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Assignments for Self-Control

1. Comment on linguistic properties of sentences which
arc foregrounded in lexico-syntactical stylistic devices.

2. What do you know about antithesis? Why is it viewed
separately from parallel constructions?

3. Have you ever met in your home-reading cases of
antithesis in which the structure of a word was also used
in the creation of the SD?

Another type of semantically complicated parallelism is presented by climax, in which each next word combination

(clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally

stronger and more explicit: "Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!" (D.) " I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is pig-headed." (B. Ch.) If to create antithesis we use antonyms (or their contextual equivalents), in climax we deal with strings of synonyms or at least semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group.

The negative form of the structures participating in the formation of climax reverses the order in which climax-components are used, as in the following examples: "No tree, to shrub, no blade of grass that was not owned." (G.) It is the absence of substance or quality that is being emphasized by the negative form of the climax, this is why relative synonyms are arranged not in the ascending but in the

 


descending order as to the expressed quality or quantity. Cf.: "Be careful," said Mr. Jingle. "Not a look." "Not a wink," said Mr. Tupman. "Not a syllable. Not a whisper." (D.)

Proceeding from the nature of the emphasized phenomenon it is possible to speak of 1ogical, emotive or quantitative types of climax. The most widely spread model of climax is a three-step construction, in which intensification of, logical importance, of emotion or quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising from step to step. In emotive climax though, we rather often meet a two-step structure, in which the second part repeats the first one and is further strengthened by an intensifier, as in the following instances: "He was so helpless, so very helpless." (W. D.) "She felt better, immensely better." (W. D.) "I have been so unhappy here, so very very unhappy." (D.)

Climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea, is called ànticlimax. Òî stress the abruptness of the change emphatic punctuation (dash, most often) is used between the ascending and the descending parts of the anticlimax. Quite a few paradoxes are closely connected with anticlimax.

Exercise II. Indicate the type of climax. Pay attention to its structure and the semantics of its components:

1. He saw clearly that the best thing was a cover story
or camouflage. As he wondered and wondered what to do,
he first rejected a stop as impossible, then as improbable,
then as quite dreadful. (W. G.)

2. "Is it shark?" said Brody. The possibility that he at
last was going to confront the fish - the beast, the monster,
the nightmare - made Brady's heart pound. (P. B.)



3. If he had got into the gubernatorial primary on his
own hook, he would have taken a realistic view. But this

was different. He had been called. He had been touched. He had been summoned. (R. W.)

4. We were all in all to one another, it was the morning
of life, it was bliss, it was frenzy, it was everything else
of that sort in the highest degree. (D.)

5. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had
no knowledge of the brightness outside. (D.)

6. "I shall be sorry, I shall be truly sorry to leave you,
my friend." (D.)

 


7. "Of course it's important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately
important." (D. S.)

8. "I never told you about that letter Jane Crofut got
from her minister when she was sick. He wrote Jane a letter
and on the envelope the address was like this: Jane Crofut;
The Crofut Farm; Graver's Corners; Sutton County; New
Hampshire; United States of America." "What's funny about
it?" "But listen, it's not finished: the United States of America;
Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth;
the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God - that's what it said on the envelope." (Th. W.)

9. "You have heard of Jefferson Brick, I see, Sir," quoth
the Colonel with a smile. "England has heard of Jefferson
Brick. Europe has heard of Jefferson Brick." (D.)

 

10. After so many kisses and promises - the lie given to her dreams, her words, the lie given to kisses, hours, days, weeks, months of unspeakable bliss. (Dr.)

11. For that one instant there was no one else in the
room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves. (M. W.)

12. In marriage the upkeep of woman is often the downfall
of man. (Ev.)

13. Fledgeby hasn't heard of anything. "No, there's not
a word of news," says Lammle. "Not a particle," adds Boots.
"Not an atom," chimes in Brewer. (D.)

14. Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They
can discover everything except the obvious. (O. W.)

15. This was appalling - and soon forgotten. (G.)

16. He was unconsolable - for an afternoon. (G.)

17. In moments of utter crises my nerves act in the most
extraordinary way. When utter disaster seems imminent my
whole being is simultaneously braced to avoid it. I size up
the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles,
take a firm grip of myself, and without a tremor always
do the wrong thing." (B. Sh.)


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1035


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