Turning world to evil. (L. Ferlinghetti)

It is used:

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

· to give rhythm to the utterance.

Epithet is a word or a group of words giving an expressive characterization of the object described. It discloses the emotionally coloured individual attitude of the writer towards the person or thing qualified. It is subjective and evaluative, e.g. a sharp, woodpecker gaze.

Epithets may be classified on the basis of their semantic and structural properties. Semantically, epithets can be subdivided into:

· trite, hackneyed epithets which have little stylistic effect, e.g. true love, dead silence, etc.

· genuine epithets (fresh, unexpected), e .g. elephantine barks, double-bladed look, etc.

According to I.R.Galperin, epithets can be divided semantically into two groups:

· associated with the noun (the idea expressed in the epithet is inherent in the concept), e.g. dreary midnight;

· unassociated with the noun (adding a feature that is not inherent in it), e.g. voiceless sands, unthinking silence.

According to V.A. Kukharenko’s semantic classification, epithets may be:

· emotive proper which convey the emotional evaluation of the object, e.g. nasty, gorgeous, magnificent;

· figurative, or transferred which are formed of metaphors, metonymies, similes, e.g. tobacco-stained smile, knifing hangover.

Structurally, epithets may be subdivided into:

a) simple (single), e.g. sleepless pillow, drowsy Death;

b) compound. Compound epithets include:

· phrase epithets, e.g. Genghis-Khan-at-height-of-evil-voice;

· sentence epithets, e.g. “Ron”, she said in an I-don’t-think-you’re-being-very-sensitive sort of voice. (J.K. Rowling)

d) reversed, or inverted, e.g. the tiny box of a kitchen, a cupboard of a place.

Epithet is used:

· to describe objects expressively;

· to create an image;

· to show the author’s subjective, individual perception of the object.

Euphemism [′ju:fІmІzәm] is a word that replaces another word of similar but stronger meaning.Words that are obscene, profane or having unpleasant associations are replaced by milder forms.

e.g. I was thinking an unmentionable thing about your mother. (I. Shaw)

The heyday of euphemisms in England was mid-Victorian era, when the dead were departed or no longer living, pregnant women were in an interesting condition. Novelists wrote d-d for damned, trousers were nether garment or even unmentionables or inexpressibles, second wing was used instead of the leg of a fowl. In America rooster came into use in place of cock as a matter of delicacy. Mrs. Trollope, writing in 1832, tells of “a young German gentleman of perfectly good manners” who “offended one of the principal families… by having pronounced the word corset before the ladies of it.” In those sensitive days legs became limbs, breasts – bosoms.

In the 20^th century euphemisms were employed less in finding discreet terms for what is indelicate than as a protective device for governments and as a token of a new approach to psychological and sociological problems.

According to their spheres of application, euphemisms may be divided into several groups. They are:

a) political euphemisms. E.g. assassination and aggression can be made more respectable by calling them liquidation and liberation. In 1980-s the campaign for political correctness began. PC was intended to erase any kind of discrimination (racism, sexism, ageism) that exists in language. PC generated new strains of vocabulary and changed some well-known language patterns. E.g. historically disadvantaged group stands for minority; First Nation, Native Americans substitute Red Indians etc.

b) religious euphemisms. The word devil is often replaced by Old Nick, the dickens, Old Harry, old gentleman.

c) euphemisms associated with the idea of death, e.g. to go west, to depart, to join the majority, to pass away are used instead of to die;

d) euphemisms which denote some unpopular jobs, e. g. rodent operators < rat catchers, meat technologists <butchers; street orderlies < dustmen.

Euphemisms are used:

· to soften an otherwise coarse or unpleasant idea, to produce mild effect;

· to avoid any kind of discrimination (agism, sexism, etc).

Graphon is intentional violation of the spelling of a word/word combination used to reflect its authentic pronunciation (V.A. Kukharenko).

e.g. “Thith thtuff thtics in my mouth’, complained the rat. ‘It’th worth than caramel candy’. (E.B. White)

Graphons are mainly found in prose – they are applied in contemporary advertising, mass media and fiction.

According to their function, graphons can be subdivided into two groups:

· those which show deviations from Standard English pronunciation;

· those which reproduce some peculiarity in emphatic pronouncing words or phrases.

The first group of graphons indicates non-standard pronunciation, caused either by temporary or by permanent factors.

Temporary factors include:

· ignorance of the discussed theme; e.g. In Harry Potter a character from the magic world who has never used a telephone, calls it “ fellytone”.

· intoxication; e.g. “ He is drunk”. “No, shir. He is ash shober, ash you or I”.

· tender age; e.g. aminals instead of animals. The pronunciation of the suffix ing as [ in ] is a peculiar feature of children’s speech.

Permanent factors are:

· speech problems such as stammer (e.g. The b-b-b-b-bas-tud – he seen me c-c-c-c-com-ing), lisp (e.g. Thith ith a bad pieth of bithnith, thith ith);

· social and territorial background, etc.

Most graphons show features of territorial or social dialect of the speaker. They are meant to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education and even social standing. Most of the examples so far quoted come from the cockney dialect with its peculiar dropping of “ h ”. e.g. She allows that boy of ‘ers to ‘ave it in the ‘ouse. Another famous cockney feature is the substitution of the diphthong ai for the diphthong ei. E.g. Will ye- oo py me f’ them. Well, fank goodness.

The second group of graphons includes those graphic means which do not involve violations of the Standard English. They are used to impart expressive force to the utterance, to convey the intensity of stress, to emphasize some syllables, etc.

Variants of pronunciation can be shown in print by changing the type and by spacing of graphemes and of lines.

Changes of the type include:

· italics, which is the simplest way to call attention to an otherwise unemphatic syllable, word or phrase, e.g. “And the cops are looking for him ” she said and laughed. It may also be used to show that certain part of the utterance is specially modulated,e.g. Hel- lo, Beatrice! (R. Dahl).

· Bold type gives a word or phrase more than usual emphasis.

· Capitalization (e.g. ARE YOU MAD?) can create an impression of “shouting”. It also shows the importance of some words.

· Discarding of capital letters breaks the pattern of predictability and thus makes a word or a phrase more prominent, e.g. “I shook my head, jesus christ, right enough” (J. Kelman).

Spacing of graphemes and of lines includes:

· doubling (to intensify the initial consonant). E.g. “N-no!” (more decisive);

· multiplication imparts intensity to the utterance, especially in commands e.g. Rrree-sign! Rrree-tire! (R. Dahl);

· hyphenation reproduces uttering each syllable or generally part of a word as a phonetically independent unit, in retarded tempo, e.g. Ab-so-lu-tely!

· missing blanks between words can be used to emphasize quickness of speech tempo, e.g. “Yessir!”

Graphons are used:

· to characterise the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education and even social standing;

· to show the speaker’s inability to pronounce words according to the standard (intoxication, lisp, stammer, etc);

· to reproduce the emphatic pronunciation of words.

Hypallage – metonymical/transferred epithet.

e.g. He took his sad chair and lit a cigarette.

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement. It presents a deliberate distortion of proportions and is not meant to be taken literally. Hyperbole may be used due to highly emotional attitude of the speaker towards the subject discussed.

e.g. The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on. (R. Chandler)

In poetry and prose hyperbole is noticed and appreciated by the reader. A genuine hyperbole is “exaggeration on a big scale. There must be something illogical in it, something unreal, utterly impossible, contrary to common sense, and even stunning by its suddenness” (Y.M. Skrebnev).

e.g. Dr Johnson drank his tea in oceans (T.B. Macaulay).

Hyperbole is used:

· to exaggerate quantity or quality; e.g. My aunt is so fat that every time she turns around it’s her birthday. His sister is so skinny, she has to run around in the shower to get wet.

· to serve expressive and emotive purposes;

· to produce some humorous effect; e.g. “It must have been that caviar”, he was thinking. “That beastly caviar”. He violently hated caviar. Every sturgeon in the Black Sea was his personal enemy (Al. Huxley).

Hyperbole is often combined with other stylistic devices – metaphor, simile, irony, etc. e.g. He gave me a look that could set asbestos on fire (D. Fransis).

Inversion consists in unusual arrangement of words for the purpose of making one of them more emphatic.

e.g. Of my country and of my family I have little to say. (E.A. Poe)

A part of the sentence is placed into an unusual initial position for the purpose of emphasis, e.g. My account you can trust (J.Barnes).

The unusual first place may be occupied:

a) by a predicative, e.g. So absorbed was I in this illusion that I accepted the sound as part of it (B. Mac Laverty);

b) by a simple verbal predicate, e.g. Came frightful days of snow and rain.

c) by an adverbial modifier, e.g. With water from a Victorian brass tap Mrs. Smith mopped her face (A.S. Byatt).

d) by the direct object, e.g. This beautiful scene I always enjoy.

Secondary inversion (inversion of inversion) is rearranging the question in direct word order, e.g. “You like?” he says in English (W. Boyd).

Irony is the use of a word in a sense that is opposite of its usual meaning. There is always a contrast between the notion named and the notion meant.

e.g. A nice sense of humour – like a morgue attendant. (R. Chandler)

Irony is based on the direct contrast of two notions: the notion named and the notion meant.

There are two kinds of irony: verbal and sustained.

In verbal irony it is always possible to indicate the exact word in which contextual meaning opposes its dictionary meaning. The ironical sense of such utterances is evident to any native speaker.

e.g. Why do you come so soon?