Lecture
The vocabulary of literary language is rich and diverse. It possesses an inexhaustible wealth
of figurative and expressive linguistic means. Contextual synonyms are words
and expressions denoting an object while being used in a sense unusual for them or, in other
words, an indirect, figurative sense. For example: fox, snake, lion (applied to a person),
head (applied to a person's mental abilities), and so on. A word used in a
sense unusual for it — a figurative — sense, traditionally also designated by the term
"trope." The capacity of a word, habitual and customary for denoting a particular object,
to denote other objects as well, functioning in that capacity as contextual synonyms, tropes, in relation to
the words proper to those objects, is connected with the phenomenon of so-called polysemy, that is, the capacity of a word
to potentially contain, besides its principal, lexical (or otherwise: primary, direct,
denotative) meaning, also secondary (or otherwise: derivative, indirect, additional) meanings, whose presence
may manifest itself in a specific speech context. «A word, as a result of its
polysemy, contains alongside its principal meaning several additional shades of meaning,
secondary meanings. These are the imagined features of a phenomenon which are associated with it in our minds, even though
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we chiefly pay attention to its principal feature. We may use a word,
foregrounding its secondary feature, to characterize a particular phenomenon. The use of a secondary
feature of a word to denote another phenomenon, as if transferring it onto that other phenomenon,
is called the figurative meaning of a word. The figurative meaning of a word is designated by the Greek
term „trope”... The trope is of very great importance for language in general. At the basis of the phenomenon of the trope
lies the correlation of two phenomena, one of which serves to explain, to make understandable, the other.»
An epithet is a word indicating one of the features of the object being named, and having as its
purpose the concretization of the idea of it. An epithet is otherwise also called a figurative or poetic
definition, thereby emphasizing its opposition to the logical definition
of an object, whose task likewise consists in concretizing the idea of the object in
question.
However, unlike a logical definition, a poetic definition does not aim to indicate the
features of an object that could set it apart in our conception from other, similar
objects.
An epithet that emphasizes the most characteristic feature of the object in question may be
called characterological or explanatory. An epithet sometimes not merely singles out a characteristic
feature of an object but also intensifies it. Such epithets may be called intensifying. For example:
«a steely evening» (M. Rylsky), «golden-starred spray from the sky» (T. Osmachka), «Bloody
treachery will awaken // and the compressed treacherous knife» (Ye. Malaniuk).
A special group consists of so-called ornamental epithets. They are not motivated in
the realistic style, but they are in the romantic and classical styles: «the imperial eagle.»
By frequency of use, epithets may be divided into constant and contextual-authorial ones. Historically the earlier form of the epithet is the constant epithet. A constant epithet is called
one that traditionally accompanies the designation of an object, becoming permanently attached to it, within
the bounds of a given literary style. A constant epithet thereby points to a feature of the object so characteristic
that among its other features it appears to be the most stable, a kind of
ideal one. A contextual-authorial epithet is one that highlights not a permanent,
attendant feature of an object, canonized within a literary or individual style, but
a feature that appears characteristic of the object under particular circumstances, in that specific
context in which the object is mentioned. The contextual-authorial epithet is
the predominant feature of the realistic style, which requires precision rather than exclusively
poeticity of utterance, correspondence, and realism of what is signified in the object to the
object itself indicated, to those specific circumstances in connection with which the given object
is mentioned. For example: «The millet has been mown. The quiet field has grown empty. // Cold days with a high
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blue sky. // The past will never return: // It has passed and already seems but a moment!» (M.
Rylsky).
A simile is a verbal expression in which the conception of the depicted object
is concretized by comparing it with another object that contains within itself the
features necessary for concretizing the conception, in a more concentrated form.
1. A simple simile is one in which the compared objects are matched by
one or several homogeneous features, for example: «Tender, vulnerable, like a mimosa, with
mournful eyes...» (O. Kobylianska).
2. An extended simile is one in which the compared objects are matched
simultaneously by several features, for example: «Words have a remarkable nature: some are dull and grey, //
like roadside dust; others, like fresh sand // on lonely shores, gladden our eyes and
soul; others still recall to us a manly granite grain; others — like diamonds, sparkling
kin to the sun: // their joyful play awakens a secret luxury in the soul...» (M. Zerov). To a special
variety belongs the following extended simile, in which the «image,» that is, that with which
the object is compared, unfolds into a separate figurative picture that may itself hold independent interest.
3. The essence of the appended simile, according to B. Tomashevsky's definition, consists in
the fact that «...first the object is presented, and then, once the theme concerning the object is exhausted,
after the connective word "and" ("da") the image is presented" [97, 207]. The appended form of simile
is used almost exclusively in individual-authorial poetry:
Like a merry boat, having cast off to sea, Flies with the wind over blue crystal And with its oars
churns and furrows the water, Rustles through the waves with a swan's neck, — So the wild Arab, having loosed the reins
Of his black steed, runs into the desert.
(L. Borovykovsky)
4. The negative simile is one built not on comparison but on the opposition
of objects. This form of simile is most typical of folkloric poetry; in individual-authorial poetry it is most often used for purposes of stylization:
Not with muslin were the Cossack's eyes covered, Not washed clean was the fair face Of the poor slender maiden: The eagle
plucked out the brown eyes In a foreign field, Wolves ate the white body, — Such is his fate. (T. Shevchenko)
A simile, like other means of artistic expression of speech, not only
concretizes the conception of the object in question, but also reflects the speaker's emotional attitude toward
it.
A metaphor is a word whose meaning is transferred to the naming of another object,
connected with the object to which this word normally refers by features of resemblance. Depending on the
particular relation between the compared objects, four types of metaphor are distinguished,
built on:
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1) the substitution of the animate by the animate. For example: «My anxiety! Kateryna! Let us go!» (M.
Vinhranovsky);
2) the substitution of the inanimate by the inanimate, for example: «triumphal height» (I. Kalynets); «My word,
my strength, my glory, // my tear, my wrath» (M. Vinhranovsky); "Grains of dew" (M.
Sholokhov);
3) the substitution of the inanimate by the animate. This type of metaphor is called personification or prosopopoeia
(from Greek πρόσωπον — face and ποιέω — I make), or also personification (Latin persona — face and
facere – to make). For example: «The wide Dnieper roars and moans» (T. Shevchenko); «This forest is alive.
It has good eyes. // Winds rustle in its head» (L. Kostenko);
4) the substitution of the animate by the inanimate. For example: «A girl – a wedge, a golden string» (S.
Telniuk).
Metonymy (Greek μετωνυμία – renaming) is a word whose meaning
is transferred to the naming of another object connected by its very nature with the object
inherent to that word. For example, an expression such as «the whole theater applauded» contains
within it a metonymy expressed by the word «theater.» This word is used here not in its direct but in its figurative
sense, since in saying so we mean that it was not the theater that applauded, but the spectators who were
in it. Here the concepts of «theater» and «spectators» stand in close
interconnection, functioning as things akin by their very nature, really and not conditionally, as
is the case in metaphor. Metonymy is often identified with metaphor or regarded as a
variety of it. Aristotle did not distinguish metonymy from metaphor. As a separate trope, metonymy
was first used by the Roman orator of the first century AD, Quintilian. Unlike metaphor,
the metonymic juxtaposition of objects proceeds not on the basis of their resemblance, but on the basis of
their contiguity, that is, their belonging to one and the same circle of phenomena, to concepts of one order,
connected by temporal, spatial, causal, and other relations.
Metonymy is widely used in verse and prose speech as a capacious
figurative and expressive device.
The following varieties of metonymy are distinguished:
1) Metonymy of place (based on the substitution of the name of an object by an indication of the place of its
location). For example: «Ukraine was abuzz» (T. Shevchenko); "Boryslav Is Laughing" (I. Franko).
A special case is the replacement of the name of a container's contents by an indication of the container itself: «We
drank several glasses, and my head, unaccustomed to it, grew somewhat heavy» (V. Pidmohylny).
2) Metonymy of time (based on the substitution of the name of an event by an indication of the time when it
occurred). For example: «As once, so now you // Could not bear good fruit» (V.
Sosiura; referring to the history of Ukraine).
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3) Metonymy of means (based on the substitution of the name of an action by an indication of the instrument by which
it was carried out). For example: «To the ringing strings the hetmans rise, // And the ancestors live on in the strings
of the bandura» (L. Borovykovsky).
4) Metonymy of belonging (based on the substitution of the name of an object by an indication of the name of
its creator). For example: "You have been translating Shakespeare all day today" (Ye. Malaniuk).
5) Metonymy of material (based on the substitution of an object by an indication of the material from which
the given object is made). For example: «The prince bought Boyan's song, //
placed a golden torque upon his neck — // gilded the silver gusli, // seated him
side by side upon a gold-wrought chair // clad in sables» (I. Kalynets).
Synecdoche is a variety of metonymy in which meaning is transferred from
the whole to its particular part. For example: «He did not hide in the woods from battle. // He took horses from
the Tatar in the fields» (L. Borovykovsky), where the word «Tatar» is used in the sense of «Tatars.»
Synecdoche is classed as a variety of quantitative metonymy. If the association, the connection
between objects in the proper metonymic transfer is effected through a correlation of qualitative
features, then in synecdoche quantitative features are correlated. The most common types of
synecdoche are:
1) The use of a part instead of the whole. For example: «The poor man weeps and sighs, // His eyes
know no sleep» (M. Voronyi); «My Cossack head! Have you ever been in Turkish
lands» (a folk duma).
2) The use of the singular instead of the plural. For example: «And on the renewed earth // There will be no enemy,
no foe. // But there will be a son, and he will have» (T. Shevchenko); «Around the Sich the Muscovite
besieges the Zaporozhian» (a folk song about the destruction of the Sich).
3) The use of the species instead of the genus. For example: «The sons of Mickiewicz, of Słowacki, of Chopin,
the sons of Copernicus» (M. Rylsky).
A periphrasis is the replacement of the direct name of an object with an indirect
definition of it, given in the form of a descriptive verbal turn of phrase that points to the object by highlighting
its secondary features. For example: «High above the sea, on an unshakable rock, // A charming flower on a
dead stem, // a fire burns.» The expressiveness of periphrasis consists in the fact that in its artistic
structure there is always present an element of a certain riddle, which the reader must guess in order
to understand what is being spoken of in the periphrasis. Not the least role in the artistic expressiveness of this
device is also played by the verbal embellishment of the object being described.
A euphemism is a word or verbal turn of phrase that softens the form of expression
of the opinion being stated. As a trope, that is, as a means of contextual synonymy, euphemism is most often
classed as a kind of metonymy or extended metonymy, that is, periphrasis. More often euphemisms
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are introduced into the text of a work in order to create a comic impression, sometimes for reasons of censorship, ethical,
or ideological considerations.
Antonomasia is a variety of metonymy built on the use of a proper name
instead of a common one. The essence of antonomasia rests on the fact that «a proper name, most often the name
of a person distinguished by some characteristic feature or a permanent affiliation with a particular phenomenon,
becomes the marker of that feature or that phenomenon.» Many mythological figures, literary characters,
and historical figures have become traditional in this way: Cicero — "an eloquent man," Plyushkin —
"a miser."
In literature one quite often encounters tropes formed by the transition of a common noun into
a proper one (the onymization of appellatives). The unusualness of the graphic representation of appellative vocabulary by
a capital letter heightens the sensory-figurative perception of a literary work, prompting the reader to
reflection, to the search for artistic truth. Personifications of general moral concepts in
allegorical images of Charity, Envy, Reason, Memory, Will, Victory, Triumph
can already be found in the translated tales of ancient Ukrainian literature, in sermons,
polemical works, and school drama. Writers turn especially often to this trope
in the twentieth century: Eagle, Trident, Hammer and Sickle, Sun-Clarinets (P. Tychyna); Rugged
Blueness (H. Mykhailychenko); Love, Suffering (Ye. Pluzhnyk); Chair of Poverty, University
of Caviar (I. Drach); Man, the Red Savior (B. Oliynyk).
Irony is a word or verbal turn of phrase that acquires a meaning directly
opposite to its literal meaning. For example, in O. Vyshnia's feuilleton «The Chukhraintsy,»
such is the word «lords,» which, applied to the nation of Chukhraintsy discussed there, sounds like
outright mockery: «There were quite a few Chukhraintsy: something over thirty million, — though for the most part
they themselves did not know who they were...
When they were asked:
– Of what nation are you, my lords?
They, scratching themselves, would answer:
— Well, who knows... We live in Shenheryivka. Orthodox.»
Hyperbole (Greek υπερβολή — exaggeration) is a verbal turn of phrase in which
the features of the object being described are presented in an excessively exaggerated form in order to
draw the reader's particular attention to them. A. Potebnia wrote that «hyperbole is the consequence of
a kind of intoxication of feeling that prevents one from seeing things in their ordinary proportions.»
For example: «Long, long ago Kyiv reigned in glory. // Its churches all but touched the clouds» (A.
Metlynsky); «No one had ever loved so. Not for a thousand years // will such a love come again» (V.
Sosiura); «The consul... had such terrifyingly deep pockets in his baggy trousers that he could fit
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the entire bench of a gaping tradeswoman into them» (M. Gogol); "Trousers as wide as the Black Sea" (M.
Gogol).
At the basis of hyperbole there always lies an element of a certain absurdity, a sharp contradiction
to common sense or social experience. Hyperbole always draws attention to itself, appearing
as an unexpectedness that with great force destroys the automatism of the reader's perception.
Litotes is a verbal turn of phrase in which the features of the object being described are presented
with exaggerated understatement. For example: «Oh, bring me not hope, // But a crumb of my native
land: // I will press it to my lips // And so freeze, so faint» (O. Oles); «Such a small mouth that
it cannot let through more than two little pieces» (M. Gogol). Litotes acts as a trope
opposite to hyperbole.
The syntactic means in the expression of speech make up the group of so-called stylistic figures
of speech, that is, distinctive forms of the syntactic ordering of a phrase peculiar to it: «stylistic
figures are special constructions that deviate from the ordinary syntactic type and give
an original form for the figurative expression of a person's thoughts and feelings» [90, 357].
The term «figure» (Latin figura — outline, appearance) first appeared in ancient
rhetoric, whence it was carried over from the art of dance. According to the ancient tradition, the
term «figure» was first used by Anaximenes of Lampsacus (4th century BC). At the origins of
the doctrine of figures also stands one of the founders of rhetoric, Gorgias (5th–4th centuries BC).
A detailed doctrine of figures and their extensive classification can already be found in the works of authors of the 1st
century BC – 1st century AD – Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Caecilius, Pseudo-Longinus.
A generalization of the definitions given to the figure in antiquity may be found in the interpretation
of the celebrated ancient Roman rhetorician Quintilian: «A figure, in the strict sense of the word,
is defined as a conscious deviation, in thought or in speech, from the ordinary and simple form.
Thus we shall regard as a figure a renewal of the form of language by means of a certain
art.»
Syntactic turns of phrase resembling stylistic figures in their form are quite often
used in everyday, colloquial speech as well, but there their use is explained
either as the result of a chance coincidence of words, or as a striving to avoid monotony in the verbal-syntactic form of expressing thoughts. Stylistic figures of literary speech, first,
are always the result of a conscious choice, a special calculation on the writer's part aimed at influencing
the reader, and, second, may perform various functions not confined exclusively to
communicative ones, but artistic functions as well, in particular the individualization and typification of speech, the foregrounding
of individual words and parts of a phrase that are especially important in meaning, a compositional
function, a function of emotional expression, and so on.
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By the nature of their departure from generally accepted syntactic norms of phrase construction, all
existing stylistic figures of speech may be divided into three types:
I) Figures connected with deviation from certain logical-grammatical norms of phrase
construction: inversion, anacoluthon, ellipsis, asyndeton (that is, the absence of conjunctions).
II) Figures connected with deviation from certain logical-semantic norms of phrase
construction. Within this type three groups of figures may be distinguished: those of repetition, of juxtaposition, and
of opposition of words and larger or smaller units of speech.
1. Figures of repetition. Among repetitions, ordinary and compositional repetitions are distinguished.
A simple repetition is one that is intensifying-semantic in nature, having no structurally organizing
significance, that is, a repetition not essential compositionally (though it may be in overall meaning).
Depending on precisely which semantic units are repeated, simple repetitions
are divided into sound, word, and phrase repetitions.
a) Sound repetitions are repetitions of identical or similar sounds in adjacent
words or phrases of a text (predominantly a poetic one). The repetition of consonant sounds is called
alliteration; the repetition of vowel sounds is called assonance; the repetition of sounds at the end of poetic
lines or their constituent parts is called rhyme.
b) Word repetitions are repetitions of words – most often within word combinations,
one or several adjacent sentences, more rarely within a broader span. The repetition of identical words
is called direct repetition. Direct repetitions may be of full-meaning words (a simple
direct repetition), as well as of function words (polysyndeton, or the multiplication of conjunctions). Repetitions
of words of the same type are called modified repetition (pleonasm; tautology).
c) Phrase repetitions are repetitions of adjacent parts (usually individual,
brief sentences) of a phrase. Often such repetition takes the form of so-called syntactic
parallelism.
Syntactic parallelism, in particular, may perform a compositional function. Unlike
simple ones, compositional repetitions are not limited to an intensifying-semantic function but
perform a compositional task, serving in particular as a signal of the beginning and end of certain
phrasal units. The compositional function of repetition manifests itself most vividly in poetic
texts, where repetition links (sometimes in a strictly determined order) and sets off
individual lines of a poem, and, on a larger scale, the units of a verse's compositional division — stanzas.
Less vividly, the compositional significance of repetition manifests itself in prose (anaphora, epiphora,
symploce, or the ring, and epanaphora, or anadiplosis).
2. Figures of juxtaposition. These figures are close in their features and functions to figures of
modified repetition. Like the latter, they arise on the basis of an accumulation of
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words that seems superfluous, unmotivated by the norms and requirements of logical exposition, one that
distracts from and complicates the perception of its factual substance. Figures of juxtaposition include
amplification, gradation, and paronomasia.
3. Figures of opposition. These figures, unlike figures of juxtaposition, are based
not on the homogeneity (semantic closeness) of the compared words, but on their more or less sharp
heterogeneity (semantic contrast), which is emphasized and intensified by the context of their
juxtaposition. Figures of opposition include antithesis and oxymoron.
III. Figures connected with deviation from certain communicative-logical norms of
phrase construction — the so-called rhetorical figures: address, questions, objections, exclamations.
(Examples taken from the textbook by A. Halych, V. Nazarets, Ye. Vasyliev, Theory of Literature.)
Inversion is a stylistic figure built on a violation of the word order in a
sentence that seems standard, ordinary. Ukrainian, like the other East Slavic languages,
belongs to languages with a free word order in sentences; nevertheless a certain syntactic sequence of them,
owing to its being customary, and also owing to its subordination to the logic of the unfolding
of the opinion being expressed, seems the more natural one, whereas a change in such a sequence
is psychologically perceived as a departure from a certain established norm.
Anacoluthon is a stylistic figure built with a violation of the grammatical
agreement between words, between the members of a sentence. For example: «On a hundred knees, before the weary gods // I
fall: come to me, come!» (I. Drach) – instead of: Come to me.
Anacoluthon emphasizes shades of the speaker's emotions, testifying to his
inner state (most often — agitation), serves as a means of creating a comic
impression, and of intonations of live conversation, and so forth.
Asyndeton, or the absence of conjunctions, is a stylistic figure consisting in the
omission of the conjunctions linking individual words and parts of a phrase. For example: «The forest, the fire,
the kobzar, the Cossacks, the whole picture as if by magic vanished somewhere» (I. Nechui-Levytsky).
The absence of conjunctions heightens the expressiveness of speech, accentuates in it the dynamic
aspect, and serves to foreground individual words:
A springy blizzard – a swift support for wings. Struggle. Plunge. The stubborn roar of the leap...
A cry. A blast. A spasm. A howl.
Ellipsis is a stylistic figure built by the omission of a word or of several
words. For example:
You remain, songs of old, To remind us of times gone by, For the old — the summer of their youth.
(Korsun)
In the last line here, the word «to remind» has been omitted.
Polysyndeton (Greek πολυσύνδετον, from πολύζ — many and σύνδετον — connection), or
the multiplication of conjunctions, is a stylistic figure that consists in the accumulation of conjunctions that
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link individual words and parts of a phrase. For example: «A storm raged above the firs and shook
them, and bent them, and made them all the stronger for it» (O. Kobylianska); «...and his face grew gaunt, and freedom
he mourned, and he walked distressed and pensive» (Yu. Fedkovych).
The multiplication of conjunctions is used as a device that slows down the speech,
serves to foreground significant words, and lends the language a solemnity, since it is often associated with, or even
stylized after, the multi-conjunctive syntactic constructions of biblical texts.
Pleonasm is a stylistic figure based on a synonymic repetition of a
preceding word: to wait — to await, remember, do not forget, stealthily, and so on.
Pleonastic repetition is not logically motivated and is used as a means of stylistic
expression in speech. It is used most often in folk-poetic creation: «Under him
a little horse, // Under him a black one // Very, very strong» (a folk song). It occurs as well in
literary poetry:
Amid the darkness, the storm and foul weather
All night the boat will wander. (Lesia Ukrainka)
Tautology is a stylistic figure based on a same-root repetition of a
preceding word: a strange wonder, a dark dungeon, a darkness of darknesses, and so on. Like pleonasm, tautology
is not logically motivated and is introduced into the text for stylistic reasons. This figure is used
most often in folk-poetic creation, though it is encountered fairly often also in
literary poetry: «Into a foreign land, // Into a foreign, foreign land» (a folk song);
Farewell, farewell. This moonlight sonata. Farewell, forgive me... What a
sorrowful snow. Farewell. A cheek... A cheek. And drops of mint. And a grey haze upon the mother-of-pearl
slime...(S. Sapeliak)
Syntactic parallelism is a stylistic figure based on the identically-typed
syntactic construction of two or more adjacent linguistic units, predominantly lines
of a poetic text, producing a sense of their symmetry. For example:
The oak grove rustled, rustled with its leaves, The girl grew sorrowful, grew sorrowful at heart.
(M. Shashkevych)
More often, the parallelism, the symmetry in the syntactic construction of adjacent poetic
lines, is accompanied by a figurative juxtaposition of the thoughts expressed in them – the so-called figurative-psychological parallelism: between the life of nature and fragments of human life.
Anaphora is a stylistic figure formed by the repetition of words or word combinations
at the beginning of adjacent linguistic units. For example:
For you alone, dreamed-of princess, For you alone my songs ring out, For you alone in my
temple wondrously prayers float and fires burn.(M. Rylsky)
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Epiphora is a stylistic figure opposite to anaphora, formed by the repetition of
individual words or word combinations at the end of adjacent linguistic units.
For example:
We shall forever grow in labor, From the earth's heart raise up the layers, The ancient layers
of black gold.(Ya. Shporta)
Symploce, or prosapodosis, or the ring, is a stylistic figure that
links, by repetition of individual words or word combinations, the beginning and the end of adjacent linguistic units
(a paragraph, a stanza) or of a single unit (a sentence or a whole line).
Love Ukraine as the sun, love it, as the wind, and the grasses, and the waters...(V. Sosiura)
Epanaphora, or anadiplosis, or juncture, is a stylistic figure linking,
by repetition of an individual word or word combination, the end of the preceding linguistic unit with
the beginning of the following one. For example:
Why was my stylus a stiletto. And my stiletto at times a stylus. (Ye. Malaniuk)
Amplification is a stylistic figure consisting in a markedly perceptible accumulation,
within adjacent utterances (usually one, two or three sentences, or a short
paragraph), of linguistic units of the same type. Each of these units has independent significance, while all
of them together, functioning in interaction, emphasize and expressively intensify the opinion expressed. «There was that pale youth, that gaunt, starved body, with that small childlike
face – that was his lonely son. And his lonely son was a fratricide. He,
the father, knew this. And though no one else knew of it, he knew it. And so it would remain to the end of
his life, until his final rest.»
Paronomasia is a stylistic figure formed by the juxtaposition of words different in meaning
but similar in sound. For example: «We rejoiced in radiance, bred like Pluto's own, // While we
shone for you, until we went blind... // The Chornobyl day of judgment stirred us awake...» (M. Vlad).
Antithesis is a stylistic figure formed by the juxtaposition of words or
word combinations opposite in their content. For example: «I thought fate would meet me,
but grief befell me instead» (T. Shevchenko).
Oxymoron (Greek οξόμωρον — nonsense) is a stylistic figure
consisting in the combination of words or word combinations whose meanings mutually exclude each other,
creating the effect of a semantic paradox. For example: «On our own – not our own land» (T.
Shevchenko); «the instant will stretch on for a long time» (Ye. Pluzhnyk); «the cold boiling water of Narzan» (M.
Lermontov).
Rhetorical figures are figures of speech built on verbal
turns of phrase having a conditionally dialogic character.
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Rhetorical figures arise as a result of a violation of the communicative-logical norms
of utterance, since the dialogic intonations that they introduce into the process of speech are not
intended to elicit a real answer or practical action, as is the case in «live,»
everyday communication, where dialogue serves above all the needs of the exchange of information,
an address to the interlocutor that anticipates a reply or prompts him to
specific actions.
Self-check questions.
1. How are linguistic images classified?
2. How are the communicative and aesthetic functions of the language of a literary work combined?
3. What is the language of the author and the language of the characters? Explain with an example.
4. What linguistic means do you know? For what purpose are they used?
5. Explain the functions and significance of tropes in a literary work.
6. Define the following concepts: epithet, simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole,
litotes, allegory, irony, periphrasis, antonomasia.
7. Using the example of any poetic work, show specific tropes.
8. Define the basic types of poetic figures: inversion, parallelism, anaphora,
epiphora, antithesis, gradation.
9. What is the expressive role of rhetorical figures?
10. What are euphemisms, and how are they used in literary works?
11. Explain the peculiarities of the language of a literary work as an element of the author's stylistic manner.
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