Each word in Russian has a nominative meaning. This helps to relate speech to reality and express thoughts. In addition to the main meaning, most words are included in a certain associative series and have an additional symbolic meaning, which is most often figurative. Such a lexical property is actively used by poets and writers to create works of art, and a similar phenomenon in the Russian language is called figures of speech and literary paths. They give the text expressiveness and help more accurately convey their thoughts.
Types of artistic and visual means
Epithets, comparisons, metaphors, avatars, metonymy, periphrase, synecdoch, lithota, hyperbole are distinguished among the pathways. The ability to see them in the text of a work of art allows us to understand the author’s ideological concept and enjoy the richness of the magnificent Russian language. And the use of tropes in one’s own speech is a sign of a competent, cultured person who can speak accurately and expressively.
How to recognize in the text and learn to apply literary paths yourself?
Table with examples from works of art
Let's see how recognized poets and writers do this.
Literary trails | Property | Example |
Epithet | Adjective, less often a noun, adverb, participle used in a figurative meaning and indicating the essential feature of the subject | “And blue eyes are bottomless blooming ...” (A. Blok) |
Comparison | Turnover with the unions AS, AS, AS, AS WORD, or in words SIMILAR, SIMILAR; noun in the instrumental case; adjective or adverb to a comparative degree. The essence is to compare | “The block seemed to me ... dear ... like a nightingale in a spring bush ... ” (C. Balmont) |
Metaphor | Based on the transfer of values by similarity | "... the soul is full of fire ... " (M. Lermontov) |
Personification | Animation of natural phenomena, objects | "The azure of heaven is laughing ... " (F. Tyutchev) |
Metonymy | Adjacency Transfer | " Scolding of Homer, Theocritus ..." (A. Pushkin), i.e. their works |
Synecdoche | It implies the transfer of values based on the ratio in quantity: the only instead of the plural and vice versa | "To him ... and the beast will not ..." (A. Pushkin) |
Hyperbola | Excessive exaggeration | “A little man ... with a marigold ” (N. Nekrasov) |
Litotes | Excessive understatement | “ I made two shirt-fronts for myself from the wings of a mosquito ” (K. Aksakov) |
Perifraz | The name of an object or phenomenon through an essential, well-recognized attribute | “I love you, Peter’s creation ...” (A. Pushkin), i.e. Saint Petersburg |
Thus, literary paths - the table fully reflects their essential features - can be determined even by a person who does not have a special education. It is only necessary to understand their essence. To do this, we consider in more detail those means of expression that usually cause the greatest difficulties.
Metaphor and personification
Unlike a comparison in which there are two objects or phenomena — the original and the one taken for comparison, these literary paths contain only the second. In a metaphor, similarity can be expressed in color, volume, shape, purpose, etc. Here are examples of such a use of words in a figurative meaning: "the moon clock is wooden ", " noon breathes ."
Avatar differs from metaphor in that it is a more detailed image: " Suddenly the rising wind tossed and moaned all night ."
Metonymy, synecdocha, periphrasis
These literary paths are very often confused with the metaphor described above. To avoid such errors, it should be remembered that the manifestation of adjacency in metonymy can be as follows:
- the content and what it includes: “ eat a plate ”;
- the author and his work: “ well remembered all of Gogol ”;
- action and instrument for its commission: "the villages were doomed to swords ";
- subject and material from which it is made: " porcelain at the exhibition ";
- place and people in it: "the city did not sleep ."
Sinekdoha usually implies a quantitative ratio between objects and phenomena: " here everyone marks in Napoleons ."
Perifraz
Sometimes writers and poets, for greater expressiveness and creation of imagery, replace the name of an object or phenomenon with an indication of its essential attribute. Periphrase also helps to eliminate duplicates and relate sentences in the text. Consider these literary paths with examples: “ shining steel ” - a dagger, “the author of“ Mumu ”- I. Turgenev,“ an old woman with a scythe ”- death.