Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 19 Декабря 2012 в 14:55, реферат
Now, we come to the most difficult, yet the most inventive and interesting, use of language, figurative language. This term refers to the use of words, not in their literal sense, but in a metaphorical or imaginative way. Although you may associate figurative language primarily with poetry, prose writers also use it to give great immediacy, greater drama, or stronger impact on an otherwise commonplace idea.
Semantically metaphor aims at identifying the objects; simile aims at finding some points of resemblance by keeping the objects apart. Metaphor only implies the feature which serves as the ground for comparison, simile often indicates this feature, it is semantically more definite.
E.g.: You couldn’t stop him. He was hot as a fire-cracker. (J. Salinger)
The difference between simile and logical comparison
Simile should also be distinguished from logical comparison.
Logical comparison deals with the notions belonging to the same class / sphere and states the degree of their similarity and difference. E.g.: The boy is as clever as his dad.
Simile combines the notions belonging to different classes. To use a simile is to characterise an object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things (heterogeneous classes of objects).
The steps drifted over with windblown sand and handrail was as cold and wet as a toad’s belly. (R. Chandler)
Comparison takes into consideration all the properties of the two objects. E.g. He is like a lion.
Simile excludes all the features of the two objects except one, which is made common to them.
E.g. He’s as brave as a lion.
Semantically
Many similes have become trite: As vain as a peacock. As sly as a fox
Genuine similes are striking and original.
E.g. His voice got as cool as a cafeteria dinner. (R. Chandler)
Structurally simile may be:
The sound of a faraway train, like a big beast shuffling in its sleep. (K. Mansfield)
Montermar Vista was a few dozen houses of various sizes and shapes hanging by their teeth and eyebrows to a spur of mountain and looking as if a good sneeze would drop them down among the box lunches on the beach. (R. Chandler)
Synonyms-substitutes / substituting synonyms – a thing or phenomenon already mentioned, supplementing new additional details or giving a new aspect to the characterisation of an object.
E.g. He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless stories.
Some paired synonyms have become fixed in the language-as-a-system as clichés: lord and master; really and truly.
Пропало, пройшло, пролетіло,
Минулося, щезло, спливло,
Лишень головешками тліло,
Лишень попелищем цвіло.
Одвіялось, сном одіснилось,
Одмарилось - ген набулось,
Вкотилось і ген одкотилось,
Солоним риданням зайшлось.
(І.Драч)
Substituting synonyms are characterised by contextual similarity giving rise to emotive-evaluative meaning.
E.g. Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going dear fellow. (R. Kent)
Figures of opposition
This group of SD is characterised by the combination in context of two or more words or w/c with opposite meanings.
Antithesis is a stylistic device, which presents two contrasting ideas in order to stress this contrast. It is a combination of two words in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense. Antithesis is a confrontation of at least two phrases semantically opposite
E.g. The House of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the Tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. (Proverbs 14:11)
An opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by using words, which are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other. This device is often moulded in parallel constructions.
E.g. When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. (O. Wilde )
Слова одні нам тішать слух і зір,
А інші нас відштовхують раптово.
Antithesis is a device bordering on stylistics and logic. It’s essential to distinguish between antithesis and contrast. Contrast is a literary (not a linguistic) device based on the logical opposition between the phenomena set one against another.
They’re several variants of antithesis:
E.g. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity. (Ch. Dickens)
E.g. Large houses are still occupied while weavers’ cottages stand empty. (Gaskell)
E.g. New England had a native literature, while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agricultural. (Th. Dreiser)
Functions and stylistic effects
Oxymoron, from Greek it means wittily foolish - остроумно-глупое.
It is a combination of opposite meanings which exclude each oher or semantically incompatible.
E.g.: low skyscrapers, a poor millionaire, horribly beautiful.
Street damaged by improvements (O. Henry)
A man who was the Bully of humility. (Ch. Dickens )
Звимку сонце скрізь плач сміється.
Oxymoron is the joining together of apparent contradictions:Faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
The difference between oxymoron and the antithesis
The oxymoron: a combination of words which are semantically incompatible (exclude each other). The contrasting idea is expressed by a single word combination, syntactically interdependent words – sad and pleasant thoughts, sweet hatred. Antithesis has not less than two word combinations – pleasant thoughts and sad meditations.
Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon leading to some unexpected combinations of words.
Who can express the great littleness, and little greatness; the childish manliness, and manly Childishness of that blind God?
Some of them have become trite: Awfully nice. Pretty bad
It was pretty terrible. (E. Hemingway)
We sometimes feel he’s not a terribly good mixer. (J. Salinger)
There are titles based on this device: Живой труп.
Figures of inequality
Relations of inequality are the relations of meanings of words and w/c, which differ, in their emotive intensity or logical importance. There are two groups of these figures of speech:
Climax/gradation (ladder) is an increasing gradation of meanings.
It is based on gradation in which every successive word or phrase is emotionally stronger and logically more important than the preceding one.
These are strings of semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group.
E.g. The eight-five cent dinner tasted like a discarded mail bag and was served by a waiter who looked as if he would slug me for a quarter, cut my throat for six bits and bury me at sea in a barrel of concrete for a dollar and a half plus sales tax. (R. Chandler)
Він так зажурився, аж скис.
На серці в нього ставало так погано, прикро, болісно.
The climatic arrangement of sentences secures a gradual increase in importance or emotional tension in the utterance.
A Climax by gradation still ascends,
Until the sense with finished Period ends.
Each successive unit is perceived as stronger than the preceding one
A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways:
E.g. Not only brute creatures, but men; nor they only, but likewise gods, yield to the violence of love.
E.g. The first canvas caused a faint titter, the second a decided ripple of amusement, and by the time the final canvas was exhibited the crowd was laughing heartily. (A.J. Cronin)
E.g. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. (W.S. Maugham)
Anticlimax is an opposite stylistic device to climax. It is a decreasing arrangement of meanings. The ideas are arranged in a descending order of significance.
E.g. Mess-jacket looked at me with his silent sleek smile. I watched it until it was no longer a smile, no longer a face, no longer anything but a dark figure against the landing lights. (R. Chandler)
Every successive word or phrase or sentence is emotionally or logically less strong than the preceding one.
There are two types of anticlimax:
E.g. They walked upstairs – 5 flights. At the first landing they stopped and kissed; she was careful on the next landing; on the third more careful still. On the next she stopped half way and kissed him fleetingly good-by. Finally it was good by with their hands and then the fingers slipping apart. (S. Fitzgerald)
E.g. He was inconsolable – for an afternoon (J.Galsworthy)
Functions and stylistic effects
Pun / paronomasia/play on words (каламбур) is a device based on polysemy, homonymy or phonetic similarity used to achieve a humorous effect.
The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings, or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect.
Many jokes and funny stories are based on pun.
E.g. - I wonder if I can see your mother, little boy. Is she engaged?
Хотів розвалитися у кріслі, а воно не витримало і розвалилося.
There are several kinds of pun:
The quickest way to break a bad habit is to drop it.
Student – No, a cute engineer.
A cynic was standing in front of an exhibition of modern picture labelled “Art Objects”.
“ Well “, he announced to the attendant in charge, “I should think Art would object, and I can’t say that I blame it.”
Functions and stylistic effects
Zeugma from Greek it means to join/to combine. It is a simultaneous realisation of two meanings of a polysemantic unit.
It is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to the adjacent word in the context. The primary and derivative meanings clash. By making the two meanings conspicuous in this particular way, each of them stands out clearly.
E.g. Everything was short including tobacco and people’s tempers. (E. Hemingway)
These are parallel constructions with unparalleled meaning. It is identical structurally, but different semantically.
E.g. It was my older brother - her darling - who was to inherit her resoluteness, her stubbornness, her table silver and some of her eccentricities. (J. Cheever )
The verb refers to different subjects or objects (direct and indirect).
He possessed two false teeth and a kind heart.
Polysemantic verbs that have a practically unlimited lexical valency can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups, homogeneous members that are not connected semantically. Thus it combines syntactical and lexical characteristics. Syntactically it is based on the similar structures, semantically it comprises different meanings.
Functions and stylistic effects
- to create a humorous effect
It is difficult to draw a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one. Zeugma is the realisation of two meanings with the help of a verb that refers to different subjects or objects.
The pun is more independent. It is not obligatory to have one word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers. It is more dependent on the context.