Stylistic/expressive

And often by two Negatives hath stood.

Litotes may be regarded as a transposition of the syntactical construction like the rhetorical questions. The stylistic effect is based on the interplay of negative and affirmative meanings.

Functions and stylistic effects

- to weaken positive characteristics of an object

- to express doubt/uncertainty as to the value or significance of the object described

- to create an ironic attitude to the phenomenon described

Figures of quality

The transfer of meaning of the figures of quality is based either on the contiguity of two objects or likeness of two objects, or contrast of two meanings. The key figures are metonymy and its variants (metonymical group), metaphor and its variants (metaphoricalgroup), and irony.

Metonymical group

The metonymical group comprises metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasis, and euphemism.

Metonymy is the transfer of the meaning on the basis of con­tiguity/nearness of two objects, on the real association of the object of nomination with the object whose name is transferred.

E.g. She was dressed in silk. The Downing Street is ready to offer a warm welcome.

E.g.: to take the chair = to become the chairman of a meeting

iron – the contiguity of the material and what was produced out of it.

He kept the table amused

She is the talk of the town

The thought is thus concretised and its expression shortened.

There are two kinds of metonymy:

1. lexical/etymological (belongs to everyday stock of words and expressions)

The way new words and meanings are coined thanks to the transfer of the name of one object on to the other (usually a proper name): Mackintosh, academy, volt.

Names of countries and places are used to mean objects connected with them: china = porcelain; Madeira = wine, astrakhan = fur

Such cases of metonymy are dealt with in Lexicology. They are part of language; we cannot say they are used to impart any special force to linguistic expression.

It suggests a substitution of one word for another based on an unexpected association between two objects on the ground of some strong impression produced by a chance feature of the object described.

Mess-jacket looked at me with his silent sleek smile. (R. Chandler)

Потому, что здесь порой

Ходит маленькая ножка,

Вьется локон золотой. Пушкин

Types of metonymy-forming interrelations of two objects are manifold. The most common types of relations on which metonymy is based are:

1. a concrete thing is used instead of an abstract notion: the crown, throne;

2. the container instead of the thing contained: the hall applauded;

3. the material instead of the thing made of it: the marble spoke;

4. the instrument, which the doer uses in performing the action: she gave her heart to the young man.

E.g. Who was it? Not Gainsborough; the trees in Gainsborough always had the hectic quality of cardboard about to collapse in amateur theatricals. (A.N.Wilson)

Metonymy – a name or descriptive term is transferred to some object different from, but analogous to, that to which it is properly applicable.

From the cradle to the grave

Blue suit grinned, might even have winked. But big nose in the grey suit still stared – and he had small angry eyes and didn’t even smile. (J.Priestley)

We smiled at each other, but we didn’t speak because there were ears all around us. (Chase)

Functions and stylistic effects

- to suggest a new unexpected association between two objects

- to create and build up imagery

- the technique of caricature

Caricature is a part of metonymic distortion of some aspect of human appearance, normally physiognomy, such that this exaggerated body part assumes a prominence sufficient to symbolise the whole being. For examples, most caricatures of former British Prime Minister M. Thatcher played on her bouffant hair and pointed nose. This gradually shaded into ever more grotesque representations until the nose and hair themselves became the visual embodiment of the politician.

In contrast with metaphor, metonymy is based on a transfer within a single conceptual domain. Staying within the boundaries of the same domain, metonymy involves transpositions between associated concepts and this commonly results in transfer between the part and the whole, a producer and the produced, an institution and its location and so on.

Metonymy in which the part stands for the whole is a trope known as synecdoche.

Synecdoche is the transfer of the meaning on the basis of association between a part and the whole, the singular and the plural.

E.g.: the peasant (all the peasants), the blue-coat (а policeman)

England beat Australia at cricket

In synecdoche – a part is named but the whole is understood.

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl (W. Shakespeare)

He made his way through the perfume and conversation (I. Show) = the perfumed and conversing crowd of people.

A typical example of traditional / stereotyped synecdoche is the word hands: workers (Hands wanted) or sailors (All hands on deck!)

Functions and stylistic effects

- to specify the description, to make it more concrete

- to draw the reader’s attention to a small, seemingly insignificant detail to make him visualise the object

Periphrasis (to speak around) is a substitution of the word for the word combi­nation, which describes its most essential and characteristic features.

I can’t do business with a petticoat in the room. (E. Braithwaite)

It both names and describes the object. It was widely used in the Bible and it was popular in Latin poetry.

Thus this device consists in expressing the meaning of a word, phrase, etc., by many or several words instead of by few or one; a roundabout/indirect way of speaking, circumlocution.

Deiler was studying under Rosenstock – you know his reputation as a disturber of the piano keys. (O. Henry)

The difference between periphrasis and metonymy:

It cannot be expressed by one linguistic unit (one word); it always consists of more than one word. E.g.: an exciting book = a thriller (trite metonymy) or two hundred pages of blood-curdling narrative (periphrasis)

Types of periphrasis

1. traditional / dictionary / language periphrasis: my better half; the fair sex.

2. stylistic 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 as an EM is a new, genuine nomination of an object.

Dig up, you discourager of young talent! (J. London)

This device is decipherable only in context. If the periphrastic locution is understandable outside the context, it is not an expressive means.

There are two kinds of stylistic periphrasis:

1. traditional:

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11