Microsoft Word Seminars on stylistics

 
 
 
Task 1. Discuss the following cases of simile: 
 
1.
She panted a little as she spoke, like a short-winded lap dog. (OH)
2.
In all those years his pale, rather handsome face had never grown any 
older, it was like the pale grey bowler which he always wore, winter and summer- 
unageing, calm, serenely without expression (O.H)
3.
Above her black dress here face was pale with an opaque whiteness, her 
eyes were pole as water in a glass, and her strawy hair was almost colourless. 
(O.H)
4.
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own, when, fan a moment, like a 
drop of rain. He sinks into the depth with bubbling groan without a grave, 
unhnelled, unciffined and unknown (B) 
5.
The laugh, pitched in a high key and coming from a muscular frame, 
seemed like the whinny of an elephant.(J.J) 
6.
The eyes were melancholy as those of a monkey. 
7.
And under the deepened dusk he felt the thoughts and desires of the race 
to which he belonged flitting like bats across the country lines, under trees by the 
edge of streams 
8.
....this joy is deep as the sea 
9.
He has a tongue like a sword and a pen like a dagger, said the young 
Roman. (H. Caine) 
10.
He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent (J. Reed) 
Task 2. State the linguistic nature of the simile and define its 
formal elements: 
Stylistic functions of Simile
 
imaginative characterization of a 
phenomenon
to produce a humorous effect by its 
unexpectedness

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47
 
1.
Children! Breakfast is just as good as any other meal and I won’t have 
you gobbling like wolves. (Th. Wilder) 
2.
His mind went round like a squirrel in a cage, going over the past. (A. 
Christie) 
3.
“I’m as sharp”, said Quilp to him at parting, “as a ferret”. (Dickens) 
4.
She was a young woman and she entered like a windrush. (T. Capote) 
5.
“Funny how ideas come”, he said afterwards, “like a flash of lightning.” 
(S. Maugham) 
6.
I left her laughing. The sound was like a hen having hiccups. 
(R. Chandler) 
7.
He felt like an old book: spine defective, covers dull, slight foxing, rather 
shaken copy. (K. Amiss)