Stylistic Lexicology

Lecture 3
 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).
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
 1. Trope as a stylistic phenomenon. Classification of tropes.

Tht act of name-exchange, of substitution is traditionally referred

to as transference, for, indeed, the name of one object is
transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity (of
shape, colour, function, etc.), or closeness (of material existence,
cause/effect, instrument/result, part/whole relations, etc.).
Each type of intended substitution results in a
stylistic device (SD) called a trope.
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 (autonomasia);
2. Intensification of a feature (simile, hyperbole, periphrasis).
3. Peculiar use of set expressions (cliches, 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.
• genuine metaphors.
… through the open window the dust danced and was golden.
• trite metaphors or dead metaphors
a flight of fancy, floods of tears
• sustained or prolonged
to bottle up
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 a proximity:

1) between the symbol and the thing it denotes

Here the noble lord inclined his knee to the Wollsack. (Hansard)
2) in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument
His pen is rather sharp.
3) in the relation between the container and the thing it contains
He drank one more cup.
4) the concrete is put for the abstract;
It was a representative gathering (science, politics).
5) a part is put for the whole
the crown - king, a hand – worker
Irony is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly
opposite to its dictionary meaning.

She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator

It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country
without a penny in one’s pocket.
• verbal irony
• sustained irony
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.

He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary something…

Mr.Snake, Mr.Backbite, Dr.Fresh Air, Mr.What’s-his-name
 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 He looked at them in animal panic.
2) compound apple-faced man
3) sentence and phrase epithets It is his do-it-yourself attitude.
4) reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an of-phrase a shadow of a smile
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

cold fire
brawling love
to shout mutely
to cry silently
the street was damaged by improvements
Hyperbole is a lexical stylistic device in which emphasis
is achieved through deliberate exaggeration.

I have told it to you a thousand times.

He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face. (O
Henry)
 5. Stylistic devices based on the interaction based on
the interaction of logical and figurative meanings

Pun is a humorous stylistic devise.

• can be misinterpretation of one speaker's utterance by the other, which results in
his remark dealing with a different meaning of the misinterpreted word
• can be a homonym.
"Have you been seeing any spirits?" "Or taking any?" - added Bob Alien. (Dickens)
There comes a period in every man's life, but she is just a semicolon in his.
Zeugma is a cluster SD, when a polysemantic verb that
can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic
groups is deliberately used with two of more
homogeneous members, which are not connected
semantically.

He took his hat and his leave.

She went home, in a flood of tears and a sedan chair.
(Dickens)
 6. Stylistic devices which give additional
characteristics to the objects described
Simile is an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects
belonging to two different classes.
The one which is compared is called the tenor, the one with which it is
compared, is called the vehicle.
She is like her mother (simple comparison).
She is like a rose (simile).
 foundation of a simile

He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent. (J.R.)

His muscles are hard as rock. (T.C.)
If the foundation of the simile is not quite clear from the
context, the author supplies it with a key

The conversations she began behaved like green

logs: they fumed but would not fire. (T.C.)
 Trite similie

as brisk as a bee
as strong as a horse
as live as a bird
 Disguised similie

His strangely taut, full-width grin made his large

teeth resemble a dazzling miniature piano
keyboard in the green light. (J.)
The ball appeared to the batter to be a slow
spinning planet looming toward the earth. (В. М.)
Periphrasis is a very peculiar stylistic device which basically
consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a
simpler one, i.e. of using a more or less complicated syntactical
structure instead of a word.
 figurative (metonymic and metaphoric)
The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the
fighting in Africa (I.Sh.)
 logical
Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks
Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires." (M.St.)
Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more
acceptable one. This word can be regarded as a synonym which aims at producing a deliberately mild effect.

to die = to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart,

to join the majority, to be gone; to kick the bucket, to give
up the ghost, to go west

to lie = to possess a vivid imagination, to tell stories;

speak with a forked tongue, throw a curve
 Groups according to their spheres of
application.
1) Religious
2) Moral
3) Medial
4) Parliamentary

The evolution over the years of a civilized mental health service has been marked by periodic changes in terminology. The
madhouse became the lunatic asylum; the asylum made way for the mental hospital – even if the building remained the same.
Idiots, imbeciles and the feeble-minded became low, medium and high-grade mental defectives. All are now to lumped together as
patients of severely subnormal personality. The insane became persons of unsound mind, and are now to be mentally-ill patients.
(New Statesman and Nation)