A course of modern english lexicology

Lecture #3

LEXICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES

1. SIMILE
2. METAPHOR
3. PERSONIFICATION
4. ALLUSION
5. METONYMY
6. SYNECHDOCHE
7. ANTONOMASIA
8. PERIPHRASIS
9. EUPHEMISM
10. EPITHET
11. OVER-STATEMENT
(HYPERBOLE)
12. UNDER-STATEMENT
(MEIOSIS)
13. LITOTES
14. OXYMORON
15. ZEUGMA
16. PUN
17. IRONY
18. PARADOX

Lexical devices are based on the principle of analogy. A similar feature in otherwise different objects is discovered, and this similarity suggests an image of the thing that is described.

1. SIMILE

Simile (imaginative comparison) is a device based on partial identity of two objects. In fact, the objects are not identical, they are only similar, resembling each other due to some identical features.
In simile two objects compared are always merged by a formal connective, which can be expressed by:
• conjunctions (as if, as though, such as);
• adverbs (like, unlike);
• verbs (resemble, remind of, seem);
• nouns (to have/bare a resemblance to, to have a look of);
• prefixes and suffixes (-like, -wise).

Simile He resembled a professor. With ape-like fury. (From Robert Louis Stevenson) She seemed nothing more than a doll. Darkness, when once it fell, fell like a storm.

A simile should not be mixed up with an ordinary comparison. Simile is based on comparison of things belonging to entirely different classes. Comparison deals with two objects of the same class.
A great many similes lost their expressiveness because of long use. They have become trite. They are widely used in everyday speech.