Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

i) Antithesis

Antithesis is a stylistic device which is based on the opposition of concepts. There are logical and stylistic opposition. Logical opposition implies the use of dictio­nary antonyms, i.e. words that are contrary in meaning to others: white - black, day - night, long - short, young - old, etc.

Stylistic opposition is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs, as in:

Youth is lovely, age is lonely,

Youth is fiery, age is frosty. (Longfellow)

Here the objectively contrasted pairs are "youth - age", fiery - frosty". "Lovely" and "lonely" cannot be re­garded as objectively opposite concepts.

It is not only the semantic aspect which explains the linguistic nature of antithesis, the structural pattern also plays an important role. Antithesis is generally moulded in parallel construction:

"We are young, friend, like the flowers,

You are old, friend, like the tree,

What concern have you with ours?

You are dying, we're to be

It is very true, I'm dying,

You are roses still in bud..." (J. Mansfield)

In this poem antithesis is based on the following op­positions: young - old, flowers - trees, dying - to be; only the first opposition "young - old" may be considered as dictionary antonyms, the rest are contextual antonyms, and bring emphasis to the whole poem.

The use of antithesis built on the contextual antonyms is clearly seen in the next example:

"They speak like saint and act like devils. Better to reign in the hell than serve in heaven".

In this passage antithesis is based on the following oppositions: saint - devil, to reign - to serve, hell - hea­ven. These pairs are contextual antonyms, and bring emp­hasis to the text.

Antithesis often comes with many stylistic devices such as repetition, parallel construction, epigram and others:

"If there were no bad people, there would be good lawyers" (Dickens).

As a rule antithesis displays one of the functions more clearly than the others. This function will then be the lea­ding one in the given utterance. An interesting example where the comparative function is predominant is the mad­rigal ascribed to Shakespeare.

Crabbed age and youth cannot live together

Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather,

Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare:

Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short,

Youth is nimble, age is Tame:

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold,

Youth is wild, age is tame:

Age, I do abhore thee, youth, I do adore three;

Oh, my Love, my Love is young!

Here the objectively contrasted pair in "youth" and "age". "Pleasure" and "care", "sport" and "short"... can­not be regarded as objectively opposite concepts, but due to contrasting "youth" and "age", they display certain features which may be counted as antonymical.

In speaking of antithesis we must not confuse it with contrast. Contrast is usually realized in two or more para­graphs, in a story or a novel. Contrast belongs to literature ana antithesis is a linguistic device which is realized wit­hin one or two sentences, at least in one paragraph or a poem..

There are a number of word combinations which are built on antonyms, such as: up and down, top and bottom, inside and outside. Of course, these phrases must not be confused with antithesis. They may fee used to build up antithesis but separately they do not constitute antithesis.

The following stylistic functions of antithesis are singled out: making comparison of different objects and notions, division or separation of several concepts, combi­ning various objects and notions.

D. Particular Ways of Combining Parts of the Utterance