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ciated objects the more striking and unexpected and expressive is the metaphor.

e.g. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden.

His words were coming so fast; they were leap-frogging themselves. (R. Chandler)

Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors

e. g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears. to fly into a passion, to jump to conclusion, to fall in love.

Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, their primary meaning is re-established alongside the new derivative meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word.

e. g. Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down. (Ch. Dickens)

The verb "to bottle up" is explained as "to keep in check, to conceal, to restrain, to repress". So the metaphor can be hardly felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb "to cork down". Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged.

Functions and stylistic effects:

·to carry out the aesthetic function (it appeals to imagination rather than gives information);

·to create imagery;

·to make the author’s idea more exact, definite and transparent;

·to reveal the author’s emotional attitude towards what he describes.

There are several structural varieties of metaphors – personification, allusion, allegory, metaphorical epithet.

2. Personification is a transfer of features and characteristics of a person to a thing (very often nature); prescribing to a phenomenon qualities, feelings and thoughts of a human being.

e.g. She had been asleep, always, and now life was thundering imperatively at all her doors. (J. London)

Slowly, silently, now the moon walks the night in her silvery shoon (shoes) (de la Mare)

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster.

It is realised only within a certain context and is used only in emotive

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prose/fiction.

Functions and stylistic effects:

·to give vivid characteristics to a phenomenon;

·to create the imagery;

·to enhance the expressiveness of the text.

3.Allusion – is a brief reference to some literary or historical event or character commonly known. The speaker (writer) is not explicit about what he means: he merely mentions some detail of what he thinks analogous in fiction or history to the topic discussed

e.g. "'Pie in the sky' for Railmen" means nothing but promises (a line from the well-known workers' song: "You'll get pie in the sky when you die").

e.g. No little Grandgrind had ever associated a cow in a field with that famous cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt, or with that yet more famous cow swallowed Tom Thumb; it had never heard of those celebrities (Dickens, Hard Times). The meaning that can be derived from the two allusions, one to the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack build" and the other to the old tale "The history of Tom Thumb".

4.Allegory is the expression of an abstract idea through some exact image or object. It is realised within the frames of the whole text.

It may be presented by:

·a proverb/saying: e.g. It’s time to turn ploughs into swords. All is not gold that glitters. Still waters run deep.

·fable

·literary fiction

Some genres of literature are fully based on allegory: fables, fairy tales. Functions and stylistic effects:

·to stress the logical meaning of speech by adding to it some emotive colouring;

·to enhance the poetic expressiveness of the text.

5.Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on affinity, but on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent, on proximity.

Proximity may be revealed:

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·between the symbol and the thing it denotes; The crown (the royal family);

·in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument; e.g. His pen is rather sharp.

·in the relation between the container and the thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.

·the specific is put for the abstract; e. g. It was a representative gathering (science, politics).

·a part is put for the whole; e.g. the crown - king, a hand - worker.

Metonymy represents the events of reality in its subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite.

e.g.:" to earn one's bread", "to keep one's mouth shut".

There are two kinds of metonymy:

·Lexical/etymological (belongs to everyday stock of words and expressions)

The way new words and meanings are coined thanks to the transfer of the name of one object on to the other (usually a proper name): Mackintosh, academy, volt.

Names of countries and places are used to mean objects connected with them: china = porcelain; Madeira = wine, astrakhan = fur (каракуль). They are part of language; we cannot say they are used to impart any special force to linguistic expression.

·Stylistic/ expressive

It suggests a substitution of one word for another based on an unex-

pected association between two objects on the ground of some strong impression produced by a chance feature of the object described.

Mess-jacket looked at me with his silent sleek smile. (R. Chandler) Functions and stylistic effects:

Øto suggest a new unexpected association between two objects;

Øto create and build up imagery.

6.Synecdoche is the transfer of the meaning on the basis of association between a part and the whole, the singular and the plural.

e.g. the peasant (all the peasants), the blue-coat (а policeman). England beat Australia at cricket.

In synecdoche a part is named but the whole is understood. e.g. To be a comrade with the wolf and owl. (W. Shakespeare)

He made his way through the perfume and conversation. (I. Show) = the

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perfumed and conversing crowd of people.

Functions and stylistic effects:

Øto specify the description, to make it more specific;

Øto draw the reader’s attention to a small, seemingly insignificant detail to make him visualise the object.

7.Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are in opposition to each other. The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning. One thing is said and the other opposite is implied.

e.g. This naturally led to some pleasant chat about... fevers, chills, lung diseases ... and bronchitis. (J.K.Jerome)

e.g. The house itself was not so much. It was smaller than Buckingham Palace, rather grey for California, and probably had fewer windows then the Chrysler Building. (R. Chandler)

Usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt. It foregrounds not the logical, but the evaluative meaning.

e.g. What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favoured country! – They let the pauper go to sleep! (Ch. Dickens)

How early you’ve come!

In contrast with metaphor and metonymy, irony does not employ any particular syntactical structure or lexical units. In context, there are usually some formal markers of irony pointing out to the meaning implied.

In oral speech, a word used ironically is strongly marked by intonation and other paralinguistic means. In written speech, such markers are not easily found.

Functions and stylistic effects:

Øto show the author’s attitude to something;

Øevaluation of the object/phenomenon;

Øto convey a negative meaning;

Øto express feelings of regret, irritation, displeasure;

Øto produce a humorous effect.

üInteraction of Logical and Emotive Meaning (interjections, epithet, oxymoron)

1.Interjections are words we use when we express our feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in language as conventional symbols

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of human emotions.

e. g. Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers?

The interjection oh, by itself may express various feelings such as regret, despair, disappointment, sorrow, surprise and many others.

Heavens! Good gracious! God knows! Bless me! are exclamatory words generally used as interjections. It must be noted that some adjectives and adverbs can also take on the function of interjections - such as terrible! awfully! great! wonderful! splendid! These adjectives acquire strong emotional colouring and are equal in force to interjections.

2. The epithet is 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 properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. It gives not logical but expressive characteristics (both real and imaginary) of a thing or person.

e.g. The iron hate in Soul pushed him on again. (M. Wilson)

Classification of Epithets

From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into:

·simple (adjectives, nouns, participles): e.g. He looked at them in animal panic. An angry sky;

ØPairs are represented by two epithets joined by a conjunction or asyndetically as in "wonderful and incomparable beauty" (O. W.) or "a tired old town" (H.L.).

ØChains (also called strings) of epithets present a group of homogeneous attributes varying in number from three up to sometimes twenty and even more. e.g. "You're a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature." (D.)

·compound, e.g. apple - faced man; a cloud-shaped giant

Two-step epithets are so called because the process of qualifying seemingly passes two stages, the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in "an unnaturally mild day" (Hut.), or "a pompously majestic female". (D.) As you see from the examples, two-step epithets have a fixed structure of Adv + Adj model.

·sentence and phrase epithets: e.g. It is his do - it - yourself attitude, a don't-care attitude, six-o'clock-in-the-evening-enthusiastic-determined- and-well-intentioned-studier-until-midnight type.

·reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an of-phrase: e.g. a shadow of a smile; a toy of a girl.

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Semantically there are:

·affective/emotive epithets: they convey the emotional evaluation of the object (gorgeous, atrocious);

·figurative: based on metaphors, metonymies and similes: a ghost-like face; the frowning cloud; the sleepless pillow; the tobacco-stained smile. It was a sad old bathrobe (J.Salinger);

·fixed/conventional/standing epithets: true love, Merry Christmas, fair lady.

Functions and stylistic effects:

Øto stress the peculiar features of the object described;

Øto give an individual evaluation;

Øto give an emotional assessment;

Øto convey the subjective attitude of the writer.

3.Oxymoron is a combination of two words with opposite meanings which exclude each other:

e. g. speaking silence, cold fire, living death.

The two semantically contrasting ideas are expressed by syntactically interdependent words (in predicative, attributive or adverbial phrases):

e.g. He was certain the whites could easily detect his adoring hatred to them (R.Wright).

Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its elements discloses some objectively existing feature while the other serves to convey the author's personal attitude towards this quality (pleasantly ugly, crowded loneliness, unanswerable reply). Such semantic incompatibility does not only create unexpected combinations of words, violating the existing norms of compatibility, but reveals some unexpected qualities of the denotatum as well.

As soon as an oxymoron gets into circulation, it loses its stylistic value, becoming trite: pretty bad, awfully nice, terribly good.

Original oxymorons are created by the authors to make the utterance emotionally charged, vivid, and fresh, e.g. Oh, brawling love! Oh, loving hate! Oh ,heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! (W.Shakespeare).

Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures which also, not infrequently, are used to express semantic contradiction, as in

e.g. "the street damaged by improvements" (O. H.) or "silence was louder than thunder" (U.).

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