A man is made

A man is made

Of flesh and blood

Of eyes and bones and water

The very same things make his son

As those that make his daughter.

A tree is made

Of leaf and sap,

Of bark and fruit and berries.

It keeps a bird’s nest

In its boughs

And blackbirds eat the cherries.

A table’s made

Of naked wood

Planed smooth as milk I wonder

If tables ever dream of sun,

Of wind, and rain, and thunder?

And when man takes

His axe and strikes

And sets the sawdust frying –

Is it a table being born?

Or just a tree that’s dying?

The following thoughts of A. Milne’s character are shaped to reflect his sitting in the running kangaroo’s pocket:

	this				shall
If		is		I		never		take
			flying				really		to	it.

Simile ['siməli] – the imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to different classes. A simile states that a is like/as b.

E.g.: He is as beautiful as a weathercock. (O. Wilde)

My heart is like a singing bird. (Ch. Rossetti)

Each simile consists of the following three components: 1) the thing which is compared, called the tenor; 2) the thing with which it is compared, called the vehicle; 3) link-words, such as like, as, as though, as like, such as, as … as, as if, seem, etc.

E.g.: My Mama moved among the days like a dreamwalker in a field.” (L. Clifton). In this example, Mama is the tenor, dreamwalker is the vehicle, and like is the link-word.

The simile forming like can be placed at the end of the phrase.

E.g.: Emily Barton was very pink, very Dresden-china-shepherdess like.

Similes differ from metaphors: The comparison made between two things is indicated by link words in simile, while there is not any connective in a metaphor. In this case, the metaphor is a more forceful statement than the simile.

Cf.: My love is a rose (metaphor).My love is like a rose (simile).

Simile is different from simple comparison. Though structurally identical, they differ semantically: In a comparison objects belong to the same class, while in a simile objects belong to two different classes.

Cf.: Comparison: She (class of people) is like her mother (class of people). Simile: She (class of people) is like a rose (class of plants).

Semantically similes split into:

- Genuine (Poetic/Fresh/Original/Newly-created), based on some fresh and absolutely unexpected analogy between two things.

E.g.: What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? (L. Hughes)

- Trite (Dead/Hackneyed/Stale/Banal/Stereotyped), the original figurative meaning of which has been forgotten due to the overuse.

E.g.: as sick as a dog, as strong as a horse, blind as a bat.

Structurally similes split into:

- ordinary (see examples above);

- disguised, in which the link between the tenor and the vehicle is expressed by notional verbs, such as to resemble, to seem, to look like, to appear, etc., and the likeness between the objects seems less evident.

E.g.: The ball appeared to the batter to be a slow spinning planet looming toward the earth. (B. Malamud)

Suspense [sə'spens] – a deliberate postponement of the sentence completion, whereas the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning to keep up the reader’s/listener’s attention and prepare him for the only logical conclusion of the utterance.

E.g.: Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. (Ch. Lamb)

Synecdoche [si'nekdəki] (from Greek συνεκδοχή – “percepting together”) – the use of a part to denote the whole or vice versa.

E.g.: Then two men entered. The moustache (i.e. the man with a moustache) I did not know.

Structurally synecdoche is based on one of the following principles:

- The use of a part for the whole.

E.g.: Hands wanted (i.e. workers).

A hundred head of cattle.

- The use of the whole for a part.

E.g.: Stop torturing the poor animal! (instead of the poor dog)

Reading books when I am talking to you! (instead of reading a book)

Semantically synecdoches split into:

- Genuine (Poetic/Fresh/Original/Newly-created), based on some fresh and absolutely unexpected analogy between two things.

E.g.: You have got a nice fox on (i.e. coat with the collar made of fox).

- Trite (Dead/Hackneyed/Stale/Banal/Stereotyped), the original figurative meaning of which has been forgotten due to the overuse.

E.g.: All hands on deck!

A hundred head of cattle.

Syntactical whole [sin'tæktikəl'həul] – a larger than a sentence unit, which comprises a number of sentences, interdependent structurally (usually by means of pronouns, connectives, tense-forms) and semantically (one definite thought is dealt with). A syntactical whole can be taken from the context without losing its relative semantic independence (Cf.: a sentence is only part of an idea). Cf.:

A sentence: Guy glanced at his wife’s untouched plate.

A syntactical whole: Guy glanced at his wife’s untouched plate. “If you’ve finished we might stroll down. I think you ought to be starting.”

She did not answer. She rose from the table. She went into her room to see that nothing had been forgotten and then side by side with him walked down the steps. (W. S. Maugham)

A syntactical whole can be embodied in a sentence, if the sentence meets the requirements of this compositional unit. On the other hand, it may coincide with the paragraph, though usually it is a part of it. To decide on the number of syntactical wholes in a paragraph one should compare its beginning and end.

In poetical style syntactical wholes, as well as paragraphs, are embodied in stanzas.

Syntactic structure violation – the break of the usual syntactic structure of a sentence.

Syntactic violations split into the following types:

- Lexical – the use of unusual lexical structures.

E.g.: a grief ago. Though the word grief does not imply time, the author adds this meaning. The usual structure: a minute/day/year/etc. ago.

all the sun long. (Th. Dylan). The usual structure: all the day/night long.

farmyards away. (Th. Dylan) The usual structure: many miles/kilometers away.

When I was a younger man – two wives ago, 250,000 cigarettes ago, 3,000 quarts of boos ago. (K. Vonnegut, Jr.)

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously (the title of Della Haims’s poem). This example is grammatically correct, though it has no sense: Colourless can not be green; abstract ideas have no colour; only animated persons can sleep; sleep means rest, not fury.

- Grammatical, which are literary coinages, called occasional words and characterized by freshness and originality. They are not neologisms for they are created for special communicative situations only and are not used beyond them.

E.g.: Suddenly he felt a horror of her otherness. (J. Baldwin)

David, in his new grown-upness, had already a sort of authority. (R. P. Warren)

Grammatical violations happen on the level of word change as well.

E.g.: But now … now! I find myself wanting something more, something heavenlier, something less human. (A. Huxley)

“Mr. Hamilton, you haven’t any children, have you?” “Well no. And I’m sorry about that, I guess, I am sorriest about that.” (J. Steinbeck)

- Lexico-grammatical, i.e. the mixture of lexical and grammatical violations.

E.g.: What words can strangle this deaf moonlight? (H. Crane) To strangle is a transitive verb, but the circle of animated persons limits its usage.

Understatement [·Λndә'steitmənt], or meiosis [mei'əusis] – the exaggeration of smallness. The mechanism of understatement creation and functions is identical with that of hyperbole (see). It does not signify the actual state of affairs, but presents the object through the emotionally coloured perception of the speaker to underline its insignificance.

E.g.: She was so thin she could have hidden behind a parking meter.

She wore a pink hat, the size of a button.

Semantically understatements 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.: He wouldn’t hurt a fly.

I kind of liked it.

British people, in opposition to Americans, are well known for their preference for understatement in everyday speech.

E.g.: “I am rather annoyed” instead of “I’m infuriated”; “The wind is rather strong” instead of “There is a gale blowing outside”.

Zeugma ['zju:gmə] (from Greek ζεΰγμα – “connection/yoke”) – the use of one word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations: on one hand literal, and on the other, transferred. As a general rule, zeugma is employed in humorous texts. The general formula of zeugma is as follows: somebody does a and b, where a and b do not go grammatically together.

E.g.: He took his hat and his leave. (Ch. Dickens)

She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Ch. Dickens)

It is difficult to tell zeugma from pun. The only reliable distinction is a structural one: Zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb. Pun is more independent: It depends on the context (see Pun).

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