Lecture 3

Stylistic Lexicology

Lecture Plan
1. Trope as a stylistic phenomenon. Classification of tropes 2. Stylistic devices based on the interaction of two logical meanings (metaphor, metonymy, irony) 3. Stylistic devices based on the interaction of logical and nominal meanings (antonomasia)

Lecture Plan
4. Stylistic devices based on the interaction of logical and emotive meanings (epithet, hyperbole, oxymoron) 5. Stylistic devices based on the interaction based on the interaction of logical and figurative meanings (zeugma, pun) 6. Stylistic devices which give additional characteristics to the objects described (simile, periphrasis, euphemism)

Key Words
trope metaphor metonymy irony antonomasia epithet hyperbole oxymoron zeugma pun simile periphrasis euphemism

Trope as a stylistic phenomenon. Classification of tropes

The act of name-exchange, of substitution is traditionally referred to as transference, for the name of one object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity or closeness. Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device called a trope

Groups of tropes
1. The interaction of different types of lexical meaning. a) dictionary and contextual (metaphor, metonymy, irony); b) primary and derivative (zeugma and pun); c) logical and emotive (epithet, oxymoron); d) logical and nominative (antonomasia);

Groups of tropes
2. Intensification of a feature (simile, hyperbole, periphrasis)

3. Peculiar use of set expressions (clichs, proverbs, epigram, quotations)

2 Stylistic devices based on the interaction of two logical meanings

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts

Metaphors as any stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors

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

Metaphors with two or more revived components are called sustained or prolonged metaphors

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

The proximity may be revealed: 1) between the symbol and the thing it denotes 2) in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument; 3) in the relation between the container and the thing it contains 4) the concrete is put for the abstract; 5) a part is put for the whole

The essence of irony consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. Irony thus is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning

3
Stylistic devices based on the interaction of logical and nominal meanings

Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa

4 Stylistic devices based on the interaction of logical and emotive meanings

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

Classification of Epithets
From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into: 1) simple (adjectives, nouns, participles) 2) compound; 3) sentence and phrase epithets 4) reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an of-phrase.

Classification of Epithets
Semantically according to I. Galperin 1) associated with the noun following it, pointing to a feature which is essential to the objects they describe: dark forest; careful attention. 2) unassociated with the noun, epithets that add a feature which is unexpected and which strikes the reader: smiling sun, voiceless sounds

Oxymoron is lexical stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes

Hyperbole is a lexical stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration