Irony. Epithet

THEORY REVISION

1. What is irony, what lexical meaning is employed in its formation?

2. What types of irony do you know? What is the length of the context needed for the realization of each of them?

3. What are the most frequently observed mechanisms of irony formation? Can you explain the role of the repetition in creating irony?

4. Can you name English, American or Russian writers known for their ingenuity and versatility in the use of irony?

5. Find cases of irony in books you read both for work and pleasure.

6. What types of antonomasia do you know? Give examples of each.

7. What lexical meaning is instrumental in the formation of epithets?

8. What semantic types of epithets do you know?

9. What structural types of epithets do you know?

10. What pats of speech are predominantly used as epithets and why?

11. When reading a book pay attention to the type and distribution of epithets there. Give your considerations as to what defines the quantity and the quality of epithets in a literary work.

Exercise I. In the following excerpts you will find mainly examples of verbal irony. Explain what conditions made the realization of the opposite evaluation possible. Pay attention to the part of speech which is used in irony, also its syntactical function:

1. The book was entitled Murder at Milbury Manor and was a whodunit of the more abstruse type, in which everything turns on whether a certain character, by catching the three-forty-three train at Hilbury and changing into the four-sixteen at Milbury, could have reached Silbury by five-twenty-seven, which would have given him just time to disguise himself and be sticking knives into people at Bilbury by six-thirty-eight. (P.G.W.)

2. When the, war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and, with some solemnity, hung it in the men-servants' lavatory; it was her one combative action. (E.W.)

3. "I had a plot, a scheme, a little quiet piece of enjoyment afoot, of which the very cream and essence was that this old man and grandchild should be as poor as frozen rats," and Mr. Brass revealed the whole story, making himself out to be rather a saintlike holy character. (D.)

4. The lift held two people and rose slowly, groaning with diffidence. (I.M.)

5. England has been in a dreadful state for some weeks. Lord Coodle would go out. Sir Thomas Doodle wouldn't come in, and there being nobody in Great Britain (to speak of) except Coodle and Doodle, there has been no Government (D.)

6. From her earliest infancy Gertrude was brought up by her aunt. Her aunt had carefully instructed her to Christian principles. She had also taught her Mohammedanism, to make sure. (L.)

7. She's a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has washed her hair since Coolidge's second term, I'll eat my spare tire, rim and all. (R.Ch.)

8. With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds apparently hoping to see him gag. (R.Ch.)

9. "Well. It's shaping up into a lovely evening, isn't it?" "Great," he said.

"And if I may say so, you're doing everything to make it harder, you little sweet." (D. P.)

10. Mr. Vholes is a very respectable man. He has not a large business, but he is a very respectable man. He is allowed, by the greater attorneys to be a most respectable man. He never misses a chance in his practice which is a mark of respectability, he never takes any pleasure, which is another mark of respectability, he is reserved and serious which is another mark of respectability. His digestion is impaired which is highly respectable. (D.)

11. Several months ago a magazine named Playboy which concentrates editorially on girls, books, girls, art, girls, music, fashion, girls and girls, published an article about old-time science-fiction. (M.St.)

12. Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds and specific personality differences, we're just one cohesive team. (D.U.)

13. A local busybody, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, asked an expectant mother point-blank whether she was going to have a baby. "Oh, goodness, no," the young woman said pleasantly. "I'm just carrying this for a friend." (P.G.W.)

14. Sonny Grosso was a worrier who looked for and frequently managed to find, the dark side of most situations. (P. M.)

15. Bookcases covering one wall boasted a half-shelf of literature. (T.C.)

16. I had been admitted as a partner in the firm of Andrews and Bishop, and throughout 1927 and 19281 enriched myself and the firm at the rate of perhaps forty dollars a month. (Jn.B.)

17. Last time it was a nice, simple, European-style war. (I.Sh.)

18. He could walk and run, was full of exact knowledge about God, and entertained no doubt concerning the special partiality of a minor deity called Jesus towards himself. (A.B.)

19. But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of the world. As the great champion of freedom and national'independence he conquers and annexes half the world and calls it Colonization. (B.Sh.)

20. All this blood and fire business tonight was probably part of the graft to get the Socialists chucked out and leave honest businessmen safe to make their fortunes out of murder. (L. Ch)

21. He spent two years in prison, making a number of valuable contacts among other upstanding embezzlers, frauds and confidence men whilst inside. (An.C.)

II. Discuss the structure and semantics of epithets in the following examples. Define the type and function of epithets:

1. He has that unmistakable tall lanky "rangy" loose-jointed graceful closecropped formidably clean American look. (I.M.)

2. Across the ditch Doll was having an entirely different reaction. With all his heart and soul, furiously, jealously, vindictively, he was hoping Queen would not win. (J.)

3. During the past few weeks she had become most sharply conscious of the smiling interest of Hauptwanger. His straight lithe body - his quick, aggressive manner - his assertive, seeking eyes. (Dr.)

4. He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock. (D.)

5. The Fascisti, or extreme Nationalists, which means black-shirted, knife-carrying, club-swinging, quick-stepping, nineteen-year-old-pot-shot patriots, have worn out their welcome in Italy. (H.)

6. Where the devil was heaven? Was it up? Down? There was no up or down in a finite but expanding universe in which even the vast, burning, dazzling, majestic sun was in a state of progressive decay that would eventually destroy the earth too. (Js.H.)

7. She has taken to wearing heavy blue bulky shapeless quilted People's Volunteers trousers rather than the tight tremendous how-the-West-was-won trousers she formerly wore. (D.B.)

8. Harrison - a fine, muscular, sun-bronzed, gentle-eyed, patrician-nosed, steak-fed, Oilman-Schooled, soft-spoken, well-tailored aristocrat was an out-and-out leaflet-writing revolutionary at the time. (Jn.B.)

9. In the cold, gray, street-washing, milk-delivering, shutters-coming-off-the-shops early morning, the midnight train from Paris arrived in Strasbourg. (H.)

10. Her painful shoes slipped off. (U.)

11. She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A. C.)

12. And she still has that look, that don't-you-touch-me look, that women who-were beautiful carry with them to the grave. (J.B.)

13. Ten-thirty is a dark hour in a town where respectable doors are locked at nine. (T.C.)

14. He loved the afterswim salt-and-sunshine smell of her hair. (Jn.B.)

15. I was to secretly record, with the help of a powerful long-range movie-camera lens, the walking-along-the-Battery-in-the-sunshine meeting between Ken and Jerry. (D.U.)

16. "Thief!" Pilon shouted. "Dirty pig of an untrue friend!" (J.St.)

17. She spent hausfrau afternoons hopping about in the sweatbox of her midget kitchen. (T.C.)

18. He acknowledged an early-afternoon customer with a be-with-you-in-a-minute nod. (D.U.)

19. He thoroughly disliked this never-far-from-tragic look of a ham Shakespearian actor. (H.)

20. "What a picture!" cried the ladies. "Oh! The lambs! Oh, the sweets! Oh, the ducks! Oh, the pets!" (K.M.)

21. A branch, cracking under his weight sent through the tree a sad cruel thunder. (T.C.)

22. There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the human nervous system. (A. Cl.)

23. His shrivelled head bobbed like a dried pod on his frail stick of a body. (J.G.)

24. The children were very brown and filthily dirty. (W. V.)

25. Liza Hamilton was a very different kettle of Irish. Her head was small and round and it held small and round convictions. (J. St.)

26. He sat with Daisy in his arms for a long silent time. (Sc.F.)

27. From the Splendide Hotel guests and servants were pouring in chattering bright streams. (R.Ch.)

Лабораторная работа № 6. (2 ч.)