Дипломная работа: Expressive means and stylistic Devices
"'Will you oblige me by keeping your trap shut, darling?' he retorted."
The device is frequently presented in the structural model which we shall call heterogeneous enumeration
2.3 Interaction of different types of lexical meaning
Words in context, as has been pointed out, may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries, what we have called con-textual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the primary meaning, as, for example, with the word sophisticated. This is especially the case when we deal with transferred meanings.
What is known in linguistics as transferred meaning is practically the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual. The contextual meaning will always depend on the dictionary (logical) meaning to a greater or lesser extent. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognized logical meanings, we register a stylistic device.
The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative meaning of the word. The term 'transferred' points to the process of formation of the derivative meaning. Hence the term 'transferred' should be used, to our mind, as a lexicographical term signifying diachronically the development of the se-, mantic structure of the word. In this case we do not perceive two meanings.
When, however, we perceive two meanings of a word simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.
2.4 Interaction of primary dictionary and contextually imposed meaning
The interact ion or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning (the meaning which is registered in the language code as an easily recognized sign for an abstract notion designating a certain phenomenon or object) and a meaning which is imposed on the word by a micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is when the author identifies two objects which have nothing in common, but in which he subjectively sees a function, or a property, or a feature, or a quality that may make the reader perceive these two objects as identical. Another line is when the author finds it possible to substitute one object for another on the grounds that there is some kind of interdependence or interrelation between the two corresponding objects. A third line is when a certain property or quality of an object is used in an opposite or contradictory sense.
The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called a metaphor. The SD based on the principle of substitution of one object for another is called metonymy and the SD based on contrary concepts is called irony.
Let us now proceed with a detailed analysis of the ontology, structure and functions of these stylistic devices.
The relations between different types of lexical meanings may be, based on various principles:
1) The principle of affinity-metaphor,
2) The principle of contiguity-metonymy
3) The principle of opposition-irony.
As it has been stated above the lexical meanings of a word comprise various meanings. But the difference between these meanings not be great and unexpected. In most cases these meanings appear on the principal of affinity existing between the notions and objects surrounding us.
The interaction or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning-the meaning which is registered in the language code as an easily recognized sign for an abstract notion designating a certain phenomenon or object-and a meaning which is imposed on the word by a micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is when the author identifies two objects which have nothing is common, but in which he subjectively sees a function, or a property, or a feature, or a quality that may make the reader perceive these two objects as identical. Another line is when the author finds it possible to substitute one object for another on the grounds that there is some kind of interdependence or interrelation between the two corresponding objects. A third line is when a certain property or contradictory sense.
The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called a metaphor. The SD based on the principle of substitution of one object for another is called metonymy and the SD based on contrary concepts is called irony.
Metaphor. The term “metaphor”, as the etymology of the word reveal means transference of some quality from one object to another. From the times of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, the term has been known to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another. It is still widely used to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. Quintilian remarks: It is due to the metaphor that each thing seems to have its name in language. “Language as a whole has been figuratively defined as a dictionary of faded metaphors.
Thus by transference of meaning the words grasp, get and see come to have the derivative meaning of understand. When these words are used with that meaning we can only register the derivative meaning existing in the semantic structures of the words.
Though the derivative meaning is metaphorical in origin, there is no stylistic effect because the primary meaning is no longer felt.
A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena-things, events, ideas, actions are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties .Such an imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding objects certain features which to his eye have something in common .
The idea that metaphor is based on similarity or affinity of two objects or notions is erroneous .The two objects are identified and the fact that a common feature is pointed to and made prominent doesn’t make them similar .The notion of similarity can be carried on ad absurdum ,for example ,animals and human beings move , breathe ,eat ,but if one of these features ,i.e. movement ,breathing, is pointed to in animals and at the same time in human beings the two objects will not necessarily cause the notion of affinity.
Metaphor is not merely an artificial device making discourse more vivid and poetical. It is also necessary for the apprehension and communication of new ideas. It is the way in which creative minds perceive things.
Metaphors like many SDs must be classified according to three aspects:
1) The degree of expressiveness,
2) The structure i.e. in what linguistic form it is presented or by what part of speech it is expressed,
3) The function, i.e. the role of SD in making up an imagine.
The expressiveness of a SD depends on various aspects. Different authors and literary trends or movements have different sources where they borrow the material for images. Favourite images in oriental poetry are: nightingale, rose, moon. Nature, art, war, fairy tales and myths, science may also serve as sources for metaphorical images.
We distinguish genuine and trite metaphors. The metaphors in which images are quite unexpected are called genuine. Those which are commonly used-are called trite or dead metaphors. Genuine metaphors are also called speech metaphors .Genuine metaphors can easily become trite if they are frequently repeated.
There is an opinion that a metaphor is a productive way of building up new meanings and new words. Language can be called the “dictionary of faded metaphors”.