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Oxymoron

• The oxymoron is closely related to antithesis and paradox. Both of these are figures of speech.

• An oxymoron is 'a contracted paradox'. That is, the paradox is an apparently contradictory statement;whereas the contradiction in an oxymoron is reduced to just two antithetical terms.

• It is the sort of playful and often witty effect used by those who wish to draw attention to their command of language.

• The device is much-loved by poets, because it enables them to express complex ideas in a very compressed form:

Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retired

The toiling pleasure sickens into pain

[OLIVER GOLDSMITH]

PARADOX

Paradox is a figure of speech in which a statement appears to be self-contradictory, but contains something of a truth:

The child is father to the man.

Cowards die many times before their death.

Paradoxically speaking, language study can be fun.

Communicative function. Paradox is used for emphasis or stylistic effect.

Additional features. Paradox was much-used by the Metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century - of whom John Donne is perhaps the best known. The following example is taken from one of his religious sonnets in which he appears to God to strengthen his beliefs. He packs three paradoxes into the last four lines:

Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe,

Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I

Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,

Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

ANTITHESIS

This figure of contrast stands close to oxymoron. The major differ­ence between them is structural: oxymoron is realized through a singlewod-combination, while antithesis is a confrontation of at least two separate semantically opposite. Compare:

“wise foolishness” is an oxymoron;

“…the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness" is an antithesis.

Assigned features. Syntactic structures expressing the meaning of an­tithesis are quite various: a simple extended sentence, a composite sentence, a paragraph or even chain of paragraphs. The main lexical means of antithe­sis formation is antonyms (words opposite in meaning): danger - security, life - fdeaih, empty - occupied, to hurry - to go slow. However, the use of antonyms is not strictly obligatory. Antithesis may also be formed through situational confrontation of two notions expressed by non-antonymous words. For example:

Isabel's salary was high; Isabel's work was light.

More examples:

It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness.

I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.

Gilbert wears fine clothes while I go in rags.

While I am weak from hunger, Denis suffers from overeating.

А далі пішли інші дні, зі своїми копотами, турбаціями, зі своїми тінями й просвітками, зі щирим словом і дрібнотою доносів на тому ж папері, в який можна вписати незрівнянний образ і жало гадюки.

Янгольський голосок, та чортова думка.

Слова одні нам тішать слух і зір,

А інші нас відштовхують раптово.

CLIMAX (GRADATION)

This figure of inequality consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it increases significance, importance or emotional tension of narration:

There was the boom, then instantly the shriek and burst.

I am sorry, I am so very sorry, I am so extremely sorry.

Важливий – вирішальний – грандіозний.

Гарний – чудовий – пречудовий – незрівнянний – божественний.

Кмітливий – розумний – мудрий.

Механізм справді був простий, зручний, корисний.

Classification.Gradation which increases emotional tension of the utterance may be called emotional. Emotional gradation is created by syn­onymic words with emotive meanings:

nice - lovely - beautiful - fair - magnificent; surprised – astonished - astounded - struck - petrified - killed (figuratively).

Ha серці в Гната ставало так погано, прикро, болісно.

Не тільки тужна пісня лилася із змученої душі матері, а й пропікали сльози гарячі сліди на її обличчі.

Сонце пече, аж в’ялить.

Пилип так зажурився, аж скис.

Gradation revealing the quantity of objects may be called quantitative:

There were hundreds of houses, thousands of stairs, innumerable kitchens.

Око бачить далеко, а розум ще далі.

Минають дні, роки, і вже століття засвідчують реалії буття.

ANTICLIMAX

It consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent com­ponent of it decreases significance, importance or emotional tension of narration:

If John's eyes fill with tears, you may have no doubt: he has been eating raw onions.

Вовк – хижак, і хижак лютий, кровожадливий, проте боятися його нема чого.

Лезо небезпеки нависло над бідолашним і розрізало навпіл… Але не треба почувати відразу і втрачати свідомість, бачучи червоні краплі. Перев’язувальний матеріал нам не потрібний – це ж помідор.

Вони і жваво сміялись, і стиха сяяли радістю.

Climax and anticlimax may be combined, like in the anecdote:

Yes, I came face to face with a lion once. To make things worse, I was alone and weaponless. First, I tried to hypnotize him looking straight into his eyeballs. But it was useless. He kept on crawling towards me. Then I thought of plunging my arm down his throat, grabbing him by the tail from the inside and turning him inside out, but it seemed too dangerous. And he kept on creeping towards me, growling in antici­pation. I had to think fast. Meanwhile, the situation got more and more monotonous with every coming second. And you know how I escaped the situation. When I became bored enough with the lion's muzzle, I just left him and went to the other cages.

ZEUGMA

A zeugmatic construction consists of at least three constituents. The basic word of it stands in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to a couple of adjacent words. The basic word combined with the first adjacent word forms a phraseological word-combination. The same basic word combined with the second adjacent word forms a free word-combination.For example:

Freddy got out of bed and low spirits.

Communicative function.Zeugma is used to create a humoristic effect which is achieved by means of contradiction between the similarity of the two syntactic structures and their semantic heterogeneity.

More examples:

Mary dropped a tear and her handkerchief.

George possessed two false teeth and a kind heart.

Dora plunged into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room.

Любить медалі один, а другий – мрію.

PUN

The principle of semantic incompatibility of language units realized in zeugma is also realized in pun. In fact, pun is a variant of zeugma,or vice versa.The difference is structural: pun is more independent, it does not need a basic component like zeugma. Pun is just a play on words.

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