23. Tropes based on the intensification of a certain feature of a thing or phenomenon. Peculiar use of set expressions.

• Periphrasis is a round-about way of speaking used to name some object or phenomenon. Longer-phrase is used instead of a shorter one

Periphrases are divided into:

1. Logical - based on inherent properties of a thing.

e. g. Instrument of destruction (weapon), the subject of administration (President, king, prime minister).

2. Figurative - based on imagery: metaphor, metonymy

e. g. To tie a knot - to get married; in disgrace of fortune - bad luck. Love = the most pardonable of human weaknesses. Money= root of all evil

• Euphemism is a periphrasis used to avoid some unpleasant things, or taboo things.

• e. g. To pass away - to die. To answer the call of nature

• Religious euphemisms: devil = the dickens, the deuce, old Nick; God = Lord, Almighty, Heaven, goodness.

• Moral euphemisms: to die = to be gone, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to decease, to go west, to join the majority, dead = departed, late; a whore = a woman of a certain type

• Medical euphemisms: lunatic asylum = mental hospital, idiots = mentally challenged, insane = person of unsound mind.

• Political euphemisms: starvation - undernourishment; revolution – unrest, poor people = less fortunate elements; absence of wages and salaries = delay in payment

• Hyperbole is deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of which is to intensify one of the features of the object in question to such a degree as to show its utter absurdity

e. g. A thousand pardons, scared to death, immensely obliged. Mary was scared to death. Pete knows everybody in the town. Every single rascal tries to cheat the public here.

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech. The most typical cases of expression are: by pronouns (all, every, everybody, everything); by numerical nouns (a million, a thousand); by adverbs of time (ever, never).

Meiosis is a deliberate diminution of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon. This figure of quantity is opposite in meaning to hyperbole. Meiosis underlines insignificance of such qualities of objects and phenomena as their size, volume, distance, time, shape, etc. The domain of meiosis is colloquial speech.

There was not a drop of water left in the bucket.It was a cat-size pony.August can do the job in a second.Their house is one minute from here. The guy is so disgusting! He is a real microbe.She was a pocket-size woman

Litotes is a specific variant of meiosis. It is a combination of the negative particle "not" and a word with negative meaning or a negative prefix. He is not without sense of humour. The mission was not impossible

Peculiar use of set expressions

The Cliché. A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. It has lost its precise meaning by constant reiteration: in other words it has become stereotyped. Cliche is a kind of stable word combination which has become familiar and which has been accepted as a unit of a language e. g. rosy dreams of youth, growing awareness. Proverbs are short, well-known, supposedly wise sayings, usually in simple language. e.g. Never say never. You can't get blood of a stone. Proverbs are expressions of culture that are passed from generation to generation. They are words of wisdom of culture- lessons that people of that culture want their children to learn and to live by They are served as some symbols, abstract ideas. Proverbs are usually dedicated and involve imagery. e.g. Out of sight, out of mind. Epigram is a short clever amusing saying or poem. e.g. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Quotation is a phrase or sentence taken from a work of literature or other piece of writing and repeated in order to prove a point or support an idea. They are marked graphically: by inverted commas: dashes, italics. Allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical. literary, mythological fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing oк person alluded to on the part of the reader or listener.