Oxymoron,antonomasia, hyperbole, periphrasis, cliché, epigram, quotation, allusion

LECTURE 3

OXYMORON.ANTONOMASIA. HYPERBOLE. PERIPHRASIS. CLICHÉ. EPIGRAM. QUOTATION. ALLUSION

Oxymoron (Gk. oxys 'sharp¹ + moros 'foolish') is a stylistic device where the tenor and the vehicle are diametrically opposite, antonymous It is a combination of two words, e g, living death, cold fire, delicious torment, and in one of them there is an interaction of logical and contextual emotive meanings. In oxymoron the logical meaning prevails over the emotive but the emotive is the result of the clash between the logical and illogical.

Close to oxymoron is paradox, a statement that is contradictory or absurd on the surface.

e.g. The worse   (he better. War is peace, freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. At first sight, oxymoronic collocations seem irrational but on closer examination we find that they disclose the complexity of things and the contradictions of life.

Antonomasia (Gk. antonomasia 'naming instead') is a stylistic device in which the proper name of a person, who is famous for some of his features, is put for a person having the same feature Antonomasia is brief and picturesque, it describes personal features through those commonly associated with the name of some historic figure or of some literary character.

Academics distinguish several types of antonomasia:

• a proper name is used as a common noun

e.g. Her husband is an Othello. Moriarty was Napoleon of crime. The. modern Samson (you may apply to Arnold Schwarzenegger, too).

• a common noun is used instead of a proper name. e.g. Miss Dirty Fringe. Mr. Know-All, Mr. Fix-it.

• speaking names - names whose origin from common nouns is still clearly perceived as in Mr Murdstone, Mr. Doolittle. Becky Sharp. This type of antonomasia seems to be more frequently put to use in Russian literature (N.Gogol, M.Saitykov-Schedrin, etc.- Коробочка. Плюшкин, Молчанов), and seldom in English.

The intensification of some single feature of a thing is realised in simile (Lat. similis 'similar'). To use simile is to characterise the object (T) by bringing it into contact with another object (V) belonging to an entirely different class of things. The formal means to establish comparison between the tenor and the vehicle in the simile are:

• link words as, like - establishing the analogy categorically.

e.g. His face remained as immobile as stone. He wore his happiness like a mask. His fingers were like ferrets that had done some evil and now never rested;

• link words as though, as if establishing but a slight similarity.

e.g. He saw himself in her eyes, as if her eyes were two bits of violet amber. It looked as though he had been tortured;

• lexical means to express resemblance.

e.g. He reminded Julia of an old dog lying in the sun. The water resembled a slab of slate two hundredfeet in diameter.

The English vocabulary abounds in similes that have become trite and familiar: to jump like a cat on hot bricks, innocent as a babe unborn, to behave like a bull in a china shop, etc.

Simile must not be confused with logical comparison, which brings together two things belonging to one class.

e.g. The girl is as clever as her mother. (Girl and mother belong to the same class of objects - human beings - so this is an ordinary comparison)

Hyperbole (Gk. hyperbole 'excess') is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential to the object. Hyperbole produces a more striking effect than a plain statement.

e.g. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this hand. I saw it ten times.

He's written barrels of interesting stories. A variant of hyperbole is understatement in which smallness is exaggerated e.g. A woman of pocket size.

We moved at a snail's pace.

Many hyperboles have become trite, they are used in daily speech without specific artistic effects.

e.g. Haven't seen you for ages. A thousand pardons.

Periphrasis (Or. penphrazein 'to express in a roundabout way": pen - round + phrazem - ^lto show, to say') a roundabout way used to name some object or phenomenon. Longer phrasing may be used instead of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. Some periphrases are easily decoded or familiar -they are called traditional or dictionary periphrases, as the fair sex (women), my better half (wife).

Stylistic periphrasis can be divided into 3 types;

• logical periphrasis - based on inherent properties of a thing: instruments of destruction (pistols'), the object of his admiration (a lady);

• figurative periphrasis - based on imagery (usually a metaphor or a metonymy): юtie the knot (to get married), in disgrace with fortune (ill luck), servant of all work (sun);

• euphemistic periphrasis - used in order to avoid mentioning some unpleasant thing or a taboo thing: to pass away, to be no more ~ to die

So euphemisms are mild substitutions for harsh or blunt expressions