KARINA GLADYR AR-17

SEMINAR 5
EXERCISE 1. What figures of quality are used in the following examples? State
their stylistic functions.
1. They were under a great shadowy train shed ... with passenger cars all about the
train moving at a snail pace (Th. Dreiser).
2. The liquor tasted like a small cyder, and was not unpleasant (J. Swift).
3. They swarmed up in front of Sherburn‘s paling as thick as they could jam,
together and you couldn‘t hear yourself think for the noise (M. Twain).
4. The knowledge I had mathematicks gave me great assistance in acquiring their
phraseology, which depended much upon that science and musick; and in the
latter I was not unskilled (J. Swift).
5. A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho, and by the
same token a broncho is not much smaller (S. Crane).
6. To this little circle, I, my wife, and my two daughters made, I venture to think, a
not unwelcome addition (E. M. Forster).
7. There were two girls working there. One a tall tennisanyone type, the other a
bespectacled mouse type. I opted for Minnie Four-Eyes (E. Segal).
All these offers are United by tropes (figures of quality), which are based on transfer of
names. Figures of quality, called «tropes» in traditional stylistics, are based on transfer
of names.
We must distinguish three types of transfer: transfer by contiguity; transfer by
similarity; transfer by contrast.
Transfer by contiguity is based upon some real connection between the two notions:
that which is named and the one the name of which is taken for the purpose. For
example: like a small cyder,
Transfer by similarity is based on similarity, likeness of the two objects, real
connection lacking completely. For example: moving at a snail pace, I had
mathematicks,
Transfer by contrast is the use of words and expressions with the opposite meanings —
opposite to those meant. For example: as thick as they could jam.
The transfer by contiguity forms the metonymic group of tropes; the transfer by
similarity forms the metaphorical group (bespectacled mouse type); the transfer by
contrast is irony. For example: this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho.

EXERCISE 2. Distinguish between cases of metaphor and personification in the

following sentences. Analyze the cases of metaphor using the table
TENOR VEHICLE
soul wonder
hearts brave and noble
fog rose
army ghosts
calm fishes
fellowship mystic cord
moments glided on
word purpose
heart ache
time wild
heart ashes
happiness drunk

1. Superstitious terror crept by degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own
soul was wrapped up in silent wonder (E. A. Poe).
2. She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue (J. Joyce).
3. The imagination shrinks at the idea, how many intellectual beings were from the
earth, how many brave and noble hearts, of nature‘s sterling coinage, were broken
down and trampled in the dust! (W. Irving).
4. A fog rose over the valley. She saw it marching across the creek swallowing the
trees and moving up the hill like an army of ghosts (K. A. Porter).
5. His eyes hold the panicked calm of fishes taken out of water, whose bodies but not
their eyes beat a frantic manoeuvre over dry land (A. Walker).
6. The moments glided on, while a feeling of good fellowship passed around the
circle like a mystic cord, holding and binding these people together with jest and
laughter. (K. Chopin).
7. He was convinced that every word, every reflection of Mr Quin‘s voice was
pregnant with purpose (A. Christie).
8. And a sudden ache beset his heart; he had stumbled on just one of those past
moments in his life, whose beauty and rapture he had failed to arrest, whose wings had
fluttered away into the unknown; he had stumbled on a buried memory, a wild sweet
time, swiftly choked and ended (J. Galsworthy).
9. Complete terror had possession on him now, a nameless terror which had turned
his heart to ashes (J. Conrad).
10. He looked almost drunk with happiness (A. Christie)
EXERCISE 3. Indicate the cases of allusion in the following sentences and define
their sources. Discuss the idea implied by each case.
Allusion is a brief reference to some literary or historical event commonly known. The
speaker (writer) is not explicit about what he means: he merely mentions some detail
of what he thinks analogous in fiction or history to the topic discussed.
1. They pressed behind the two Englishmen staring like those islands discovered by
Captain Cook in the South Seas (J. Conrad). Captain James Cook FRS - was a
British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy. He
made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific
Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern
coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded
circumnavigation of New Zealand
2. It did not stop him. ―It is no matter,‖ he went on, ―we are all hopelessly steeped in
vulgarity. I do not except myself. It is through us, and to our shame, that the Nereids
have left the waters and the Oreads the mountains, that the woods no longer give
shelter to Pan‖ (E.M. Forster). In Greek mythology, Nereids are sea nymphs. In Greek
mythology, Oread is a mountain nymph
3. Tommy sighed, and brought the tips of his fingers together in the most approved
Sherlock Holmes fashion (A. Christie). Sherlock Holmes is a literary character created
by Arthur Conan Doyle.
4. Thinking this of herself, she arched her eyebrows and her rather heavy eyelids, with
a little flicker of a smile, and for a moment her grey eyes looked amused and wicked, a
little sardonic, out of her transfigured Madonna face (D.H. Lawrence). Madonna is an
American singer.
5. But in a moment it would pass – as the face of Pan, which looks round the corner of
a rock, vanishes at your state (J. Galsworthy). Peter Рan is a character in the fairy tales
of the Scottish writer sir J. M. Barry " Peter Рan..."
6. He takes her in his arms, I think, and kisses her – a kiss of Judas, and as he kisses he
strikes with the dagger (A. Christie). In Christianity, Judas the son of Simon is one of
the apostles of Jesus Christ who betrayed him.
7. He thought of Theocritus, and the river Cherwell, of the moon, and the maiden with
the dewy eyes; of so many things that he seemed to think of nothing; and he felt
absurdly happy (J. Galsworthy). THEOCRITUS was a Greek bucolic poet who
flourished in Syracuse, Cos and Alexandria in the C3rd B,C. The River Cherwell is a
tributary of the River Thames in central England.
8. Then he pulled himself together, conscious suddenly of the calm scrutiny of this
other young girl, so tall and fair and Diana-like, at the edge of the pool, of her
wondering blue eyes under those brows which slanted up a little. If they knew what
was in his mind – if they knew that this very night he had meant – ! (J. Galsworthy).
Diana is the goddess of hunting and wild animals. Later she became a moon deity.
9. That will be a new thing in logic, and a feat in storytelling somewhat older than the
Great Wall of China (O. Henry). The Great WallofChina is a series of fortifications
that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and
Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian
Steppe.
10. A certain set of highly ingenious resources are, with the Prefect, a sort of
Procrustean bed, to which he forcibly adapts his designs (E.A. Poe). The word
"Procrustean" is thus used to describe situations where different lengths or sizes or
properties are fitted to an arbitrary standard. Prefect is a magisterial title of varying
definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
11. And my advice to the rich young man would be – sell all thou hast, and give it to
the poor – janitor for the privilege of living in a flat with your Art and your Delia (O.
Henry). Delia is the goddess Diana, the ruler of the plant and animal world, hunting,
femininity and fertility, is the personification of the moon.
12. Soloman
Soloman Grundy
Trained on Tuesday,
Paraded on Wednesday,
Embarked on Thursday,
Landed on Friday,
In battle on Saturday,
Gassed on Sunday.
That was the end of
Soloman Grundy
(M. Quinn) Solomon Grundy is a fictional character, a zombie supervillain in the DC
Comics universe. Named after the hero of a children's rhyme.

EXERCISE 4. Indicate epithets in the following sentences. Define their semantic

and structural types and consider stylistic functions performed by them:
Epithet. It is a SD based on the interplay of emotive and logical meanings in an
attributive word, phrase or sentence. It discloses the individual emotionally coloured
attitude of the writer to the object he describes. It is a form of subjective evaluation.
Epithet is a pointed description, brief and compact, singling out the thing described.
Constant or fixed epithets are found:
1) in folk poetry
2) in a particular work
Epithets may be classified from different standpoints. We have already classified them
according to the degree of unexpectedness.

Semantically epithets may be devided into:

associated with the noun following, pointing to a feature which is most essential.
unassociated which attribute to the object a feature not inherent in it (metaphoric)
structurally: according to their compositional structure we distinguish:
simple epithets — (adjectives)
compound — e.g. thou lily-livered boy,
phrase epithets — always placed before the noun they refer to:
reversed — a vault of a schoolroom.
1. Not this queen, she kept her eyes moving across the racks, and stopped, and turned
so slow it made my stomach rub inside my apron, and buzzed to the other two, who
find of huddled against her for relief, and then all three of them went up the cat-and-
dog-food-breakfast-cereal-macaroni-riceraisins-seasonings-spreads-spaghetti-soft-
drinks-crackers-andcookies aisle (J. Updike).
2. From the table at which they had been lunching two American ladies of ripe but
well- cared-for middle age moved across the lofty terrace of the Roman restaurant and,
leaning on its parapet, looked first at each other, and then down on the outspread
glories of the Palatine and the Forum, with the same expression of vague but
benevolent approval (E. Wharton).
3. He was a tall, one-eyed Asturian with scrubby, hollow cheeks; a grave expression of
countenance contrasted enigmatically with the roaming restlessness of his solitary eye
(J. Conrad).
4. One reason is that the long-term horizon for meaningful actions to reduce
greenhouse emissions is at odds with Wall Street‘s show-me-the-money-now ethos
(Newsweek, 2007).
5. He desired to make himself an undying name, chiefly through verse, though he was
not above sending stories of love and death to the drop-a-penny-in-the-slot journals (R.
Kipling).
6. Eventually I persuaded Mac to lend me his pen. He gave it to me with his ritual ‘I
am washing my hands of this‘ look (R. Pitman, J. McNally).
7. They were newly and remotely happy. He did not even regret the loss of his sight in
these times of dark, palpable joy. A certain exultance swelled his soul (D.H.
Lawrence).
8. Below the east was a rumour of the twice-waxed moon (W. Faulkner).
9. He met her eyes with a furtive, haggard look; his eyes were as if glazed with misery
(D.H. Lawrence).
10. As to the character of the steadfast gaze attached upon him with a sensuously
savage attention, ―To know what it was like‖, says Mr. Byrne, ‖you have only to
observe a hungry cat watching a bird in a cage or a mouse inside a trap‖ (J. Conrad)
11. Sometimes, after months of this intensity, a sense of burden overcame Isabel, a
weariness, a terrible ennui, in that silent house approached between a colonnade of
tall-shafted pines (D. H. Lawrence).
12. Far away the harsh and desolate mountains raising their scraped and denuded
ridges seemed to wait for him menacingly (J. Conrad).
13. A poor relation – is the most irrelevant thing in nature, – a piece of impertinent
correspondence, – an odious approximation, – a haunting conscience, – a preposterous
shadow, lengthening in the noon-tide of our prosperity, – an unwelcome remembrance,
– a perpetually recurring mortification, – a drain on your purse, – a more intolerable
dun upon your pride, – a drawback upon success, – a rebuke to your rising, – a stain in
your blood, – a blot on your scutcheon, – a rent in your garment, – a death‘s head at
your banquet, – Agathocles‘s1 pot, – a Mordecai2 in your gate, – a Lazarus3 at your
door, – a lion in your path, a frog in your chamber, – a fly in your ointment, – a mote
in your eye, – a triumph to your enemy, – an apology to your friends, – the one thing
not needful, – the hail in harvest, – the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet (Ch. Lamb).