hungry as a bear, thirsty as a camel, to act like a puppy, playful as a kitten, vain (proud) as a peacock, slow as a tortoise.
These combinations have ceased to be genuine similes and have become cliches in which the second component has become merely an adverbial intensifier. Its logical meaning is only vaguely perceived.
7.2.2. Periphrasis
Periphrasis (3) is a device which denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way used to name a familiar object or phenomenon. Periphrasis represents the renaming of an object and as such may be considered along with a more general group of word designations replacing the direct names of their denotata. One and the same object may be identified in different ways and accordingly acquire different appelations. A certain person can be denoted as either 'his benefactor", or 'this bore', or 'the narrator", or 'the wretched witness'. These names will be his only in a short fragment of the discourse, the criterion of their choice being furnished by the context. Such naming units may be called secondary, textually-confined designations and are generally composed of a word-combination.
This device has a long history. It was widely used in the Bible and in Homer's Iliad.
As a SD, periphrasis aims at pointing to one of the seemingly insignificant or barely noticeable features or properties of the given object and intensifies this property by naming the object by the property Periphrasis makes the reader perceive the new appellation against the background of the one existing in the language code and the twofold simultaneous perception secures the stylistic effect. At the same time periphrasis, like simile, has a certain cognitive function inasmuch as it deepens our knowledge of the phenomenon described. The essence of the device is that it is decipherable only in context. If a periphrastic locution is understandable outside the context, it is not a stylistic device but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily decipherable periphrases are also called traditional, dictionary or language periphrases. The others are speech periphrases. Here are some examples of well-known dictionary periphrases (periphrastic synonyms):
the cap and gown (student body); a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex (women); my better half (my wife).
Most periphrastic synonyms are strongly associated with the sphere of their application and the epoch they were used in. Traditional, language or dictionary periphrases and the words they stand for are synonyms by nature, the periphrasis being expressed by a word-combination. Periphrasis as a stylistic device is a new, genuine nomination of an object, a process which realizes the power of language to coin new names for objects by disclosing some quality of the object.
"I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nursing the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced." (Dickens)
The object clause 'what can never be replaced' is a periphrasis for the word mother.
In some cases periphrasis is regarded as a demerit and should have no place in good, precise writing. This kind of periphrasis is generally called circumlocution.
"The lamp-lighter made his nightly failure in attempting to brighten up the street with gas (= lit the street lamps)."
"But an addition to the little party now made its appearance (= another person came in)."
The means supplied to enable the reader to decipher stylistic periphrasis are very subtle and have aesthetic value. In the following example the word of address is the key to the periphrasis:
"Papa, love. I am a mother. I have a child who will soon call Walter by the name by which I call you." (Dickens)
In some cases the author relies entirely on the erudition of the reader to decipher the periphrasis. Thus in the following example:
"Of his four sons, only two could be found sufficiently without the 'e' to go on making ploughs." (Galsworthy)
The letter 'e' in some proper names is considered an indirect indication of noble or supposed noble descent, cf. Moreton and Morton, Smythe and Smith, Browne and Brown, Wilde (Oscar) and Wyld (Cecil). The italicized phrase is a roundabout way of stating that two of his sons were unaristocratic enough to work at making ploughs.
Genuine poetical periphrasis sometimes depicts the effect without mentioning the cause, gives particulars when having in view the general, points out one trait which will represent the whole. Stylistic periphrasis must efficiently and intentionally introduce a dichotomy. If it fails to do so, there is no stylistic device, only a hackneyed phrase.
Stylistic periphrasis can also be divided into logical and figuative. Logical periphrasis is based on one of the inherent properties or perhaps a passing feature of the object described, as in instruments of destruction (Dickens) —'pistols'; the most pardonable of human weakneses (Dickens) =love; the object of his admiration (Dickens); that proportion of the population which... is yet able to read words of more than one syllable, and to read them without perceptible movement of the lips —'half-literate'.
Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or on metonymy, the key-word of the collocation being the word used figuratively, as in the ‘punctual servant of all work' (Dickens) —'the sun'; 'in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes' (Shakespeare) ='in misfortune'; ^to tie the knot' ='to marry'.
There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy, on the one hand, and figurative periphrasis, on the other. It is the structural aspect of the periphrasis, which always presupposes a word-combination.