Дипломная работа: Homonymy in the book of Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"

1. The choice of words included lexical expressive means such as foreign words, archaisms, neologisms, poetic words, nonce words and metaphor.

2. Word combinations involved 3 things:

a) order of words;

b) word-combinations;

c) rhythm and period (in rhetoric, a complete sentence).

3. Figures of speech. This part included only 3 devices used by the antique authors always in the same order.

a) antithesis;

b) assonance of colons;

c) equality of colons.

A colon in rhetoric means one of the sections of a rhythmical period in Greek chorus consisting of a sequence of 2 to 6 feet.

Later contributions by other authors were made into the art of speaking and writing so that the most complete and well developed antique system, that came down to us is called the Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system. It divided all expressive means into 3 large groups: Tropes, Rhythm (Figures of Speech) and Types of Speech.

A condensed description of this system gives one an idea how much we owe the antique tradition in modern stylistic studies.

II.1.1 Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system

Tropes:

1.Metaphor—the application of a word (phrase) to an object (concept) it doesn't literally denote to suggest comparison with another object or concept.

E. g. A mighty Fortress is our God.

2. Puzzle (Riddle)—a statement that requires thinking over a con fusing or difficult problem that needs to be solved.

3. Synecdoche—the mention of a part for the whole.

E.g. A fleet of 50 sail (ships)

4.Metonymy—substitution of one word for another on the basis of real connection.

E.g. Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer's poems; wealth for rich people.

5.Catachresis—misuse of a word due to the false folk etymology or wrong application of a term in a sense that does not belong to the word.

E.g. Alibi for excuse; mental for weak-minded; mutual for common; disinterested for uninterested.

A later term for it is malapropism that became current due to Mrs. Malaprop, a character from R. Sheridan's The Rivals (1775). This sort of misuse is mostly based on similarity in sound.

E. g. That young violinist is certainly a child progeny (instead of prodigy ) .

6.Epithet—a word or phrase used to describe someone or some thing with a purpose to praise or blame.

E. g. It was a lovely, summery evening.

7.Periphrasis—putting things in a round about way in order to bring out some important feature or explain more clearly the idea or situation described,

E.g. I got an Arab boy... and paid him twenty rupees a month, about thirty bob, at which he was highly delighted. (Shute)