Word Meaning Old Fashioned Being Worn Again

You know past now that amidst multiple functions of the word the main one is to announce, denotational meaning thus being the major semantic feature of the word. In this paragraph we shall bargain with the foregrounding of this particular function, i. due east. with such types of denoting phenomena that create additional expressive, evaluative, subjective connotations. We shall deal in fact with the substitution of the existing names approved by long usage and stock-still in dictionaries past new, occasional, private ones, prompted by the speaker'due south subjective original view and evaluation of things. This human activity of name-exchange, of substitution is traditionally referred to as transference, for, indeed, the name of ane object is transferred onto another, proceeding from their similarity (of shape, colour, function, etc.), or closeness (of material existence, crusade/ outcome, instrument/ event, role/ whole relations, etc.).

Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device (SD)* called also a trope. The most oftentimes used,

* For the elaboration of SDs see: Galperin I. R. Stylistics. Thou., 1971, esp. pp. 24-thirty and function Iv (pp. 132-190).

well known and elaborated among them is а transference of names based on the associated likeness exist-tween two objects, as in the "pancake", or "ball", or "volcano" for the "sun"; "silver dust", "sequins" for "stars"; "vault", "blanket", "veil" for the "sky".

From previous report yous know that nomination - the procedure of naming reality by means of the language-gain from choosing one of the features feature of the object which is existence named for the representative of the object. The con-nection between the chosen feature, representing the object, and the word is especially vivid in cases of transparent "in-ner form" when the proper name of the object tin exist easily traced to the proper name of one of its characteristics. Cf.: "railway", "chairman", "waxen". Thus the semantic structure of a word reflects, to a certain extent, feature features of the piece of reality which it denotes (names). So it is but natural that similarity between real objects or phenomena finds its reflection in the semantic structures of words denoting them: both words possess at least i common semantic component. In the in a higher place examples with the "dominicus" this common semantic component is "hot" (hence -"volcano", "pancake" which are also "hot"), or "round" ("ball", "pancake" which are too of circular shape).

The expressiveness of the metaphor is promoted by the implic-it simultaneous presence of images of both objects - the one which is actually named and the one which supplies its own "legal" proper noun. So that formally nosotros deal with the proper name transfer-ence based on the similarity of i feature common to two unlike entities, while in fact each ane enters a phrase in the complexity of its other characteristics. The wider is the gap between the associated objects the more than striking and unexpected - the more expressive - is the metaphor.

If a metaphor involves likeness between inanimate and animate objects, we bargain with personification, equally in "the face of London", or "the pain of the ocean".

Metaphor, as all other SDs, is fresh, original, genuine, when first used, and trite, hackneyed, stale when frequently repeated. In the latter case it gradually loses its expressiveness becoming but another entry in the dictionary, as in the "leg of a table" or the "sunrise", thus serving a very important source of enriching the vocabulary of the language.

Metaphor can be expressed by all notional parts of speech, and functions in the sentence every bit any of its members.

When the speaker (writer) in his desire to present an elaborated image does not limit its cosmos to a single meta-phor simply offers a grouping of them, each supplying another feature

of the described phenomenon, this cluster creates a sustained (prolonged) metaphor.

Practice I. Analyse the given cases of metaphor from all sides mentioned above — semantics, originality, expressiveness, syntactic function, vividness and elaboration of the created epitome. Pay attention to the manner in which two objects (actions) are identified: with both named or simply 1 — the metaphorized one-presented explicitly:

1. She looked down on Gopher Prairie. The snow stretching
without intermission from street to devouring prairie across, wiped
out the town'southward pretence of being a shelter. The houses were
black specks on a white sail. (S. L.)

2. And the skirts! What a sight were those skirts! They were
naught but vast decorated pyramids; on the summit of each
was stuck the upper half of a princess. (A. B.)

iii. I was staring directly in front of me, at the back of
the commuter's neck, which was a relief map of boil scars. (S.)

4. She was handsome in a rather leonine way. Where this
girl was a lioness, the other was a panther-lithe and quick.
(Ch.)

five. His voice was a dagger of corroded contumely. (Southward. L.)

6. Wisdom has reference only to the past. The hereafter
remains for ever an infinite field for mistakes. You can't know
beforehand. (D. H. L.)

seven. He felt the first watery eggs of sweat moistening the
palms of his hands. (Due west. Southward.)

8. At the concluding moment before the windy collapse of the day,
I myself took the road downwards. (Jn. H.)

9. The man stood there in the middle of the street with
the deserted dawnlit boulevard telescoping out behind
him. (Т. Н.)

10. Leaving Daniel to his fate, she was conscious of joy
springing in her heart. (A. B.)

11. He smelled the ever-cute smell of coffee imprisoned
in the can. (J. St.)

12. Nosotros talked and talked and talked, easily, sympathetically,
wedding her experience with my joint. (Jn. B.)

13. "We need yous and then much here. It's a beloved old town, but it's
a crude diamond, and we need y'all for the polishing, and we're
always so humble...". (Due south. L.)

14. They walked along, two continents of feel and
feeling, unable to communicate. (West. Thou.)

xv. Geneva, mother of the Red Cross, hostess of
humanitarian congresses for the civilizing of warfare! (J. R.)

16. She and the kids have filled his sis's house and their
welcome is wearing thinner and thinner: (U.)

17. Notre Dame squats in the dusk. (H.)

xviii. I am the new yr. I am an unspoiled page in your book
of time. I am your side by side adventure at the art of living.

I am your opportunity to practise what you take learned during the last twelve months about life.

All that you sought the past year and failed to find is hidden in me; I am waiting for you to search it out over again and with more determination.

All the good that y'all tried to do for others and didn't achieve last year is mine to grant - providing you accept fewer selfish and conflicting desires.

In me lies the potential of all that you lot dreamed but didn't cartel to exercise, all that you hoped but did not perform, all you lot prayed for but did not yet experience. These dreams sleep lightly, waiting to be awakened by the affect of an enduring purpose. I am your opportunity. (Т. Н.)

19. Autumn comes

And trees are shedding their leaves, And Mother Nature blushes Earlier disrobing. (North. West.)

20. He had hoped that Sally would laugh at this, and she
did, and in a sudden mutual gush they cashed into the silver
of laughter all the sorry secrets they could find in their
pockets. (U.)

Metonymy, another lexical SD, - similar metaphor - on losing its originality too becomes instrumental in enriching the vocabulary of the language, though metonymy is created past a different semantic process and is based on contiguity (nearness) of objects or phenomena. Transference of names in metonymy does not involve a necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic structures, every bit is the case with metaphor, only proceeds from the fact that two objects (phenomena) accept common grounds of existence in reality. Such words every bit "cup" and "tea" have no linguistic (semantic) nearness, but the outset one may serve the container of the second, hence - the conversational cliche "Will you have some other cup?", which is a example of metonymy, once original, only due to long apply, no more than accepted as a fresh SD.

"My brass will call your brass," says one of the characters of A. Hailey's Airport to another, meaning "My boss will phone call your boss." The transference of names is caused past both bosses ] being officers, wearing uniform caps with contumely cockades.

The scope of transference in metonymy is much more than limited than that of metaphor, which is quite understandable:

the telescopic of human imagination identifying 2 objects (phenomena, actions )on the grounds of commonness of one of their innumerable characteristics is boundless while actual relations between objects are more limited. This is why metonymy, on the whole, is a less frequently observed SD, than metaphor.

Like to singling out i particular type of metaphor into the self-contained SD of personification, 1 blazon of metony-my - namely, the one, which is based on the relations between the part and the whole - is often viewed independently as synecdoche.

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns (less oft -by substantivized numerals)* and is used in syntactical functions characteristic of nouns (subject, object, predicative).

Practice II. Indicate metonymies, state the type of relations betwixt the object named and the object implied, which they represent, besides pay attention to the degree of their originality, and to their syntactical function:

1. He went most her room, afterwards his introduction, looking
at her pictures, her bronzes and clays, asking afterward the creator
of this, the painter of that, where a 3rd affair came from. (Dr.)

ii. She wanted to have a lot of children, and she was glad
that things were that manner, that the Church approved. And so the
niggling girl died. Nancy bankrupt with Rome the day her babe died.
It was a hush-hush intermission, simply no Catholic breaks with Rome
casually. (J. O'H.)

3. "Evelyn Clasgow, become upward out of that chair this infinitesimal."
The girl looked up from her volume.

"What's the matter?"

"Your satin. The brim'll be a mass of wrinkles in the dorsum." (Eastward. F.)

4. Except for a lack of youth, the guests had no common
theme, they seemed strangers among strangers; indeed, each
face, on entering, had struggled to conceal dismay at seeing
others there. (T. C.)

5. She saw effectually her, clustered about the white tables,
multitudes of violently cerise lips, powdered cheeks, common cold, difficult
eyes, self-possessed big-headed faces, and insolent bosoms. (A. B.)

6. Dinah, a slim, fresh, pale eighteen, was pliant and
yet fragile. (С. Н.)

seven. The human looked a rather old forty-five, for he was al-
ready going grey. (Yard. P.)

8. The delicatessen possessor was a spry and jolly fifty. (T. R.)

*Cases ofadjectival metonymies are considered to exist closer to qualifying SDs and volition be discussed later, in thesection dealing with epithets.

9. "It was easier to assume a character without having to tell
besides many lies and yous brought a fresh heart and listen to
the chore." (P.)

10. "Some remarkable pictures in this room, gentlemen.
A Holbein, two Van Dycks and if I am non mistaken,
a Velasquez. I am interested in pictures." (Ch.)

xi. "You have nobody to blame but yourself."
"The saddest words of tongue or pen." (I. Sh.)

12. For several days he took an hour after his piece of work to make
research taking with him some examples of his pen and inks.
(Dr.)

13. In that location yous are at your tricks again. The rest of them
do earn their bread; you live on my clemency. (East. Br.)

xiv. I crossed a high toll bridge and negotiated a no man's
country and came to the identify where the Stars and Stripes stood
shoulder to shoulder with the Union Jack. (J. St.)

15. The praise was enthusiastic plenty to have delighted
whatever common writer who earns his living by his pen. (S. M.)

xvi. He made his way through the perfume and chat.
(I. Sh.)

17. His mind was alert and people asked him to dinner non
for old times' sake, just considering he was worth his table salt. (Due south. 1000.)

18. Upward the Square, from the corner of Rex Street, passed
a woman in a new bonnet with pink strings, and a new blue clothes
that sloped at the shoulders and grew to a vast circumference
at the hem. Through the silent sunlit solitude of the Square
this bonnet and this dress floated northwards in search of
romance. (A. B.)

19. Two men in uniforms were running heavily to the Admin-
istration edifice. As they ran. Christian saw them throw away
their rifles. They were portly men who looked similar advertise-
ments for Munich beer, and running came hard to them.
The first prisoner stopped and picked up 1 of the discarded
rifles. He did not fire it, merely carried it, as he chased the guards.
He swung the rifle like a club, and i of the beer advertisements
went downwards (I. Sh.)

Equally you lot must have seen from the brief outline and the examples of metaphor and metonymy, the beginning one operates on the linguistic ground (proceeding from the similarity of semantic components of a word), while the latter ane rests solely on the extralinguistic, actually existing relations betwixt the phenomena denoted by the words.

Our side by side business organization is a cluster of SDs, which are united into a small group as they take much in common both in the

mechanism of their formation and in their functioning. They are— pun (also referred to equally paronomasia), zeugma, violation of phraseological units, semantically false chains, and nonsense of non-sequence. In the stylistic tradition of the English-speaking countries merely the first two are widely discussed. The latter, ii, indeed, may exist viewed as slight variations of the first ones for, basically, the foursome perform the same stylistic role in voice communication, and operate on the same linguistic mechanism. Namely, ane give-and-take-form is deliberately used in 2 meanings. The result of these SDs is humorous. Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization of two meanings and to the germination of pun may vary: it can be misinterpretation of one speaker'south utterance by the other, which results in his remark dealing with a different pregnant of the misinterpreted give-and-take or its homonym, every bit in the famous case from the Pickwick Papers. When the fatty boy, Mr. Wardle's servant, emerged from the corridor, very stake, he was asked by his primary: "Have you been seeing any spirits?" "Or taking whatever?"-added Bob Allen. The first "spirits" refers to supernatural forces, the second one -to potent drinks.

Punning may be the result of the speaker'due south intended violation of the listener's expectation, as in the jocular quotation from B. Evans: "There comes a period in every human'south life, but she is just a semicolon in his." Hither we await the 2d half of the sentence to unfold the content, proceeding from "period" understood every bit "an interval of time", while the writer has used the word in the meaning of "punctuation marking" which becomes clear from the "semicolon", following it.

Misinterpretation may be caused past. the phonetic similarity of two homonyms, such every bit in the crucial case of O. Wilde's play The Importance of Existence Earnest.

In very many cases polysemantic verbs that accept a practically unlimited lexical valency and can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups, are deliberately used with two or more homogeneous members, which are not connected semantically, equally in such examples from Ch. Dickens: "He took his hat and his exit", or "She went home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair". This is a classical zeugma, highly feature of English language prose of previous centuries, and gimmicky, besides.

When the number of homogeneous members, semantically asunder, simply attached to the aforementioned verb, increases, we deal with semantically false chains, which are thus a variation of zeugma. As a rule, information technology is the last member of the concatenation that falls out of the thematic grouping, defeating our expectancy and produc-

ing humorous upshot. The post-obit case from St. Leacock may serve an instance: "A Governess wanted. Must possess noesis of Rumanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and Mining Engineering."

As yous have seen from the examples of classical zeugma the ties betwixt the verb on the i mitt and each of the dependent members, on the other, are of different intensity and stability. In virtually cases 1 of them, together with the verb, course a рhra-seological unit or a cliche, in which the verb loses some of its semantic independence and strength (Cf.: "to take one's leave" and "to take 1's hat"). Zeugma restores the literal original meaning of the word, which too occurs in violation of phraseological units of different syntactical patterns, as in Galsworthy's remark: "Petty Jon was born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was rather curly and large." The give-and-take "rima oris", with its content, is completely lost in the phraseological unit which means "to have luck, to exist built-in lucky". Attaching to the unit the qualification of the rima oris, the author revives the pregnant of the word and offers a very fresh, original and expressive description.

Sometimes the speaker (writer) interferes into the structure of the word attributing homonymous meanings to individual morphemes as in these jocular definitions from Esar's dictionary: professorship - а ship full of professors; relying - telling the same story again; beheld - to have somebody concord y'all, etc.*

Information technology is possible to say thus that punning can be realized on virtually levels of language hierarchy. Indeed, the described violation of discussion-structure takes place on the morphological level; zeugma and pun-on the lexical level; violation of phraseological units includes both lexical and syntactical levels; semantically imitation chains and ane more SD of this group-nonsense of non-sequence - on the syntactical level.

Nonsense of not-sequence rests on the extension of syntactical valency and results in joining two semantically disconnected clauses into ane sentence, as in: "Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome." (E.) Two disconnected statements are forcibly linked together past crusade / effect relations.

Practice III. Analyse various cases of play on words, indicate which type is used, how it is created, what result it adds to the utterance:

1. Later a while and a cake he crept nervously to the door of the parlour. (A. T.)

* Cf. with the popular pseudo-etymological studies on the last, humorous folio of «Литературная газета»: тычинка — указательный палец; экстаз — бывший таз; табуретка — небольшой запрет.

2. There are ii things I expect for in a human. A sympathetic
character and total lips. (I. Sh.)

3. Dorothy, at my statement, had clapped her mitt over
rima oris to concord down laughter and chewing gum. (Jn. B.)

four. I believed all men were brothers; she thought all men
were husbands. I gave the whole mess upwards. (Jn. B.)

5. In December, 1960, Naval Aviation News, a well-known
special publication, explained why "a transport" is referred to as
"she": Because there'south always a bustle around her, because
there's usually a gang of men with her, because she has waist
and stays; because information technology takes a good man to handle her right;
because she shows her topsides, hides her bottom and when
coming into port, always heads for the buyos." (N.)

half-dozen. When I am dead, I hope it may exist said:

"His sins were ruddy, simply his books were read." (H. B.)

7. Most women up London nowadays seem to furnish
their rooms with aught only orchids, foreigners and French
novels. (O. W.)

viii. I'm full of poetry now. Rot and poetry. Rotten
poetry. (H.)

9. "Bren, I'm not planning anything. I haven't planned a
thing in iii years... I'm - I'm not a planner. I'thousand a liver."

"I'thou a pancreas," she said. "I'thou a- " and she kissed the cool game away. (Ph. R.)

10. "Someone at the door," he said, blinking.

"Some four, I should say by the audio," said Fili. (A. T.)

11. He may exist poor and shabby, simply beneath those
ragged trousers beats a centre of gold. (East.)

12. Babbitt respected bigness in anything: in mountains,
jewels, muscles, wealth or words. (S. L.)

13. Men, pals, red plush seats, white marble tables, waiters
in white aprons. Miss Moss walked through them all. (Thousand.)

fourteen. My female parent was wearing her best grey dress and gold
brooch and a faint pink flush under each cheek bone. (W. Gl.)

xv. Hooper laughed and said toBrody, "Do you listen
if I requite Ellen something?"

"What do you hateful?" Brody said. He thought to himself, give her what? A kiss? A box of chocolates? A dial in the nose?

"A nowadays. Information technology'due south cypher, really." (P. B.)

16. "There is only one make of tobacco allowed here -
'Three nuns'. None today, none tomorrow, and none the twenty-four hour period
afterward." (Br. B.)

17. "Skillful morn," said Bilbo, and he meant it. The
sun was shining and the grass was very green. (A. T.)

18. Some author once said: "How many times you can phone call yourself a Man depends on how many languages you know." (M. St.)

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