Of Different Types of Lexical Meaning

Practice:

Exercise 4.1. Read the following sentences and choose cases of metaphor, sustained metaphor, metonymy, irony, zeugma, pun, the epithet, oxymoron, and antonomasia from the units in bold type. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

Example:

Things can get a little dull around here if you mix with the importants. /Jackie Collins Sinners /

In this fragment the authoress resorts to metonymy “ the importants,” meaning “people with influential position,” and judging by the context such people are usually boring.

1. I close my eyes, willing myself to be nice. I don’t need to be swathed in the blanket of her concern. /Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees Come Together /

2. A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone /

3. The blue suits stretch the tape and call the division. I go over with Merino, arriving at eight fifty-three. /Michael Crichton Rising Sun /

4. “Can I tempt you, Marge?”

Aunt Marge had already had rather a lot of wine. Her huge face was red.

“Just a small one, then,” she chuckled. “ A bit more than that… and a bit more… that’s the boy.” /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban /

5. They moved out into the cold London night; it was spitting with rain. /Jackie Collins Sinners /

6. The temptation was overpowering. A full frontal assault. It was clever, but this cleverness was stupid. /Campbell Armstrong Blackout /

7. “What’s funny?” Mom asked.

“Just me thinks,” Trisha replied, and Quilla frowned – ‘me thinks’ was a Larry Mcfarland-ism. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon /

8. After all, he was still young, and he never had any trouble getting girls to bed with him. As a matter of fact it was a job to get them out of it later. /Jackie Collins Sinners /

9. “The wand chooses the wizard, remember…I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great.” /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone /

10. He took a seat next to a plump matron. He didn’t like her. At the next stop the woman got out, and Herbert shifted his knees so that she had to squeeze past him. He digged his knees into her passing body. Old cow. And he laughed silently. /Jackie Collins Sinners /

11. Judge: “Have you anything to offer the court before sentence is passed on you?”

Prisoner: “No, your honor, my lawyer took my last dollar.” /from Laughs and Smiles /

12. Harry and Ron slouched into the Great Hall in states of deepest gloom, Hermione behind them, wearing a well-you-did-break-school-rules sort of expression. /J. Rowling Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets /

13. Lillian Phelan’s dreams of a cozy Christmas dinner were shattered when Troy Junior arrived late and drunk and in the midst of a nasty fight with Biff. /John Grisham The Testament /

14. Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone /

15. A light snow had begun to fall, casting a chiffon veil over the world. /Sidney Sheldon Rage of Angels /

16. “Were you a personal trainer?”

“More like impersonal.” /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic /

17. That thought probably deserved a giggle, but there were apparently no giggles in her; the old giggle-well, which her mother believed inexhaustible, seemed to have temporarily dried. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon /

18. “This elevator’s going up, sir.”

“Well. I want to go down. ” He was speaking with the careful, over-articulated speech of the drunk.

“Yes, sir. I know that, sir,” his aide replied cheerfully. “Let’s take the next elevator, Senator.”

The doors closed. The elevator continued up.

“Your tax dollars at work,” Graham said. “Recognized him? Senator Stephen Rowe.” /Michael Crichton Rising Sun /

19. As the wind stripped wet leaves off trees and as cataracts gushed along gutters toward half-clogged street drains, Dusty drove down through the Newport hills./Dean Koontz False Memory /

20. Pete sat at the table, looking cataclysmically bored, refusing to give the brochure more than a glance. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon /

Поиск по сайту: