Functions and stylistic effects. Until the sense with finished Period ends

Until the sense with finished Period ends.

A Climax by gradation still ascends,

Figures of inequality

Functions and stylistic effects

- to reveal the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon

- to reveal some unexpected qualities of the denotate

- to create an original, emotionally charged utterance

Relations of inequality are the relations of meanings of words and w/c, which differ, in their emotive intensity or logical importance. There are two groups of these figures of speech:

1. figures based on actualising the emotional power of the utterance (climax and anticlimax)

2. figures based on two different meanings of words and w/c (pun, zeugma)

Climax/gradation (ladder) is an increasing gradation of meanings.

It is based on gradation in which every successive word or phrase is emotionally stronger and logically more important than the preceding one.

These are strings of semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group.

E.g. The eight-five cent dinner tasted like a discarded mail bag and was served by a waiter who looked as if he would slug me for a quarter, cut my throat for six bits and bury me at sea in a barrel of concrete for a dollar and a half plus sales tax. (R. Chandler)

Він так зажурився, аж скис.

На серці в нього ставало так погано, прикро, болісно.

The climatic arrangement of sentences secures a gradual increase in importance or emotional tension in the utterance.

Each successive unit is perceived as stronger than the preceding one

A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways:

1. logical – from the point of view of the concepts embodied; there is a logical widening of notions.

E.g. Not only brute creatures, but men; nor they only, but likewise gods, yield to the violence of love.

2. emotional and emphatic – gradation of emotional and emphatic tension

E.g.The first canvas caused a faint titter, the second a decided ripple of amusement, and by the time the final canvas was exhibited the crowd was laughing heartily. (A.J. Cronin)

3. quantitative – a numerical increase (day by day, year by year).

E.g. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. (W.S. Maugham)

- emotional and logical intensification of the utterance

- the actualisation of the emotional intensity of the utterance

- to depict a phenomenon dynamically

Anticlimax is an opposite stylistic device to climax. It is a decreasing arrangement of meanings. The ideas are arranged in a descending order of significance.

E.g. Mess-jacket looked at me with his silent sleek smile. I watched it until it was no longer a smile, no longer a face, no longer anything but a dark figure against the landing lights. (R. Chandler)

Every successive word or phrase or sentence is emotionally or logically less strong than the preceding one.

There are two types of anticlimax:

1. gradual drop in intensity

E.g. They walked upstairs – 5 flights. At the first landing they stopped and kissed; she was careful on the next landing; on the third more careful still. On the next she stopped half way and kissed him fleetingly good-by. Finally it was good by with their hands and then the fingers slipping apart. (S. Fitzgerald)

2. sudden break in emotive power The final element, which the reader expects to be culminating, turns out to be trivial. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous.

E.g. He was inconsolable – for an afternoon (J.Galsworthy)

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