Файл: 1. Stylistics as a branch of linguistic science. Subject, methods, related research and the differences between them.docx

6. The stylistic device of metaphor. Definition and history of research.

Was first described by Aristotle [ˈerəstɑːtl]. He defines it as giving the thing a name that belongs to smth else.

Metaphor:

1. 
   is a matter of words;
   
2. 
   it is deviant from the literate usage, as the name is transferred to where it doesn’t belong;
   
3. 
   it’s based on similarity between 2 things and is therefore an impassive comparison created on the principle of analogy.
   
4. 
   Its function is purely ornamental.
   
5. 
   As compressed comparison , based on the image , this comparison should occur between classes of objects and not individual objects
   

Metaphor has dual semantic feature

Both the literal and metaphorical meanings should be perceived .

Richards revived Aristotle’s method and offered terminology to describe metaphors.

He introduced 4 terms

It was stressed that metaphor was based on the image and that comparison should occur between classes of object and not individual objects. Metaphor has a dual semantic nature as both the literary and transferred meanings should be still proceed in a metaphor (2 meanings simultaneously).

• 
  topic = tenor (this word is used literary)
  
• 
  vechicle (is used metaphorically)
  
• 
  ground (relationship between literary and metaphorically; smth that allows to bring, create a metaphor)
  
• 
  tension (uncompensability (невозместимость) between the vechicle and tenor)
  

Metaphor won’t be understood if one can’t understand why these 2 objects were brought together.

Ex.: All the world’s a stage

The word “world” is a topic

“Stage”- vehicle

We look at the tenor or topic from the vantage point of the vehicle

Black:

1. 
   Substitution theory. Metaphorical terms can be replaced with literal terms, which fit the same context in order to understand the meaning.
   This theory is not valid now.
   
2. 
   Comparison theory. Metaphor is a presentation of some underlined analogy/similarity in the form of a condensed/elliptical simile.
   

Anomaly theory. Metaphor is grammatically deviant, semantically anomalous, conceptually absurd or false.

7. The stylistic device of metaphor. Definition and classification.

Was first described by Aristotle. He defines it as giving the thing a name that belongs to smth else

Metaphor is

• 
  · deviant from the literal usage because the name is transferred to where it doesn’t belong
  
• 
  · Based on similarity between two things and is therefore implicit comparison created in the principle of analogy
  
• 
  · The function of metaphor is purely ornamental
  

Understood as compressed folded comparison. Based on an image

It was pointed out that metaphor has duel semantic nature: both the literal and the metaphorical meanings should be perceived

I A Richards revived Aristotle’s methods.

Offered terminology:

• 
  · Topic/ tenor- the word used metaphorically
  
• 
  · Vehicle is the word used literally (borrowed to create an image)
  
• 
  · Ground is the relationship between topic and vehicle
  
• 
  · Tension is the incompatibility between the topic and the vehicle
  

“All world’s a stage “

World – topic; Stage – vehicle

We look at the topic from the vantage point of the vehicle

Max Black

Came up with 2 theories:

1. Substitutional (we replace metaphor with literal terms which for the same context) is no longer seen as correct

2. Comparison theory (metaphor was understood as a presentation of some underlying analogy or similarity in the form of condensed or elliptical simile)

Another explanation (anomaly theory)

M – grammatical deviant, semantically anomalous, conceptually obscure or false

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Metaphor can be classified into:

· Genuine (original, new)

The car shot down the ground, snooting explosive fury from the exhaust.

· Conventional / trite (стершиеся) / dead

Small degree of unpredictability, no longer highly impressive/They are fixed in dictionaries

Time is running out

A conventional metaphor can be revived if it is converted into a sustained or prolonged metaphor.

The tide of relaxation which had reached the high-water mark with Lewis’s departure quickly ebbed and explosive the grating shingles of her nerves.

Conceptual Ms are patterns of thoughts. They are not stylistic devices, but they are models that lie at the basis of stylistic devices. It is a method of explaining smth we don’t know with the help of smth we know.

Conceptual Ms can find their manifestation in the language and some of their manifestations can be stylistically significant. CMs are abstract models which may find various textual expressions, including the SD of metaphor.

“Time’s money” (we can spend time or waste time)

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8. The stylistic devices of metonymy and irony.

Metonymy is a stylistic device built on some kind of association between two objects

Proximity

Adjacency смежность

Involvement in the same situations

Synecdoche (the name of the part states for the hole)

E.g. I have two Chagals in my house, to pay in silver (money made in the silver)

We recognize it from the use of the article (about concrete objects)

Many attempts have been made to pin-point the types of relation which metonymy is based on. Among them the following are most common:

1. A concrete thing used instead of an abstract notion. In this case the thing becomes a symbol of the notion, as in
“The camp, the pulpit and the law For rich men’s sons are free.” (Shelley)

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

3. The relation of proximity, as in:
“The round game table was boisterous and happy.” (Dickens)

4. The material instead of the thing made of it, as in:
“The marble spoke.”

5. The instrument which the doer uses in performing the action instead of the action or the doer himself, as in:
“Well, Mr. Weller, says the gentl’mn, you’re a very good whip,and can do what you like with your horses, we know.” (Dickens)
“As the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last.” (Byron)

The list is in no way complete. There are many other types of relations which may serve as a basis for metonymy.

It must also be noted that metonymy, being a means of building up imagery, generally concerns concrete objects, which are generalized Therefore instances of metonymy are very often used with the definite article, or with no article at all,

Irony

Irony is a stylistic device that occur when a word is used opposed to its literal meaning

The function of I. is not to produce a humorous effect but rather to express a feeling of

• 
  Irritation
  
• 
  Displeasure
  
• 
  Regret
  
• 
  Pity
  
• 
  Positive concepts which are then negated
  

The extreme form of irony is sarcasm

Richard Altick says Irony and its effect lies in the striking disparity between what is said and what is meant." This "striking disparity" is achieved through the intentional interplay of two meanings which are in oppositions to each other.

9. The stylistic device of epithet. Classification of epithets.

Epithet

The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some of the features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties.

The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. The logical attribute is purely objective, non-evaluating. Thus, in *green meadows’, ‘white snow’, *round table’, ‘blue skies’, ‘pale complexion’, ‘lofty mountains’ and the like, the adjectives are more logical attributes than epithets. They indicate those qualities of the objects which may be regarded as generally recognized. But in 'wild wind*, ‘loud ocean’, ‘remorseless dash of billows’, ‘formidable waves’, ‘heart-burning smile’, the adjectives do not point to inherent qualities of the objects described. They are subjectively evaluative.

Semantically E. may be divided into associated & unassociated.

· Associated E. will point to a feature to a certain extent inherent in the concept of the object.

· Unassociated E. will characterize the obj. by adding a feature not inherent in it to strike the reader with its novelty. ex. voiceless sands.

Ø repeated E. would become stable word-combination – “fixed e.” – true love, emerald grass. A lot of e. are in folklore. (adj + noun)

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Structurally epithets can be viewed from the angle of composition and distribution.

Composition:

• 
  - a simple – consists of one word only
  
• 
  - a compound (adjective) : gone with the wind, the devil inspired twins
  
• 
  - phrase : Moscow land has my good for nothing son has been here.
  
• 
  - sentence : That I’d care about anything look (or “attitude”)
  
• 
  - reversed (отмененный) : the shadow of the smile, A little bird of a woman.
  

The reversed e. is composed of 2 nouns linked in an of-phrase. (qualifies as a metaphor)

Distribution

• 
  a stream/chain : God is a narrow irrational unjust mean resentful(обиженный) bigoted person.
  
• 
  transferred epithet adj describing usually human being is used with inanimate object: sleepless pillow, restless pace
  

Epithet is a complex device. The e. makes a strong impact on the reader.

Epithet is expressed by:

1. 
   adjectives;
   
2. 
   adverbs; (Adjectives and adverbs constitute the greatest majority of epithets.)
   
3. 
   participles, both present and past;
   
4. 
   nouns, especially often in of-phrases;
   
5. 
   word-combinations;
   
6. 
   whole phrases.
   

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10. The stylistic devices of zeugma, pun and polysemantic effect.

When a word begins to manifest an interplay between the primary and one of the derivative meanings we are again confronted with an SD.
For example,

A law divorced from reality.

Here ‘divorced’ means:

1) law procedure (and the article is about the legislation of gay marrige)

2) the state of being detached from reality
All these derivative meanings interweave with the primary one and this network of meanings constitutes a stylistic device which may be called the polysemantic effect.

Zeugmais the use of a word in the same grammatical but dif­ferent semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal, and, on the other, transferred. Zeugma creates a humorous effect.

For example, Have a Coke and a smile!

“Have” is realized in two different meanings: in the word combination “have a Coke” it’s direct (literal), in “have a smile” it’s transferred.
The structure of zeugma can be of the other pattern: when the world is repeated.
For example, “...And May’s mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot’s mother never stood on anything but her active little feet? (Dickens)

The punis another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase. Puns are often used in riddles and jokes.

For example, How do you fix a broken tomato? Tomato paste!

It is difficult to draw a distinction between zeugma and the pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects (direct or indirect). The pun is more independent.

11. The stylistic devices of oxymoron, simile and hyperbole.

Oxymoronis a combination of two words (Adj + N; Adv + Adj) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense, for example: low skyscraper, horribly beautiful.

If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost.

For example, ‘awfully nice’, ‘awfully glad’, “terribly sorry’, where the words awfully and terribly have lost their primary logical meaning and are now used with emotive meaning only.

Sometimes the tendency to use the oxymoron is the mark of certain literary trends and tastes. There are poets in search of new shades of meaning in existing words, who make a point of joining together words of contra­dictory meaning. “Two ordinary words may become almost new," writes V. V. Vinogradov, “if they are joined for the first time or used in an unexpected context.”

Thus, ‘peopled desert’ is oxymoronic.

Simile: imaginative comparison of two unlike objects which belong to different classes.

Simile VS Comparison. Comparison takes into consideration all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects except one which is made common to them. For example, “The boy seems to be as clever as his mother” is an ordinary comparison. ‘Boy’ and ‘mother’ belong to the same class of objects—human beings.

Similes have formal elements in their structure: connective words such as like, as, such as, as if, seem.

There are some genuine similes that have become cliches: busy as a bee, to work like a horse, to act like a puppy, playful as a kitten. The second component has become merely an adverbial intensifier. Its logical meaning is only vaguely perceived.

Hyperbole - |haɪˈpɜːbəlɪ| is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature of a thing or phenomenon. In its extreme form this exaggeration is carried to

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