CHAPTER 1

COMPARISON AS AN EFFICIENT STYLISTIC DEVICE

1.1. SIMILE

What is a stylistic device? In broad sense it’s any means of language, including
tropes, which add to the expressiveness and emotiveness of the utterance. It may
sound exaggerated, but figures of speech are indispensable part of our life. We use
them in our every-day conversations not even noticing it. Most frequently used
expressions can even lose their stylistic effect over time. In general, the main aim of
the stylistic device is to make our speech or literary work more eloquent, expressive
and “rich”.

There’s a great amount of those devices, yet the most popular one is comparison. In
fact, comparison is a broad term which includes some other devices, among which
are: analogy, metaphor, simile, juxtaposition, pun and allegory. The word itself has
Latin roots and means “to pair”, “to match”. That’s what we can clearly see in
comparison – matching two different objects, which may share some common
features or not. If objects are not alike, it makes the expression even more unique and
uncommon.

Comparison helps us to perceive the unknown in an easier way. When we don’t know
how to describe something, we tend to compare it to the object, which is already
known to us. In such a way we can explain the essence through the similarity of these
objects, or on the contrary, to show the difference between them due to their
incompatibility.

Comparison is of great importance in literature. Authors are a kind of magicians who

create completely new worlds in their stories. To make this world closer to the reader,
he or she must show how this world connects with the reality the reader lives in or,
on the other hand, how it differentiates. One of the most effective ways to do this is to
use comparison.

One of the devices I’d like to take the closer look at is simile.

Simile is a figure of speech which involves the comparison of one object to another
object to make the statement more explicit.

According to K. Lototska, simile “consists in an explicit likening of one object (the

tenor) to another object (the vehicle) on the basis of some common
feature/characteristic (the ground)”.
Talking about simile we may also use such terms as imaginative comparison or
literary comparison.

It’s said to be one of the oldest figures of stylistics. Why is it so? The answer is rather
simple: when we can’t find proper words to describe something it’s much easier for
us simply to compare those things. It’s a simple type of cognition and quite an
effective way of description.

It has one important stylistic function: that of enriching artistic impression by

comparing objects which don’t have much in common. It helps to reveal some new,
additional qualities of the object which are often quite unusual.

The general scheme for simile is “A is like B”. The so-called “ground” of the simile
is usually presented clearly and directly. If it’s not, then the reader is expected to
guess the meaning himself. In this situation more associations are likely to appear,
what makes the simile itself more vivid and interesting. The ground may be
expressed by practically any part of speech, including: verb, noun, adjective and
adverb.

One more important aspect about simile is presence of special connectives. Those
connectives are usually expressed by:

 Conjunctions: “like”, “as”, “as if”, “as though”, “as…as”, “not so…as”, “than”
(“like” is one of the most frequently used)
 Verbs: “to resemble”, “to seem”, “to remind one of”, “to suggest”, “to look”
 Verbal phrase: “to have a look of”, “to bear the resemblance”

However we should be very careful distinguishing the simile. It’s easy to mix them
up with ordinary comparisons. “Objects compared in similes belong to two entirely
different classes, and there is no direct, simple or obvious similarity or likeness
between them” [1, 102]. In most cases in order to not get confused we should
remember that in case of simile human may be compared to an animal or any other
physical object. By the way, comparing the human being with an animal is very
interesting aspect. It has its own term in linguistics – zoonym.

In general, we may describe zoonym as a notion which brings together all the
vocabulary related to fauna. If to be more precise, zoonym is one of linguistic units
which express different shades of meaning with reference to animals. “Zoonyms are a
rich source of metaphors, phraseological units, symbols, plots, which represent model
national cultural views” [4, 99]. Each of them is associated with great amount of
human traits of character.
This phenomenon is quite reasonable and understandable. In attempt to describe their
behavior or appearance people compared themselves to the closest and the most
familiar to them – animals. Zoonym is the reflection of people’s observation
concerning animals’ behavior and appearance. Due to this some of the most
emphasized qualities were distinguished and turned into symbols. So, zoonym is a
really interesting and useful linguistic unit which gives the opportunity to make the
language or writing even more expressively coloured.

Going back to simile, one must also admit that some of similes lost their
expressiveness because of being overused. They’re trite or hackneyed. Those similes
acquire idiomatic meaning and may be called “idioms of comparison”.

Simile is one of the most frequently used stylistic devices in Donna Tartt’s novel
“The Goldfinch”. We can mostly find it in the descriptions of the surroundings and
characters’ appearance.
 1.2. METAPHOR

Being translators we percept metaphor as a language notion – a figure of speech.

However, its nature is much more complicated. Metaphor is said to be cultural and
sociolinguistic phenomenon. I totally agree with this statement. Since linguistics is
not the only field that metaphor deals with. It relates to those spheres of our life
which express aesthetical function, such as: art, architecture, music and
cinematography.

Still, metaphor has tight connections with many branches of linguistics. In stylistics,
rhetoric and poetics it’s studied as a trope. In lexicology it creates new meanings of
the words. Pragmatics views it as a unique type of communication. Philosophy,
cognitive psychology and logic treat metaphor as one of the ways of thinking and
learning. We might have already understood that metaphor is a kind of all-
encompassing notion which interacts with us and our life in every possible way.
Nevertheless, is there any proper scientific definition of this term?

The term “metaphor” comes from Greek meaning “transference”. The common
scheme for metaphor is “A is B”. Basically, the qualities of one object are transferred
to another object. There’s plenty of explanations according this term.

“Metaphor is a SD in which one idea, thing, or action is referred to/named by a word

or expression normally denoting another idea, thing, or action, so as to suggest some
common quality shared by the two” [1, 66]. To my mind, this statement fully conveys
the essence of this stylistic device. However, it’s clearly not the only one.

V. A. Kukharenko describes metaphor as “a transference of names based on the

associated likeness between two objects”. So, judging from definitions above, we can
make a conclusion that metaphor presupposes a kind of “likeness” or in other words
–“similarity”. Yet, not everyone is of the same opinion.

I. R. Galperin criticizes the idea of similarity. He claims that: “The two objects are
identified and the fact that a common feature is pointed to and made prominent does
not make them similar” [2, 129]. To prove his statement he compared humans with
animals. Both animals and humans breathe, move and eat. Yet, if one of these
qualities, for instance – movement can be observed in animal and human at the same
time it doesn’t mean that these objects are automatically alike. For him it’s not the
notion of similarity, it’s the notion if identification. So, he states that “therefore it is
better to define metaphor as the power of realizing two lexical meanings
simultaneously” [2, 129].
Metaphor is indeed complicated, so it has its own classification.

First criterion is the degree of unexpectedness. According to this there’re trite (dead)
and genuine metaphors. Genuine metaphors (may be called original, fresh,
imaginative, stylistic or speech) are those which come directly from author’s fantasy.
They always are unexpected and unpredictable. This kind of metaphor provides some
analogies as well as shows the attitude of the author towards the object of description.
They’re usually used in emotive prose and poetry.

Trite (also called dead, hackneyed, stale or language) metaphors are those which have
already lost their expressiveness because of being used in speech for a long period of
time. In some cases they even become a part of the dictionary as expressive means of
language. We may observe these metaphors in oratorical style, scientific language
and newspaper articles. There’s an opinion that usage of trite metaphors may be
considered as a drawback, but it’s not. In fact, it makes the writing more concrete and
alive.

Genuine and trite metaphors constantly interact between each other. Genuine
metaphors may become trite because of being frequently repeated. As a result they’re
easily predictable. Vice versa, dead metaphors may regain their freshness. It happens
with the help of such process as prolongation of the metaphor.

Second criterion for classification of metaphors is structure. So, according to

structure they’re are divided into simple and sustained. Simple metaphor has only one
vehicle (one central image). Thus, the vehicle possesses a single meaning which is
brought directly to the subject. If central vehicle has some other, contributing
vehicles then we deal with sustained metaphor. Contributing vehicles may have the
relations of subordination or coordination regarding the central image, thus they
become subordinated or coordinated. Those images contribute some additional
features to the tenor (object of description). Talking about sustained metaphors we
should also mention the existence of prolonged metaphors. The main aim of the
prolongation process is to revive, to refresh already dead images, so to say, to give
them another life.

One more criterion of classification is according to the part of speech the metaphor is
expressed by and its stylistic functions. This division was elaborated by Ch. Brook-
Rose in her own book “A Grammar of Metaphor”. According to her there’re: noun
metaphors, verb metaphors, adjective metaphors and adverb metaphors.
Despite all the classifications, metaphors have some common features which they
express regardless their belonging to a certain class:

 May be based on any of the following features: form, colour, motion, speed,
value and dimension
 May be represented by any part of speech
 May function as any part of the sentence

Sometimes metaphors are compared with similes and even are explained as
“compressed simile”. However, this definition is not perceived by the scholars as it’s
said to be misleading and imprecise. For example, Galperin writes that “metaphor
aims at identifying the objects, while the simile aims at finding some points of
resemblance by keeping the objects apart” [2, 132]. The nature of these stylistic
devices is different therefore they belong to different groups.

In conclusion, metaphor is one of the most expressive and potential stylistic devices.
It has great functional potential in creating images. Its significance was emphasized
by poets and writers since ancient times (Aristotle and Quintilian) till nowadays. In
English literature W. Shakespeare is considered to be the master of metaphor. As a
matter of fact, metaphors’ presence in our life is greater than we can imagine. They
appear in our everyday conversations and we don’t even pay attention to this.
According to J. Geary metaphor occupies nearly 10% of our everyday speech.

Because of constant usage of metaphors the primary (dictionary) meaning may be

lost. It becomes influenced by new connotations. Yet, it’s impossible for dictionary
meaning to disappear entirely. There’s an unwritten law of stylistics that the
dictionary meaning of stylistic devise is always maintained.
 CHAPTER 2

REINTERPRETATION OR TRANSPOSITION OF SYNTACTIC

STRUCTURES

2.1. TRANCPOSITION OF DECLARATIVE SENTENCES

Syntax is the part of grammar which studies how the words are put together to form
phrases or clauses, in other words, the grammatical arrangement of words in a
sentence.

Form and content are deeply connected with each other in a language. Their
connection is inseparable. Our ideas, emotions and feelings are revealed with the help
of verbal imagery and means of form. If the form undergoes some changes, then the
meaning of an utterance will change as well. Thus, syntactic structure becomes the
main conductor of emotions in a written text.

One of the main classifications of sentences in syntax is classification according to

the function. So, in English there’re distinguished four types of sentences:

 The declarative
 The interrogative
 The imperative
 The exclamatory

Also there’s a division into affirmative and negative sentences. Of course, each of
these types has its own formal and intonational features. However, all of these types
may gain the meaning of each other as well. If this happens, then the utterance
acquires some peculiar modal or emotional meaning, expressiveness or stylistic
colouring. For instance, affirmative sentences may be used as questions and in some
cases they may serve as encouragement to the action. Rhetorical questions may
become emphatic statements. Commands may express irony or even threat.

All of these changes are called transposition. If to be more precise, transposition is

the usage of syntactic structure in its uncommon denotative meaning and with some
additional connotations.

I’d like to focus my attention on the transposition of declarative sentences into

interrogative (questions). It’s one of the most popular types of transposition which is
widely used into colloquial speech.
So, what is that? Basically, it’s an ordinary sentence with a direct word order, but
with a question mark at the end. Such questions are used in writing to convey a broad
spectrum of emotions. Usually though it fills the utterance with irony and sarcasm, so
to show the silliness or ridiculousness of the conversation partner.

How can we define those questions besides the direct word order? One peculiarity is
the usage of such verbs as: want, wish, suggest, suppose and believe. These verbs
usually presuppose that the person who asks has already made up her mind and has
his or her own assumptions and ideas about what’s happening. Also it’s possible that
in such way the person just wants to show that he or she knows the answer of the
question, but still has the willing to make the revealing of it more dramatic. Still,
there’s one more: the person wants to show that he/she and his/her companion are
like-minded people, that they have that air of understanding between them. Such
questions, which kind of encourage the other person usually contain verbs as: see,
know, understand, perceive, get the point and others.

There’s a co-called reversal transposition, when question becomes an emphatic

statement. That’s the rhetorical question – one of the most discovered forms of
transposition in stylistics.
 2.2 RHETORICAL QUESTION

Rhetorical question is quite an old figure which still hasn’t lost its popularity. This
type of question presupposes no answer to be given. In other words, the answer is
already present into the question itself. Its function is rather different from the
original question – to encourage the listener to provide information about something
unknown. The main aim of rhetorical question is to draw attention, to enhance the
impressions, to increase the emotiveness and to create the specific atmosphere. As
was mentioned, the question already contains the hint for the answer. It involves the
reader into deep contemplation and immersion into the situation, as if making the
reader more active and stimulating him to make the conclusion himself.

So, rhetorical question is a “vivid emphatic statement in the form of a question” [1,
118] or “a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in
reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence” [2, 225]. Basically,
the essence is the same. What happens is the interaction of two different structural
meanings: the meaning of the statement (affirmative or negative) and the meaning of
the question. Both of the meanings have certain emotional charge, whose significance
is determined by the speaker’s intonation.

According to the researches, the intonation of rhetorical questions is different from

the ordinary ones. Question-sentences are capable of conveying a wide range of
feelings and emotions. Therefore, there’s one more definition which describes
rhetorical question as “utterances in the form of question which pronounce
judgements and also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning, as doubt,
challenge, scorn irony and so on” [2, 226]. Moreover, it’s revealed that questions are
much more emotional and expressive than ordinary statements.

Is there any subdivision of rhetorical questions? Yes. Some scholars distinguish two
types of these:

 one which assumes that the reader or listener will find an answer by himself
 one which is used in soliloquy (monologue), when a person asks himself and
immediately gives an own answer

The last type is often used in a play. Rhetorical question is used in many styles. The
branch where it’s used the most is publicist style and oratory, because of its ability to
raise emotions what is the main effect that these branches are aimed at. At the
beginning of his speech the speaker introduces a certain question to the audience. In
such case this question serves as an introduction into the problem of discussion.
In colloquial speech and respectively in dramatic dialogues the rhetorical question is
used to convey irony, mockery or resentment and is usually complicated by tag
question.

The choice of the verb which is used in the tag question is very important as the
essence of the emotion depends on it. For example, let’s compare two sentences: you
do play the piano, don’t you? and you can play the piano, can’t you? Regarding the
second example, we may see that it has a slight tint of irony. It also presupposes that
the negative answer would be not quite acceptable or rather disappointing.

There’re cases when the tag question includes of both positive and negative forms. In
such case it means that the speaker encourages the person he’s talking to, to agree
with what has been said. Otherwise, if the question has only one of the forms (either
positive or negative) it creates an effect of encouragement or, on the contrary, of
cruel sarcasm.