🗊Презентация Climax (gradation)

LECTURE 10 Climax (gradation). Anti-climax. Antithesis. Asyndeton. Polysyndeton.

CLIMAX (GRADATION) [‘klaımæks] [grə'deıςn] нарастание From Greek climax – ‘ladder’, Latin gradatio – ‘ascent, climbing up’. An arrangement of sentences (or of homogeneous parts of a sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance (Galperin). E.g. I am sorry, I am so very sorry, I am so extremely sorry (Chesterton). Gradation involves several elements, each successive element being stronger than the previous one. The notions that form gradation are supposed to belong to one and the same semantic plane (they can be termed ‘ideographic synonyms’): E.g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned?(O.Henry)

TYPES OF CLIMAX (Galperin) LOGICAL QUANTITATIVE EMOTIONAL

LOGICAL CLIMAX Logical climax is based on the relative importance of the component parts and concepts introduced in them: E.g. Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide, Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall Rise like the rocks that part Hispania’s land from Gaul (Byron).

EMOTIONAL CLIMAX Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning: E.g. He was pleased when the child began to adventure across floors…; he was gratified, when she managed the trick of balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted when she first said ‘ta-ta’; and he was rejoiced when she recognized him and smiled at him (A. Paton).

QUANTITATIVE CLIMAX Quantitative climax presupposes an increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts: E.g. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens (Maugham).

LEXICO-SYNTACTICAL PECULIARITIES OF CLIMAX Climax is usually accompanied by syntactical parallelism and lexical or lexico-syntactical repetitions: E.g. DOOLITTLE. I’ll tell you, Governor, if you’ll only let me get a word in. I’m willing to tell you. I’m wanting to tell you. I’m waiting to tell you (Shaw).

FUNCTIONS OF CLIMAX It shows the relative importance of concepts as seen by the author; It impresses upon the reader the significance of the phenomena described: E.g. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!“ (Dickens)

ANTI-CLIMAX [æntı’klaımæks] Anti-climax consists in adding one weaker element to one or several strong elements. E.g. Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover anything – except the obvious. The device is based on defeated expectancy effect: the reader predicts a stronger element to follow, but instead some trifling, insignificant idea follows the significant ones. Anti-climax is often accompanied by detachment.

ANTI-CLIMAX: EFFECT The effect produced by anti-climax is usually humorous or ironical. E.g. The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money (Twain). E.g. In moments of crisis I size up the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles, take a firm grip on myself and, without a tremor, always do the wrong thing (B. Shaw).

ANTITHESIS [æn‘tıθəsıs] – антитеза (противопоставление) E.g. Youth is lovely, age is lonely, Youth is fiery, age is frosty (Longfellow) Antithesis is a SD based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs (Galperin). Any identification of contrast meant to be noticed by the reader and often represented by antonymic notions (Skrebnev). E.g. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. (Milton)

VARIETIES OF ANTITHESIS The two opposed notions refer to the same phenomenon demonstrating its contradictory nature: E.g. … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair… (Dickens). The opposed notions concern two different phenomena which are considered incompatible by the author: E.g. His fees were high; his lessons were light (O. Henry)

STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES OF ANTITHESIS Antithesis is usually actualized on the basis of syntactical parallelism, which makes antagonistic features easily perceived. E.g. Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing. (Goethe) Antithesis may be introduced by means of BUT: E.g. The cold in clime are cold in blood Their love can scarce deserve the name; But mine was like a lava flood. That boils in Etna’s breast of flame (Byron).

FUNCTIONS OF ANTITHESIS Comparative (it reveals contrasting features) Rhythm-forming E.g. Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather, Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare….

ASYNDETON [æ‘sındətən] - бессоюзие Connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal signs (conjunctions), which are intentionally omitted. E.g. I came, I saw, I conquered.

Asyndeton often accompanies syntactical parallelism or enumeration helping to create a specific rhythm and make the utterance energetic and dynamic. E.g. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air… (Churchill). E.g. Deep ditches, double drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke (Dickens).

POLYSYNDETON [polı’sındətən] - многосоюзие The SD of joining sentences or phrases or syntagms or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component (Galperin). E.g. We lived and laughed and loved and left (Joyce Finnegan’s Wake). E.g. Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, With the odours of the forest, With the dew, and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers; With their frequent repetitions… (Longfellow)

FUNCTIONS OF POLYSYNDETON Rhythmical function (it makes prose sound like verse): E.g. There were frowzy fields, and cow-houses, and dunghills, and dustheaps, and ditches, and gardens, and summerhouses, and carpet-beating grounds, at the very door of the Railway (Dickens). Disintegrating function (it causes each member of a string to stand out and seem isolated): E.g. …still the deep ditch, and the single drawbridge, and the massive stone walls, and the eight great towers, and still Defarge of the wine-shop at his gun… (Dickens)

FUNCTIONS OF POLYSYNDETON Expressing sequence E.g. Then Mr Boffin… sat staring at a little bookcase of Law Practice and Law Reports, and at a window, and at an empty blue bag, and a stick of sealing-wax, and at a pen, and a box of wafers, and an apple, and a writing-pad – all very dusty… until Mr Lightwood appeared (Dickens).

FRAGMENTS FOR ANALYSIS 1. Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly – mostly – let them have their whiteness (Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). 2. Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind (John F. Kennedy).