Expressive Means of Language (Stylistic Devices)

Expressive Means of Language (Stylistic Devices) As expressive means, language uses various stylistic devices which make use either of the meaning or of the structure of language units STYLISTIC DEVICES MAKING USE OF THE MEANING OF LANGUAGE UNITS (FIGURES OF SPEECH) The term Figures of speech (фигуры речи, тропы, образ¬ные средства) is frequently used for stylistic devices that make use of a figurative meaning of the language elements and thus create a vivid image.

Metaphor Metaphor denotes a transference of meaning based on resemblance, in other words, on a cover comparison: He is not a man, he is just a machine; What an ass you are!; the childhood of mankind; the dogs of war, a film star. Not only objects can be compared in a metaphor, but also phenomena, actions or qualities: Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, andsome few to chewedanddigested(F. Bacon); pitiless cold; cruel heat; virgin soil; a treacherous calm. Metaphors may be simple, when expressed by a word or phrase (Man cannot live by bread alone = by things satisfying only his physical needs), and complex (prolonged, or sustained, сложная метафора), when a broader context is required to understand it, or when the metaphor includes more than one element of the text; cf. the metaphoric representation of a city as a powerful and dangerous machine in the example below:

The average New Yorker is caught in a machine. He whirls along, he is dizzy, he is helpless. If he resists, the machine will crush him to pieces. (W. Frank) ... the scene of man, A mighty maze, but not without a plan; A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot; A garden tempting with forbidden fruit. ...(A. Pope) A trite metaphor (стершаяся метафора) is one that is overused in speech, so that it has lost its freshness of expression. Such metaphors often turn into idiomatic phrases (phraseological expressions) that are fixed in dictionaries: seeds of evil, a rooted prejudice, a flight of imagination, in the heat of argument, to burn with desire, to fish for compliments, to prick one's ears