E.g.: illiterate can be used for obliterate, pineapple, for pinnacle

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Chiasmus [kai'æzməs] (from Greek χιασμός – “in the form of the Greek letter χ, i.e. in the form of a cross”) – a sudden change from active voice to passive, or vice versa: Two syntactical constructions (sentences/phrases) are parallel, but their members (words) change places. The segments that change places enter opposite logical relations.

E.g.: The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it.”(Ch. Dickens)

Chiasmus breaks the monotony of parallel constructions, brings in a shade of meaning or additional emphasis on some portion of the second part.

Chiasmus is a syntactical, not a lexical device. Thus, the sentence “In the days of old men made the manners; Manners now make the men” (G. G. Byron) contains a lexical device (epigram), but not inversion: Both parts of the parallel construction have the same, normal word order.

Climax ['klaimæks] (from Greek κλτμαζ – “a ladder”), or gradation [grə'dei©n] (from Latin gradatio – “gradual ascent/climbing up”) – a sentences arrangement, in which each following word/word combination/clause/sentence is logically more important and emotionally stronger. The minimum number of elements is two.

E.g.: Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die! (Ch. Dickens)

Climax types:

- Logical, based on the components relative logical importance.

E.g.: For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, beside themselves. (M. Wilson)

- Emotional, based on the relative emotional tension produced by the components.

E.g.: He was pleased, when the child began to adventure across floors on hand and knees; he was gratified, when she managed the trick of balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted, when she first said “ta-ta”; and he was rejoiced, when she recognized him and smiled to him. (A. Paton)

- Quantative, based on the relative increase in the volume/size of the components.

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

- Negative, based on the absence of a substance/quality, the components being arranged in the descending order.

E.g.: “Be careful,” said Mr. Jingle. “Not a look. Not a wink,” said Mr. Tupman. “Not a syllable. Not a whisper. ” (Ch. Dickens)

Climax can be realized through the following language means:

- A string of synonyms.

E.g.: I’ll smash you, I’ll crumble you, I’ll powder you.

- Intensifying words.

E.g.: I’m sorry, I’m terribly sorry.

Detachment [di'tæt©mənt], or detached construction [di'tæt©tkən'strk©n] – a secondary member of a sentence singled out with the help of punctuation and intonation. Such members of a sentence, called detached, represent a kind of independent whole thrust into the sentence or placed in a position, which will make it seem independent

E.g.: I have to beg you for money. Daily… (S. Lewis)

Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed and rather unsteady in his gait. (W. M. Thackeray)

Brave boy, he saved my life and shall not regret it. (M. Twain)

It was indeed, to Forsyte eyes, an odd house. (J. Galsworthy)

Ellipsis [i'lipsis] (from Greek έλλειψις – “falling out”) – a deliberate omission of at least one member of a sentence. The missing parts are either present in the context or implied by the situation.

E.g.: What! All my pretty chickens and their dam; At one swoop? (G. G. Byron): fell is omitted.

Nothing so difficult as a beginning. (G. G. Byron): is is omitted.

Ellipsis is a SD only in written speech: It is typical for oral speech to omit some units. Thus sentences like See you tomorrow, Have a good time, Won’t do contain no SDs. But used in prose dialogues, they become SDs. Then they are consciously employed by the author to reflect the natural omissions that characterize colloquial speech, impact brevity, quick tempo, or (sometimes) emotional tension, add emotional colouring, and make the sentence more emphatic.

Ellipsis is often met close to a dialogue, in an author’s introductory remarks commenting on the speech of his characters. It is practically always employed in encyclopedic dictionaries and reference books, telegraphic messages, papers or handbooks on technology and natural sciences.

Enumeration [iֽnju:mə'rei©(ə)n] – homogeneous parts of an utterance put together to be made semantically heterogeneous.

E.g.: Famine, despair, cold, thirst and heat had done

Their work on them by turns … (G. G. Byron)

Epithet ['epiֽθet] (from Greek έπίθετον – “addition”) – an unusual description of a phenomenon.

E.g.: sweet thoughts, painful shoes, a heart-burning smile.

Semantically epithets split into the following types:

- Associated with the nouns following them, i.e. pointing to an inherent in the object feature and conveying no emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker.

E.g.: wide sea, dark forest, careful attention.

- Unassociated with the nouns following them, i.e. adding a feature not inherent in the object. They seem strange, unusual, or even accidental and are formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes.

E.g.: bootless cries, voiceless sands, sullen earth.

- Fixed, closely associated with the word they define through long and repeated use.

E.g.: Merry Christmas, merry old England, happy birthday.

Structurally epithets split into:

- Simple (Single), which are ordinary adjectives.

E.g.: sullen earth, careful attention.

- Compound, which are compound adjectives.

E.g.: cloud-shapen giant, mischief-making monkey.

- Phrase, composed of a string of epithets linked with the help of dashes.

E.g.: the sunshine – in – the – breakfast – room smell,

I – am – not – that – kind – of – girl look,

to produce facts in a Would – you – believe – it kind of way.

- Reversed (Inverted), composed of two nouns linked in an "of-phrase”.

E.g.: a fool of a policeman, an angel of a girl, a hook of a nose.

- Transferred (Figurative), describing inanimate objects like living beings.

E.g.: sick chamber, sleepless pillow, merry hours.

- Two-step, in which the description passes two stages: the description of the object and the description of the description itself. It is built on the model adverb plus adjective.

E.g.: a pompously majestic woman.

- String of epithets.

E.g.: You nasty, wicked, good for nothing brute.

Euphemism ['ju:fəֽmizəm] (from Greek εύ – “good/well”, and φημί – “speak”, i.e. “speaking well”) – a variety of periphrases, “a whitewashing device” – a word/phrase used to replace an unpleasant or tabooed word/expression by a conventionally more acceptable, mild, or less straightforward one.

E.g.: to pass away, to be no more, to join the majority (i.e. to die);

a woman of a certain type (i.e. a prostitute);

mentally deficient person (i.e. an idiot, an imbecile).

Euphemisms can be joking.

E.g.: to go west, to give up the ghost, to kick the bucket (for to die).

The life of euphemisms is short: As soon as they become closely associated with the object named, they give way to a newly coined word/combination of words to throw another veil over an unpleasant or indelicate concept.

Grapheme multiplication ['græfi:m·mltipli'kei©(ə)n] is a way of showing the speech intensity.

E.g.: A lllll aboa rrrrr d! (Ch. Dickens)

… open your eyes for that l aaaaa rge sun. (A. Wesker)

Graphon ['græfŠn] (from Greek γράφω – “I am writing”) – the intentional word/word combination graphical shape violation used to reflect authentic pronunciation. Graphon is an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, and the author’s sarcastic attitude to him.

E.g.: W. Thackeray’s character, butler Yellowplush, says sellybrated instead of celebrated and jewinile instead of juvenile.

Mr. Babbit, S. Lewis’s character, says Eytalians instead of Italians and peepul instead of people.

Some graphons show the physical defects of the speaker (stumbling, lisping, etc.).

E.g.: The b-b-b-b-b as-tud – he’d seen me c-c-c-c-c om-ing. (R. P. Warren)

You don’t mean to th ay that th ith i th your fir th t time. (D. Cusack)

I don’t w eally know we vv er I’m a good girl. (J. Braine)

Some amalgamated forms became clichés in contemporary prose dialogues.

E.g.: gimme (give me), lemme (let me), coupla (couple of), mighta (might have), gonna (going to), gotta (got to), willya (will you), etc.

Hyperbole [hai'pə:bəli] (from Greek ύπερβολή – “overshooting”) – a deliberate exaggeration/overstatement of an object feature to such a degree that will show its utter absurdity.

E.g.: She was a giant of a woman.

The whole world greeted his latest invention with ridicule.

There I took out my pig … and gave him such a kick that he went out the other end of the alley, twenty feet ahead of his squeal. (O. Henry)

It is used not to deceive, but to infect the reader with the writer’s enthusiasm, in other words, for humoristic purposes.

Semantically hyperboles split into:

- genuine (poetic/fresh/original/newly-created), i.e. fresh and absolutely unexpected (see examples above);

- trite (dead/hackneyed/stale/banal/stereotyped), the original figurative meaning of which has been forgotten due to the overuse.

E.g.: I haven’t seen you for ages.

I have told you a thousand times.

I can eat a horse.

Jack-of-all-trades.

Hyphenation [·haifə'nei©n] – the reflection of rhymed or clipped manner in which a word is uttered.

E.g.: Adieu you, old man, I pity you, and I de – spise you. (Th. Dreiser)

I really do n – o – t love you.

Interjections [·intə'd¯ek©nz] – words used to express strong feelings. Interjections split into:

- Primary, devoid of any logical meaning.

E.g.: Oh! Ah! Bah! Hush!

- Derivative, which may retain some logical meaning, though always suppressed by the volume of emotive meaning.

E.g.: God! God knows! Bless me! Heavens!

Interjections, like other words in the English vocabulary, bear features, which mark them as follows:

- Bookish.

E.g.: Alas! Lo! Hark!

- Neutral.

E.g.: Oh! Ah! Bah!

- Colloquial.

E.g.: Gosh! Well! Why!

Neutral interjections as a rule have bookish and colloquial corresponding synonyms.

E.g.: Alas! (bookish) – Oh! (neutral) – Gosh! (colloquial)

Lo! (bookish) – Ah! (neutral) – Well! (colloquial)

Hark! (bookish) – Bah! (neutral) – Why! (colloquial)

Some adjectives and adverbs can also take on the function of interjections.

E.g.: Terrible! Great! Splendid! Awful! Wonderful! Fine!

Inversion [in'və:©n] (from Latin inversio – “changing place”) – an indirect order of words in a sentence to make one of them more conspicuous, important, or emphatic.

E.g.: Inexplicable was the astonishment of the little party when they returned to find out that Mr. Pickwick had disappeared. (Ch. Dickens)

Came a day when he dragged himself into the Enquirer alley. (J. London)

The following patterns of inversion are most frequently used in English prose and poetry:

- Object is placed at the beginning of a sentence.

E.g.: Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Mr. Micawber has not. (Ch. Dickens)

- Attribute is placed after the word it modifies.

E.g.: Once upon a midnight dreary …(E. A. Poe)

With fingers weary and worn … (Th. Hood)

- Predicative is placed before the subject.

E.g.: A good generous prayer it was. (M. Twain)

- Predicative stands before the link verb and both are placed before the subject.

E.g.: Rude am I in my speech…(W. Shakespeare)

- Adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

E.g.: Eagerly I wished the morrow. (E. A. Poe)

- Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject.

E.g.: Out came the chase – in went the horses –

On sprang the boys – in got the travellers. (Ch. Dickens)

Questions may also be inverted. The inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative one.

E.g.: Your mother is at home? (J. Baldwin)

Stylistic inversion is different from grammatical: The former does not change the grammatical essence of the sentence, while the latter does.

Cf.: Has he come? (grammatical inversion)

Come he has. (stylistic inversion)

Irony ['airəni] (from Greek είρωνεία – “mockery concealed”) – a direct contrast of two notions: the notion named and the notion meant. In other words, the writer says one thing, but really means the opposite to produce a humorous effect, or to express a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity, or regret.

E.g.: The food was so delicious that I took it home for my dog.

She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (J. Steinbeck)

The context in which irony exists varies from the minimum of a word combination to the context of the whole book.

Italics [i'tæliks] – sloping letters used for the following purposes:

- To show foreign words that are considered alien for the text.

E.g.: I want to tell you something tête-à–tête.

- To produce the effect of emphasis.

E.g.: Now listen, Ed, stop that, now. I’m desperate. I am desperate, Ed, do you hear? (Th. Dreiser)

Italics always go together with the full form of the words usually written in the contracted form, as in the example given above.

The difference in type means the difference in intonation, which in its turn shows different feelings and emotions.

Cf.: You are a baby, Robert.

You are a baby, Robert. (J. B. Priestley) The second example sounds more affectionate.

You are a rotter, Stanton.

You are a rotter, Stanton. (J. B. Priestley) The first example sounds not so furious.

Litotes ['laitəuti:z, lai'təuti:z] (from Greek λιτότης – “plain, simple”), – a two-component structure, in which two negations are joined to give a positive evaluation.

E.g.: But it is not bad (i.e. good). (E. Hemingway)

The history of this small pastoral property was not un common (i.e. common). (A. Upfield)

A variant of litotes is a construction with only one negation.

E.g.: She is not awfully well (i.e. bad).

There is not much (i.e. little) to eat. (E. Hemingway)

Malapropism ['mæləprŠpizm] (from Latin mal – “bad, ill” and proper – “individual”) – a grotesque misuse of words, a substitution of one word for another based on a blunder. Malapropism creates a funny change of meaning.

Metaphor ['metəfə, 'metəf‹:] (from Greek μετάφορα – “transference”) – transference of the characteristics of one phenomenon to another, showing likeness/similarity in things that are basically different (without using “as” or “like”). A metaphor states that a = b. It is an expressive characterization of an object.

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