You used to come at ten o’clock

And now you come at noon. Soon < very late

In sustained irony we intuitively feel an ironical message but cannot point the exact word in whose meaning there is contradiction between the said and the implied. E.g. The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a moneyed man enter heaven.

The term “irony” is often applied not to the logical or notional but merely to stylistic opposition: using high-flown, elevated linguistic units with reference to socially low or just insignificant topics: e.g. Let’s go to my private thinking parlour (parlour, an old-fashioned bookish word, is used to denote a filthy smelly office).

Irony is used:

· to intensify the evaluative meaning of the utterance;

· to produce humorous effect;

· to express very subtle, almost imperceptible nuances of meaning;

· to show irritation, displeasure, pity, regret, etc,

Litotes [laІ ′tәυti:z, ′laІtәti:z] is expressing an idea by means of negating the opposite idea.

e.g. Mary was in a state of mind to rejoice in a connection with the Bertram family, and to be not displeased with her brother’s marrying a little beneath him. (J. Austen)

Litotes can be of different kinds:

· a construction with the particle not and the word with affixes expressing a negative, lack or opposite, e.g. She was not unhappy with him. He was not brainless;

· negation of the antonym, e.g. It’s not a stupid answer;

· a construction with the negative particle and preposition “without”, e.g.: A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country (Mark 6:4).

Its main stylistic functions are:

· it enhances the effect of the expressed ideas through their apparent weakening, e.g. The English poet Thomas Gray showed no inconsiderable powers as a prose writer (Gray was in fact a very good prose writer);

· it is used to impress by moderation, to make statements and judgments sound less categorical, more diplomatic, e.g. Your decision is not unreasonable. In the style of scientific prose it is employed to show that the author expresses his thoughts with caution, e.g. It is not uncommon for grammarians to distinguish between language-dependent superficial grammatical forms and the deeper principles underlying them;

· it expresses irony, e.g. The place Florien runs is not so bad (good). Nobody has been knifed here in a month (R. Chandler). (The ironic effect is achieved by means of the contrast between what is said and what is implied).

Metaphor is transference of names based on similarity between two objects. Metaphors can be classified semantically, or according to their degree of unexpectedness. Genuine metaphors are unexpected, unpredictable, helping to visualize the picture. Their general stylistic function is not a mere nomination but its expressive characterization. Metaphor is one of the best image-creating devices favoured by poets and writers. Thus, Lawrens Ferlnghetti resorts to metaphors describing his Big Fat Hairy Vision of Evil: “Evil is sty in eye of universe”; “Evil is lush with horse teeth”; “Evil is love fried on the spit”.

Trite metaphors are expressions that have been used so often that they have lost the impact they once had. But they have not lost their expressive force altogether, e.g. her teeth are pearls; a flight of imagination; a burning question, a pillar of the state.

Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour by supplying a word or a phrase, quite unexpected in the given context. Such metaphors are called mixed, e.g. The cold hand of death quenched her thirst for life. The semantic links between two trite metaphors cold hand of death and thirst for life are disconnected by the word quench – a hand cannot quench the thirst.

The structural types of metaphor are:

· simple metaphor which consists of a couple of words, creating a single image, e.g. the water is praying;

· sustained metaphor in which the central image is supplied with additional words bearing some reference to the main word. It can consist of a number of phrases or sentences. E.g. From now on we are just a couple of puppets. They’ll pull the string in London (A.J. Cronin). Sustained metaphor occurs whenever one metaphorical statement, creating an image is followed by another containing a continuation or logical development of the previous metaphor.

It may serve:

· as an image-creative device;

· to characterise or describe objects or people;

· to impart some expressive or emotive force to utterance.

Meiosis [maІ ′әυsis], or understatement, is the opposite of Hyperbole. It is weakening, reducing the real characteristics of the object of speech (its size, quantity, degree, significance, etc). e.g. She was a little short on serenity (J. Barnes) instead of “she was famous for her violent bad temper”.

According to Y.M.Skrebnev, it is meiosis when the speaker “understates normal or more than normal (large) things”, e.g. Detroit is his idea of a small town (F.S. Fitzgerald). It is hyperbole when the described object is “really small or insignificant and the expression used to denote it strengthens and emphasizes its smallness and insignificance”. E.g. The Bureau of Records was about the size of a tea bag” (R. Chandler).

In fiction meiosis is used:

· to strengthen some characteristics of an object through their apparent weakening;

· to reproduce British reserved manner of speech, e.g. As I walked towards Duncan’s front door I could hear raised voices – a very British expression, born of understatement - let’s be frank and admit that they were screaming at each other at the tops of their voices (J. Archer);

· to produce a humorous effect by emphasizing the contrast between the real state of affairs and the way the speaker perceives and presents it, e.g. I shall never forget the poor old gentleman who once traveled with me on the Channel boat. Only the two of us were on deck as a violent storm was raging. We huddled there for a while, without saying anything. Suddenly a fearful gust blew him overboard. His head emerged just once from the water below me. He looked at me calmly and remarked somewhat casually: “Rather windy, isn’t it?”

Metonymy is based on contiguity of objects or phenomena having common grounds of existence in reality. e.g. For several days he took an hour after his work to make inquiry taking with him some examples of his pen and inks. (T. Dreiser)

Metonymyis transference of names based on contiguity (nearness) of objects or phenomena, having common grounds of existence in reality.

The types of metonymy-forming relations are:

· a conspicuous feature can stand for a person, e.g. Across the country we went like the wind followed by a couple of black cars full of moustaches;

· the name of the author can be used instead of the thing created, e.g. Forster, much more than Lawrence, corresponded to Mrs. Smith’s ideal of the English novel;

· names of tools instead of names of actions, e.g. The pen is mightier than the sword;

· the material instead of the thing made of it, e.g. The marble spoke;

· the source of action instead of the action, e.g. Give every man thine ear and few thy voice;

· (in advertising) the desired effect (beauty, happiness) instead of the product, e.g. Buy beauty for 30£. This enumeration can be continued.

It is used:

· to build up imagery;

· to show a property or an essential quality of the concept;

· to impart any special force to linguistic expression.

Onomatopoeia [ ֽ ә nәmætә′pi:ә] is using speech sounds to imitate the sound of what is being described – nature, people, things, animals etc. e.g. buzz, whistle, ding-dong.

Crash! The old girl’s head went through the ceiling as though it were butter. (R. Dahl)

According to I.R. Galperin, there are two types of onomatopoeia:

Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words imitating natural sounds, such as cuckoo, bang, bow-wow.

e.g. “GLOOP! He plunged into mud with Hippo! KERPLONK! He jumped over the little rocks with Elephant…WHOOSH! he hid in the hole with baby Leopard”.

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. Indirect onomatopoeia is found in Byron’s poem “Beppo”. The poet compares two languages: sweet, melting, gentle Italian and English, “our harsh northern, whistling, grunting, guttural, which we are obliged to hi ss and s pit and s putter”. Thus, Byron reflects the acoustic nature of the whistling English language by repeating the sound [s].

This device is widely used in poetry and prose, where the use of onomatopoeia is sometimes more suggestive than imitative: e.g. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke…”

It is used:

· to bring out the full flavour of words, their expressive and emotive connotations;

· to make the acoustic picture of reality;

· to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense.

Oxymoron [ֽ әksi′mә:rәn] is an attributive or an adverbial combination of two contradictory or incongruous words.

e.g.

O anything of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

(W. Shakespeare)

Fresh oxymoron: I am a deeply religious unbeliever. (A. Einstein)

Trite oxymoron: awfully good, terribly nice, pretty dirty, etc.

Oxymoron may also be formed by predicative combinations, e.g to cry silently. One of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the objective inherent feature; the other one offers a purely subjective individual perception of the object, e.g. living death, deafening silence, orderly chaos, etc. Sometimes oxymoron displays no internal contradictions, but rather an opposition of what is real to what is pretended, e.g. careful careless manner.

Oxymoron is used:

· to disclose the essence of an object full of seeming or genuine contradictions, e.g. Her hair was carefully messed-up;

· to produce some emotional impact on the reader e.g. O anything of nothing first create!/ O heavy lightness, serious vanity!/ Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!/ feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! (W. Shakespeare);

· to create ambiguity through contradiction, e.g. A flash of cold-edged heat enclosed me (R. Ellison);

· to provide the novelty of expression. They make effective titles and appealing phrases, and some are meant to be humorous, e.g. definite maybe, cheerful pessimist, etc.

Paradox isan assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.

e.g. It takes a lifetime to become young. (P. Picassso)

It is used:

- to produce the “defeated expectancy” effect;

- to produce humorous or satirical effect.

Parallelism consists in similarity of the syntactical structure of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. Parallelism may be complete, which consists in repetition of identical syntactical structures.

e.g. Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self. (M. Sarton)

It is used:

· to convey the idea of semantic equality of the sentence parts;

· to produce some emotive impact on the reader;

· to emphasize the diversity or contrast of ideas (in combination with antithesis);

· to produce some rhythmic effect.

Parenthesis is a qualifying explanatory word or phrase, which interrupts a syntactic construction without effecting it.

e.g. His mouth was set grimly, and a nerve was twitching in his jaw – he had every right to be furious – but in his eyes all I could see was a sort of dreamy sadness. (J. Banville)

Parentheses may be divided into 2 classes: a) those expressing modality of what is said, i.e. certainty (I am sure, I know) or different degrees of probability (I suppose, I guess); b) those implying additional information, mostly evaluating what is said.

Words, phrases and sentences of modal meaning are of little or no stylistic value. Parenthetic segments bearing additional information are expressive means which perform a number of stylistic functions. They are used:

· to create the second plane, or background, to the narrative, to reproduce two parallel lines of thought, e.g. Noah had it put about that the raven, instead of returning as soon as possible with evidence of dry land, had been malingering, and had been spotted (by whose eye? not even upwardly mobile dove would have demeaned herself with such a slander) gourmandizing on carrion (J. Barnes).

· to make the inserted verbal unit more conspicuous, more emphatic (than it would be if it had the form of a subordinate clause). e.g. The main entrance (he had never ventured to look beyond that) was a splendiferous combination of a glass and iron awning, coupled with a marble corridor lined with palms.(Cf. beyond which he had never ventured to look) (T. Dreiser).

· to strengthen the emotional force by making part of the utterance exclamatory or interrogative, e.g. He – what point is there in not telling you the truth? – was bad-tempered, smelly, unreliable, envious and cowardly (J. Barnes);

· to break the monotony of the narrative by giving some unexpected remarks.

 

Periphrasis is a stylistic device which is used to replace the name of an object by description of its most specific features.

e.g. The man was shouting some choice Anglo-Saxon phrases at the policeman. (P. Auster)

The meaning of a word or phrase is indirectly expressed through several or many words. This way of identifying the object of speech is related to metonymy. The distinction between these two terms is that periphrasis cannot be expressed by one linguistic unit; it always consists of more than one word. Thus, calling a gun shooter, speakers use a trite metonymy, calling it the instrument of law, the instrument of destruction, they use a periphrasis.

This stylistic device has a long history. It was widely used in the Bible. Some occurrences are: born of women –human, those sitting on the surface of the entire earth –humanity, He Who is sitting on the throng – the Deity. Such descriptive phrases were used in place of a name to emphasize the association.

In past epochs periphrasis was also employed to achieve a more elegant manner of expression. Thus, Melville characterizes Renaissance as “a high hour of renovated earth following the second deluge, when the waters of the Dark Ages had dried up and once more the green appeared”.

Periphrasis may be classified into a) figurative and b) logical. Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or metonymy. e.g. The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of fighting in Africa. In this case the extended metonymy stands for wounded. Logical periphrasis is based on one of the inherent properties or perhaps a passing feature of the object described, e.g. guardian of public order – policeman. The periphrasis that has gained wide currency becomes trite and serves as a universally accepted periphrastic synonym, e.g. better half, flash and blood etc.

In contemporary prose periphrasis is used:

· to bring out and intensify some features or properties of the given object; e.g. Luckily you have a bottle of the stuff that cheers and inebriates (J.K. Jerome);

· to achieve a more elegant manner of expression;

· to avoid monotonous repetition.

Personification is a kind of metaphor. It is a representation of inanimate objects or abstract ideas as living beings. The abstract ideas are often capitalized and can be substituted by the pronouns 'he' or 'she'.

e.g. When sorrows come, they come not single spies