One of the skills of language training that schoolchildren should receive in the learning process is the ability to analyze the literary text, determine by what means the author was able to achieve its expressiveness.
This is one of the requirements of the program, causing the greatest difficulties for students in the literature lesson. Trying to make it easier for them, I will try to list the means of expressiveness, give them a brief description, and give simple (not from literary texts) examples.
What are expressive means for? To make speech brighter, more colorful, more emotional. In order to add originality to the text, convey the most subtle nuances of thoughts or images. Think about which of these sentences more accurately conveys the author’s attitude to the subject? We built a hut. We built a hut, huge as a real house. It is noticeable that the means of expression help not only to ascertain the size of the subject, but they do it very clearly.
One of the techniques for creating a literary text is anaphora or one-man management. ( I don’t like it when it rains. I don’t like it when the sun is shining. I don’t like anything at all ). Anaphora is needed in order to convey the essence, quintessence of thought or text.
Epiphora helps to highlight a certain thought in the text - a single ending of sentences. It can be lexical (one word repeated) or semantic (synonymous repeated). ( She gave me life. Now she wants to ruin my fate ).
Using some means of expressiveness, you can give your speech an ironic meaning, emphasize the comic, caricature of the character. The grotesque helps. Perhaps one of the most striking and famous grotesque images is Koschey the Immortal.
Means of expressiveness help to express one’s attitude to an object, without directly calling its qualities. Irony helps (allegory). ( The choice of dishes was endless: potatoes, potatoes, and again potatoes. )
An exaggeration in the literature is called hyperbole. It is also designed to enhance the expressiveness of speech. ( I called him a million times, but he never picked up the phone ).
In contrast to hyperbole, lithotomy is used , an understatement. The rather vulgar expression “ below the baseboard ”, quite popular today, was built using litota.
Comparisons in literature are self-explanatory devices. This allegory, which establishes the similarity between the two phenomena. In comparison, there is a basic image in which the meaning of the whole statement is enclosed, and an additional image attached with the help of the union. ( The head buzzes like a huge copper bell ).
Combine in the text unconnectable to enhance the image, allows oxymoron. The complexity of its use lies in the fact that in the image must be combined opposite in meaning concepts. (A man grabbed hot snow with his lips. There was cold boiling water in the bank .)
The inversion or, in other words, the reverse order of words helps to highlight the most significant of the above. The closer to the beginning of a sentence a word is, the more important it is. Compare: I went to the store. I went to the store. I went to the store .
In the Russian language there is such a thing as neologisms. And the means of expressiveness allow the use of occasionalisms (copyright neologisms). For Sholokhov, it is a brick of blush , for Mayakovsky it is a slave , for Severyanin a azure (color). The main task of occasionalisms is accuracy. Here are examples of modern neologisms that appeared as author's, but are now known to many: google, bot (robot), keyboard (keyboard) .
It is impossible to list all expressive means in one article: they have been taught for years at school, at philological faculties. You can only list some of them (which I did) and encourage people to learn Russian at least in order to convey their thoughts juicy, intelligibly, emotionally.