Expressive means of vocabulary. Epithet

Many metaphors live for centuries and millennia. The modeling function of metaphor is manifested not only in language, but, above all, in thinking. Aristotle's metaphor is essentially indistinguishable from hyperbole - exaggeration, and from simple comparison.

BA Akhmadulina Born into a family of employees, graduated from the Literary Institute (1960). She began to publish in 1955 in periodicals. Figures of speech - In linguistics there is no exhaustively accurate and generally accepted definition of F. r. The term itself is used in various senses (most often approximate). The term belongs to Aristotle and is associated with his understanding of art (Art is an imitation of life). The Futurists did not strive for the plausibility of the metaphor, but for its maximum distance from the original meaning.

"A golden cloud spent the night ..." (about a metaphor)

Example: Ice and Fire. V broad sense the term "image" means a reflection of a phenomenon outside world in our minds. The above lines compare honey with a tribute and a beehive with a cell, with the first members replaced by the second. Usually a nice comparison is called a metaphor.

Or here's another metaphor: a bright sunset is like a fire. Metaphor is an unusual, sonorous word. It is Greek (and how did the ancient Greeks manage to come up with so many beautiful words!) and in translation means "transfer".

Essence, functions and technique of use

It is easy to guess about this: we are looking at the sunset, the sky in a bright evening dawn and it reminds us real fire... One can imagine that the entire horizon is burning in a huge fire. What, you put the diary on your head like a mask? Not at all. It's just a metaphor too. If a person is sloppy, not serious about studying and writing down homework, then this is immediately visible in his diary. And also, they say that a person's character can be seen from a person's face.

This is what metaphor is for: to expressively describe a person, a landscape, or any situation. A good metaphor saves words, lets you say little, but good. For everyone who wants to learn expressive, vivid speech, you need to be able to invent a metaphor. The figurativeness of the metaphor has always attracted attention and people of creative professions knew how to use it. The same goes for other forms of art as well.

great and mighty

But there is one trick: when a good metaphor is invented, it seems as if it only refers to what it was written about. Now let's consider the question: why are metaphors needed at all? A metaphor is needed to make some idea or thought more memorable. The metaphor is necessary when you need to reformulate the problem, break the constraint, see the situation in a new perspective.

The metaphor is even used to change a person's limiting beliefs, bringing a person to new opportunities. Each metaphor has its own structure, its own stages of construction. There are one-line metaphors in which you briefly and clearly put the thought that you want to convey to the interlocutor.

To put it more simply, short metaphors rather serve as a connecting link in a conversation, allowing you to turn it in the right direction, or to get the desired reaction of the interlocutor. Long metaphors use the mechanisms of working with the interlocutor's subconscious, and are aimed at changing his beliefs, his state, or even his habits. And you can even be frightened of their decrepitude. Metaphor has always rescued word-creation - without it, word-creation would be doomed to the continuous production of more and more new words and would burden human memory with an incredible burden.

It's sad to see what was once bold and fresh become worn out and boring over time. Painted carpet of flowers ”,“ bosom of nature ”,“ azure of heaven ”,“ emerald meadow ”,“ streams of tears ”. All these once beautiful metaphors now look hackneyed, carrying the musty smell of the old closet. Only there everything is too clever, but yours is simple and intelligible.

I bow to you for your valuable contribution to my not yet filled to the brim smart things cranium. Having tasted the goodies, without trampling, I go to my garden in order to remove the weeds. And you know, Nyusha, "clean gardens" are only in hotbeds. But even there you have to fight weeds. Well, now we're done with metaphors.

I am revising my canned food - it seems like nothing like that. Some I digest, and some are in the trash. And people are all for sale. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors. In all cases, there is a transfer of meaning from one word to another. An indirect message in the form of a story or figurative expression using a comparison. The turn of speech, consisting in the use of words and expressions in a figurative sense, based on some kind of analogy, similarity, comparison.

For example, "a cloud in pants". Researchers note the relatively rare use of metaphor in Soviet fiction, although there is no need to talk about its “expulsion” (see, for example: “So we parted.

In the 1970s, a group of poets appeared who inscribed on their banner "metaphor in a square" or "metametaphor" (the term of Konstantin Kedrov). A harsh metaphor is a metaphor that brings together concepts that are far from each other. An erased metaphor is a generally accepted metaphor, the figurative character of which is no longer felt.

A realized metaphor presupposes operating with a metaphorical expression without taking into account its figurative nature, that is, as if the metaphor had a direct meaning. The result of the realization of a metaphor is often comic.

Words words words…

Among other tropes, metaphor occupies a central place, as it allows you to create capacious images based on bright, unexpected associations. However, there are other views on the classification of metaphors. George Lakoff in his work "The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor" talks about the methods of creating a metaphor and the composition of this means of artistic expression.

Examples from literature

Metaphors as linguistic expressions become possible precisely because there are metaphors in the conceptual system of a person. " Metaphor is often viewed as one of the ways to accurately reflect reality in artistic terms. However, I. R. Halperin says that “this concept of accuracy is very relative.

Today in modern Russian literary language great amount all kinds of means designed to enhance the effect. In artistic, expressive phrases are used to dilute dry text.

What is it? A metaphor is a word or a combination of words that are used figuratively. The purpose of using a metaphor is to compare an unnamed name, property or value of an object with another object, property or value, based on similar characteristics.

Example: I lost my temper and got on the bus. All these are linguistic metaphors, that is, in essence, not metaphors. This makes the therapeutic metaphors used in psychotherapy effective. For example, the metaphor "judgment is war": the similarity in the confrontation between the parties trying to win. The previous expression without this “as it were” was a metaphor and more risky. The metaphor is based on comparison, analogy. So the metaphor appeared.

In literary language, as well as in spoken language, we often use various figures of speech, sometimes without even realizing it. Few people think: “Hmm, but now I’ll put in such a metaphor ...” But sometimes it is very useful to know, to be able to find in someone else's speech and use different artistic elements... This diversifies speech, makes it more lively, rich, pleasant to the ear and original. In this article, you will learn about one of the most common speech tropes - metaphor.

Trope

First, let's figure out what this is all about. What are these paths and where do they lead?

Trope (from the Greek τρόπος - turnover) is a word or expression that is used figuratively to enhance and diversify speech. Without tropes, our speech would be like a dictionary entry or, even worse, like some normative acts.

In these cases, the paths are not used at all, because laws, dictionaries, any instructions, deeds and references should not be figurative, but as specific as possible, not allowing for discrepancies. In all other cases: in conversation, in literature, in journalism, the authors saturate speech with a variety of tropes and figures. This makes speech more artistic, expressive, interesting and rich.

Tropes include such techniques as metaphor - we will describe it in detail below, as well as metonymy, epithet, hyperbole, comparison, euphemism, and so on.

So, let's move on to the topic. The concept of metaphor has been given a long time ago. Then lexicology and philology were born. And most of the terms are borrowed into the modern Russian language from ancient Greek.

Aristotle defined metaphor as “comparing an unnamed object with another on the basis of some common feature". And the word μεταφορά itself is translated from ancient Greek as "figurative meaning." To make it immediately clear to you, here is an example that everyone is probably familiar with:

Simple, like a felt boot (like three rubles, like slippers).

This is the very metaphor. But back to Aristotle. In general, he understood all art as "imitation of life." That is, as one big, capacious metaphor. Later, other scientists narrowed down this huge concept, highlighting in separate categories hyperbole (exaggeration), synecdoche (ratio), simple comparison, and some other tropes.

Functions of a metaphor

Lexicologists need to do more than just define a concept. They still need to describe in detail what functions it performs, for what purpose it is used and exists. In his research in 1992, V.K. Kharchenko singled out as many as 15 (!) Functions of the metaphor. The main ones, as the course says high school, are text-forming, genre-forming and style-forming functions.

Metaphor "Golden Hands"

In other words, with the help of metaphors, you can give the text a coloring inherent in some particular genre, style. As for the text-forming function, there is an opinion according to which it is metaphors that create the subtext (content-subtext information) of any work.

Metaphor "Silver Hair"

Metaphors can serve different functions in different contexts. For example, in poetic texts they most often have an aesthetic function. The metaphor should beautify the text and create an artistic image. V scientific texts metaphors can have a heuristic (cognitive) meaning. It helps to describe, comprehend new object research through knowledge about known, already described objects.

Metaphor "Autumn of life"

Recently, linguistics has also singled out a political metaphor (some researchers single out this function of the metaphor separately), which is designed to impart ambiguity to statements, veil acute and controversial moments, “minimizing the speaker’s responsibility for the possible literal interpretation of his words by the addressee” (I.M. Kobozeva, 2001). A new, manipulative function of metaphor appears. This is how language and science about it develop.

How do you create a metaphor?

To create a metaphorical expression, you need to find points of comparison or juxtaposition among objects. It's that simple. For example, let's take the subject "dawn". What would you compare it with? The dawn is scarlet, bright, burning ... Let's compare it with fire! And it will turn out what millions of writers have done before us: "the fire of dawn", "the sunrise is burning", "the fire flared up in the east." Indeed, it is much more interesting than just writing "the sun was rising."

In fact, writers and poets spend hours trying to find a good metaphor: accurate, imaginative, whole. It is no coincidence that we admire the works of the classics of literature so much. For example, take a famous poem:

The north was blowing. The grass was crying
And branches about the recent heat,
And roses, barely awake,
The young heart contracted.

She sings and the sounds melt away
Like kisses on the lips
Looks - and the heavens are playing
In her divine eyes.

As you can see, in both quatrains, it is not just a story about some phenomenon or a person, but its volumetric is created, vivid image, embodying the idea of ​​the author, conveying it colorfully and artistically.

Metaphor "Weeping Grass"

So this is what metaphors are for - to create images! We do not just decorate speech with metaphors, but create a picture for the listener or reader. Imagine speech without metaphors as a pencil sketch, but enriched expressive means- as a three-dimensional image, and you will understand the meaning of the metaphor.

What kind of metaphors are there?

In modern linguistics, two types of metaphors are distinguished: diaphora and epiphora.

Aperture (harsh metaphor) is a metaphor that combines very contrasting concepts. Figurativeness is clearly visible in such metaphors, they are more figurative. The word itself in ancient Greek means "dispute".

Metaphor "Flower of the Moon"

Examples of diaphora: “flower of the moon”, “honey flowing lips”, “pouring balm on the soul”. It can be seen that the concepts for comparison are taken from different spheres, therefore, such statements cannot be taken literally, but in the context of the work, their meaning will become clear, adding expressiveness and beauty to the text.

Epiphora (erased metaphor) is a familiar expression, often clichéd, which we no longer always perceive as metaphorical. For example: “forest of hands”, “like clockwork”, “grow in place”.

Metaphor "Forest of hands"

The metaphor-formula is close to the epiphora - an even more stereotyped construction, which is hardly possible to make non-figurative. Examples: “door handle”, “toe of a boot”, “spruce paw”. Metaphors also differ in composition into expanded and simple:

Simple metaphors consist of one word, used in a figurative sense, or phraseological unit: “to make ends meet”, “your eyes are the ocean”.

Metaphor "Your eyes are the ocean"

Expanded metaphors- these are whole phrases or even paragraphs in which one metaphor entails a whole chain of others, related to each other in meaning. These examples can be found in any work of the classics. For example, the lines of a poem known to everyone from childhood: "Dissuaded the golden grove with a birch, cheerful language ..."

Other tropes that are metaphorical

Metaphorical tropes are those that use the transfer of meaning from one word to another.

Hyperbole (exaggeration):“I repeat for the hundredth time”, “millions of people cannot be wrong”. These are precisely the cases where we use deliberate exaggeration to amplify the message. We didn’t count whether we’re really saying something for the hundredth or just the tenth time, but using a large number makes our message seem more weighty.

Metaphor "This house is like a castle"

Simple comparison:"This house is like a castle." We see in front of us just a house that just looks like a castle.

Impersonation:"The moon modestly ran away behind a cloud." We endow a deliberately inanimate object (moon) with human qualities (modesty) and attribute human behavior (escaped). A huge number of children's fairy tales with all their Mikhail Ivanovich, Chanterelle sisters and Runaway Bunnies are based on this technique.

Metaphor "The moon modestly ran behind a cloud"

Synecdoche:"The whole minibus fell down laughing." This technique is akin to hyperbole. He ascribes the properties of the whole to the part. He is loved by the authors of numerous online stories - the example given here, I think you have seen more than once. The opposite method is also called synecdoche - the transfer of a name from a particular to a general. It can often be recognized by the use of the singular instead of the plural, for example, "a Soviet soldier returns victoriously from war" or "the average person spends 8 hours a day sleeping." This technique is loved by journalists and publicists.

Metaphor "Soviet soldier victoriously returns from war"

Sometimes allegory is also referred to as metaphorical tropes. Many scientists disagree with this, referring it to a separate category... Nevertheless, we can mention it here, because allegory is also a representation of one concept through another. But allegory is more comprehensive, for example, almost all mythology is built on it. Allegory is the presentation of a concept or idea through a specific artistic image. All ancient gods are essentially allegories. Thunder and lightning are Perun, Zeus, Jupiter; war - Ares, love - Aphrodite, the sun - Yarilo and so on. Many works are allegories. For example, many scholars believe that the Bible and the Koran are pure allegories that should not be taken literally.

Metaphor is a very multifaceted and rich path, which contains inexhaustible creativity. By the number of units-carriers of the metaphorical image, V.P. Moskvin distinguishes between simple and detailed metaphors. In a simple metaphor, the plane of expression is represented by one unit, while in an expanded one, the carrier of the image is a group of associatively related units [Moskvin: 136]. In this article, we will consider the use of simple and detailed metaphors in Russian-language and English-language literary texts based on the works of Yu.K. Olesha "Envy" and P. Ackroyd "The Process of Elizabeth Cree".

Olesha in the story "Envy" actively resorts to the use of simple metaphors:

“He turns the switch, the oval lights up from the inside and becomes a beautiful opal-colored egg.

With my mind's eye I see this egg hanging in the darkness of the corridor. "

A simple metaphor is based on the similarity of form and appearance lamps and eggs. According to its part-of-speech affiliation, it can be characterized as substantive or nominal [Petrova: 20].

“He took the bottle; the glass cork chirped. "

The sound of the opening of the bottle is reminiscent of the chirping of birds - a simple verbal (verbal) metaphor based on the similarities of synesthesia (sound).

Another metaphor based on the similarity of synesthesia (color): “The pinkest, the quietest morning... Spring is in full swing. " In the morning ("The beginning of the day, the first hours of the day") [Ushakov] is attributed a characteristic characteristic of Russian linguoculture - color. Pink color is traditionally associated with tenderness, romance, while morning, as the beginning, the birth of the day, fully corresponds to this description. It is also very symbolic that the indicated time of the year (the height of spring) is also in the reader's mind the time of awakening after winter, the beginning of life. This simple metaphor is adjective in terms of part of speech.

In The Elizabeth Cree Trial, the vast majority of metaphors are simple in structure:

So he had eagerly immersed himself in accounts of computing machines, differential numbers and modern calculus theory. And he zealously plunged into the problems of calculating machines and modern mathematical analysis.

The verb to immerse is metaphorically used in a metaphorical sense, "to be completely carried away by something / to captivate someone." This verbal metaphor is of a conventional nature and has a neutral emotional coloring.

Another example of an English-language simple metaphor:

It was a public saloon off Wick Street, and looked to be a den of the vilest sort filled with the refuse of London.

The Shoulder was the worst kind of tavern just off Wick Street, filled with all manner of London's human dregs.

With the help of a simple metaphor, expressed by the phrase the refuse of London, the author gives a colorful image of the visitors to the described establishment. The lexeme refuse has the meaning of "unnecessary, useless residue of something, garbage", thus, identifying people with garbage, the author endows the metaphor with a pronounced negative emotiveness.

Let's move on to considering expanded metaphors.

One of the main characters in the novel "Envy" talks about fame and how to achieve it, and his reflections take on figurativeness as the noun "fame" is transformed into the phrase "road of fame" - Please do just something great and you will be picked up arm in arm, they will lead to the road of glory ... Further, the metaphor unfolds due to the introduction of new components: In our country, the roads of glory are barred ... Barriers on the roads of glory Olesha metaphorically refers to all sorts of obstacles, obstacles on the way to the desired success. A gifted person must either grow dim, or decide to raise the barrier with a big scandal - the metaphorical phrase to raise the barrier means to resolve all the difficulties that prevent a person from becoming famous, which is hardly possible, since this is associated with a “big scandal,” otherwise the person fades, i.e. loses his giftedness. This detailed metaphor consists of a number of interrelated and mutually complementary simple metaphors, expressed in separate words or phrases (roads of glory, barriers, fade, etc.). It unfolds in the space of superphrasal unity, and in the future Olesha resorts to it more than once, using the metaphorical meaning of the lexeme "glory" in various phrases.

It's raining. The rain walks along Tsvetnoy Boulevard, wanders around the circus, turns to the boulevards to the right and, having reached the top of Petrovsky, suddenly goes blind and loses confidence.

The core here is an erased metaphor, which the author revives due to the context - the phrase it is raining, which has passed into the category of phraseological units, is complicated by the metaphors-companions: it walks, runs, turns, goes blind, and also loses confidence in the idiom. The verb roam is stylistically marked as jargon, vernacular, a unit of colloquial vocabulary, which determines the high imagery and emotiveness of the metaphor. The properties of the animate are attributed to an inanimate object, thus, we have an expanded metaphor-personification.

In P. Ackroyd's novel "The Process of Elizabeth Cree", a compositional metaphor is clearly traced, which is realized at the level of composition of the entire text of the novel. The author draws parallels between the underworld and the world of art, identifying the phenomena of one world with the phenomena of another.

"It was the hour to show my hand, as yet, I was a mere tyro, a beginner, an understudy who could not appear on the great stage without rehearsal"

The right time to show yourself; but I was still a student, apprentice, beginner and could not go on the big stage without a rehearsal.

Crime is like a theatrical performance - the original metaphor to appear on the great stage means to commit the murder of a famous dignitary. This is followed by the components of the original metaphor: rehearsal (rehearsal) is the deprivation of a petty and insignificant person for society, and a student, apprentice and beginner (a mere tyro, a beginner, an understudy) is a metaphorical name for a person who has not yet committed a murder and is preparing to do it ... One of the components of the expanded metaphor is represented by the phraseological unit: to show my hand / show yourself.

The destroyer of the Marr family was a ’solitary artist, who rested in the center of London, self-supported by his own conscious grandeur’, an artist who used London as the ‘studio’ to display his works.

The destroyer of the Marr family was “a lone artist who made a nest in the heart of London and draws strength from his own perceived greatness” - an artist who made London both a workshop and a gallery to showcase his masterpieces.

The core of the metaphor - the artist / artist is used twice, the satellites of the core: the 'studio' to display his works / workshop and gallery for demonstrating masterpieces - a chain of interconnected simple metaphors that reinforce the motivation of the image. The metaphor has a pronounced negative value.

In the translation of L. Motylev, this metaphor is supplemented with several more simple metaphors (made a nest, the heart of London, drawing strength), however, we will not consider them in the context of our article, since they have become paths at the discretion of the translator, not being such in the original.

Thus, having analyzed the structural component of the metaphorical drawing of the two works, it can be concluded that in the story of Yu.K. Olesha "Envy" in quantitative terms, expanded metaphors prevail over simple ones with a slight advantage; in P. Ackroyd's novel "The Elizabeth Cree Trial", as already mentioned above, the dominance of a simple metaphor over an expanded one is revealed. The image of an expanded metaphor is a complex semantic formation - an expanded phrase, sentence, or a larger unit of speech. Differences in structure determine differences in semantics and stylistics - detailed metaphors for the most part are individual-author's, therefore, they have greater pictorial and expressive power than simple metaphors, which are often conventional. In the text of P. Akroyd's novel, a compositional (plot) metaphor can be traced, which can be conventionally called a theatrical or a metaphor for play.

Bibliography

1. Moskvin V.P. Russian metaphor: Essay on semiotic theory // LENAND, 2006.

2. Petrova E.G. The linguistic nature of the stylistic device "expanded metaphor" and its role in creating the integrity of the literary text (based on the material of Anglo-American fictional prose): Dis. ... Cand. philol. sciences. - M .: Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after M. Toreza. - M., 1982.

3. Dictionary Russian: In 4 volumes / Ed. D.N. Ushakov.

4. Ackroyd P. Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem / Simclair-Stevenson.

5. Ackroyd P. The process of Elizabeth Cree / Translated by L. Motylev / [ Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=126905

6. Olesha Yu.K. Envy / [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http: www.litra.ru/fullwork/get/woid/00518401232115490729/

7. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary / [Electronic resource]. - Access mode.

expanded metaphor- A metaphor based on various associations of similarities. Here the wind embraces a flock of waves with a strong embrace and throws them from a swing in wild anger onto the cliffs, breaking dust and splashes of emerald masses (Gorky). Lexical metaphor (dead, ... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms

Metaphor- (from other Greek μεταφορά "transfer", "figurative meaning") trope, a word or expression used in a figurative meaning, which is based on an unnamed comparison of an object with any other on the basis of their common feature. ... ... Wikipedia

METAPHOR- METAPHOR, s, wives. 1. The type of path is a hidden figurative comparison, the assimilation of one object, a phenomenon to another (for example, the chalice of being), as well as, in general, a figurative comparison in different types arts (special). Symbolic, romantic m. M. in cinema, in painting. ... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Allegory- (Greek allegory) expression of an abstract object (concept, judgment) by means of a concrete (image). So. arr. the difference between A. and related forms of figurative expression (tropes (see)) is the presence in it of specific symbolism, subject to ... ... Literary encyclopedia

Akhmadulina- Bella (Isabella) Akhatovna (b. 1937, Moscow), Russian poet. BA Akhmadulina Born into a family of employees, graduated from the Literary Institute (1960). She began to publish in 1955 in periodicals. In 1962 the first book "String" was published, in 1968 ... ... Literary encyclopedia

Figures of speech- In linguistics there is no exhaustively accurate and generally accepted definition of F. r. The term itself is used in various senses (most often approximate). However, there is a tendency to consolidate this term and to reveal its linguistic meaning. ... ... Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary

No metaphors fiction(both classical and modern) would be difficult to imagine. It is the metaphors that can be attributed to the central tropes used in the composition. Such rhetorical constructions make it possible to make any narrative realistic, to convey a certain emotional range to the reader.

Multiple psychological research confirmed that it is the metaphorical images that are most strongly imprinted in. It is with the help of this that the reader can recreate in his thoughts a picture of what he has read.

The real "queen of the ball" is a detailed metaphor. It makes it possible to simultaneously convey a whole set of images, and through them - a certain thought or idea. The expanded metaphor is consistently carried out throughout a large piece of text. Often, writers use this technique to word games, for example, using the metaphorical meaning of a word or expression adjacent to a straight line to obtain a comic effect.

Unlike other tropes that make it possible to make literary speech more expressive, metaphor can exist as a separate phenomenon when it becomes an aesthetic end in itself for the author. At this moment, the essence of the statement loses its crucial, the unexpected meaning, the new meaning that it acquires through the use of a metaphorical image comes to the fore.

The very meaning of the word "metaphor" is rooted in the times Ancient Greece... This word is translated as "figurative meaning", which fully explains the very essence of the path. By the way, ancient literature was richer in epithets than metaphors. Nevertheless, in the work of Pindar, Aeschylus, Homer and many other prominent figures in the world of literature of that time, these techniques are used very actively. It is noteworthy that some works (in particular, we are talking about the mythology of the ancient Greeks) can be safely called the personification of what a detailed metaphor might look like. Indeed, absolutely every image, regardless of whether it was about any of the deities or their actions, carried a certain subtext, an analogy with the life of ordinary mortals.

No other technique can convey to the reader a picture that is presented to the eyes or imagination of the author so vividly as an expanded metaphor. Examples of its use can be found as in the classic antique literature and later. Our compatriots did not lose sight of this technique. For example, the expanded metaphor has become one of the main distinguishing features of Sergei Yesenin's work (“The day will go out, flashing a fifth of gold ...”, “At the wattle fence, overgrown nettles were dressed in bright mother-of-pearl ...”, etc.). The well-known Oscar Wilde was a true master of metaphors.

True masters of the word often combine a detailed and individually author's metaphor in their creations. This is what can give any work, poetic or prosaic, a unique flavor and atmosphere.