What meanings of a word participate in the violation of a phraseological unit

restoring
the literal original meaning of the word, which lost some of its
semantic independence and strength in a phraseological unit or
cliché. (A.V.K.)

e.g.:
Little John was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was
rather curly and large.(I.Galsworthy)

e.g.:
After a while and a cake he crept nervously to the door of the
parlour.(A.Tolkien)

See:
<cluster SDs>

nonsense
of non-sequence

joining
two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence (A.V.K.)

e.g.:
Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome.(Y.Esar)

See:
<cluster SDs>

irony

a)
is a <stylistic device> in which the contextual evaluative
meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning

b)
is the <foregrounding> not of the logical but of the evaluative
meaning

c)
is the contradiction between the said and implied

c)
is subdivided into <verbal irony> and <sustained irony>

The
context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the
direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is
understood as a negative qualification and (much-much rarer) vice
versa. The context varies from the minimal – a word combination to
the context of a whole book.

e.g.:
The lift held two people and rose slowly, groaning with
diffidence.(I.Murdoch)

e.g.:
Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethic
backgrounds and specific personality differences, we’re just one
cohesive team.(D.Uhnak)

See:
<lexical SDs>

Source:

Verbal irony

a
type of <irony> when it is possible to indicate the exact word
whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary
meaning, in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the
said and implied

e.g.:
She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (J.Steinbeck)

e.g.:
With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another
twenty seconds apparently hoping to see him gag.(R.Chandler)

e.g.:
She’s a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud
and if she has washed her hair since Coolridge’s second term, I’ll
eat my spare tire, rim and all. (R.Chandler)

e.g.:
Last time it was a nice, simple, European-style war.(I.Shaw)

Ant.:
<sustained irony>

See:
<lexical SDs>

sustained
irony

a)
a type of <irony>, intuitively feeling the reversal of the
evaluation, formed by the contradiction of the speaker’s (writer’s)
considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes;

b)
a number of statements, the whole of the text, in whose meaning we
can trace the contradiction between the said and implied.

e.g.:
Many examples are supplied by D.Defoe, J.Swift of by such twentieth
c. writers as S.Lewis, K.Vonnegut, E.Waugh and others.

e.g.:
When the war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the
Kaiser and, with some solemnity, hung it in the men-servants’
lavatory; it was her one combative action. (E.Waugh)

Ant.:
<verbal irony>

See:
<lexical SDs>

Source:

antonomasia

[c]type
1[/c]: a lexical SD in which a proper name is used instead of a
common noun or vice versa, i.e. a lexical SD in which the nominal
meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning or the
logical meaning acquires the new – nominal – component.

e.g.:
He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary [=any
female],
shortly after she arrived, something … (Th. Dreiser)

e.g.:
”Your fur and his Caddy are a perfect match”. I respect history:
“Don’t you know that Detroit was founded by Sir Antoine de la
Mothe Caddilac, French fur trader”.(J.O’Hara)

[c]type
2[/c]: a lexical SD in which a common noun serves as an
individualising name

e.g.:
There are three doctors in an illness like yours. I don’t mean only
my self, my partner and the radiologist who does your X-rays, the
three I’m referring to are Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet and Dr. Fresh Air.
(D.Cusack)

[c]type
3[/c]: “speaking names” whose origin from common nouns is still
clearly perceived

e.g.:
Miss Languish – Мисс
Томней,
Mr. Backbite – М-р
Клевентаун,
Mr. Credulous – М-р
Доверч,
Mr. Snake – М-р
Гад
(Sheridan)

e.g.:
Lord Chatterino – Лорд
Балаболо,
John Jaw – Джон
Брех,
Island Leap-High — Остров
Высокопрыгия
(F.Cooper)

e.g.:
Mr. What’s-his-name, Mr. Owl Eyes, Colonel Slidebottom, Lady
Teazle, Mr. Surface, Miss Tomboy, Miss Sarcastic, Miss Sneerface,
Lady Bracknell

e.g.:
The next speaker was a tall gloomy man. Sir Something Somebody.
(J.B.Priestley)

See:
<lexical SDs>

epithet

a
<stylistic device> based on the interplay of emotive and
logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used
to characterise and object and pointing out to the reader, and
frequently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the
object with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation
of these features or properties

e.g.:
”wild wind”, “loud ocean”, “remorseless dash of billows”,
“formidable waves”, “heart-burning smile”; “destructive
charms”, “glorious sight”, “encouraging smile”

—
is markedly subjective and evaluative;

Source:

—
expresses characteristics of an object, both existing and imaginary;

—
<foregrounding> the emotive meaning of the word to suppress its
denotational meaning

—
semantically there should be differentiated two main groups:
<affective epithet>s and <figurative epithet>s or
<transferred epithet>s;

—
structurally there should be differentiated: single epithets, pair
epithets, chains or strings, two-step structures, inverted
constructions, phrase-attributes

—
is the most widely used lexical SD;

Chains
or 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.(Ch.Dickens)

e.g.:
He’s a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock.
(Ch.Dickens)

Phrase-epithets
always produce an
original impression.

e.g.:
”the sunshine-in-the-breakfast-room smell” (J.Baldwin)

e.g.:
”a move-if-you-dare expression”(J.Greenwood)

e.g.:
There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero
business, so tough on the human nervous system. (A.Clarke)

Inverted
epithets based on
the contradiction between the logical and the syntactical: logically
defining becomes syntactically defined and vice versa. The article
with the second noun will help in doubtful cases.

e.g.:
”this devil of a woman” instead of “this devilish woman”,
“the giant man” (a gigantic man); “the prude of a woman” (a
prudish woman), “the toy of a girl” (a small, toylike girl), “the
kitten of a woman” (a kittenlike woman)

e.g.:
She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A.Cronin)

See:
<lexical SDs>

Source:

affective
epithet

serves
to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker

e.g.:
“gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, “atrocious”

See:
<figurative epithet> or <transferred epithet>, <epithet>,
<lexical SDs>

figurative
epithet

transferred
epithet

an
<epithet> that is formed of <metaphor>, <metonymy>,
<simile>, expressed by adjectives

e.g.:
”the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless
pillow”, “the tobacco-stained smile”, a “ghost-like face”,
“a dreamlike experience”, “triumphant look”

See:
<affective epithet>, <epithet>, <lexical SDs>

hyperbole

a
<stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through
deliberate exaggeration

It
does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality, but presents
the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering
of the speaker.

e.g.:
My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. (A.Marvell)

e.g.:
The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar.

e.g.:
Calpurnia was all angles and bones.

e.g.:
I was scared to death when he entered the room.(J.D.Salinger)

Ant.:
<understatement>

See:
<lexical SDs>

understatement

a
<stylistic device> in which emphasis is achieved through
intentional underestimation It does not signify the actual state of
affairs in reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally
coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.

e.g.:
”The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale
blowing outside”

e.g.:
She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J.Reed)

e.g.:
About a very small man in the Navy: this new sailor stood five feet
nothing in sea boots. (Th. Pynchon)

Ant.:
<hyperbole>

See:
<lexical SDs>

oxymoron

1)
a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an
adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash,
being opposite in sense

2)
a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to
emphasise contradictory qualities simultaneously existing in the
described phenomenon as a dialectical unity

e.g.:
”low skyscraper”, “sweet sorrow”, “nice rascal”,
“pleasantly ugly face”, “horribly beautiful”, “a deafening
silence from Whitehall” (The Morning Star)

e.g.:
”The Beauty of the Dead”, “to shout mutely”, “to cry
silently”, “the street damaged by improvements” (O.Henry),
“silence was louder than thunder” (J.Updike)

e.g.:
O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick heath! (W.Shakespeare)

e.g.:
You have two beautiful bad examples for parents. (Sc.Fitzgerald)

See:
<lexical SDs>

syntactical
level

include
<syntactical stylistic devices>, <types of repetition>,
<sentence structure>, <types of connection>, arrangement
of sentence members, <completeness of sentence structure>,

See:
<phono-graphical level>, <morphological level>, <lexical
level>, <Stylistics>

syntactical
stylistic devices

syntactical
SDs

include:
sentence length, <one-word sentences>, <punctuation>,
<rhetorical question>, <parallel construction>,
<chiasmus>, <inversion>, <suspense>, <detachment>,
<ellipsis>, one-member sentences, <apokoinu constructions>,
<break-in-the-narrative>, <polysyndeton>, <asyndeton>,
<attachment>

See:
<types of repetition>; <lexical SDs>, <cluster SDs>,
<lexico-syntactical SDs>, <stylistic device>

one-word
sentences

possess
a very strong emphatic impact, for their only word obtains both the
word- and the sentence-stress. The word constituting a sentence also
obtains its own sentence-intonation which, too, helps to foreground
the content.

e.g.:
I like people. Not just empty streets and dead buildings. People.
People. (P.Abrahams)

See:
<punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

sentence
structure

Not
only the clarity and understandability of the sentence but also its
expressiveness depend on the position of clauses, constituting it.

@
loose
structure

—
opens with the main clause, which is followed by dependent units

—
less emphatic and is highly characteristic of informal writing and
conversation

@
periodic
sentences

—
open with subordinate clauses, absolute and participial
constructions, the main clause being withheld until the end

—
are known for their emphasis and are used mainly in creative prose

e.g.:
Such being at bottom the fact, I think it is well to leave it at
that. (S.Maugham)

@
balanced
sentences

—
subordinate-main-subordinate similar structuring of the beginning of
the sentence and its end;

—
known for
stressing the logic and reasoning of the content and thus preferred
in publicist writing;

@

See:
<punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

Source:

order
of words

and
<punctuation> are used to convey the corresponding pausation
and intonation in the written form of speech

See:
<punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

punctuation

Points
of exclamation, points of interrogation, dots, dashes; commas,
semicolons and full stops serve as an additional source of
information and help to specify the meaning of the written sentence
which in oral speech would be conveyed by the intonation.

e.g.:
”What’s your name?” “John Lewis.” “Mine’s Liza.
Watkin.” (K.Kesey)

e.g.:
”You know so much. Where is she?” “Dead. Or in a crazy house.”
Or married. I think she’s married and quieted down.” (T.Capote)

e.g.:
The neon lights in the heart of the city flashed on and off. On and
off. On. Off. On. Off. Continuiously. (P.Abrahams)

See:
<order of words>, <one-word sentences>, <syntactical
SDs>

rhetorical
question

1)
peculiar interrogative construction which semantically remains a
statement;

—
does not demand any information but

—
serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also

—
serves to call the attention of listeners;

—
makes an indispensable part of oratoric speech for they very
successfully emphasise the orator’s ideas.

2)
a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists
in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence

e.g.:
Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?

See:
<order of words>, <punctuation>, <syntactical SDs>

types
of repetition

include:
<anaphora>, <epiphora>, <framing>, <catch
repetition> or <anadiplosis>, <chain repetition>,
<ordinary repetition>, <successive repetition>;
<synonymical repetition>

Repetition:

—
is a powerful meand of emphasis

—
adds rhythm and balance to the utterance

See:
<syntactical SDs>, <stylistic device>

anaphora

a
. . . , a . . . , a . . . ,

the
beginning of two or more sentences (clauses) is repeated

The
main stylistic function is not so much to emphasise the repeated unit
as to create the background for the non-repeated unit, which, through
its novelty, becomes foregrounded.

e.g.:
I might as well face facts: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car,
good-bye a big house, good-bye power, good-bye the silly handsome
dreams. (J.Braine)

e.g.:
And everywhere were people. People going into gates and coming out of
gates. People staggering and falling. People fighting and
cursing.(P.Abrahams)

Ant.:
<epiphora>

See:
<types of repetition>

epiphora

.
. . a, . . . a, . . . a,

the
end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated

The
main stylistic function is to add stress to the final words of the
sentence.

e.g.:
I wake up and I’m alone and I walk round Warley and I’m alone;
and I talk with people and I’m alone and I look at his face when
I’m home and it’s dead. (J.Braine)

Ant.:
<anaphora>

See:
<types of repetition>

framing

a
. . . a

the
beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the
“frame” for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance)

The
stylistic function is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the
beginning of the sentence, to concretise and to specify its
semantics.

e.g.:
Obviously – this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously.
(W.Deeping)

e.g.:
Then there was something between them. There was. There was.
(T.Dreiser)

See:
<catch repetition> or <anadiplosis>, <types of
repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

catch
repetition

anadiplosis

reduplication

.
. . a, a . . .

the
end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the
following one

The
stylistic function is to elucidate the notion, to concretise and to
specify its semantics on a more modest level.

e.g.:
Now he understood. he understood many things. One can be a person
first. A man first and then a black man or a white man. (P.Abrahams)

e.g.:
And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept
through her.(A.Bennet)

See:
<framing>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

chain
repetition

chain-repetition

.
. . a, a . . . b, b. . .

several
successive repetitions

The
effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

e.g.:
”To think better of it,” returned the gallant Blandois, “would
be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would be to be deficient in
chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of
my character.” (Ch.Dickens)

e.g.:
Failure meant poverty, poverty meant squalor, squalor led, in the
final stages, to the smells and stagnation of B. Inn Alley. (D. du
Maurier)

See:
<types of repetition>

ordinary
repetition

.
. . a, . . . a . . ., a . . .

.
. a . ., . . a . ., . . a . .

no
definite place in the sentence, the repeated unit occurs in various
positions

The
stylistic function is to emphasise both the logical and the emotional
meaning of the reiterated word (phrase).

e.g.:
Halfway along the right-hand side of the dark brown hall was a dark
brown door with a dark brown settie beside it. (W.S.Gilbert)

e.g.:
I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very
romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a
definite proposal. (O.Wilde)

See:
<types of repetition>

successive
repetition

.
. . a, a, a . . .

a
string of closely following each other reiterated units

The
most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions
of the speaker.

e.g.:
Of her father’s being groundlessly suspected, she felt sure. Sure.
Sure. (Ch.Dickens)

See:
<types of repetition>

synonymical
repetition

the
repetition of the same idea by using synonymous words and phrases
which by adding a slightly different nuance of meaning intensify the
impact of the utterance

e.g.:
… are there not capital punishment sufficient in your statutes? Is
there not blood enough upon your penal code? (Byron)

See:
<types of repetition>

parallel
construction

reiteration
of the structure of several sentences (clauses), and not of their
lexical “flesh”

almost
always includes some type of lexical repetition, and such a
convergence produces a very strong effect, <foregrounding> at
one go logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the
utterance.

e.g.:
I notice that father’s is a large hand, but never a heavy one when
it touches me, and that father’s is a rough voice but never an
angry one when it speaks to me. (T.Dreiser)

See:
<chiasmus>, <types of repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

chiasmus

reversed
parallel construction

a)
reversed parallelism of the structure of several sentences (clauses)

b)
<inversion> of the first construction in the second part

e.g.:
If the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order – SPO, the
second one will have it inverted – OPS.

e.g.:
Down dropped the breeze, // The sails dropped down. (Coleridge)

See:
<parallel construction>, <inversion>, <types of
repetition>, <syntactical SDs>

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very green. (A.T.)

18. Some writer once said: «How many times you can call yourself a Man depends on how many languages you know.» (M.St.)

ASSIGNMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

What lexical meanings of a word can you name? Which of them, in most cases, is the most important one?

2. What SDs are based on the use of the logical (denotational) meaning of a word?

3. What is a contextual meaning? How is it used in a SD?

4. What is the difference between the original and the hackneyed SDs?

5. What is a metaphor? What are its semantic, morphological, syntactical, structural, functional peculiarities?

6. What is a metonymy? Give a detailed description of the device.

7. What is included into the group of SDs known as «play on words»? Which ones of them are the most frequently used? What levels of language hierarchy are involved into their formation?

8. Describe the difference between pun and zeugma, zeugma and a semantically false chain, semantically false chain and nonsense of non-sequence.

9. What meanings of a word participate in the violation of a phraseological unit?

10. What is the basic effect achieved by the play on words?

11. Find examples of each of the discussed stylistic devices in your home reading.

12. Try and find peculiarities in the individual use of various SDs by different authors known to you from your courses of literature, interpretation of the text, home reading.

In all previously discussed lexical SDs we dealt with various transformations of the logical (denotational) meaning of words, which participated in the creation of metaphors, metonymies, puns, zeugmas, etc. Each of the SDs added expressiveness and originality to the nomination of the object. Evaluation of the named concept was often present too, but it was an optional characteristic, not inherent in any of these SDs. Their subjectivity relies on the new and fresh look at the object mentioned, which shows the latter from a new and unexpected side. In irony, which is our next item of consideration, subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon named. The essence of this SD consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and (much-much rarer) vice versa. Irony thus is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning, So, like all other SDs, irony does not exist outside the context, which varies from the minimal — a word combination, as in J. Steinbeck’s «She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator,» — to the context of a whole book, as in Ch: Dickens, where one of the remarks of Mr. Micawber, known for his complex, highly bookish and elaborate style of speaking about the most trivial things, is introduced by the author’s words «…Mr. Micawber said in his usual plain manner».

In both examples the words «sweet» and «plain» reverse their positive meaning into the negative one due to the context, micro- in the first, macro- in the second case.

In the stylistic device of irony it is always possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. This is why this type of irony is called verbal irony. There are very many cases, though, which we regard as irony, intuitively feeling the reversal of the evaluation, but unable to put our finger on the exact word in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and the implied. The effect of irony in such cases is created by a number of statements, by the whole of the text. This type of irony is called sustained, and it is formed by the contradiction of the speaker’s (writer’s) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes. Many examples of sustained irony are supplied by D. Defoe, J. Swift or by such XX-ieth c. writers as S. Lewis, K. Vonnegut, E. Waugh and others. Exercise IV. In the following excerpts you will find mainly examples of verbal irony. Explain what conditions made the realization of the opposite evaluation possible. Pay attention to the part of speech which is used in irony, also its syntactical function:

1. The book was entitled Murder at Milbury Manor and was a whodunit of the more abstruse type, in which everything turns on whether a certain character, by catching the three-forty-three train at Hilbury and changing into the four-sixteen at Milbury, could have reached Silbury by five-twenty-seven, which would have given him just time to disguise himself and be sticking knives into people at Bilbury by six-thirty-eight. (P.G.W.)

2. When the, war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and, with some solemnity, hung it in the men-servants’ lavatory; it was her one combative action. (E.W.)

3. «I had a plot, a scheme, a little quiet piece of enjoyment afoot, of which the very cream and essence was that this old man and grandchild should be as poor as frozen rats,» and Mr. Brass revealed the whole story, making himself out to be rather a saintlike holy character. (D.)

4. The lift held two people and rose slowly, groaning with diffidence. (I.M.)

5. England has been in a dreadful state for some weeks. Lord Coodle would go out. Sir Thomas Doodle wouldn’t come in, and there being nobody in Great Britain (to speak of) except Coodle and Doodle, there has been no Government (D.)

6. From her earliest infancy Gertrude was brought up by her aunt. Her aunt had carefully instructed her to Christian principles. She had also taught her Mohammedanism, to make sure. (L.)

7. She’s a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair since Coolidge’s second

English-Russian dictionary of stylistics (terminology and examples)