Homonymy in the book of Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"

Contents
I.Introduction
II. Theoretical Part
II.1 Different classifications ofexpressive means
II.1.1 Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system
II.1.2 Stylistic theoryand classification of expresssive means by G. Leech
II.1.3 I. R.Galperin’sclassification of expressive means and stylistic devices
II.1.4 Classificationof expressive means and stylistic devices by Y.M.Skrebnev
II.2 Homonyms
II.2.1Sources of Homonyms
II.2.2Classification of Homonyms
II.2.3Homonyms in the book
II.3Lewis Carroll and his book
IV.Practical part
Conclusion
Bibliography

I. Introduction
 
The title of this work is«Homonymy in the book of Lewis Carroll „Alice in Wonderland“. Ichose this theme because I am going to be a teacher and this book is often usedin the process of teaching English — for example, some extracts of it are usedin the school text-books as texts for reading and it would be useful forteachers to work on this book detaily.
But this book is not only interestingin the case of teaching English, but also for personal intellectualmaturity-the literary work of Lewis Carroll is known all over the world, it hasthe third place in the list of the most popular sources of quotation on theearth — after Bible and Shakespeare! No one can name himself „an educatedperson“ if he has never read this book. This book is not just a simplefunny fairy tale for children but adult people are interested in it, becausethey have grown up and managed to see things that a child is not able tonotice: that Lewis Carroll was an extraordinary thinker. „Alice inWonderland“ surprises an attentive reader with its logic puzzles, new lookon the time and existence, quaint play on words, new linguistic discoveries,»new life” of folk-lore in the form of nonsense. This book is anobject of searching for representatives of science: for mathematicians,physicists, philosophers, and, of course, for philologists.
My diploma consists of two mainparts: theoretical part, where are stated the definition of homonyms, theirsources and classification, some facts about Lewis Carroll and his book andhere I went into the examples of using homonymy with the purpose of creatinghumorous effect by the author of the book. The practical part includes questionson the theory and several exercises on homonymy mostly based on the extractsfrom the text of «Alice in Wonderland».
I would recommend to use this workin the course of lexicology at the lessons on the themes «Homonymy»and «Stylistic devices».

II.Theoretical Part
II.1Different classifications of expressive means
Inspite of the belief that rhetoric is an outmoded discipline it is in rhetoricthat we find most of the terms contemporary stylistics generally employs as itsmetalanguage. Rhetoric is the initial source of information about metaphor,metonymy, epithet, antithesis, chiasmus, anaphora and many more. The classicalrhetoric gave us still widely used terms of tropes and figures of speech.
Thatis why before looking into the new stylistic theories and findings it’s good tolook back and see what’s been there for centuries. The problems of language inantique times became a concern of scholars because of the necessity to commenton literature and poetry. This necessity was caused by the fact that mythologyand lyrical poetry was the study material on which the youth was brought up,taught to read and write and generally educated. Analysis of literary textshelped to transfer into the sphere of oratorical art the first philosophicalnotions and concepts.
Thefirst linguistic theory called sophistry appeared in the fifth century В.СOration played a paramount role in the social and political life of Greece sothe art of rhetoric developed into a school.
Antiquetradition ascribes some of the fundamental rhetorical notions to the Greekphilosopher Gorgius (483-375 В.С).Together with another scholar named Trasimachus they created the first schoolof rhetoric whose principles were later developed by Aristotle (384-322 В.С.)in his books «Rhetoric» and «Poetics». Aristotle differentiated literarylanguage and colloquial language. This first theory of style included 3subdivisions:
•the choice of words;
•word combinations;
•figures.
1.The choice of words included lexical expressive means such as foreign words,archaisms, neologisms, poetic words, nonce words and metaphor.
2.Word combinations involved 3 things:
a)order of words;
b)word-combinations;
c)rhythm and period (in rhetoric, a complete sentence).
3.Figures of speech. This part included only 3 devices used by the antiqueauthors always in the same order.
a)antithesis;
b)assonance of colons;
c)equality of colons.
Acolon in rhetoric means one of the sections of a rhythmical period in Greekchorus consisting of a sequence of 2 to 6 feet.
Latercontributions by other authors were made into the art of speaking and writingso that the most complete and well developed antique system, that came down tous is called the Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system. It divided all expressivemeans into 3 large groups: Tropes, Rhythm (Figures of Speech) and Types ofSpeech.
Acondensed description of this system gives one an idea how much we owe theantique tradition in modern stylistic studies.
II.1.1Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system
Tropes:
1.Metaphor—theapplication of a word (phrase) to an object (concept) it doesn’t literallydenote to suggest comparison with another object or concept.
E.g. A mighty Fortress is our God.
2. Puzzle (Riddle)—a statement thatrequires thinking over a con fusing or difficult problem that needs to besolved.
3. Synecdoche—the mention of a part for thewhole.
E.g. A fleet of 50 sail (ships)
4.Metonymy—substitutionof one word for another on the basis of real connection.
E.g.Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer’s poems; wealth for rich people.
5.Catachresis—misuseof a word due to the false folk etymology or wrong application of a term in asense that does not belong to the word.
E.g.Alibi for excuse; mental for weak-minded; mutual for common; disinterested for uninterested.
Alater term for it is malapropism that became current due to Mrs. Malaprop, acharacter from R. Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775). This sort of misuse is mostlybased on similarity in sound.
E.g. That young violinist is certainly a child progeny (instead of prodigy ) .
6.Epithet—aword or phrase used to describe someone or some thing with a purpose to praiseor blame.
E.g. It was a lovely, summery evening.
7.Periphrasis—puttingthings in a round about way in order to bring out some important feature orexplain more clearly the idea or situation described,
E.g.I got an Arab boy… and paid him twenty rupees a month, about thirty bob, atwhich he was highly delighted. (Shute)
8.Hyperbole—useof exaggerated terms for emphasis.
E.g. A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a lion.
9.Antonomasia—useof a proper name to express a general idea or conversely a common name for aproper one.
E.g.The Iron Lady; a Solomon; Don Juan.
Figuresof Speech that create Rhythm
Theseexpressive means were divided into 4 large groups:
Figuresthat create rhythm by means of addition
1. Doubling (reduplication, repetition) ofwords and sounds.
E.g. Tip-top, helter-skelter, wishy-washy, oh, the dreary, dreary moorland.
2.Epenalepsis (polysyndeton) conjunctions; use ofseveral conjunctions.
E.g.He thought, and thought, and thought; I hadn’t realized until then how smallthe houses were, how small and mean the shops. (Shute)
3.Anaphora: repetition of a word or words at the beginning of twoor more clauses, sentences or verses.
E.g. No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass, not a bird or beast, not even a fishthat was not owned!
4.Ertjambment: running on of one thought into the next line, couplet or stanzawithout breaking the syntactical pattern.
E.g.In Ocean’s wide domains Half buried in the sands Lie skeletons in chains Withshackled feet and hands. (Longfellow)
5.Asyndeton: omission of conjunction.
E.g. He provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect .
Figuresbased on compression
1.Zeugma(syllepsis): a figure by which a verb, adjective or other part of speech,relating to one noun is referred to another.
E.g. He lost his hat and his temper, with weeping eyes and hearts.
2.Chiasmus—areversal in the order of words in one of two parallel phrases.
E.g. He went to the country, to the town went she.
3.Ellipsis—omissionof words needed to complete the construction or the sense.
E.g.Tomorrow at 1.30; The ringleader was hanged and his followers imprisoned.
Figuresbased on assonance or accord
1. Equality of colons—used to have a powerto segment and arrange.
2. Proportions and harmony of colons.
Figuresbased on opposition
1.Antithesis—choice or arrangement of words that emphasises a contrast.
E.g.Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, wise men use them; Give meliberty or give me death.
2.Paradiastola—the lengthening of a syllable regularlyshort (in Greek poetry).
3.Anastrophe—a term of rhetoric, meaning,the upsetting for effect of the normal order of words (inversion incontemporary terms).
E. g. Me he restored, him hehanged.
Typesof speech
Ancientauthors distinguished speech for practical and aesthetic purposes. Rhetoricdealt with the latter which was supposed to answer certain requirements* suchas a definite choice of words, their assonance, deviation from ordinaryvocabulary and employment of special stratums like poetic diction, neologismsand archaisms, onomatopoeia as well as appellation to tropes. One of the mostimportant devices to create a necessary high-flown or dramatic effect was anelaborate rhythmical arrangement of eloquent speech that involved theobligatory use of the so-called figures or schemes. The quality of rhetoric asan art of speech was measured in terms of skilful combination, convergence,abundance or absence of these devices. Respectively all kinds of speech werelabelled and represented in a kind of hierarchy including the following types:elevated; flowery /florid/ exquisite; poetic;normal; dry; scanty; hackneyed; tasteless.
Attemptsto analyse and determine the style-forming features of prose also began inancient times. Demetrius of Alexandria who lived in Greece in the 3d century ВСwas an Athenian orator, statesman and philosopher. He used the ideas of suchearlier theorists as Aristotle and characterized styles by rhetoric of purposethat required certain grammatical constructions.
ThePlain Style, he said, is simple, using many active verbs and keeping itssubjects (nouns) spare. Its purposes include lucidity, clarity, familiarity,and the necessity to get its work done crisply and well. So this style uses fewdifficult compounds, coinages or qualifications (such as epithets or modifiers).It avoids harsh sounds, or odd orders. It employs helpful connective terms andclear clauses with firm endings. In every way it tries to be natural, followingthe order of events themselves with moderation and repetition as in dialogue.
TheEloquent Style in contrast changes the natural order of events to effectcontrol over them and give the narration expressive power rather thansequential account. So this style may be called passive in contrast to active.
Asstrong assumptions are made subjects are tremendously amplified without theactivity of predication because inherent qualities rather than new relationsare stressed. Sentences are lengthy, rounded, well balanced, with a great dealof elaborately connected material. Words can be unusual, coined; meanings canbe implied, oblique, and symbolic. Sounds can fill the mouth, perhaps, harshly.
Twocenturies later a Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassuswho lived in Rome in the ls( century ВСcharacterized one of the Greek orators in such a way: «His harmony is natural,stately, spacious, articulated by pauses rather than strongly polished andjoined by connectives; naturally off-balance, not rounded and symmetrical.»
Dionyssiuswrote over twenty books, most famous of which are «On Imitation», «Commentarieson the Ancient Orators» and «On the Arrangement of Words». The latter is theonly surviving ancient study of principles of word order and euphony.
Forthe Romans a recommended proportion for language units in verse was two nounsand two adjectives to one verb, which they called «the golden line».
Graduallythe choices of certain stylistic features in different combinations settledinto three types—plain, middle and high. Nowadays there exist dozens ofclassifications of expressive means of a language and all of them involve to agreat measure the same elements. They differ often only in terminology andcriteria of classification.
Threeof the modern classifications of expressive means in the English language thatare commonly recognized and used in teaching stylistics today will be discussedfurther in brief.
Theyhave been offered by G. Leech, I. R. Galperin and Y. M. Skrebnev.
 

II.1.2Stylistic theory and classification of expresssive means by G. Leech
Oneof the first linguists who tried «to modernize» traditional rhetoric system wasa British scholar G. Leech. In 1967 his contribution into stylistic theory inthe book «Essays on Style and Language» was published in London. Paying tributeto the descriptive linguistics popular at the time he tried to show linguistictheory could be accommodated to the task of describing such rhetorical figuresas metaphor, parallelism, alliteration, personification and others in thepresent-day study of literature.
Proceedingfrom the popular definition of literature as the creative use of language Leechclaims that this can be equated with the use of deviant forms of language.According to his theory the first principle with which a linguist shouldapproach literature is the degree of generality of statement about language.There are two particularly important ways in which the description of languageentails generalization. In the first place language operates by what may becalled descriptive generalization. For example, a grammarian may give descriptionsof such pronouns as /, they, it, him, etc. as objective personal pronouns withthe following categories: first/third person, singular/plural, masculine,non-reflexive* animate/inanimate.
Althoughthey require many ways of description they are all pronouns and each of themmay be explicitly described in this fashion.
Theother type of generalization is implicit and would be appropriate in the caseof such words as language and dialect This sort of description would becomposed of individual events of speaking, writing, hearing and reading. Fromthese events generalization may cover the linguistic behaviour of wholepopulations. In this connection Leech maintains the importance of distinguishingtwo scales in the language. He calls them «register scale» and «dialect scale».«Register scale» distinguishes spoken language from written language, thelanguage of respect from that of condescension, advertising from science, etc.The term covers linguistic activity within society. «Dialect scale»differentiates language of people of different age, sex, social strata,geographical area or individual linguistic habits (ideolect).
Accordingto Leech the literary work of a particular author must be studied withreference to both—«dialect scale» and «register scale».
Thenotion of generality essential to Leech’s criteria of classifying stylisticdevices has to do with linguistic deviation.
Hepoints out that it’s a commonplace to say that writers and poets use languagein an unorthodox way and are allowed a certain degree of «poetic licence».«Poetic licence» relates to the scales of descriptive and institutionaldelicacy,
Wordslike thou, thee, thine, thy not only involve description by number and personbut in social meaning have «a strangeness value» or connotative value becausethey are charged with overtones of piety, historical period, poetics, etc.
Thelanguage of literature is on the whole marked by a number of deviant features.Thus Leech builds his classification on the principle of distinction betweenthe normal and deviant features in the language of literature.
Amongdeviant features he distinguishes paradigmatic and syntagmatic deviations. Allfigures can be initially divided into syntagmatic or paradigmatic. Linguisticunits are connected- syntagmatically when they combine sequentially in a linearlinguistic form.
Paradigmaticitems enter into a system of possible selections at one point of the chain.Syntagmatic items can be viewed horizontally, paradigmatic—vertically.
Paradigmaticfigures give the writer a choice from equivalent items, which are contrasted tothe normal range of choices. For instance, certain nouns can normally befollowed by certain adverbs, the choice dictated by their normal lexicalvalency: inches/feet/yard + away, e.g. He was standing only a few feet away.
Howeverthe author’s choice of a noun may upset the normal system and create aparadigmatic deviation that we come across in literary and poetic language: farmyardsaway, a grief ago, all sun long. Schematically this relationship could looklike thisinches normal away feet yards farmyard deviant away
Thecontrast between deviation and norm may be accounted for by metaphor whichinvolves semantic transfer of combinatory links.
Anotherexample of paradigmatic deviation is personification. In this case we deal withpurely grammatical oppositions of personal/ impersonal; animate/inanimate;concrete/abstract.
Thistype of deviation entails the use of an inanimate noun in a context appropriateto a personal noun.
AsConnie had said, she handled just like any other aeroplane, except that shehad better manners than most. (Shute). In thisexample she stands for the aeroplane and makes it personified on thegrammatical level.
Thedeviant use of she in this passage is reinforced by the collocation with bettermanners, which can only be associated with human beings.Aeroplane  Train Normal inanimate neuter it Car Aeroplane Deviant animate female  She
Thissort of paradigmatic deviation Leech calls «unique deviation» because it comesas an unexpected and unpredictable choice that defies the norm. He compares itwith what the Prague school of linguistics called «foregrounding».
Unlikeparadigmatic figures based on the effect of gap in the expected choice of alinguistic form syntagmatic deviant features result from the opposite. Insteadof missing the predictable choice the author imposes the same kind of choice inthe same place. A syntagmatic chain of language units provides a choice ofequivalents to be made at different points in this chain, but the writerrepeatedly makes the same selection. Leech illustrates this by alliteration in thefurrow followed where the choice of alliterated words is not necessary butsuperimposed for stylistic effect on the ordinary background.
Thisprinciple visibly stands out in some tongue-twisters due to the deliberateoveruse of the same sound in every word of the phrase. So instead of a sentencelike «Robert turned over a hoop in a circle» we have the intentionalredundancy of «r» in «Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round».
Basicallythe difference drawn by Leech between syntagmatic and paradigmatic deviationscomes down to the redundancy of choice in the first case and a gap in thepredicted pattern in the second.
Thisclassification includes other subdivisions and details that cannot all be coveredhere but may be further studied in Leech’s book.
Thisapproach was an attempt to treat stylistic devices with reference to linguistictheory that would help to analyse the nature of stylistic function viewed as aresult of deviation from the lexical and grammatical norm of the language.
II.1.3I. R.Galperin’s classification of expressive means and stylistic devices
Theclassification suggested by Prof. Galperin is simply organised and verydetailed. His manual «Stylistics» published in 1971 includes the followingsubdivision of expressive means and stylistic devices based on thelevel-oriented approach:
1. Phonetic expressive means and stylisticdevices.
2.Lexical,expressive means andstylistic devices.
3.Syntactical expressive means andstylistic devices*.
1.Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devicesTo this groupGalperin refers such means as:
1) onomatopoeia (direct and indirect): ding-dong;silver bells… tinkle, tinkle;
2) alliteration (initial rhyme): to robPeter to pay Paul;
3) rhyme (full, incomplete, compound orbroken, eye rhyme, internal rhyme. Also, stanza rhymes: couplets, triple,cross, framing/ring);
4) rhythm
2. Lexical expressive means and stylisticdevices
Thereare three big subdivisions in this class of devices and they all deal with thesemantic nature of a word or phrase. However the criteria of selection of meansfor each subdivision are different and manifest different semantic processes.
1.In the first subdivision the principle of classification is the interaction ofdifferent types of a word’s meanings: dictionary, contextual, derivative,nominal, and emotive. The stylistic effect of the lexical means is achievedthrough the binary opposition of dictionary and contextual or logical andemotive or primary and derivative meanings of a word.
A.The first group includes means based onthe interplay of dictionary and contextual meanings:
metaphor:Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still. (Byron)
metonymy:The camp, the pulpit and the law
Forrich man’s sons are free.
(Shelly)
irony:It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny inone’s pocket.
B. The second unites means based on theinteraction of primary and derivative meanings:
C. polysemy: Massachusetts was hostile tothe American flag, and she would not allow it to be hoisted on her StateHouse;
zeugmaand pun: May’s mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot’s mother neverstood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens)
C.Thethird group comprises means based on the opposition of logical and emotivemeanings:
interjectionsand exclamatory words:
Allpresent life is but an interjection
An’Oh’ or ‘Ah’ of joy or misery,
Ora ‘Ha! ha!’ or ‘Bah!’~a yawn or ‘Pooh!’
Ofwhich perhaps the latter is most true.
(Byron)
epithet:a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple. (Dickens) oxymoron: peopleddesert, populous solitude, proud humility. (Byron)
D.The fourth group is based on the interaction of logical and nominal meaningsand includes:
antonomasia:Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world. (The Times)
II.The principle for distinguishing the second big subdivision according toGalperin is entirely different from the first one and is based on theinteractionbetween two lexical meanings simultaneously materialised in thecontext. This kind of interaction helps to call special attention to a certainfeature of the object described. Here belong:
simile:treacherous as a snake, faithful as a dog, slow as a tortoise. periphrasis: agentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex. (women)
euphemism:In private I should call him a liar. In the Press you should use the words:’Reckless disregard for truth’. (Galsworthy)
hyperbole:The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon weremade to give them light. (Dickens)
III.The third subdivision comprises stable word combinations in their interactionwith the context:
cliches:clockwork precision, crushing defeat, the whip and carrot policy. proverbs andsayings: Come! he said, milk’s spilt. (Galsworthy) epigrams: A thing of beautyis a joy for ever. (Keats) quotations: Ecclesiastes saidy ‘that allis vanity’. (Byron) allusions: Shakespeare talks of the herald Mercury. (Byron)decomposition of set phrases: You know which side the law’s buttered. (Galsworthy)
3.Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices
Syntacticalexpressive means and stylistic devices are not paradigmatic but syntagmatic orstructural means. In defining syntactical devices Gaiperin proceeds from thefollowing thesis: the structural elements have their own independent meaningand this meaning may affect the lexical meaning. In doing so it may impart a specialcontextual meaning to some of the lexical units.
Theprincipal criteria for classifying syntactical stylistic devices are:
— the juxtaposition of the parts of anutterance;
— the type of connection of the parts;
— the peculiar use of colloquialconstructions;
— the transference of structural meaning.
Devicesbuilt on the principle of juxtaposition
inversion(several types):
Atone of most extravagant comparison Miss Tox said it in. (Dickens)
Downdropped the breeze. (Colerigde)
detachedconstructions:
Shewas lovely: all of her—delightful. (Dreiser)
parallelconstructions:
Theseeds ye sow—another reaps,
Therobes ye weave—another wears
Thearms ye forge—another bears.
(Shelley)
chiasmus:
Inthe days of old men made manners Manners now make men. (Byron)
repetition:For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, sighs wishes, wishes words, and words aletter. (Byron)
enumeration:The principle production of these towns… appear to be soldiers, sailors,Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dock-yard men. (Dickens)
suspense:
Knowye the land where the cypress and myrtle… Know ye the land of the cedar andvine…
‘Tisthe clime of the East-’tis the land of the Sun.
(Byron)
climax:They looked at hundred of houses, they climbed thousands of stairs, theyinspected innumerable kitchens. (Maugham)
antithesis:Youth is lovely, age is lonely; Youth is fiery, age is frost. (Longfellow)
Devicesbased on the type of connection include
Asyndeton:Soams turned away, he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standingbefore an open grave… (Galsworthy)
polysyndeton:The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantageover him in only one respect. (Dickens)
gap-sentencelink: It was an afternoon to dream. And she took out Jon’s letters. (Galsworthy)
Figuresunited by the peculiar use of colloquial constructions
Ellipsis:Nothing so difficult as a beginning; how soft the chin which bears his touch. (Byron)
Aposiopesis(break-in-the-narrative): Good intentions but -; You just come home or I’ll…
Questionin the narrative: Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it beotherwise? (Dickens)
Representedspeech (uttered and unuttered or inner represented speech):
Marshalasked the crowd to disperse and urged responsible diggers to prevent anydisturbance… (Pilchard)
Overand over he was asking himself: would she receive him?
Transferreduse of structural meaning involves such figures as
Rhetoricalquestions; How long must we suffer? Where is the end? (Norris)
Litotes:He was no gentle lamb (London); Mr. Bardell was no deceiver. (Dickens)
Since«Stylistics» by Galperin is the basic manual recommended for this course atuniversity level no further transposition of its content is deemed necessary.However other attempts have been made to classify all expressive means andstylistic devices because some principles applied in this system do not lookcompletely consistent and reliable. There are two big subdivisions here thatclassify all devices into either lexical or syntactical. At the same time thereis a kind of mixture of principles since some devices obviously involve bothlexical and syntactical features, e. g. antithesis, climax, periphrasis, irony,and others.
Accordingto Galperin there are structural and compositional syntactical devices, devicesbuilt on transferred structural meaning and the type of syntactical connectionand devices that involve a peculiar use of colloquial constructions. Thoughvery detailed this classification provokes some questions concerning thecriteria used in placing the group ‘peculiar use of colloquial constructions’among the syntactical means and the group called ‘peculiar use of setexpressions’ among the lexical devices. Another criterion used for classifyinglexical expressive means namely, ‘intensification of a certain feature of athing or phenomenon’ also seems rather dubious. Formulated like this it couldbe equally applied to quite a number of devices placed by the author in othersubdivisions of this classification with a different criteria ofidentification, such as metaphoT, metonymy, epithet, repetition, inversion,suspense, etc. It does not seem quite just to place all cases of ellipsis,aposiopesis or represented speech among colloquial constructions.
II.1.4Classification of expressive means and stylistic devices by Y.M.Skrebnev
Oneof the latest classifications of expressive means and stylistic devices isgiven in the book «Fundamentals of English Stylistics» by Y.M.Skrebnevpublished in 1994. Skrebnev’s approach />demonstratesa combination of principles observed in Leech’s system of paradigmatic andsyntagmatic subdivision and the level-oriented approach on which Galperin’sclassification is founded. At the same time it differs from both since Skrebnevmanaged to avoid mechanical superposition of one system onto another andcreated a new consistent method of the hierarchical arrangement of thismaterial.
Skrebnevstarts with a holistic view, constructing a kind of language pyramid.
Hedoesn’t pigeonhole expressive means and stylistic devices into appropriatelayers of language like Leech and Galperin. Skrebnev first subdividesstylistics into paradigmatic stylistics (or stylistics of units) and syntagmaticstylistics (or stylistics of sequences). Then he explores the levels of thelanguage and regards all stylistically relevant phenomena according to thislevel principle in both paradigmatic and syntagmatic stylistics.
Healso uniquely singles out one more level. In addition to phonetics,morphology, lexicology and syntax he adds semasiology (or semantics).
Accordingto Skrebnev the relationship between these five levels and two aspects ofstylistic analysis is bilateral. The same linguistic material of these levelsprovides stylistic features studied by paradigmatic and syntagmatic stylistics.The difference lies in its different arrangement.
Paradigmatic stylistics Syntagmatic (Stylistics of units)
stylistics
(Stylistics of

 
Paradigmaticstylistics
Lookingcloser into this system we’ll be able to distinguish specific units and theirstylistic potentials or functions. Thus paradigmatic stylistics (stylistics ofunits) is subdivided into five branches.
Paradigmaticphonetics actually describes phonographicalstylistic features of a written text. Since we cannot hear written speech butin our «mind» writers often resort to graphic means to reproduce the phoneticpeculiarities of individual speech or dialect. Such intentional non-standardspelling is called «graphons» (a term borrowed from V.A. Kucharenko).
Iknow these Eye — talians! (Lawrence) — inthis case the graphon is used to show despise or contempt of the speaker forItalians.
InCockney speech whose phonetic peculiarities are all too well known you’ll hear[ai] in place of [ei], [a:] instead of [au], they drop «h’s» and so on. Itfrequently becomes a means of speech characterisation and often creates ahumorous effect.
Theauthor illustrates it with a story of a cockney family trying to impress avisitor with their «correct» English:
«Father,said one of the children at breakfast.—I want some more ‘am please».—Youmustn’t say ‘am, my child, the correct form is ‘am,— retorted his father,passing the plate with sliced ham on it. «But I did say ‘am, pleaded the boy».«No, you didn’t you said ‘am instead of ‘am». The mother turned to the guestsmiling”. «Oh, don’t mind them, sir, pray. They are both trying to say ‘amand both think it is ‘am they are saying»
Othergraphic means to emphasise the «unheard» phonetic characteristics such as thepitch of voice, the stress, and other melodic features are italics,capitalisation, repetition of letters, onomatopoeia (sound imitation).
E.g.I AM sorry; «Appeeee Noooooyeeeeerr» (Happy New Year); cock-a-doodle-doo.
Paradigmaticmorphology observes the stylistic potentialsof grammar forms, which Leech would describe as deviant. Out of severalvarieties of morphological categorial forms the author chooses a lesspredictable or unpredictable one, which renders this form some stylisticconnotation. The peculiar use of a number of grammatical categories forstylistic purposes may serve as an ample example of this type of expressivemeans.
Theuse of a present tense of a verb on the background of a past-tense narrationgot a special name historical present in linguistics.
E.g. What else do 1 remember? Let me see.
Therecomes out of the cloud our house… (Dickens)
Anothercategory that helps create stylistic colouring is that of gender. The result ofits deviant use is personification and depersonification. As Skrebnev pointsout although the morphological category of gender is practically non-existentin modern English special rules concern whole classes of nouns that aretraditionally associated with feminine or masculine gender. Thus countries aregenerally classed as feminine (France sent her representative to theconference.) Abstract notions associated with strength and fierceness arepersonified as masculine while feminine is associated with beauty or gentleness(death, fear, war, anger—Zie, spring, peace, kindness—she). Names of vesselsand other vehicles (ship, boat, carriage, coach, car) are treated as feminine.
Anotherdeviant use of this category according to Skrebnev is the use of animate nounsas inanimate ones that he terms «depersonification» illustrated by thefollowing passage:
«Wheredid you find it?» asked Mord Em’ly of Miss Giiliken with a satirical accent.
«Whoare you calling «it»?» demanded Mr. Barden aggressively. «P’rapsyou’ll kindly call me «im and not it». (Partridge)
Similarcases of deviation on the morphological level are given by the author for thecategories of person, number, mood and some others.
Paradigmaticlexicology subdivides English vocabulary intostylistic layers. In most works on this problem (cf. books by Galperin, Arnold,Vmogradov) all words of the national language are usually described in terms ofneutral, literary and colloquial with further subdivision into poetic, archaic,foreign, jargonisms, slang, etc.
Skrebnevuses different terms for practically the same purposes. His terminologyincludes correspondingly neutral, positive (elevated) and negative (degraded) layers.
Subdivisioninside these categories is much the same with the exclusion of such groups asbookish and archaic words and special terms that Galperin, for example,includes into the special literary vocabulary (described as positive inSkrebnev’s system) while Skrebnev claims that they may have both a positive andnegative stylistic function depending on the purpose of the utterance and thecontext.
Thesame consideration concerns the so-called barbarisms or foreign is whosestylistic value (elevated or degraded) depends on the I of text in which theyare used. To illustrate his point Skrebnev s two examples of barbarisms used bypeople of different social ,s and age. Used by an upper-class character fromJohn Galswor-the word chic has a tinge of elegance showing the character’siwledge of French, He maintains that Italian words ciao and nbina current amongRussian youngsters at one time were also nsidered stylistically ‘higher’ thantheir Russian equivalents. At the пеtime it’s hard to say whether they should all be classified as isitive justbecause they are of foreign origin. Each instance of use ould be consideredindividually.
Stylisticdifferentiation suggested by Skrebnev includes the following ratification:
positive/elevated
Poetic;
Official;
Professional.
Bookishand archaic words occupy a peculiar place among theother positive words due to the fact that they can be found in any other group(poetic, official or professional).
Neutral
Negative/degraded
colloquial;neologisms;
jargon;slang; nonce-words;
vulgarwords .
Specialmention is made of terms. The author maintains that the stylistic function ofterms varies in different types of speech.
Innon-professional spheres, such as literary prose, newspaper texts, everydayspeech special terms are associated with socially prestigious occupations andtherefore are marked as elevated. On the other hand the use of non-popularterms, unknown to the average speaker, shows a pretentious manner of speech,lack of taste or tact.
Paradigmaticsyntax has to do with the sentence paradigm:completeness of sentence structure, communicative types of sentences, wordorder, and type of syntactical connection.
Paradigmaticsyntactical means of expression arranged according to these four types include
Completenessof sentence structure
ellipsis;
aposiopesis;
one-membernominative sentences.
Redundancy,repetition of sentence parts, syntactic tautology (prolepsis), polysyndeton.
Wordorder
Inversionof sentence members.
Communicativetypes of sentences
Quasi-affirmativesentences: Isn’t that too bad? = That is too bad.
Quasi-interrogativesentences: Here you are to write down your age and
birthplace= How old are you? Where were you born?
Quasi-negativesentences: Did I say a word about the money (Shaw)= / did not say…
Quasi-imperativesentences: Here! Quick! = Come here! Be quick!
Inthese types of sentences the syntactical formal meaning of the structurecontradicts the actual meaning implied so that negative sentences readaffirmative, questions do not require answers but are in fact declarativesentences (rhetorical questions), etc. One communicative meaning appears indisguise of another. Skrebnev holds that «the task of stylistic analysis is tofind out to what type of speech (and its sublanguage) the given constructionbelongs.» (47, p. 100).
Typeof syntactic connection
detachment;
parentheticelements;
asyndeticsubordination and coordination.
Paradigmaticsemasiology deals with transfer of names orwhat are traditionally known as tropes. In Skrebnev’s classification these expressivemeans received the term based on their ability to rename: figures ofreplacement.
Allfigures of replacement are subdivided into 2 groups: figures of quantity andfigures of quality.
Figuresof quantity. In figures of quantity renaming isbased on inexactitude of measurements, in other words it’s either saying toomuch (overestimating, intensifying the properties) or too little(underestimating the size, value, importance, etc.) about the object orphenomenon. Accordingly there are two figures of this type.
Hyperbole
E.g. You couldn’t hear yourself think for the noise.
Meosis{understatement, litotes).
E.g. It’s not unusual for him to come home at this hour.
Accordingto Skrebnev this is the most primitive type of renaming.
Figuresof quality comprise 3 types of renaming:
•transfer based on a real connection between the object of nomination andthe object whose name it’s given.
Thisis called metonymy in its two forms: synecdoche and periphrasis.
E.g. I’m all ears; Hands wanted.
Periphrasisand its varieties euphemism and anti-euphemism.
E.g.Ladies and the worser halves; I never call a spade a spade, I call t a bloodyshovel.
•transfer based on affinity (similarity,not real connection): metaphor.
Ikrebnevdescribes metaphor as an expressive renaming on the basis of similarity of twoobjects. The speaker searches for associations in his mind’s eye, the groundfor comparison is not so open to view is with metonymy. It’s more complicatedin nature. Metaphor has no formal limitations Skrebnev maintains, and that iswhy this is not a purely lexical stylistic device as many authors describe it(see jalperin’s classification).
Thisis a device that can involve a word, a part of a sentence or in whole sentence.We may add that whole works of art can be viewed is metaphoric and an exampleof it is the novel by John Updike «The Centaur».
Asfor the varieties there are not just simple metaphors like She is a flower, butsustained metaphors, also called extended, when one netaphoricalstatement creating an image is followed by another inked to the previous one: Thisis a day of your golden opportunity, Sarge. Don’t let it turn to brass. (Pendelton)
Oftena sustained metaphor gives rise to a device called catachresis or mixedmetaphor)—-which consists in the incongruity of the parts of a sustainedmetaphor. This happens when objects of the two or more parts of a sustainedmetaphor belong to different semantic spheres and the logical chain seemsdisconnected. The effect is usually comical.
E.g. «For somewhere», said Poirot to himself indulging an absolute riot of mixedmetaphors «there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping dogs there isone on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrow into the air, onewill come down and hit a glass-house!» (Christie)
ABelgian speaking English confused a number of popular proverbs and quotationsthat in reality look like the following: to look for a needle in a haystack’,to let sleeping dogs lie’, to put one’s foot down; I shot an arrow into the air(Longfellow); people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
Othervarieties of metaphor according to Skrebnev also include
Allusiondefined as reference to a famoushistorical, literary, mythological or biblical character or event, commonlyknown.
E.g. It’s his Achilles heel (myth of vulnerability). Personification—attributinghuman properties to lifeless objects.
E.g.How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol’n on his wing my three andtwentieth year! (Milton)
Antonomasiadefined as a variety of allusion, becausein Skrebnev’s view it’s the use of the name of a historical, literary,mythological or biblical personage applied to a person described. Some of themost famous ones are Brutus (traitor), Don Juan (lady’s man).
Itshould be noted that this definition is only limited to the allusive nature ofthis device. There is another approach (cf. Galperin and others) in whichantonomasia also covers instances of transference of common nouns in place ofproper names, such as Mr. Noble Knight, Duke the Iron Heart.
Allegoryexpresses abstract ideas throughconcrete pictures.
E.g. The scales of justice; It’s time to beat your swords into ploughshares.
Itshould be noted that allegory is not just a stylistic term, but also a term ofart in general and can be found in other artistic forms: in painting,sculpture, dance, and architecture.
•transfer by contrast when the two objects are opposed implies irony.
Irony(meaning «concealed mockery», in Greekeironeia) is a device based on the opposition of meaning to the sense(dictionary and contextual). Here we observe the greatest semantic shiftbetween the notion named and the notion meant.
Skrebnevdistinguishes 2 kinds of ironic utterances:
—obviously explicit ironical, which no one would take at their face value due tothe situation, tune and structure.
E.g. A fine friend you are! That’s a pretty kettle offish!
—and implicit, when the ironical message is communicated against a wider contextlike in Oscar Wilde’s tale «The Devoted Friend» where the real meaning of thetitle only becomes obvious after you read the story. On the whole irony is usedwith the aim of critical evaluation and the general scheme is praise stands forblame and extremely rarely in the reverse order. However when it does happenthe term in the latter case is astheism.
E.g. Clever bastard! Lucky devil!
Oneof the powerful techniques of achieving ironic effect is the mixture ofregisters of speech (social styles appropriate for the occasion): high-flownstyle on socially low topics or vice versa.
Syntagmaticstylistics
Syntagmaticstylistics (stylistics of sequences) deals with the stylistic functions oflinguistic units used in syntagmatic chains, in linear combinations, notseparately but in connection with other units. Syntagmatic stylistics fallsinto the same level determined branches.
Syntagmaticphonetics deals with the interaction of speechsounds and intonation, sentence stress, tempo. All these features that characterisesuprasegmental speech phonetically are sometimes also called prosodic.
Sostylistic phonetics studies such stylistic devices and expressive means as alliteration(recurrence of the initial consonant in two or more words in closesuccession). It’s a typically English feature because ancient English poetrywas based more on alliteration than on rhyme. We find a vestige of this onceall-embracing literary device in proverbs and sayings that came down to us,
E.g. Now or never, Last but not least; As good as gold.
Withtime its function broadened into prose and other types of texts.
Itbecame very popular in titles, headlines and slogans.
E.g. Pride and Prejudice. (Austin)
Posthumouspapers of the Pickwick Club. (Dickens)
workor wages!; Workers of the world, unite !
Speakingof the change of this device’s role chronologically we ould make special noteof its prominence in certain professional eas of modern English that has notbeen mentioned by Skrebnev. Today alliteration is one of the favourite devicesof commercials and advertising language.
E.g.New whipped cream: No mixing or measuring. No beating or the ring..
Colgatetoothpaste: The Flavor’s Fresher than ever—It’s New. Improved, Fortified.
Assonance(the recurrence of stressed vowels).
E.g….Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden; shall clasp asainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore. (Рое)
Paronomasia(using words similar in sound but different inmeaning th euphonic effect).
Thepopular example to illustrate this device is drawn from E. A. Poe’s Raven .
E.g.And the raven, never flitting, stillis sitting, still is sitting Rhythm and meter.
Thepattern of interchange of strong and weak segments is called rhythm. It’s aregular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables that make a poetictext. Various combinations of stressed and un-tressed syllables determine themetre (iambus, dactyl, trochee, etc.).
Rhymeis another feature that distinguishes verse fromprose and consists in the acoustic coincidence of stressed syllables at the endof verse lines.
Here’san example to illustrate dactylic meter and rhyme given in Skrebnev’s book
Takeher up tenderly,
Lifther with care,
Fashion’dso slenderly
Youngand so fair. (Hood)

Syntagmaticmorphology deals with the importance of grammar forms used in a paragraph ortext that help in creating a certain stylistic effect.
Wefind much in common between Skrebnev’s description of this area and Leech’sdefinition of syntagmatic deviant figures. Skrebnev writes: «Varying themorphological means of expressing grammatical hotions is based… upon thegeneral rule: monotonous repetition of morphemes or frequent recurrence ofmorphological meanings expressed differently…» (47, p. 146).
Healso indicates that while it is normally considered a stylistic fault itacquires special meaning when used on purpose. He describes the effect achievedby the use of morphological synonyms of the genetive with Shakespeare—the possessivecase (Shakespeare’s plays), prepositional o/-phrase (the plays of Shakespeare) andan attributive noun (Shakespeare plays) as «elegant variation» of style.
Syntagmaticlexicology studies the «word-and-context» juxtaposition that presents a numberof stylistic problems—especially those connected with co-occurrence of words ofvarious stylistic colourings.
Eachof these cases must be considered individually because each literary text isunique in its choice and combination of words. Such phenomena as variousinstances of intentional and unintentional lexical mixtures as well asvarieties of lexical recurrence fall in with this approach.
Somenew more modem stylistic terms appear in this connection-stylistic irradiation,heterostylistic texts, etc. We can observe this sort of stylistic mixture in apassage from O’Henry provided by Skrebnev:
Jeff,says Andy after a long time, quite umeidom I have seen fit to impugn your molarswhen you have been chewing the rag with me about your conscientious way ofdoing business.,.
Syntagmaticsyntax deals with more familiar phenomenasince it has to do with the use of sentences in a text. Skrebnev distinguishespurely syntactical repetition to which he refersparallelism asstructural repetition of sentences though often accompanied by the lexicalrepetition
E.g. The cock is crowing, The stream is flowing… ( Wordsworth)
andlexico-syntactical devices such as
anaphora(identity of beginnings, initialelements).
E.g. If only little Edward were twenty, old enough to marry well and fend forhimself instead often. If only it were not necessary to provide a dowaryforhisdaughter. If only his own debts were less. (Rutherfurd)
Epiphora(opposite of the anaphora, identicalelements at the end of sentences, paragraphs, chapters, stanzas).
E.g. For all averred, I had killed the bird. That made the breeze to blow. Ahwretch! Said they, the bird to slay, That made the breeze to blow!
(Coleridge)
Framing(repetition of some element at thebeginning and at the end of a sentence, paragraph or stanza).
E.g.Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,settle everything somehow, and never wonder. (Dickens)
Anadiphsis(the final element of one sentence,paragraph, stanza is repeated in the initial part of the next sentence,paragraph, stanza.
E.g.Three fishers went sailing out into the West. Out into the West, as the sunwent down. (Kingsley)
Chiasmus(parallelism reversed, two parallelsyntactical constructions contain a reversed order of their members).
E.g. That he sings and he sings, and for ever sings he-I love my Love and my Loveloves me! (Coleridge)
Syntagmaticsemasiology or semasiology of sequences dealswith semantic relationships expressed at the lengh of a whole text. As distinctfrom paradigmatic semasiology which studies the stylistic effect of renamingsyntagmatic semasiology studies types of names used for linear arrangement ofmeanings.
Skrebnevcalls these repetitions of meanings represented by sense units in a text figuresof co-occurrence. The most general types of semantic relationships can bedescribed as identical, different or opposite. Accordingly he singles out figuresof identity, figures of inequality and figures of contrast.
Figuresof identity
Simile(an explicit statement of partialidentity: affinity, likeness,
similarityof 2 objects).
E.g. My heart is like a singing bird. (Rosetti)
Synonymousreplacement (use of synonyms or synonymousphrases
toavoid monotony or as situational substitutes).
E.g. He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless
stories.(Thackeray)
E.g. I was trembly and shaky from head to foot.
Figuresof inequality
Clarifying(specifying) synonyms (synonymous repetitionused to characterise different aspects of the same referent).
E.g.You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O’Henry)
Climax(gradation of emphatic elements growingin strength).
E.g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned? (O’Henry).
Лпп-climax(back gradation—instead of a fewelements growing in intensity without relief there unexpectedly appears a weakor contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or ridiculous).
E.g. The woman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse—goes all topieces in front of a flash of lightning. (Twain)
Zeugma(combination of unequal, or incompatiblewords based on the economy of syntactical units).
E.g.She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens) Pun (play uponwords based on polysemy or homonymy).
E.g. What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward you?—Longones.
Disguisedtautology (semantic difference in formallycoincidental parts of a sentence, repetition here does not emphasise the ideabut carries a different information in each of the two parts).
E.g. For East is East, and West is West… (Kipling)
Figuresof contrast
Oxymoron(a logical collision of seeminglyincompatible words).
/>/>E.g. His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falselytrue.
(Tennyson)
Antithesis(anti-statement, active confrontation of notionsused to show the contradictory nature of the subject described).
E.g. It was the bestof times, it was the worst of times; it was the age ofwisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch ofbelief, it was the era of incredulity, it was the season of light, itwas the season of Darkness… Hope… Despair. (Dickens)
Hisfees were high, his lessons were light. (O’Henry)
Anoverview of the classifications presented here shows rather varied approachesto practically the same material. And even though they contain inconsistenciesand certain contradictions they reflect the scholars’ attempts to overcome aninventorial description of devices. They obviously bring stylistic study ofexpressive means to an advanced level, sustained by the linguistic research ofthe 20th century that allows to explore and explain the linguistic nature ofthe stylistic function. This contribution into stylistic theory made by modernlinguistics is not contained to classifying studies only. It has inspiredexploration of other areas of research such as decoding stylistics or stylisticgrammar that will be discussed in further chapters.
carroll book expressive mean
II.2 Homonyms
 
Many words, especiallycharacterized by a high frequency rating, are not connected with meaning by aone relation-ship. On the contrary, one symbol as a rule serves to renderseveral different meanings. The phenomenon may be said to be the reverse ofsynonymy where several symbols correspond to one meaning. Two or more wordsidentical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (inmany cases) origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek (homos ‘similar’and onoma ‘name’) and thus expresses very well the sameness of name combinedwith the difference in meaning.
E. g. bank, n.- a shore
bank, n.-aninstitution for receiving, lending, exchanging money
ball, n.— a sphere; any spherical body
ball, n.-a large dancing party
English vocabulary is rich in suchpairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental:the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they sufferedduring their development.
Homonymy exists in many languages,but in English it is particularly frequent, especially among monosyllabicwords. In the list of 2,540 homonyms given in the Oxford English Dictionary 89%are monosyllabic words and only 9,1% are words of two syllables. From theviewpoint of their morphological structure, they are mostly one-morpheme words.
If synonyms and antonyms can beregarded as the treasury of the language’s expressive resources, homonyms areof no interest in this respect, and one cannot expect them to be of particularvalue for communication. Metaphorically speaking, groups of homonyms and pairsof antonyms are created by the vocabulary system with a particular purposewhereas homonyms are accidental creations, and therefore purposeless.
In the process of communicationthey are more of an encumbrance, leading sometimes to confusion andmisunderstanding. Yet it is this very characteristic which makes them one ofthe most important sources of popular humour.
The pun isa joke based upon the play upon words of similar form but different meaning(i.e. on homonyms) as in the following: „A tailor guarantees to give eachof his customers a perfect fit.“
(The joke is based on the homonyms:1 .fit, n.-perfectly fitting clothes; 2.fit,u. — a nervous spasm)
Homonyms which are the same insound and spelling (as the example given in the beginning of this chapter) aretraditionally termed homonyms proper.
The following joke is based on apun which makes use of another type of homonyms:
»Waiter!”
«Yes, sir.»
«What’s this? „“It’s bean soup. „
“Never mind what it has been.I want to know what it is now.»
Bean, n.-andbean, Past Part, of to be are homophones. As the example shows they are thesame in sound but different in spelling. Here are some more examples ofhomophones:
Night,n.- knight, n.; piece, n. -peace, n.; scent, n. -cent, n. — sent, v. (PastIndef., Past Perf., of to send); rite, n.-to write, v.-right, adj.; sea, n.-to see,v.-C[si:] (the name of a letter).
The third type of homonyms iscalled homographs. These are words which are the same in spelling but differentin sound.
/>E.g.to bow [bau],v.-to incline the head or body in salutation
bow [bju],n.-aflexible strip of wood for propelling arrows
/>/>tolead [li:d],v.-to conduct on the way, gobefore to show the way lead [led],n.-a heavy, rather soft metal
to tear [tea-],v.-to pull apart or in piece by force
tear [tw],n.-adrop of the fluid secreted by the lacrimal glands of the eye
 
II.2.1Sources of Homonyms
One source of homonyms has alreadybeen mentioned: phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of theirhistorical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which wereformerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and thusbecome homonyms.
Night andknight, for instance, were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k in thesecond word was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound form:O. E. kniht (cf. O.E. niht). A more complicated change of form brought togetheranother pair of homonyms: to knead ( O.E. cnedah) and to need (O.E. neodiah).
In Old English the verb to write hadthe form writan, and the adjective right had the forms reht, riht. The noun seadescends from the Old English form sae, and the verb to see from O.E. seon. Thenoun work and the verb to work also had different forms in Old Enhlish: wyrkeanand weork respectively.
Borrowing isanother source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of itsphonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or anotherborrowing. So, in the group of homonyms rite, n.- to write, v.-right, adj. thesecond and third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing(
Word-building also contributessignificantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type in thisrespect is undoubtedly conversion. Such pairs of words as comb,n.- tocomb,v.,pale,ad]. — to pale, v. To make ,v.- make,n. are numerous in the samein sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, arecalled lexico-grammatical homonyms.
Shortening isa further type of word-building which increases the number of homonyms. E.g.fan, n. in the sense of «an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport orof an actor, singer, etc.» is a shortening produced from, fanatic. Itshomonym is a Latin borrowing/aw, n. which denotes an implement for wavinglightly to produce a cool current of air. The noun rep, n. denoting a kind offabric (cf. with the R. penc) has three homonyms made by shortening: rep,n.(
Words made by sound-imitation canalso form pairs of homonyms with other words e. g. bang, n. («a loud,sudden, explosive noise») — bang, n. («a fringe of hair combed overthe forehead»). Also: mew, n. («the sound a cat makes») — mew, n.(«a sea gull») — mews («a small terraced houses in CentralLondon»).
The above-described sources ofhomonyms have one important feature in common. In all the mentioned cases thehomonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity ispurely accidental. (In this respect, conversation certainly presents anexception for in pairs of homonyms formed by conversation one word of the pairis produced from the other: a find
Now we come to a further source ofhomonyms which differs essentially from all the above cases. Two or morehomonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for somereason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This typeof formation of homonyms is called split polysemy. From what has been said inthe previous chapters about polysemantic words, it should have become clearthat the semantic structure of a polysemantic words presents a system withinwhich all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations.In most cases, the function of the arrangement and the unity is determined byone of the meanings (e. g. the meaning «flame» in the noun/ire). Ifthis meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure,associations between the rest of the meanings may be severed, the semanticstructure loses its unity and falls into two or more parts which then becomeaccepted as independent lexical units.
Let us consider the history ofthree homonyms:
board, n.- a long and thin piece of timber
board, n.- daily meals, especially as provided for pay,
E. g. room and board
board, n.- an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity, e. g. aboard of directors
It is clear that the meanings ofthese three words are in no way associated with one another. Yet, most largerdictionaries still enter a meaning of board that once held together all theseother meanings «table». It developed from the meaning «a pieceof timber» by transference based on contiguity (association of an objectand the material from which it is made). The meanings «meals» and«an official group of persons» developed from the meaning«table», also by transference based on contiguity: meals are easilyassociated with a table on which they are served; an official group of peoplein authority are also likely to discuss their business round a table.
Nowadays, however, the item offurniture, on which meals are served and round which boards of directors meet,is no longer denoted by the word board but by the French Norman borrowing table,and board in this meaning, though still registered by some dictionaries, canvery well be marked as archaic as it is no longer used in common speech. Thatis why, with the intrusion of the borrowed table, the word board actually lostits corresponding meaning. But it was just that meaning which served as a linkto hold together the rest of the constituent parts of the word’s semanticstructure. With its diminished role as an element of communication, its role inthe semantic structure was also weakened. The speakers almost forgot that boardhad ever been associated with any item of furniture, nor could they associatethe concepts of meals or of a responsible committee with a long thin piece oftimber (which is the oldest meaning onboard). Consequently, the semanticstructure of board was split into three units.
A somewhat different case of splitpolysemy may be illustrated by the three following homonyms:
spring, n.— the act of springing, a leap
spring, n.- a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth (R. родник,источник)
spring, n.— a season of the year.
Historically all three nounsoriginate from the same verb with the meaning of «to jump, to leap»(O.E. springan), so that the meaning of the first homonym is the oldest. Themeanings of the second and third homonyms were originally based on metaphor. Atthe head of a stream the water sometimes leaps up out of the earth, so thatmetaphorically such a place could well be described as a leap. On the otherhand, the season of the year following winter could be poetically defined as aleap from the darkness and cold into sunlight and life. Such metaphors aretypical enough of Old English and Middle English semantic transferences but notso characteristic of modern mental and linguistic processes. The poeticassociations that lay in the basis of the semantic shifts described above havelong since been forgotten, and an attempt to re-establish the lost links may wellseem far-fetched. It is just the near-impossibility of establishing such linksthat seems to support the claim for homonymy and not for polysemy with thesethree words.
It should be stressed, however,that split polysemy as a source of homonyms is not accepted by some scholars.It is really difficult sometimes to decide whether a certain word has or hasnot been subjected to the split of the semantic structure and whether we aredealing with different meanings of the same word or with homonyms, for the criteriaare subjective and imprecise. The imprecision is recorded in the data ofdifferent dictionaries which often contradict each other on this very issue, sothat board is represented as two homonyms in Professor V. K. Muller’sdictionary, as three homonyms in Professor V. D. Arakin’s and as one and thesame word in Hornby’s dictionary.
 
II.2.2Classification of Homonyms
The subdivision of homonyms intohomonyms proper, homophones and homographs is certainly not precise enough anddoes not reflect certain important features of these words, and, most importantof all, their status as parts of speech. The examples given in the beginning ofthis chapter show that homonyms may belong both to the same and to differentcategories of parts of speech. Obviously, a classification of homonyms shouldreflect this distinctive feature. Also, the paradigm of each word should beconsidered, because it has been observed that the paradigms of some homonymscoincide completely, and of others only partially.
Accordingly, Professor A. I.Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes: 1. Full homonyms, 2.Partial homonyms
Full lexical homonyms are wordswhich represent the same category of parts of speech and have the sameparadigm.
/>E.g match, n. — a game, a contest
match, n.- a short piece of wood used for producing fire
wren, n.- a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service wren, n. — a bird
/>Partialhomonyms are subdivided into three subgroups:
A. Simple lexico-grammatical partialhomonyms are words which belong to the same category of parts of speech. Theirparadigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form, as will beseen from the examples.
/>E.g.(to) found, v.
found, v. (PastIndefinite, Past Participle of to find)
/>tolay, v.
lay, v. (PastIndef. Of to lie)
/>tobound, v.
bound, v.(Past Indef, Past Part, of to bind)
B.Complex lexico-grammaticalpartial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech whichhave one identical form in their paradigms.
/>E.g.rose, n.
rose,v. (Past Indef. Of to rise)
/>maid,n.
maid, v. (PastIndef, Past Part, of to make)
/>left,adj.
left, v.(Past Indef, Past Part, of to leave)
/>bean,n.
been, v.(Past Part, of to be)
/>one,num.
won, v.(Past Indef, Past Part, of to win)
C. Partial lexical homonyms arewords of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in theircorresponding forms.
/>E.g.to lie (lay, lain), v.
to lie (lied, lied), v.
/>tohang (hung, hung), v.
to hang (hanged, hanged), v.
/>tocan (canned, canned)
can (could)
II.2.3 Homonyms in the book
Lewis Carroll used many stylisticdevices in his book. One of them is pun. This definition of pun is given in thedictionary of literary terms of J.A.CUDDON.1979 Published by Penguin Books:«Pun-a figure of speech which involves a play upon words. The Greek termis paronomasia. One of the earliest types of word-play, the pun is widespreadin many literatures and gives rise to a fairly universal form of humour»Lewis Carroll used homonyms to create the humourous effect, some dialogues arebased on the play upon words, and it causes misunderstanding. Here are theextracts from the book where homonyms are used on this purpose.
1. «Mine is a long tale!»said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. «It is a long tail, certainly,»said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; «but why do youcall it sad?» And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse wasspeaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this:
«Fury said to
a mouse, That
he met in the house, ‘Let
us both go
to law: I
will prosecute you.
Come, I’ll
take no denial; We
must have
a trial:
For really
this morning I’ve
nothing
to do.’
Said the
mouse to
the cur,
‘Such a trial,
dear Sir, With
no jury
or judge,
would
be wasting our
breath.’
I’ll be
judge,
I’ll be
Jury,’
Said cunning
old
Fury:
‘I’ll
try
the
whole
cause,
and
condemn
you to
death.’»
This way L. Carroll realizes theunwanted mistake of Alice, caused by homonymy
of the words «tale» and«tail»: and there appeared the verse in the shape of mouse’s
tail.
‘Tale’ and ‘tail’ are homophonesTale.
tale-[‘teil]-w., a story, number,count (Practical English Dictionary)
tale —n., a story, told story
Webster’s School Dictionary:
— Tale \ ʹtāl\ n 1: man oral relation or recital 2: a story aboutimaginary event 3: a false story: LIE 4: a piece ofharmful gossip 5 a: COUNT 1, TALLY b: a numberof things taken together: TOTAL [ Old English talu ]
Tail
Tail-n.,
Webster’s School Dictionary:
-tail \ʹtāl\ n 1: the rear end or a lengthened growth from the rear end of the body of ananimal 2: something resembling an animal’s tail [OldEnglish tegel]
Tail-[teil]-n., the projectingcontinuation of the backbone at the hinder end of an animal(Practical EnglishDictionary)
2. «You can draw water out ofa water-well,» said the Hatter; «so I should think youcould draw treacle out of a treacle-well — eh,stupid?»
«But they were in the well,»Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice thislast remark.
«Of course they were,»said the Dormouse: «well in».
Here Carroll continues playing uponwords: by changing the word order he changes words’ meaning. He used the properhomonym ‘well’ in this joke.
Well
Well-[‘wel]-adv. In a good manneror degree. — a. In good health; suitable. Well-[wel]-n. a deep hole for water;a spring. — v. i. to flow out or up (Practical English Dictionary)
well[wel] >(A Dictionary ofEnglish Homonyms and Homoforms)
I n., a deep hole for water
Webster’s School Dictionary:
Well \ʹwel\n 1 a: an issue of water from the earth: a pool fed by a spring b: a sourceof supply: WELLSPRING 2: a hole sunk into earthto reach a natural deposit (as of water, oil, or gas) 3 something suggesting awell (as in being damp, cool, deep, or dark) [Old English welle] Well adv.la:in a pleasing or desirable manner b: in agood or proper manner 2; in a full or generousmanner 3: with reason tocourtesy: PROPERLY 4: in all respects 5: in an intimate way6: without trouble or difficulty 8: exactly la [Old English wel]
3. «It’s a mineral, Ithink,» said Alice.
«Of course it is,» saidthe Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to everything that Alice said:«there’s a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is — ‘Themore there is of mine, the less there is of yours.» The author uses thehomonymy of the word «mine». It’s a proper homonym.
Mine
Mine-pron., that belonging tome(Practical English Dictionary)
Mine-n., a deep hole for diggingout coal, metals, etc.; an underground gallery with a charge of explosive; alarge shell or canister of explosive placed in the sea to destroy ships.(Practical English Dictionary)
A Dictionary of English Homonymsand Homoforms: Mine
Ipron., that belonging to me
IIn., an underground gallery with acharge of explosive; a deep hole for digging out coal, metals, etc. v.,to obtain from a mine
Webster’s School Dictionary:
ˡmine\min, ‘mīm\ adj., archaic: my — used before a word beginning with a vowelor h or sometimes as a modifier of apreceding noun [Old English mm]
2mine\’mīn\ pron., sing or pl in construction: that which belongs to me:those whichbelong to me — used without a following noun as an equivalent in meaning tothe adjective my
3mine\’mīn\ n; a pit or tunnel from which mineral substances (as coal or gold)are
taken 2: a deposit of ore 3: asubterranean passage under an enemy position 4a: acharge buried in the ground and set to explode whendisturbed (as by an enemy) b: anexplosive device placed underwater to sink enemy ships 5: a rich source ofsupply [Middle French]
mine \’mīn\ vb l: to dig amine 2: to obtain from a mine 3: to work in a mine 4a: toburrow in the earth: dig or from mines under a place b: to lay military minesin or under
4.«And how many hours a daydid you do lessons?» said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
«Ten hours the firstday,» said the Mock Turtle: «nine the next and so on.»«What a curious plan!» exclaimed Alice.
«That’s the reason they’recalled lessons,» the Gryphon remarked: «because they lessenfrom day to day.»
The character gives the funnyetymology of the noun lesson. Of course, he is not as serious as I am. Theauthor used the pair of homophones:
Lesson
Lesson-[lesn]-n., a portion ofscripture read in church; something to be learnt by a pupil; a part of courseof teaching; an experience that teaches. (Practical English Dictionary)
A Dictionary of English Homonymsand Homoforms:
Lesson (96,83%) n., a part ofcourse of teaching;
Webster’s School Dictionary:
Lesson \ʹles-n\n 1: a passage from sacred writings read in a worship servise
2: a piece of instruction ; esp: a reading or exercise to be studied by apupil 3 a: something learned by study orexperience b: a rebuke or punishment meant toforestall the repetition of an offence [Old French legon, from Latin lectio «act of reading», from legere «toread»]
Lessen
A Dictionary of English Homonymsand Homoforms:
(3,17%) v., to decrease
Webster’s School Dictionary:
/>Lessen\’les-n\ vb: to make or become less less \ʹles\adj. 1: of a small number: FEWER 2: of lower rank,degree, or importance 3a: ofreduced size or extent b: more limited in quantity [OldEnglish læs, adv. and n., and læssa, adj.]
Lessen-[lesn]-v. t. to diminish.(Practical English Dictionary)
5.«Nothing can be clearer thanthat. Then again — before she had this fit’ — you never had fits, my dear, Ithink?» said the King to the Queen.
«Never!» said the Queenfuriously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke.
«Then the words don’t fityou,» said the King looking round the court with a smile. There was a deadsilence.
«It’s a pun!» the Kingadded in an angry tone, and everybody laughed, «Let the jury considertheir verdict,» the King said, for about the twentieth nine that day.
-The King’s pun is based on twodifferent meanings of the word ‘fit’:
1. fit-[fit]-n., a sudden passing attack ofillness; a seizure with convulsions, spasms, loss of consciousness, etc., as ofepilepsy, hysteria, etc., a sudden and passing state and mood. (PracticalEnglish Dictionary)
2. fit-a. well-suited, worthy; proper,becoming; ready; in good condition. (Practical English Dictionary)
A Dictionary of English Homonymsand Homoforms: Fit
In., a sudden passing attack of illness
IIn., «part of a ballad;musical stanza»
IIIa., suitable, ready
Webster’s School Dictionary:
ˡfit\ʹfit\ n 1: a suddenviolent attack of a disorder (an epilepsy) especially whenmarked by convulsions or loss of consciousness 2: asudden flurry (as of activity)
˂completedthe assignment in a fit of efficiency> 3: an emotional outburst [Old English fitt «strife»]
2fitadj. 1a: adapted to an end or design: APPROPRIATE
b: adapted to the enviroment so asto be capable of surviving 2 PROPER 3: put into a suitable state 4: QUALIFIED, COMPETENT 5: soundphysically and mentally: HEALTHY [Middle English]
3fitvb 1: to be suitable for or to: BEFIT 2a: to be correctly adjusted to orshaped forb: to insert or adjust until correstly in place c: to make a place or roomfor 3: to bein agreement or accord with 4a: to makeready:
PREPARE b: to bring to a requiredform and size: ADJUST c: to cause to conformto or suit something else 5: SUPPLY, EQUIP 6: tobe in harmony or accord: BELONG [ Middle English fitten]
II.3Lewis Carroll and his book
 
Lewis Carroll’s real name wasCharles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was born at Darsbery Parsonage, Jan. 27, 1832,and died at Guilford, Jan. 14 1898.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was aProfessor of mathematics, he worked in Oxford University as a tutor, he was theauthor of several works on mathematics and logic. Professor Dodgson liked tocommunicate with children very much, and he had more friends among them thanamong adult people. Most of all his friends he liked Alice Lidell, a daughterof head of Christ Church College. She was that person who was presented thefirst hand-written text of the fairy tale «Alice’s adventures UnderGruond», which Doctor Dodgson had told Alice and her sisters Lorine andEdith in the famous picnic on 4th of July in 1862. The hand-writtentext was illustrated with author’s drawings. And only in 1865 supplementedvariant of the tale was published under another title «Alice’s Adventuresin Wonderland», this time illustrated by Jon Daniel, under Carroll’scontrol.
During 125 years that have passedfrom the day of publication of «Alice in Wonderland» it became clearthat his book — in not only an outstanding work but an innovating one, and thatthe modest tutor of Oxford was an unusual thinker, which pondered over manyproblems of contemporary with him knowledge, and at times surpassing his time.It became definitely clear nowadays when his diaries and letters, his works atlogic and puzzles, and when several modern scientists began to search hisworks, including two tales about Alice, from the positions of our times.

IV.Practical part
Practical part consist s of twolevels .
The first level is designed forlessons of lexicology in Nekrasov State Teaching College.
The second level is is designed forhome reading lessons at secondary school.
First level .
I.Consider your answers to the following.
1. Which words do we call homonyms?
2. Why can’t homonyms be regarded asexpressive means of the language?
3. What’s the traditional classification ofhomonyms? Illustrate your answer with examples.
4. What are the distinctive features of theclassification of homonyms suggested by Professor A. I. Smirnitsky?
5. What are the main sources of homonyms?Illustrate your answer with examples.
6. In what respect does split polysemystand apart from other sources of homonyms?
7. Prove that the language units board(«a long and thin piece of timber») and board («dailymeals») are two different words (homonyms) and not two different meanings ofone and the same word. Write down some other similar examples.
8. What is the essential difference betweenhomonymy and polysemy? What do they have in common? Illustrate your answer withexamples.
II.Find pairs of homonyms in these extractsfrom the text and define the type of these homonyms. On what linguisticphenomenon is the joke in the following extracts based? What causesmisunderstanding?
1.«Mine is a long tale!»said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
«It is a long tail,certainly,» said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail;«but why do you call it sad?»
2.«It’s a mineral, Ithink,» said Alice.
«Of course it is,» saidthe Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to everything that Alice said:«there’s a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is — ‘Themore there is of mine, the less there is of yours.»
3.«You can draw water out of awater-well,» said the Hatter; «so I should think you could drawtreacle out of a treacle-well — eh, stupid?»
«But they were in thewell,» Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this
last remark.
«Of course they were,»said the Dormouse: «well in».
4.«And how many hours a daydid you do lessons?» said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
«Ten hours the firstday,» said the Mock Turtle: «nine the next and so on.»«What a curious plan!» exclaimed Alice.
«That’s the reason they’recalled lessons,» the Gryphon remarked: «because they lessen from dayto day.»
5. «Nothing can be clearerthan that. Then again — before she had this fit’ — you never had fits, my dear,I think?» said the King to the Queen. «Never!» said the Queenfuriously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke. «Then thewords don’t fit you,» said the King looking round the court with a smile.There was a dead silence.
III. Find homophones to theunderlined words:
… .the Mock Turtle yawned ant shuthis eyes. «Tell her about the reason and all that,» he said to theGryphon.
” The reason is,” saidthe Gryphon, «that they would go with the lobsters to the dance. So theygot thrown out to sea. So they had to fall a long way. So they got their tailsfast in their mouths. So they couldn’t get them out again. That’s all.»«Thank you,» said Alice, «it’s very interesting. I never knew somuch about whiting.»
IV. Explain the homonyms which formthe basis for the following jokes. Classify their types.
1. An observing man claims to havediscovered the colour of the wind. He says he went out and found it blew.
2. Child: Mummy, what makes the Tower ofPisa lean?
Fat mother:! have no idea, dear, orI’d take some myself.
3. Advertisement: «Lion tamer wantstamer lion.»
4. Father: Didn’t I tell you not to pickany flowers without leave? Child: Yes, daddy, but all these roses had leaves.
5. Diner: Waiter, the soup is spoiled. Waiter:Who told you that?
D i n e r: A little swallow.
6. The difference between a cat and a commais that a cat has its claws at the end of its paws, and a comma has its pauseat the end of a clause.
7. A canner exceedingly canny
One morning remarked to hisgrannie: «A canner can’t can anything that he can, But a canner can’t cana can, can’e?»
V.Provide homonyms for the italicizedwords in the following jokes and extracts and classify them according toProfessor A. I. Smirnitsky’s classification system.
1.Teacher: Here is a map. Who canshow us America? Nick goes to the map and finds America on it. Teacher: Now,tell me, boys, who found America? Boys: Nick.
2.Father: I promised to buy you acar if you passed your examination, and you have failed. What were you doing lastterm? S o n: I was learning to drive a car.
3.«What time do you get up insummer?»
«As soon as the first ray ofthe sun comes into my window.» «Isn’t that rather early?»«No, my room faces west.»
4.«Here, waiter, it seems tome that this fish is not so fresh as the fish you served last Sunday.»
«Pardon, sir, it is the verysame fish.»
5.Old Gentleman: Is it a board schoolyou go to, my dear? Child: No, sir. I believe it be a brick one!
6. Stanton:! think telling thetruth is about as healthy as skidding round a corner at sixty.
Freda: And life’s got a lot ofdangerous corners — hasn’t it, Charles?
S t a n t o n: It can have — if youdon’t choose your route well. To lie or not to lie — what do you think, Olwen?
(From Dangerous Corner by J. B.Priestley)
VI.Do the following italicized wordsrepresent homonyms or polysemantic words? Explain reasons for your answers.
1. 26 letters of ABC; to receiveletters regularly. 2.no mean scholar; to mean something. 3. to propose a toast;an undone toast. 4. a hand of the clock; to hold a pen in one’s hand. 5. to be sixfoot long; at the foot of the mountain. 6. the capital of a country; to have abig capital (money). 7. to date back to year 1870; to have a date withsomebody. 8. to be engaged to Mr. N; to be engaged in conversation. 9. to make afire;to sit at the//re(place). 10. to peel the bark off the branch; to bark loudlyat the stranger. 11. A waiter is a person who, instead of waiting on you atonce, makes you wait for him, so that you become a waiter too.
 

Conclusion
For the conclusion I’d like to saythe book of Lewis Carroll is a universal book, and it can be used not only asthe source of texts for reading at the lessons of English language but itgenerously provides philologists with the examples of many languagephenomenons, such as polysemy, homonymy, Carroll used a lot of stylisticdevices in his book, for example pun, personification. Carroll lavishly usedresources of his native language in his books about Alice’s adventures. Thisbook is full of original language discoveries, the author of «Alice inWonderland» experiments with the language, plays with it. We admire hisbright imagination of Professor Dodgson, and try to guess, why a raven is likea writing desk….
I hope that my work would be usefulfor my colleagues in the process of teaching English and, perhaps, it would inspireother final-year students to work on Lewis Carroll’s books in other newdirections, though, in my opinion, the process of investigating this book isinterminable.
Someof them make the speech of the characters vivid, interesting, humorous,ironical, emotional, understandable; they reflect their thoughts and feelings.
Henovels take place in undescribable and unnamed places, but it all begins with asimple rabbit hole. After that Alice’s adventures take her to places unknown.
ObviouslyAlice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass is chalked full of symbolismand imagery, but most people who read the book don’t see the logic behind it. Thegreatest literary device that Carroll used was logic itself. As a supremelogician the world which he created was a perfect place…a place of truth,honesty, and order. This concept is hard to grasp but it is most certainlytrue(Spacks).
Symbolismwas laced throughout the books. On every page there was something thatrepresented something else. At the beginning the transferring of her size fromsmall to large and so forth represented the process of maturation. Anotherexample is the caucus-race representing the electoral process.
Icaught an allusion within the book, or at least i thought it was one. I believethat all the knights and kings of different colors represent King Arthur andhis knights. In King Arthur his knights battle knights of all different colors,red, green, yellow, etc., and in Thought the Looking-Glass there are differentcolored knights and kings who fight.
Thepersonification in the two books is incredible and unbelievable at some points.It stretches from pigs to cats that can vanish and talk to chess pieces withimagination to playing cards that are alive. Don’t forget all the animals atthe beginning of Alice in Wonderland that join her when she falls down therabbit hole.
Imageryis everywhere in this book. Carroll did a great job of desrcibing theout-of-this-world places that Alice travelled to as well as the strangecreatures that she met. The elaborate pictures don’t hurt either.
Finally,we come to language. The language in this book is in a category of its own.Carroll writes for children but has the ability to use language and imaginationthat would make an adult interested as well. Also, just about all of the songsand poems throught the books are spin-offs on famous songs or poems.
Howeveryou view Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, there can be nodebate about the amount of literary devices used and the genious of LewisCarroll.
he survey of different-functional styles will not be complete without atleast a cursary look into what constitutes the very notion of text as-aproduction of man’s creative activity in the realm of language.The word ‘text’, which has imperceptibly creptinto common use has never been linguistically ascertained. It is so broad inits application that it can refer to a span of utterance consisting of twolines, on the one hand, and to a whole novel, on the other. Therefore the wordneeds specification in order to make clear what particular kind of languageproduct has the right to be termed text. When analysing the linguistic natureof a text it is first of all necessary to keep in mind the concept ofpermanence as set against ephemerality. Text, being the result of languageactivity, enjoys permanence inasmuch as it belongs to the written variety oflanguage. Text can be what it claims to beonly if it possesses the quality of integrity, i.e. wholeness characterized byits gestalt. In other words, text must enjoy a kind of independent existence;it must be an entity in itself. Theintegrity of the text presupposes the subordination of certain parts to oneparticular part which reveals the main idea and the purport of the writer. Ithas already been stated that a text consists of units which we calledsupra-phrasal. These units are not equal in their significance: some of thembear reference to. the main idea, others only back up the purport of theauthor. It follows then that supra-phrasal units can be classified aspredicative and relative. The interrelation between these will show what kindof importance the author attaches to one or other part of the utterance.The theory of communication has brought about newconcepts regarding the information imparted by different texts. It will be ofuse to distinguish between the following terms: meaning, signification andcontent. The term ‘content’ should be reserved for the information imparted bythe whole of the text. It follows then thatthe information contained in a text is its content. However, the content is nota mechanical summing up of the significations of the sentences and thesupra-phrasal units. The integrating power of the text greatly influences thesignification of the sentences, depriving them of the independence they wouldenjoy in isolation. The same can be observed in the sentence, where the wordsto a greater or lesser degree lose their independence and are subjected tosometimes almost imperceptible semantic modifications. To phrase the issuedifferently, the content of a text modifies the significations of the sentencesand the meanings of the words and phrases. The integrating power of the text isconsiderable and requires careful observation. The information conveyed by a text may be of differentkinds; in particular, two kinds of information might be singled out, viz.content-conceptual and content-factual. Content-conceptualinformation is that which reveals the formation of notions, ideas or concepts.This kind of information is not confined to merely imparting intelligence,facts (real or imaginary), descriptions, events, proceedings, etc. It is muchmore complicated.  It follows then that content-conceptual information ismainly found in the belles-lettres language style. Here it reigns supremealthough it may also be encountered in some other functional styles andparticularly in diplomatic texts. Content-factualinformation is that contained in what we have already named matter-of-factstyles, i.e. in newspaper style, in the texts of official documents and in someothers. The aim of our work is to analysethe story «Alice/s Adventures in wonderland» by Lewis Caroll.  Ourproblems are: — to find different stylisticDevices in the text; — to analyse them.
Final remarks  This brief outline of the most characteristic featuresof the five language styles and their variants will show that out of the numberof features which are easily discernible in each of the styles, some should beconsidered primary and others secondary; some obligatory, others optional; someconstant, others transitory. The necessary data can be obtained by means of anobjective statistical count based on a large number of texts, but this taskcannot be satisfactorily completed without the-use of computers.  Anotherproblem facing the stylicist is whether or not there are separate styles withinthe spoken variety of the language, and the analysis of these styles if it canbe proved that there are any. So far we are of the opinion that styles oflanguage can only be singled out in the written variety. This can be explainedby the fact that any style is the result of a deliberate, careful selection oflanguage means which in their correlation constitute this style. This canscarcely be attained in the oral variety of language which by its very naturewill not lend itself to careful selection. However,there is folklore, which originated as an oral form of communication; and whichmay perhaps be classed as a style of language with its own’ structural andsemantic laws. There many differentStylistic Devices in «Alice’s Adventures in wonderland» by Lewis Carroll. Theyhelp to produce strong effect to readers. It helps to depict more clear pictureof the story.

Bibliography
 
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