Anticlimax

Antithesis

Antithesis is the best example of lexico-syntactical stylistic devices as syntactically it is just anothercaseofparallel constructions. But unlike parallelism, which is indifferent to the semantics of its com­ponents, the two parts of an antithesis must be semantically opposite toeachother: (O.Wilde) "Some people have much to live on, and little to live for ", where "much" and "little" present a pair of antonyms, supported by the contextual opposition of postpositions "on" and "for".

Another example: "If we don't know who gains by his death we do know who loses by it. " (Ch.) Here, too, we have theone, madestronger by the emphatic form of the affirmative construction-"don't know / do know".

Antithesis as a semantic opposition emphasized by its realization in similar structures is often observed on lower levels of language hierarchy, especially on the morphemic level where two antonymous affixes create a powerful effect of contrast: "Their pre -money wives did not go together with their post -money daughters." (H.)

The main function of antithesis is to stress the hetero­geneity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features.

Antithesis is a semantic opposition emphasized in similar structures, often involving 2 antonyms: Don’t use big words. They mean so little. (O.W.) Antithesis is a SD based on the author's desire to stress certain qualities of the thing by appointing it to another thing possessing antagonistic features. e.g. They speak like saints and act like devils.

Antithesis: an opposition or contrast of ideas arranged structurally as parallel constructions: “ Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care…”

Anticlimax (bathos) represents climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought that defeats expectations of the reader / listener and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. (V.A.Kukharenko); it involves adding one weaker element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before (Y.M.Skrebnev).

Anticlimax (bathos) is the reverse of climax or defeated expectancy:

The woman who could face the very devil himself – or a mouse – loses her grip and goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning (Twain).

“Early rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead” (T.Thurber)

Anticlimax is a ridiculous descent contrasted to climax. It consists in weakening the emotional effect by adding unexpectedly weaker elements to the strong ones which were mentioned above. Its stylistic function is to give an ironic or humorous effect to the whole text.

As many other stylistic devices, anticlimax also has a corresponding literary term, which names a similar phenomenon but on a larger scale. The one in question now is the effect of defeated expectancy, often met with in humorous, ironical and sarcastic stories.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-05