Lexical stylistic devices

&
Express of means
Intentional mixing of the stylistic aspect of the word –
bathos (combining words belonging to different
registers, for example literary and colloquial)

e.g. fabulous madam, endless gabbing, to

O.K. a bill
I. Interaction of primary dictionary &
contextually meanings
There are 3 principle groups

metonymy
metaphor

irony
 Metaphor
Metaphor is the transference from one object to
another

trite genuine
(smth. you don’t expect)
(are commonly used in speech and are
even fixed in dictionaries)
e.g. she is a work of art;
e.g. hand of a door, tail of divorces are made in
a list, head of a delegation, Heaven
dancing eyes syndrome,
wing of a building
 Metonymy
Metonymy – a relation based not on identification, but
on some kind of association connecting with 2
concepts

Major cases of metonymy:

- A concrete thing used instead of the abstract notion: e.g. Let me give
you a hand; to go to bed;
-The container instead of the thing contains, e.g. he ate two plates; she
drank two glasses; Mr. Green is addicted to the bottle;
- The relation of proximity, e.g. the White House said that it would
continue to seek support for a 'military response, The Oval Office was
busy in work;
- The material instead of the thing made of, e.g. her platina is fantastic;
- The instrument which the doer uses in performing, e.g. she is a good
piano, he works with newspapers;
 Irony
Irony is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two
logical meanings – dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings
stand on opposition to each other

e.g. Britain's biggest dog was named Tiny;

- A man died in his living room!
- The dictionary entry for "short" is really,
really long!
II. Interaction of primary and
derivative logical meanings

Zeugma Pun
 Zeugma
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different
semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic
relations being, on the one hand, literal, and, on the other, transerred.

e.g. Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his

leave;
He said, as he hastened to put out
the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps.
Across the road, the field and the
park we ran.
 Pun
Pun is a stylistic device based on the interaction of two
well-known meanings of a word or phrase.

e.g. An elephant's opinion carries a lot

of weight;
-Why did they hang the picture?
- Perhaps they couldn’t find the artist
 III. Interaction of logical and emotive
meanings
Interjections
Interjections are words we use when we express our
feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in
language as conventional symbols of human
emotions.

primary derivative
(may retain some logical
(are generally devoid of
meaning)
any logical meaning)
e.g. well, hell , dear,
gee
e.g. oh! Ah! Ouch! Gosh!
Yowsa!
 Exclamatory words
Their function is that of the interjection;

According to the layer they belong they can be

subdivided into

Colloquial
Bookish (Come on! )
(God! by the Lord !) Neutral
(Dear me! Look here! Bless
me!)
 Epithet
Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of
emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word,
phrase or sentence used to characterize an object

We can classify epithets from different points of view

1. Semantically
non-associated
associated
e.g. beautiful e.g. clear
girl, dark appearance,
forest, clear smart device,
sky, ultrawhite dark man
smile
 2. Structurally
from the point of view of their
composition

simple sentence
nobody-lives-
true love, compound in-the-house
smiling sun, feeling; it was
life-long
sleepless he-will-never-
romance,
pillow forgive-me
long-
expected look
letter, soon-
to-be-
relationship
 3. Epithets can also be classified to

language speech
 Oxymoron
Oxymoron is 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

e.g. walking dead,

courageous woman ,
small supermarket,
original copy
IV. Interaction of logical
and nominal meanings
 Antonomasia
Antonomasia is the interplay between the logical and
nominal meanings of a word (when two kinds of
meanings must be realized in the word
simultaneously)

! If only one meaning is materialized, there is NO

stylistic device

e.g. The Windy City (Chicago),

Cicero (orator), Your Majesty
(Judge in the court)
 Simile
The intensification of some one feature of the
concept in question is realized in a device called
simile

Comparison & simile MUST NOT be confused

Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to

one class of things
Simile
trite
genuine
e.g. She is as tall as giraffe; e.g. Yuck! Your dog is as
You’re skinny as a rail; smelly as dirty socks
 Periphrasis
(From the Greek, "talking
around")

Periphrasis is a device which denotes the use of a longer phrasing

in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression

logical figurative
(is based on one of the inherit
(is based on either on metonymy
properties or perhaps a passing feature
metaphor)
of the object described)
e.g. under-nose hair crops e.g. to drop of the hooks (to
(mustache); the elongated die), to take smb to one’s
yellow fruit (banana); bosom (to marry)
 Euphemism
From the Greek word “euphemia”
– “the use of words of good
omen”

Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an

unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more
acceptable one

e.g. I have to let you go (you’re

fired); restroom (toilet room);
pre-owned vehicles (used cars);
I need a bit of piece and quiet
(go away)
 Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement of a feature

essential to the object or phenomenon

e.g. I must have walk a hundred

miles; I nearly died laughing; Her
teeth were so white they blinded
me; The whole world was staring
at me