Metaphor is based on the interaction between dictionary and contextual meanings based on some existing or supposed

likeness between objects. The metaphor can be expressed by any part of speech. (The function of metaphor is to
characterize an object expressively.)
Types of metaphors:
Metaphors, which have lost their figurativeness, freshness and expressiveness because of long use are
called dead/hackneyed /trite. They produce no stylistic effect and are recorded by dictionaries. (ex. a head of a cabbage,
the story goes, the mouth of the river).
Metaphors, which are coined by the fancy of the writer are called stylistic metaphors. They are marked by figurativeness
and colour. E.g. The doctor wrapped himself in a mist of words. (R.Kipling) Here in addition to its logical meaning the
word wrapped has acquired the contextual one of hid, concealed.
We may distinguish simple and sustained/prolonged metaphors. The latter is not confined to one image; a number of
metaphors are combined in it in a complex image. All the elements of a sustained metaphor are associated with the main
central image or notion.
E.g. Simple – She is a red rose. The gravy was a poem.
Sustained - The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress. (A.Miller)
Metaphor is based on likeness, therefore semantically it is similar to simile. But this likeness of comparison is
not explicit as it is not expressed by the vocabulary items as, like, alike.

Personification, a variety of metaphor, is the presentation of inanimate objects, phenomena or ideas as if they were human
beings, ascribing to them such attributes as thought, speech, feeling, action. The purpose of personification is to attribute to
things or ideas a lofty, elevated character.
E.g. The face of London; the pain of the ocean. Life has cheated me. His religion tells him that he cannot drink fine French
wines.
Personification is a general category that covers a very wide range of metaphors, each picking out different aspects
of a person or ways of looking at a person.
Examples: Inflation has attacked the foundation of our economy. Inflation has pinned us to the wall. Our biggest enemy
right now is inflation. Here inflation is personified but the metaphor is not merely inflation is a person. It is much more
specific, i.e. inflation is an adversary.

Peculiariries of personification: 1) it is used only in fiction while metaphor can be found in every style; 2) it can be
realized only within a definite context no matter how short.

Metonymy is a stylistic device based on the real-life association between two concepts: between the object implied and the
object named. These connections take the following forms:
 the result for the cause: Grey hair should be respected (old age)
 the cause for the result: This author lives by his pen only (his writings are the source of his earnings);
 the symbol for the thing signified: The crown had to yield to the demand of the people (the King, monarchy);
 the characteristic feature for its bearer: Through the sunlit solitude of the square … this bonnet and this
dress floated northwards (A.Bennet). (A hat passed by (a man));
 the instrument for the action: “Give every man thine ear, and few thy voices” (W.Shakespeare); “As the sword
is the worst argument that can be used” (Byron);
 the container for the thing contained or on the contrary: The wood sings (birds in the wood); the kettle boils
(the water in the kettle); the other voice shook his head and said;
 the name of the thing for its owner: The ham sandwich is waiting for his check;
 an abstract noun for a concrete one or on the contrary: Labour demonstrated in the street (workers);
 material for the thing made of it: He paid in gold (gold coins);
 the name of the creator for his creation: the complete Chesterton (stories by Chesterton) .
Examples: He’s in dance. (the dancing professor)
The Times hasn’t arrived at the press conference yet. (the reporter from the Times)
 The variety of metonymy, based on the relationship between the whole and its part, the singular and the plural, is
called synecdoche. E.g.: The long nose knows about his way through the crowd. (= part is used for the whole).
When a monarch needs new lands, he sends a soldier to war. Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind.
(Shakespeare). (=the singular is used for the plural)
Examples: We need a couple of strong bodies for our team. (=strong people)
Irony is a stylistic device, based on the interaction of the dictionary and contextual meanings, when they stand in
opposition to each other. It is used to express ridicule, criticism and resentment.
E.g. Portraying workhouses in “Oliver Twist” Dickens uses irony: “It was a regular place of public entertainment.” Almost
every word in this portrayal acquires a contextual meaning, opposite to its logical one. Thus, the writer’s criticism gets
emotionally coloured and affects the reader much stronger.
Sometimes irony is confused with humour. There is an essential difference between the two. Humour awakens well-
meaning laughter, while irony calls forth anger, dislike, irritation,resentment, hatred, mockery, etc. It is as a rule veiled,
while humour is direct.

Antonomasia is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two lexical meanings – the logical and the
nominal. It is the case when we use:
- the name of some famous personality for a characteristic feature, e.g. He is the napoleon of crime (a genius of a
criminal);
- the name of the place where some event happened for the very event, e.g. Pearl Harbour – the symbol of bitter defeat;
- the name of some establishment to denote its policy, e.g. the White House, the Pentagon, the Kremlin, Wall Street;
- geographical names used as common nouns to denote things originating from there, e.g. boston, china, champaign;
- names of things or processes after their inventors, e.g. diesel, mackintosh, sandwich, pasterization.
Sometimes antonomasia consists of a word combination or a whole phrase. The components of name-phrases are
usually hyphened to emphasize their close syntactical and semantic relation. E.g. Your Mrs.What’s-her-name sounds
firmly British. (B.Nickols).
Antonomasia is used not only in fiction. It often occurs in publicistic style and military language.

Epithet is a stylistic device emphasizing some quality of a person, thing, idea or phenomenon, both existing and imaginary.
Semantically, there should be differentiated two main groups, the biggest of them being affective (emotive proper) (e.g.
gorgeous, nasty, magnificent). The second group – figurative or transferred epithets – is formed of metaphors,
metonymies and similes, expressed by adjectives. (e.g. the smiling sun, the frowning cloud, the sleepless pillow, the
tobacco-stained smile, a ghost-like face.)
Epithets are usually expressed by adjectives or qualitative adverbs (e.g. his triumphant look = he looked triumphantly).
Nouns come next used and exclamatory sentences (e.g. You, ostrich!) or as postpositive attributes (Richard the Lion
Heart, Henry the Blue Beard).
All previously given examples demonstrate single epithets. Pairs are represented by two epithets joined by a conjunction or
asyndetically as in “wonderful and incomparable beauty” (O.W.) or “ a tired old town”. Chains/strings of epithets present
a group of homogeneous attributes varying in number from three up to twenty or more. E.g. You’re a scolding, unjust,
abusive, aggravating, bad old creature.
Inverted epithets are based on the illogical syntactical relation between the modifier and the modified. E.g. A mite of a
little woman with blood thinned by California zephirs…(O.Henry). She was greeted by a small dumpling of a woman …
(S.Sheldon). A mountain of a man, a pencil of a man, an angel of a woman, etc.

Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement not meant to be literally understood and expressing an emotional attitude of the
author to what he is depicting. One must distinguish a colloquial hyperbole from a stylistic one. The former came to
become a colloquial phrase. E.g. I haven’t seen you for ages, I beg you a thousand pardons.
Stylistic hyperboles convey either an elevated mood or a satirical attitude. E.g. Thanks to … the eight million packets of
crisps I’d consumed as a replacement for Sunday lunch… (M.Gayle). Can’t we do something about the walls? You sneeze
in here, and in my house hats blow off. (A.Miller).

Meiosis is a figure opposite to hyperbole. It is a deliberate underestimating of the features of the object (in question) with
the aim of intensifying the expressiveness of speech. The features are usually size, volume, distance, time, etc. Meiosis
emphasizes insignificance of the object in question.
Meiosis is mainly used in oral speech to give it more expressiveness: a pretty penny. E.g. It cost me a pretty penny, I can
tell you.

Oxymoron is a stylistic device presenting a combination of two contrasting ideas. One of the components reveals some
objectively existing feature or quality, while the other one serves to convey the speaker’s attitude towards the same; a new
meaning being developed, it gives rise to opposition. Its structure is mostly that of an epithet + the word it qualifies.
E.g. sweet sorrow, wise fool, honourable villain. His voice, when it came, was politely ironic and annoyingly well-bred.
(A.Cronin). Speaking silence, dumb confession… (R.Burns). Selfishly unselfish. Hideous respectability. (A.Christie). I
don’t dance awfully well. (A.Miller).

Zeugma is a kind of a play upon words as the word on which the device is based enters one combination in the primary
meaning and the other combination in the derivative meaning; the first is often literal and the second – a
figurative/metaphorical one.
E.g. She wore a brown dress and a smile/frown. Angel was in love with a young man of 24 who was between jobs and
between wives.
The man wore a severe dark suit and severe facial expressions.
Lonnie awoke to a splendid fairway view and a slight hangover.
The woman had two thousand dollars and a kind heart.

Simile is a device, which draws a comparison between different objects, phenomena and processes, having some common
characteristics.
Simile is an imaginary comparison. E.g. Like a panther of passion stalking her prey, she leaned forward and kissed me
again… Mel was as serious as Nine O’clock News (M.Gayle).
Most often, similes are introduced by conjunctions as, like, as if, as though, no better that, as as, so as, etc. Some similes
may be introduced by means of words denoting comparison: resemble, remind, suggest, bear resemblance, etc. They are
called disguised similes.
Structurally we distinguish simple and extended/epic similes, the former occurring more frequently. E.g. Swift as a
shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night… (Shakespeare).

Paraphrasis is a phrase used instead of the word designating the object. E.g. The little boy with sobs plainly audible, and
with great globules of water running down his cheeks… (M.Twain).
Periphrases are classified into figurative and logical. E.g. I - The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting
products of the fighting in Africa (I.Sh) (wounded) – metonymic/metaphoric. II – Mr. Du Pout was dressed in the
conventional disguise (suit) with which Brooks Brothetrs cover the shame of American millionaires (belly) – euphemistic.
E.g. But while there was a chance of finding a solution quietly, without bringing up the heavy artillery (Headquarters
Security/FBI), she intended to try. (A.Hailey)

Euphemism is a variety of periphrasis which substitutes a harsh, offensive word or phrase with a milder one, more socially
acceptable. E.g. instead of the word “to die” the following euphemisms are used: to pass away, to be gone, to be no more,
to depart, to join the silent majority, to be the late, to meet our maker, to go West, etc.
According to the sphere of application euphemisms can be divided into religious, moral, medical, political, social,
parliamentary and economic ones. Here we deal with the items that may be seen as dictionary euphemisms. E.g. to
dismiss – to lay off; backward area – not well developed; slums – inner city, grey area.
Writers coin their own euphemisms either to show that the character strives for speaking in a delicate manner, or for the
sake of producing a humorous effect. E.g. to become old – to reach silver-haired and golden years; used car – preowned
automobile; poor – economically deprived; debts – negative savings; prison – correctional facility.
Euphemisms is especially common in politics, where missiles are named “peace-keepers”, airplane crashes are termed
“uncontrolled contact with the ground”.
A proverb is a witty phrase of generalizing nature characterized by syntactic and semantic completeness . E.g. Spare the
rod and spoil the child. Look before you leap.
A saying is not so completely expressed as a proverb, it is more elliptical in structure. E.g. Wise after the event. No sweet
without sweat.
Allusion is a reference to something presumably known to the reader, frequently from literature, history or mythology. E.g.
“No,” he said wistfully, “I suppose not. It’s time to dress. To dress – to dine, and if to dine, to sleep – to sleep, to dream.
And then what dreams might come.” (J.Galsworthy).

Stylistic inversion is any violation of the traditional word order which does not alter the meaning of the sentence but adds
logical stress and emotional colouring to the utterance.
Complete inversion may be presented by the following patterns:
• the predicative with or without the link-verb is placed before the subject of the sentence. E.g. Indolent, willful and
singularly pretty was her aspect. (Ch.Bronte. Shirly)
• both adverbial modifier and predicate stand before the subject. E.g. Against the wall was a broken oar, two boat-honks.
(H.Wells)
• the postposition is placed before the subject. E.g. Up went the balloon.
• the object is placed at the head of the sentence. E.g. Little change had Time wrought in the “warmest” of the young
Forsytes…(J.Galsworthy)
Partial inversion occurs in the patterns when :
• the object precedes the subject-predicate pair. E.g. Of all my old association … this poor soul comes natural to me.
• The attribute stands after the word it modofies. E.g. … And a Fighting machine with its legs contracted, crumpled and
abbreviated stood across the corner of the pit. (H.Wells)
• The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence. E.g. To the Northward, too, no Martians were visible.
(H.Wells)
• The postposition is placed before the subject. E.g. Out she went.

Detachment is a stylistic device consisting in separating secondary part of the sentence for emphasizing it. Detachment is a
kind of inversion. The most common of detached constructions are those in which an attribute or an adverbial modifier is
syntactically isolated from the words it refers to. It can be detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or
even a full stop. E.g. For many hours we must have crouched there, silent and shivering, until our tired attention failed.
(H.Wells). He had been nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. I have to beg you for money. Daily.

Ellipsis is a deliberate omission of one or more words in the utterance for some stylistic purposes. In written language this
device may be used to achieve the so-called effect of immediate presence, especially when the narration is presented from
the 1-st person singular. Ellipsis adds to the colloquial character of the narration, to its concreteness. It is most often used in
the author’s narration to convey the inner speech of the personage. E.g. I mean the other guys and myself. In somebody
else’s room. (J.Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye). Ellipsis enables the author to convey the emotional state of his narrator:
astonishment, surprise, perplexity, etc. E.g. By nothing!

Nominative sentences are one-member sentences where predicate is omitted. E.g. Mr. George Sampson, a friend of the
family. (Ch.Dickens)
The main stylistic functions of the nominative sentences are:
1. Used in close succession the one-member sentences may increase the dynamism of narration. E.g. But is they should
guess! The horror! The flight! The exposure! The police! (Th.Dreiser. An American Tragedy).
2.They may be used in the in the introductory description acquainting the reader with the place of the story, or presenting
the background of the action. E.g. He stopped. No light from beneath. No sound from within. (A.Hailey. Airport).

Enumeration is made by the repetition of the homogeneous words or word combinations in the same syntactical position.
It may be used to emphasize the whole utterance to specify some idea or even to render the character’s frame of mind. E.g.
Miss Matfield liked her fiction to be full of jungles, coral reefs, plantations, lagoons, hibiscus flowers, the scent of vanilla,
schooners on the wide pacific, tropical nights. (J.Priestley. Angel Pavement).

Parallelism consists in the similarity of the syntactical structure of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. An example of
parallelism within a simple sentence is a sentence with synonymical pairs or sets.
E.g. … the mighty engines, so great and wonderful in their power and complexity, … rose weird and vague and strange out
of shadows. (H.Wells)
Parallelism may be of two kinds – complete and partial.
Complete parallelism or balance is observed in cases when the structure of the successive unit fully copies the preceding
one, which is especially peculiar to poetry. It may generate rhythmicality and dynamism.
Partial parallelism is structural sameness of some parts of the successive units. Parallel constructions help convey the
character’s state of mind. Antithesis used in parallel constructions serves to bring forth similarity or difference between the
objects compared.
E.g. It was not like the beginning of a journey; it was like the beginning of a dream. (H.Wells). Too brief for our passion,
too ling for our peace… (Byron)

Rhetorical questions. It is a syntactic device, which presents a statement in the form of a question, though requiring no
answer. The answer may be supplied or left for the reader to infer.
In prose, rhetoric questions often serve an organizing purpose, setting up the point the writer wishes to develop.
Rhetorical questions have to awaken a certain reaction on the part of the reader. It is often used in modern fiction for
depicting the inner state of character, his meditations and reflections.
Rhetorical questions are an indispensable element of publicistic style. A rhetorical question or a series of questions is a
way of opening or continuing a speech or an essay, making the audience or readers start thinking about the subject.
E.g. I couldn’t afford to start playing undercover cop, but what choice did I have? (S. Grafton)
One should keep in mind that rhetorical question is asked not for information, but for emphasis, to produce dramatic or
any other effect. It has the force of an emphatic affirmation or denial.

Litotes presents an affirmation in the form of negation. Its structural pattern is the negative “not” or “no” plus a noun, an
adjective , or an adverb which is negative in form or in meaning.
E.g. He is not a silly man. He was laughing not unkindly.
The stylistic function of litotes is to produce a deliberate understatement. It diminishes to some extent the positive feature
of a person or thing described. In fact litotes attempts to arouse emotion by denying it.

Repetition. As an expressive language means repetition serves to emphasize the state of a person overcome by strong
emotions, As a stylistic device repetition is used to lay logical emphasis on something very important in the utterance and
draw the reader’s attention to it.
The structure of repetition may take different forms:
1. The reiteration of the same word or words at the beginning of two or more successive clauses or sentences
is called anaphora.
E.g. Uncle Amos never had a fight.
Uncle Amos never lost a pocket-book.
Uncle Amos never went even as far as Boston. (R.Coffin. The Book of Uncles)
The main stylistic function of anaphora is not so much to emphasize the repeated unit as to create the background for
the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded.
2. The repetition of the final word or words in succeeding sentences is called epiphora. E.g. I wake up and I’m
alone, and I walk round Warley and I’m alone, and I talk with people and I’m alone. (J.Braine. Room at the Top)
The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final words of the sentence.
3. If the last words of the preceding sentence or clause are repeated at the beginning of the next one it is
anadiplosis/catch repetition. Repeated word due to the unavoidable pause before it is set off energetically and
pronounced on a higher pitch, thus getting emphasized.
E.g. I’ll come to you tomorrow, tomorrow I’ll see you. From my books surcease of sorrow
Eagerly I wished to morrow; - sorrow for the last Lenore.
Vainly I had sought to borrow (E.Poe. The Raven)
4. The reiteration of the initial word at the end of the clause or the sentence is called framing. E.g. Never more to
touch that passive hand in love and friendship, never more. (Ch. Dickens).

Antithesis is an opposition of ideas. It is often based on the use of antonyms and is aimed at emphasizing the difference in
the nature of things described. E.g. Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace/ Were these hours – can their joy and
their bitterness cease? (G.Byron)