Talking About Stories. Theoretical Preliminaries. The Plan for Rendering the Story. Some Helpful Questions for Further Text Analysis, страница 14

Expressive Means of the English Language.

The English language has its own system of expressive means – words and phrases which help to add vividness to the description and with the help of it to touch the reader’s imagination. These words and phrases are used figuratively (metaphorically) and the basis of such uses is certain relations between things or notions, very frequently on the similarity or resemblance of objects.

Metaphor. A metaphor is a way of speaking or writing in which a word or phrase is used to mean or describe something quite different from what it usually expresses. Such transference of meaning is based on similarity of objects or notions. Personification is a special kind of metaphor in which abstract ideas or inanimated objects are identified with persons, that is, are ascribed human characteristics or actions.

In the sentence ‘The news you’ve brought is dagger to my heart’, the word dagger is used metaphorically, it denotes the striking, painful effect produced by the news, comparable to the cruel pain produced by dagger.

Here are some more examples:

Though he was in the sunset of his days, he was yet strong and coarsely made, with harsh and severe features, indicative of much natural sagacity and depth of thought.

In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and one there with icy fingers. (O. Henry)

Metonymy. Metonymy is a case of one word used for another on account of some actual logical relations between things denoted or notions expressed by the two words. Here are some characteristic examples:

I was ready for my knife and fork. (Ch. Dickens) (dinner is meant here)

She liked to read Dreiser and other American authors. (The writer is named instead of his works.)

His mind was alert and people asked him to dinner not for old times’ sake but because he was worth his salt. (S. Maugham)

Simile.Simile is an imaginative comparison of objects belcoing to different classes. It differs from a metaphor in having two elements and thus no transference of meaning. A simile can easily be recognized by the conjunctions as, like, as it, just as joining its two elements.

The old-fashioned brass knocker on the low arched door ... twinkled like a sta. (Ch. Dickens)

Quaint little windows, though as old as the hills, were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills. (Ch. Dickens)

A simile should not be confused with a comparison which is a grammatical phenomenon, whereas a simile is a stylistic device.

He is as tall as a lamp-post (a simile)

Epithets are words or phrases used attributively, which reveal the author’s attitude to a thing or notion; they are usually emotionally coloured, while many attributes are not.

Compare: grey hair (attribute) and golden hair (epithet)

She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A. Cronin)

During the past few weeks she had become most sharply conscious of the smiling interest of Hauptwanger. His straight lithe body – his quick, aggressive manner – his assertive, seeking eyes. (Th. Dreiser)

Hyperboleis a stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration. It is one of the most common expressive means used by all writers. They resort to it when they want to intensify the quantitative aspect of the described objects. Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech.

I was scared to death when he entered the room. (J.D. Salinger)

Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (F.S. Fitzgerald)

Four loudspeakers attached to the flagpole emitted a shattering roar of what Benjamin could hardly call music, as if it were played by a collection of brass bands, a few hundred fire engines, a thousand blacksmiths’ hammers and the amplified reproduction of a force-twelve wind. (A. Saxton)