Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

1. Interaction of Dictionary and Contextual Logical Meanings

The relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings may be maintained on the principle of affinity, on that part of proximity, or on opposition. Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is meta­phor, on the second - metonymy and on the third - irony.

a) Metaphor

A metaphor is the interaction between the logical and the contextual logical meanings of a word which is based on a likeness between objects. For example, in the sentence: "Dear nature is the kindest mother still" Nature is likened to a Mother; i.e. the properties of a mother "nursing, caring for" are imposed on the nature. Thus the metaphor can be defined as the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously.

Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, even in prepositions. E.g.:

"The leaves fell sorrowfully."

Here it is the adverb that is a metaphor.

The metaphor is a well-known semantic way of buil­ding new meanings and new words. According to scien­tists "It is due to tne metaphor that each thing seems to ha­ve its name in language".

Metaphors are classified according to three aspects:

1. 
   the degree of expressiveness;
   
2. 
   the structure, i.e. in what linguistic it is presented or by what part of speech it is expressed;
   
3. 
   the function, i.e. the role of a stylistic device in making up an image.
   

There are different sources where the authors borrow the material for images. Favourite images in oriental poet­ry are nightingale, rose, moon, nature, art, war, fairy ta­les, myths; science may also serve as sources for metap­horical images.

A metaphor is a productive way of building up new meaning ana new words.

Metaphor may be genuine, that is original, invented by the writer where the image is quite unexpected, i.e. unpredictable, or trite or dead, that is hackneyed, often used in the language. Their predictability is apparent.

Genuine metaphors are also called speech metaphors. They belong to language-in-action. Examples of genuine metaphors are: the dark swallowed him; Mrs. Small's eyes boiled with excitement; the words seemed to dance. Ge­nuine metaphors can easily become trite, if they are fre­quently repeated. Trite metaphors belong to the language- as-a-system, and are usually fixed in dictionaries, as units of the language.

In the English language a number of trite metaphors are widely used. They are time-worn:

to shoot a glance, to break one's heart, a ray of hope, flood of tears, shadow of a smile, the salt of life, a flight of imagination, the leader of the fame, etc.

The interaction between the logical and contextual meanings of words in these combinations is dulled cons­tant use. The stylistic effect of true metaphors is weak.

The following metaphors enriched English phraseo­logy:

foot of a bed, leg of a chair, head of a nail, to be in the same boat.

The genuine metaphor, as was mentioned above, is the expression of writer's individual vision. It is through the metaphor that the writer reveals his emotional attitude towards what he describes.

Sometimes a metaphor is not confined to one image. Trite metaphors are reestablished. The writer finds it ne­cessary to prolong the image. He does so by adding a number of other images, but all these additional images are linked with the main, central image. Such metaphors are called sustained orprolonged metaphors:

"The indignant fire, which flashed from his eyes, did not melt the glasses of his spectacles." (Dickens)

In the above example the metaphors "flashed" and "melt" are connected with the main image expressed by the word "fire". This prolonged image helps Dickens to achieve exaggeration and to give a touch of humour. This context refreshes the almost dead metaphor and gives it second life.

Metaphors may be sustained not only on the basis of a trite metaphor. The initial metaphor may be genuine.

The metaphor is often defined as a compressed simile. But this definition is misleading. These two stylistic devi­ces are viewed as belonging to two different groups of sty­listic devices. They are different in their linguistic nature.

The main function of metaphor is to create images. Genuine metaphors create fresh images in poetry and emo­tive prose. Trite metaphors are used as expressive means in newspapers, articles, in oratorical style and in scientific language. They help author to make the meaning more concrete and brighten his writing.

There is constant interaction between genuine and trite metaphors. Genuine metaphors, if they are good and can stand the test of time, may, through frequent repeti­tion, become trite and consequently easily predictable. Trite metaphors may retain their freshness through the process of prolongation of the metaphor.

The stylistic function of the metaphor is twofold:

1. 
   to make the author's thought more concre­te, define and clear;
   
2. 
   to reveal the author's emotional attitude towards what he describes.