Means of expressiveness in literature. Metaphor, hyperbole, comparison

The means of expressiveness in literature is called the "trail" in another way. The path is a rhetorical figure, an expression or a word that is used in a figurative sense in order to strengthen the artistic expressiveness, imagery of the language. Different types of these figures in literary works are used widely, they are also used in everyday speech and oratorical skill. The main types of tropes include such as hyperbole, epithet, metonymy, comparison, metaphor, synecdoche, irony, litota, periphrasis, personification, allegory. Today we will talk about the following three types: comparison, hyperbole and metaphor. Each of the above means of expressiveness in the literature will be discussed in detail.

Metaphor: Definition

The word "metaphor" in translation means "portable meaning", "transfer". This expression or word, which is used in an indirect sense, is based on the comparison of the object (unnamed) with another on the similarity of some feature. That is, a metaphor is a turn of speech, which consists in the use of expressions and words in a figurative sense on the basis of comparison, similarity, analogy.

In this trail, the following four elements can be distinguished: context or category; An object within this category; The process by which this object performs a specific function; Application of the process to specific situations or intersections with them.

The metaphor in lexicology is a semantic connection that exists between the meanings of a certain polysemantic word, which is based on the presence of similarity (functional, external, structural). Often this path becomes an aesthetic goal in itself, thus displacing the original, original meaning of this or that concept.

Types of metaphors

It is customary to distinguish the following two kinds in the modern theory describing the metaphor: diaphora (that is, contrast, sharp metaphor), and also epiphore (erased, habitual).

An unfolded metaphor is a sequence that is performed successively throughout either the entire message as a whole or a large fragment of it. An example can be suggested as follows: "The book famine does not go away: the products from the book market are becoming increasingly stale - they have to be thrown away immediately, without trying."

There is also a so-called realized metaphor, which assumes the operation of an expression without regard to 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."

Metaphors in artistic speech

In the formation of various artistic metaphors, as we have already mentioned, an important role is played by characterizing this path, the associative links existing between different objects. Metaphors as a means of expressiveness in literature intensify our perception, violate the "general intelligibility" and the automatism of narration.

In artistic speech and language, the following two models are distinguished according to which this path is formed. At the heart of the first of them lies the personification or animation. The second relies on the reification. Metaphors (words and expressions) created by the first model are called personifying. Examples are: "the lake froze," "the snow lies," "the year passed," "the stream runs", "the feelings fade away," "time stops," "boredom seizes." There are also reified metaphors ("deep sorrow," "iron Will, "" root of evil, "" tongues of flame, "" finger of fate ").

Language and individual varieties of this trail as a means of expressiveness in literature are always present in artistic speech. They impart a figurative text. When studying various works, especially poetic ones, one should analyze carefully what is an artistic metaphor. Their various types are widely used if the authors tend to express a subjective, personal attitude to life, to transform the creatively surrounding world. For example, in romantic works it is metaphorical expression of the attitude of writers to man and the world. In the philosophical and psychological lyrics, including the realistic, this path is indispensable as a means of individualizing various experiences, as well as expressing the philosophical ideas of certain poets.

Examples of metaphors created by classical poets

A.S. Pushkin, for example, met the following metaphors: "the moon wakes", "sad glades," "noisy dreams," adolescence "sly advises."

In M. Yu. Lermontov: "hears a desert" to God, says a star with a star, "dictates conscience", "an angry mind" drives a pen.

F.I. Tyutchev: winter "angry," spring "knocking" in the window, "sleepy" twilight.

Metaphors and symbol images

In turn, metaphors can become the basis for various images-symbols. In the work of Lermontov, for example, they make up such images-symbols as "palm" and "pine" ("In the wild wild ..."), "sail" (poem of the same name). Their meaning is in the metaphorical likening of a pine, a sail to a lonely man who is looking for his own way 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 path, the basis of which is the assimilation of some phenomenon or thing to another on the basis of a certain common feature. The goal pursued by this means of expressiveness is to reveal in the given object important features new to the subject of the utterance.

Select in comparison: the compared object (which is called the object of comparison), the object (the means of comparison) with which this comparison takes place, as well as a common feature (comparative, in another way - "basis of comparison"). One of the distinguishing features of this trail is the mention of both of the things being compared, a common feature is not necessarily indicated at the same time. It is necessary to distinguish the comparison from the metaphor.

This path is typical for oral folk art.

Types of comparisons

Different types of comparisons are available. This is built in the form of a comparative turnover, which is formed with the help of unions "accurately", "as if", "like", "how." Example: "He is stupid, like a sheep, but cunning, like hell." There are also union-free comparisons, which are sentences that have a compound nominal predicate. A well-known example: "My house is my fortress". Educated with the help of a noun, used in the instrumental case, is, for example, "he walks with a gogol." There are also those who deny: "Attempt is not torture."

Comparison in the literature

Comparison as a reception is widely used in artistic speech. With the help of it, parallels, correspondences, similarities between people, their life and natural phenomena are revealed. The comparison, thus, seems to consolidate the various associations that arise in the writer.

Often, this path 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 causes the author a whole series of associations with "geniuses" (Byron and Napoleon) and man in general. They are fixed in various comparisons. The sound of the sea, with which the poet says goodbye, is compared with the "mournful" murmur of a friend, "call" him in the farewell hour. The poet in Byron's personality sees the same qualities that are present in the "free element": depth, power, indomitable, gloomy. It seems that both Byron and the sea are two beings possessing the same nature: freedom-loving, proud, irresistible, spontaneous, volitional.

Comparison in folk poetry

Folk poetry uses widely-held comparisons, which are comparisons based on tradition, applied in certain situations. They are not individual, but taken from the stock of a folk singer or narrator. It is a figurative model that is easily reproduced in the necessary situation. Of course, poets who rely on folklore use such stable comparisons in their work. M.Yu. Lermontov, for example, in his work "The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov," writes that the king looked from the heights of heaven "like a hawk" to the blue-winged "young pigeon."

Hyperbole: Definition

The word "hyperbola" in Russian is the term meaning "exaggeration", "excess", "excessiveness", "transition" in translation. This is a stylistic figure, representing a deliberate and obvious exaggeration in order to strengthen expressiveness and emphasize this or that thought. For example: "We will have enough food for six months," "I've said this a thousand times."

Hyperbola is often combined with other various stylistic devices, to which it attaches an appropriate color. This metaphor ("the mountains rose waves") and hyperbolic comparisons. The depicted situation or character can also be hyperbolic. This trail is also characteristic of the oratorical, rhetorical style, used here as a pathetic reception, as well as romantic, where the pathos touches with irony.

Examples in which the hyperbole is used in Russian are winged expressions and phraseological units ("lightning fast", "fast like lightning", "sea of tears", etc.). Enumeration can be continued for a long time.

Hyperbole in the literature

Hyperball in verse and prose is one of the most ancient artistic techniques of expressiveness. The artistic functions of this path are numerous and varied. Literary hyperbole is needed mainly to point out some exceptional qualities or properties of people, events, natural phenomena, things. For example, the exceptional character of Mtsyri, the romantic hero, is emphasized with the help of this trail: a weak young man finds himself in a duel with a leopard equal opponent, as strong as this wild beast.

Properties of hyperbolas

Hyperbole, personification, epithet and other paths have the property of attracting the attention of readers. The features of hyperbole is that they force us to look at the image in a new way, that is, to feel its significance and a special role. Overcoming the borders established by the plausibility, giving people, animals, objects, natural phenomena "miraculous", possessing supernatural properties, this path used by various authors emphasizes the conventionality of the artistic world created by writers. Clarify the hyperbole and the attitude of the creator of the work to the depicted - idealization, "elevation" or, conversely, mockery, denial.

This path plays a special role in satirical works. 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 "The Heart of a Dog" by Bulgakov. In Mayakovsky's comedies "Bathhouse" and "Bug", an artistic hyperbole reveals the comic character of heroes and events, emphasizing their absurdities and vices, acting as a means of caricature or caricature.