TYPES OF EXPRESSIVE MEANS DEFINITION
1. Phonetic expressive
means
Pitch, melody, stress,
whispering, manner of
speaking, pauses, etc.
2. Lexical expressive
means
encompass a great many word-
forms providing stylistic
meaning.
At the lexical level
expressiveness can also be
rendered by the words
possessing inner
expressive charge -
interjections, epithets, slang
and vulgar, poetic or archaic
words, set phrases,
idioms, catchwords, proverbs
and sayings
EXAMPLES
1) onomatopoeia (direct and
indirect): ding-dong; silver
bells... tinkle, tinkle;
2) alliteration (initial rhyme):
to rob Peter to pay Paul;
3) rhyme (full, incomplete,
compound or broken, eye
rhyme, internal rhyme.
Also, stanza rhymes:
couplets, triple, cross,
framing/ring);
4) rhythm.
I. First Sub-Division
A.
a) metaphor:
Dear Nature is the kindest
Mother still. (Byron)
b) metonymy:
The camp, the pulpit and the
law For rich man's sons are free.
- (Shelly)
c) irony:
“must be delightful to find
oneself in a foreign country
without a penny in one's
pocket.”
B.
d) polysemy:
Massachusetts was hostile to
the American flag, and she
would not allow it to be hoisted
on her State House;
e) zeugma and pun:
May's mother always stood on
her gentility; and Dot's mother
never stood on anything but her
active little feet. - (Dickens)

C.
f) interjections and
exclamatory words:
All present life is but an
interjection
An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery,
Or a 'Ha! ha!' or 'Bah!'-a yawn
or 'Pooh!'
Of which perhaps the latter is
most true.
- (Byron)
g) epithet:
a well-matched, fairly-balanced
give-and-take couple. -
(Di¬ckens)
h) oxymoron:
peopled desert, populous
solitude, proud humility. (Byron)

D.
i) antonomasia:
Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not
get very far in this world. I
– (The Times)

II. Second Sub-Division

j) simile:
treacherous as a snake, faithful
as a dog, slow as a tortoise.
k) periphrasis:
a gentleman of the long robe (a
lawyer); the fair sex. (women)
l) euphemism:
In private I should call him a liar.
In the Press you should use the

3. Morphological Grammatical forms (tenses,
expressive means pronouns, articles, modal verbs)
which obtain inherent
expressiveness, perceived
without any context.
words: 'Reckless disregard for
truth'. (Galsworthy)
m) hyperbole:
The earth was made for
Dombey and Son to trade in and
the sun and the moon were
made to give them light.
(Dickens)
III. Third Sub-Division
n) cliches:
clockwork precision, crushing
defeat, the whip and carrot
policy.
o) proverbs and
sayings:
Come! he said, milk's spilt.
(Galsworthy)
p) epigrams:
A thing of beauty is a joy for
ever. (Keats)
q) Quotations:
Ecclesiastes said, 'that all is
vanity'. (Byron)
r) allusions:
Shakespeare talks of the herald
Mercury. (Byron)
s) decomposition of
set phrases:
You know which side the law's
buttered. (Galsworthy)
1. The use on Noun
a). repeating the same words in
a syntactical construction.
Ex. women are women
b). using metaphorically nouns
which belong to different
lexicogrammatical classes.
Ex. He is a devil with the women
- (S.Barstow).

2. The use of Articles

a) the violation of usual

combinability of the
definite and indefinite
articles with proper
names and the nouns
denoting unique
objects (sun, moon,
sky, earth).
b) the transposition of the
meaning of an article in
context

3. The use of Adjectives

a) category of comparison.

Ex. The most Italian car.

b) The meaning of
comparison can be also
expressed lexically
through equonisms.
Ex. senior – junior

c) Adjectives with the –ish

suffix.
Ex. mannish, womanish

4. The use of Pronouns

 The usage of archaic

(thee, thou, thy) or low
colloquial forms of
pronouns

5. The use of Adverbs

 a) stylistically neutral, typical of
both written and oral speech
(exceedingly, quite, too, utterly);
b) stylistically marked, typical of
oral speech only (awfully,
terribly, dreadfully etc.).
4. Syntactical expressive Constructions, which reveal a
means certain degree of logical and a) Interjections:
emotional emphasis.
Ex1: wow!!

Ex2: what the hell!!! Or

Goddamn!!!.

b) Epithet:

Ex: That furious red of the fiery

rose just kills me.

c) Oxymoron: two words

of opposing meaning
combine grammatically.

 adj+noun:

Ex: the impatient patients

looked at the nurses in fear; Mr.
Grenoble was the most
visionary blind men in history.
tender rocks populate that
beach.

 adverb+adjective:
Ex: he looked distressfully
meditative; he moved his
expressively silent eyes from
side to side as if trying to find
something queer

 adv+verb:
Ex: they calmly ran through the
backstreet.