Antithesis Climax Suspence Enumeration

Suspense is a compositional device which consists in arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Suspenseis a compositional device which is realized through the separation of the Predicate from the Subject by deliberate introduction between them of a clause or a sentence. Thus the reader's interest is held up. This device is typical of oratorical style. Thus the reader’s attention is held and his interest kept up. Example: "Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw''. Sentences of this type are called periodic sentenсеs, or periods. Their function is to create suspense, to keep the reader ma state of uncertainty and expectation. Suspense and climax sometimes go together. In this case all the information contained in the series of statement-clauses preceding the solution-statement are arranged in the order of gradation. The device of suspense is especially favored by orators. This is appar­ently due to the strong influence of intonation, which helps to create the desired atmosphere of expectation and emotional tension which goes with it. This device is effective in more than one way, but the main purpose is to prepare the reader for the only logical conclusion of the utterance. It is a psychological effect that is aimed at in particular. It must be noted that suspense, due to its partly psychological nature (it arouses a feeling of expectation), is framed in one sentence, for there must not be any break in the intonation pattern. Separate sentences would violate the principle of constant emotional tension which is char­acteristic of this device.

Climax is an arrangement of sentences (or of the homogeneous parts of one sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance, as in: "It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city". Climax (gradation) - an ascending series of words or utterances in which intensity or significance increases step by step. e. g. Every racing car, every racer, every mechanic, every ice - cream van was also plastered with advertising. A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways: logical, emotional and quantitative. Logical climax is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts em­bodied in them. This relative importance may be evaluated both objec­tively and subjectively, the author's attitude towards the objects or phenomena in question being disclosed. Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional ten­sion produced by words with emotive meaning. Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences, more rarely in longer syntactical units. This is natural. Emotional charge cannot hold long. The arrangement of the component parts calls for parallel construction which, being a kind of syntactical repetition, is frequently accompanied by lexical repetition. For example: "He was pleased when the child began to adventure across floors on hand and knees; he was gratified, when she managed the trick of balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted when she first said 'ta-ta'; and he was rejoiced when she recognized him and smiled at him." Quantitative climax is an evi­dent increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts, as in: "Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and 'year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question." Climax, like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author discloses his world, outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena. The concrete stylistic function of this device is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author (especially in emotional climax), or to impress upon the reader the significance of the things described by suggested comparison.

Examples:"There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

"I think we've reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all humanity, but for life upon the earth."

"...Lost, vended, broken, dead within an hour.” William Shakespeare

"...the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Martin Luther King

Similarly an anti-climax is an abrupt declension (either deliberate or unintended) on the part of a speaker or writer from the dignity of idea which he appeared to be aiming at; as in the following well-known distich:

"The great Dalhousie, he, the god of war,

Lieutenant-colonel to the earl of Mar."

An anticlimax can be intentionally employed only for a jocular or satiric purpose. It frequently partakes of the nature of antithesis, as "Die and endow a college or a cat." It is often difficult to distinguish between "anticlimax" and "bathos"; but the former is more decidedly a relative term. A whole speech may never rise above the level of bathos; but a climax of greater or less elevation is the necessary antecedent of an anticlimax.

Enumerationis a SD which separates things, properties or actions brought together and form a chain of grammatically and semantically homogeneous parts of the utterance.

e. g. She wasn't sure of anything and more, of him, herself, their friends, her work, her future.

E can be of two kinds:

- homogeneous – it helps to accumulate the desired effect

By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and viols and cornets and piccolos….

- heterogeneous – the houses had little gardens, but they didn’t seem to raise hardly anything in them but weeds and sunflowers, and ashpiles, and old curled up boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles and rags…(Huckleberry Finn)