The means of expressiveness in the literature are also called the term "tropes". A trope is a rhetorical figure, expression or word, which is used in a figurative meaning in order to enhance the artistic expressiveness, imagery of the language. Various types of these figures in literary works are widely used, they are also used in everyday speech and oratory. The main types of pathways include hyperbole, epithet, metonymy, comparison, metaphor, synecdoch, irony, litota, periphrase, personification, allegory. Today we will talk about the following three types: comparison, hyperbole and metaphor. Each of the above means of expression in the literature will be examined in detail by us.
Metaphor: definition
The word "metaphor" in translation means "figurative meaning", "transfer". This expression or word, which is used in an indirect sense, is based on this pathway comparing an object (unnamed) with another by the similarity of any attribute. That is, a metaphor is a speech revolution, which consists in the use of expressions and words in a figurative sense based on comparison, similarity, analogy.
The following 4 elements can be distinguished in this trail: context or category; an object inside this category; the process by which this object performs a specific function; application of the process to specific situations or intersection with them.
A lexicology metaphor is a semantic connection existing between the meanings of a polysemantic word, which is based on the presence of similarities (functional, external, structural). Often this path becomes as if an aesthetic end in itself, thereby displacing the original, initial meaning of a concept.
Types of Metaphors
It is customary to distinguish in the modern theory that describes a metaphor, the following two types: diaphor (that is, a contrasting, sharp metaphor), as well as an epiphora (erased, familiar).
An expanded metaphor is carried out sequentially throughout either the entire message as a whole or a large fragment of it. An example can be suggested as follows: "Book hunger does not pass: products from the book market are increasingly stale - they have to be thrown away immediately without having to try."
There is also a so-called realized metaphor, which involves operating with an expression without taking into account its figurative nature. In other words, as if a metaphor had a direct meaning. The result of such an implementation is often comic. Example: "He lost his temper and entered the tram."
Artistic metaphors
In the formation of various artistic metaphors, an important role is played, as we have already mentioned, characterizing this pathway, the associative connections that exist between different objects. Metaphors as a means of expression in the literature activate our perception, violate the "comprehensibility" and automatism of the narrative.
In artistic speech and language, the following two patterns stand out, according to which this path is formed. The first of them is based on personification or animation. The second is based on materialization. Metaphors (words and expressions) created according to the first model are called personifying. Examples: “frost chained a lake”, “snow lies”, “a year has passed”, “a stream is running”, “feelings are dying out”, “time has stopped”, “boredom has jammed). There are also materializing metaphors (“ deep sadness ”,“ iron will "," root of evil "," tongues of flame "," finger of fate ").
Linguistic and individual varieties of this path as a means of expression in literature are always present in artistic speech. They give imagery to the text. When studying various works, especially poetic ones, one should carefully analyze what an artistic metaphor is. Their various types are widely used if the authors strive to express a subjective, personal attitude to life, to transform the creatively surrounding world. For example, in romantic works, it is precisely in metaphorization that the writers' attitude to man and the world is expressed. In philosophical and psychological lyrics, including realistic ones, this path is indispensable as a means of individualizing various experiences, as well as expressing philosophical ideas of various poets.
Examples of metaphors created by classic poets
At A.S. Pushkin, for example, meets the following metaphors: “the moon is sneaking up”, “sad glades”, “noisy dreams”, youth “slyly advises”.
At M. Yu. Lermontov: the desert “hears” God, the star with the star says, “he dictates a conscience,” the “angry mind” leads with a pen.
At F.I. Tyutcheva: winter is "angry", spring is "knocking" at the window, "sleepy" dusk.
Metaphors and symbol images
In turn, metaphors can become the basis for various character images. In Lermontov’s work, for example, it is they who make up such symbolic images as “palm” and “pine” (“Wild in the North ...”), “sail” (poem of the same name). Their meaning is in the metaphorical assimilation of a pine, sail to a lonely person who is looking for his own path in life, suffering or rebellious, bearing his loneliness as a burden. Metaphors are also the basis of poetic symbols created in the poetry of Blok and many other symbolists.
Comparison: Definition
Comparison is a trope, the basis of which is the assimilation of a certain phenomenon or object to another on the basis of a certain common attribute. The purpose that this means of expression pursues is to identify various properties that are important for the subject in statements, in this object.
The following are distinguished in comparison: the object being compared (which is called the object of comparison), the object (means of comparison) with which this comparison is taking place, as well as the common feature (comparative, in another way - “basis of comparison”). One of the distinguishing features of this trail is the mention of both the object being compared, and a common sign is not necessarily indicated. Comparison should be distinguished from metaphor.
This trail is typical for oral folk art.
Types of Comparisons
Different types of comparisons are available. These are also constructed in the form of a comparative turnover, which is formed with the help of unions “exactly”, “as if”, “as if”, “how”. Example: "He is stupid like a sheep, but cunning, like a devil." There are also unionless comparisons, which are sentences that have a compound nominal predicate. Famous example: "My home is my castle." Educated with the help of a noun used in the instrumental case, this is, for example, "he walks with a gogol." There are those who deny: "Attempt is not torture."
Comparison in the literature
Comparison as a technique is used widely in artistic speech. With the help of it, parallels, correspondences, similarities between people, their life and natural phenomena are revealed. Comparison, thus, consolidates the various associations that arise in the writer.
Often this trail is a whole associative series, which is needed in order for the image to appear. So, in the poem "To the Sea", written by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, the sea evokes a number of associations with the author with "geniuses" (Byron and Napoleon) and man in general. They are fixed in various comparisons. The noise of the sea, with which the poet says goodbye, is compared with the "mournful" murmur of a friend, his "call" at the farewell hour. The poet in Byron’s personality sees the same qualities that are present in the “free element”: depth, power, indomitability, gloom. It seems that both Byron and the sea are two creatures with the same nature: freedom-loving, proud, uncontrollable, elemental, strong-willed.
Comparison in folk poetry
In folk poetry, widely stable comparisons are used, which are comparisons with reliance on tradition, used in certain situations. They are not individual, but taken from the stock of a folk singer or storyteller. This is a figurative model that is easily reproduced in the necessary situation. Of course, poets who rely on folklore use such steady comparisons in their work. M.Yu. Lermontov, for example, in his work “A Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov” writes that the tsar from a height of heaven looked “like a hawk” at the gray-winged “young pigeon”.
Hyperbole: definition
The word "hyperbole" in Russian is a term meaning in translation "exaggeration", "excess", "excessiveness", "transition". This is a stylistic figure, which is an intentional and explicit exaggeration in order to enhance expressiveness and emphasize a particular thought. For example: "we have enough food for six months," "I have said it a thousand times already."
Often combined hyperbole with other various stylistic devices to which it gives the appropriate color. These are metaphors ("waves rose in the mountains") and hyperbolic comparisons. The situation or character depicted may also be hyperbolic. This path is also characteristic of the oratory, rhetorical style, is used here as a pathetic device, as well as a romantic one, where pathos comes in contact with irony.
Examples in which hyperbole is used in the Russian language are winged expressions and phraseological units (“lightning fast”, “fast, like lightning”, “sea of ​​tears”, etc.). The listing can go on for a long time.
Hyperbole in the literature
Hyperbole in poetry and prose is one of the most ancient artistic techniques of expressiveness. The artistic functions of this trail are numerous and varied. Literary hyperbole is necessary mainly to indicate some exceptional qualities or properties of people, events, natural phenomena, things. For example, the exceptional character of Mtsyri, a romantic hero, is emphasized with the help of this trail: a weak young man is in a duel with a leopard an equal rival, as strong as this wild beast.
Hyperbole Properties
Hyperbole, impersonation, epithet and other paths tend to attract the attention of readers. The peculiarities of hyperbolas are that they force us to take a fresh look at the image, that is, to feel its significance and special role. Overcoming the boundaries set by the credibility, endowing people, animals, objects, natural phenomena with “miraculous”, with supernatural properties, this path, used by various authors, emphasizes the conventions of the artistic world created by writers. Hyperbolas are also clarified by the attitude of the creator of the work to the depicted - idealization, "elevation" or, conversely, mockery, denial.
This path plays a special role in works of a satirical orientation. In satires, fables, epigrams of poets of the 19-20th century, as well as in the satirical "chronicle" of Saltykov-Shchedrin ("The History of a City") and his tales, in the satirical novel "Heart of a Dog" by Bulgakov. In Mayakovsky’s comedies “Bathhouse” and “Bedbug”, artistic hyperbole reveals the comicism of heroes and events, emphasizing their absurdity and vices, acting as a means of a caricature or cartoon image.