Lecture 3 Lexical Stylistics Lexical stylistic devices

Lecture 3 Lexical Stylistics • Lexical stylistic devices based on the intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon; • Lexical stylistic devices based on the use of set expressions.

The 2 nd group of LSDs based on the intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon • i. e. one of the qualities of the object in question is made to sound essential. • Here belong: • simile, • periphrasis, • euphemism, and • hyperbole.

Simile • is a stylistic device in which a single feature of a thing is intensified and made the most significant. • It characterizes the tenor by comparing it with the vehicle belonging to an entirely different class of things. • The stylistic function is to intensify a particular feature and make a description vivid.

The relations between the tenor and the vehicle can be expressed in the following ways: • with the help of link-words as, like establishing the analogy categorically. e. g. The wisps of cloud were like trails of candy-floss. (O’Flanagan) • with the help of link-words as if, as though establishing slight similarity. e. g. I stared upward, as though transfixed by this petrifying sight. • with the help of lexical means expressing sameness, difference or resemblance, • e. g. He resembled her an old bulldog ready to fight at any moment. (Baldacci) • The countryside seems to faint from its smells.

Similes can be • trite and familiar: as innocent as a baby, as cool as a cucumber, as deaf as a stone, ___________ Motivated • as cold as a cucumber, as red as a cherry • genuine: • __________ • Non-motivated • as fit as a fiddle

Similes may be descriptive used to give vividness to the description e. g. Her skin was like the skin of sucked grapes. associative evoking different associations in the mind of a listener/reader; e. g. The fire glowed suddenly like the eyes of a savage beast. • ornamental used to extend the quality which is already given; e. g. Her face was not closed any more, but open like a happy tulip on a spring day. • proverbial used to express people’s wisdom and experience; e. g. He is as poor as a church mouse.

Hyperbole • is a deliberate exaggeration of a certain feature essential to the object described. • The stylistic function of hyperbole is to intensify one of the features of an object to such a degree as to show its absurdity.

Hyperbole overstatements • Trite: a thousand pardons • Genuine: Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. After an age she stood up from her chair. understatements • Trite: A train was moving at a snail’s pace. • Genuine: The woman was of a pocket size.

Periphrasis • is a round-about way of naming things; • it is a device in which a longer phrasing is used instead of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. • The stylistic function of this device is to convey subjective perception of the thing described, to add new understanding.

Periphrasis Logical periphrases are based on the inherent properties of the thing described, on a certain feature characteristic of a thing, to dismiss – to get off the payroll, Figurative periphrases are based on imagery, either on metaphor or metonymy. He would come back and marry his dream from Blackwood Euphemistic periphrases or euphemisms are words or phrases used to avoid mentioning of unpleasant or taboo things, toilet – a wash room, a rest room, public convenience, .

The 3 rd group of Lexical Stylistic Devices based on peculiar use of set expressions includes: • • • A cliché A proverb An epigram A quotation An allusion

A cliché • is a hackneyed phrase, once original, which has lost its imaginative power in the course of time. It is a stable word-combination which has been accepted as a language unit, e. g. , rosy dreams of youth, deceptively simple, growing awareness,

A proverb • is a short wise saying in wide use held to embody a general truth. Proverbs accumulate the life experience of the community and serve as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are didactic and image bearing. e. g. Speech is silver, silence is gold. • But when they undergo the process of decomposition, they acquire additional stylistic meaning and become stylistic devices. • e. g. Come, he said, the milk is spilt. The use of the decomposed proverb “No use crying over spilt milk” implies new feelings and new understanding.

An epigram • is a short clever saying or a poem with a witty ending coined by well-known people. ”A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. (Keats) “Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurking place of failure”(Maugham). Epigrams should not be confused with aphorisms, clever original quotations, and paradoxes, statements, which are contradictory, absurd on the surface, e. g. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply. (Fitzgerald)

A quotation • is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech, etc. , used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand.

An allusion • is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythical, biblical fact or a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. • As a rule, no identification of the source is given which makes allusions different from quotations. • You did him no service by giving him this Alice in Wonderland place to live. (Binchy)