Практикум з стилістики англійської мови: Підручник. Вінниця. «Нова книга», 2000 160 с. Contents

ASSIGNMENTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

1. Comment on linguistic properties of sentences which are foregrounded in lexico-syntactical stylistic devices.
2. What do you know about antithesis? Why is it viewed separately from parallel constructions?
3. Have you ever met, in your home-reading, cases of antithesis in which the structure of a word was also used in the creation of the SD?
Another type of semantically complicated parallelism is presented by climax, in which each next word combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more explicit: "Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!" (D.) "I am firm, thou art obstinate, he is pig-headed." (B.Ch.) If to create antithesis we use antonyms (or their contextual equivalents), in climax we deal with strings of synonyms or at least semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group.
The negative form of the structures participating in the formation of climax reverses the order in which climax-components are used, as in the following examples: "No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass that was not owned." (G.) It is the absence of substance or quality that is being emphasized by the negative form of the climax, this is why relative synonyms are arranged not in the ascending but in the descending order as to the expressed quality or quantity. Cf.: "Be careful," said Mr. Jingle. "Not a look." "Not a wink," said Mr. Tupman. "Not a syllable. Not a whisper." (D.)
Proceeding from the nature of the emphasized phenomenon it is possible to speak of logical, emotive or quantitative types of climax. The most widely spread model of climax is a three-step construction, in which intensification of logical importance, of emotion or quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising Step by step. In emotive climax though, we rather often meet a two-step structure, in which the second part repeats the first one and is further strengthened by an intensifier, as in the following instances: "He was so helpless, so very helpless." (W.D.) "She felt better, immensely better." (W.D.) "I have been so unhappy here, so very very unhappy." (D.)
Climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea, is called anticlimax. To stress
the abruptness of the change emphatic punctuation (dash, most often) is used between the ascending and the descending parts of the anticlimax. Quite a few paradoxes are closely connected with anticlimax.