Figures of opposition

Солоним риданням зайшлось.

(І.Драч)

Substituting synonyms are characterised by contextual similarity giving rise to emotive-evaluative meaning.

Synonyms-specifiers / specifying synonyms – is a chain of synonyms which specify the utterance, adding some new information.

E.g. Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going dear fellow. (R. Kent)

Functions and stylistic effects

- to give a comprehensive, more detailed description of an object

- to give nuances of meaning

This group of SD is characterised by the combination in context of two or more words or w/c with opposite meanings.

Antithesis is a stylistic device, which presents two contrasting ideas in order to stress this contrast. It is a combination of two words in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense. Antithesis is a confrontation of at least two phrases semantically opposite

E.g. The House of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. (Proverbs 14:11)

An opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by using words, which are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other. This device is often moulded in parallel constructions.

E.g. When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. (O. Wilde)

Слова одні нам тішать слух і зір,

А інші нас відштовхують раптово.

Antithesis is a device bordering on stylistics and logic. It’s essential to distinguish between antithesis and contrast. Contrast is a literary (not a linguistic) device based on the logical opposition between the phenomena set one against another.

They’re several variants of antithesis:

1. two opposite words characterise one and the same object.

E.g. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity. (Ch. Dickens)

2. two different objects receive opposite characteristics.

E.g. Large houses are still occupied while weavers’ cottages stand empty. (Gaskell)

3. two referents give not only contrasting features, but embracing a wider range of features.

E.g. New England had a native literature, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agricultural. (Th. Dreiser)

Functions and stylistic effects

- to stress the contrast of the objects described

- rhythmically organise the utterance

Oxymoron, from Greek it means wittily foolish - остроумно-глупое.

It is a combination of opposite meanings which exclude each oher or semantically incompatible.

E.g.: low skyscrapers, a poor millionaire, horribly beautiful.

Street damaged by improvements (O. Henry)

A man who was the Bully of humility. (Ch. Dickens)

Звимку сонце скрізь плач сміється.

Oxymoron is the joining together of apparent contradictions: Faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

The difference between oxymoron and the antithesis

The oxymoron: a combination of words which are semantically incompatible (exclude each other). T he contrasting idea is expressed by a single word combination, syntactically interdependent words – sad and pleasant thoughts, sweet hatred. Antithesis has not less than two word combinations – pleasant thoughts and sad meditations.

Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon leading to some unexpected combinations of words.

Who can express the great littleness, and little greatness; the childish manliness, and manly Childishness of that blind God?

Some of them have become trite: Awfully nice. Pretty bad

It was pretty terrible. (E. Hemingway)

We sometimes feel he’s not a terribly good mixer. (J. Salinger)

There are titles based on this device: Живой труп.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11