Лингвистический анализ текста

Antithesis

In contrast to oxymoron the two opposed notions of an antithesis can refer to the same object of thought or to different objects. Antithesis is based on the use of antonyms, both usual (registered in dictionaries) and occasional or contextual.

It is essential to distinguish between antithesis and what is termed contrast. Contrast is a literary (not linguistic) device, based on logical opposition between the phenomena set one against another.

CHECK 2

Discuss the semantic centres and structural peculiarities of the following antitheses:

1. Don’t use big words. They mean so little. (Wilde)

2.… quite frequently, things that are obvious to other people aren’t even apparent to me. (Barth)

3.… drunkenness was an amusing but unquestioned vice; churchgoing a soporific

4.I like big parties. They are so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.

(Fitzgerald)

5.Rup wished he could be swift, accurate, compassionate and stern instead of

clumsy and vague and sentimental. (Murdoch)

6. His coat-sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too short, he appeared ill at ease in his clothes. (Dickens)

7.It is safer to be married to the man you can be happy with than to the man you cannot be happy without. (Esar)

8.It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in

short the period was so far like the present period, that some of its nosiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of

Irony

Irony occurs when a person says one thing but really means something else. Therefore, irony does not exist outside the context. Irony is a wide-ranging phenomenon and may be achieved both by linguistic and extra-linguistic means. Three kinds of irony are usually distinguished.

Verbal (or linguistic) irony is a figure of speech involving discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and (much rarer) vice versa.

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Besides, according to Skrebnev, irony can be based on stylistic incongruity. It happens when high-flown, elevated linguistic units are used in reference to insignificant, socially low topics.

In cases of extra-linguistic irony it is usually extended over a whole story.

In dramatic irony the contrast is between what a character says and what the reader knows to be true. The value of this kind of irony lies in the comment it implies on the speaker or the speaker’s expectations.

In irony of situation (or irony of life) the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

Thus, irony makes it possible to suggest meanings without stating them. It can be used to convey both the seriousness and humour of situations.

CHECK 3

In the following excerpts you will find mainly examples of verbal irony. Explain how the context makes the irony perceptible. Try to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning.

5.She’s a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair since Coolidge’s second term, I’ll eat my spare tire, rim and all.

(Chandler)

6.With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds

apparently hoping to see him gag. (Chandler)

7. Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds and specific personality differences, we’re just one cohesive team. (Uhnak)

8.I had been admitted as a partner in the firm of Andrews and Bishop, and throughout 1927 and 1928 I enriched myself and the firm at the rate of perhaps forty dollars a month. (Barth)

9.But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. As the great champion of freedom and national independence he conquers and annexes half the world and calls it Colonization. (Bernard Shaw)

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Summing Up

Match the stylistic devices of the unit with the function / functions they perform.

a.to stress the heterogeneity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features

b.to express the subjective evaluative point of the speaker

c.to contribute rhythm and logical arrangement to the sentence / sentences

d.to foreground the evaluative, not logical meaning

e.to hint at something without naming it explicitly

f.to compare things by contrasting them

CHECK 4

Translate the following sentences into Russian identifying oxymoron, antithesis, and irony as well as defining the function performed:

1.Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy; Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend. (Cary)

2.Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband. (Lewis)

3.Bookcases covering one wall boasted a half-shelf of literature. (Capote)

5.A very likeable young man with a pleasantly ugly face. (Cronin)

7.I liked him better than I would have liked his father… We were fellow strangers.

(Greene)

8.All this blood and fire business tonight was probably part of the graft to get the

Socialists chucked out and leave honest business men safe to make their fortunes

10.Ah, me. Everything, I’m afraid, is significant, and nothing is finally important.

(Barth)

11.A local busybody, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, asked an expectant mother point-blank whether she was going to have a baby. “Oh, goodness, no,” the young woman said pleasantly. “I’m just carrying this for a friend.”

(Wodehouse)

12.I also assure her that I’m an Angry Young Man. A black humorist. A white Ne-

PRACTICE

1.Read the title of the story and say what strikes you as abnormal. What rules of logic and common sense are distorted? Name the stylistic device employed. Say why such a contradictory title is used.

The War Prayer

by Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers

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hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gra cious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safetyʹs sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came – next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their faces alight with martial dreams – visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! – then home from the war, bronzed he roes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was fol lowed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremen dous invocation –

ʺGod the all terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!ʺ

Then came the ʺlongʺ prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in His mighty hand, make them strong and con fident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory –

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that

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reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacherʹs side and stood there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, ʺBless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!ʺ

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside – which the startled minister did – and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

ʺI come from the Throne – bearing a message from Almighty God!ʺ The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no at tention. ʺHe has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import – that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of – except he pause and think.

ʺGodʹs servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two – one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspo ken. Ponder this – keep it in mind. If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, be ware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighborʹs crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

ʺYou have heard your servantʹs prayer – the uttered part of it. I am com missioned by God to put into words the other part of it – that part which the pastor – and also you in your hearts – fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ʹGrant us the victory, O Lord our God!ʹ That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listen ing spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He com mandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

ʺO Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to bat tle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear

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their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roof less with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

(After a pause) ʺYe have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits.ʺ

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

2.Compare the story with St. Francis’ prayer. What other stylistic device is used in the title of the story? What is gained through the contrast? Does the contrast to the prayer manifest itself on the level of the title only?

Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy;

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood, as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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3.Reread the story again and identify other figures of contrast. What role is played by the antitheses? What kinds of irony are present in the story?

4.On what other layers of the story structure does contrast as a literary phenomenon differentiate itself? Consider such elements as characters (both “mortal” and “immortal”) and ideas they embody. According to this formulate the main idea of the story.

5.Characterize the author’s choice of words. What layer of vocabulary do they mostly belong to and why?

6.Analyse the speeches of both preachers. Pay attention to the manner of presentation of each? How does it characterize the speakers?

7.Comment on the role of other stylistic devices. What key prevails in each structural part of the story?

8.What is alliteration verse? What literary genre is marked by it? How does this verse form reveal itself in the story? What is gained through its usage? Define the genre of the story.

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