Every day we are faced with a mass of means of artistic expression, we often use them in speech ourselves, without even meaning it. We remind mom that she has golden hands; we remember bast shoes, while they have long gone out of general use; we are afraid to get a pig in a poke and exaggerate objects and phenomena. All these are tropes, examples of which can be found not only in fiction, but also in the oral speech of every person.
What are the means of artistic expression?
The term "paths" comes from the Greek word tropos, which means "turn of speech" in Russian. They are used to give figurative speech, with their help, poetic and prose works become incredibly expressive. Tropes in literature, examples of which can be found in almost any poem or story, constitute a separate layer in modern philological science. Depending on the situation of use, they are divided into lexical means, rhetorical and syntactic figures. trailsare widespread not only in fiction, but also in oratory, and even everyday speech.
Lexical means of the Russian language
Every day we use words that in one way or another decorate speech, make it more expressive. Vibrant tropes, examples of which are countless in fiction, are no less important than lexical means.
- Antonyms are words that are opposite in meaning.
- Synonyms are lexical units that are close in meaning.
- Phraseological units are stable combinations consisting of two or more lexical units, which can be equated to one word in semantics.
- Dialectisms are words that are common only in a certain territory.
- Archaisms are obsolete words denoting objects or phenomena, modern analogues of which are present in human culture and everyday life.
- Historicisms are terms denoting objects or phenomena that have already disappeared.
Tropes in Russian (examples)
At present, the means of artistic expression are excellently demonstrated in the works of the classics. Most often these are poems, ballads, poems, sometimes stories and novels. They decorate speech and give it imagery.
- Metonymy – replacement of one word by another by adjacency. For example: At midnight on New Year's Eve, the whole street went out to set off fireworks.
- An epithet is a figurative definition that gives the subject an additionalcharacteristic. For example: Mashenka had gorgeous silk curls.
- Synecdoche is the name of a part instead of the whole. For example: A Russian, a Finn, an Englishman, and a Tatar study at the Faculty of International Relations.
- Personification is the assignment of animate qualities to an inanimate object or phenomenon. For example: The weather was worried, angry, raging, and a minute later it started to rain.
- Comparison is an expression based on the comparison of two objects. For example: Your face is fragrant and pale, like a spring flower.
- Metaphor is the transfer of the properties of one object to another. For example: Our mother has golden hands.
Tropes in literature (examples)
The presented means of artistic expression are rarely used in the speech of a modern person, but this does not diminish their significance in the literary heritage of great writers and poets. Thus, litotes and hyperbole often find use in satirical stories, and allegory in fables. Paraphrase is used to avoid repetition in literary text or speech.
- Litota is an artistic understatement. For example: A man with a fingernail works at our factory.
- Periphrase - replacement of a direct name with a descriptive expression. For example: The night luminary is especially yellow today (about the Moon).
- Allegory - the image of abstract objects with images. For example: Human qualities - cunning, cowardice, clumsiness - are revealed in the form of a fox, a hare, a bear.
- Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration. For example: My friend has incredibly huge ears, the size of a head.
Rhetorical figures
The idea of each writer is to intrigue his reader and not demand an answer to the problems posed. A similar effect is achieved through the use of rhetorical questions, exclamations, appeals, silences in a work of art. All these are tropes and figures of speech, examples of which are probably familiar to every person. Their use in everyday speech is approving, the main thing is to know the situation when it is appropriate.
A rhetorical question is put at the end of a sentence and does not require a response from the reader. It makes you think about pressing issues.
The motivating sentence ends with a rhetorical exclamation. Using this figure, the writer calls for action. The exclamation should also be classified under the "paths" section.
Examples of rhetorical address can be found in Pushkin ("To Chaadaev", "To the Sea"), in Lermontov ("Death of a Poet"), as well as in many other classics. It does not apply to a specific person, but to the entire generation or era as a whole. Using it in a work of fiction, the writer can blame or, conversely, approve of actions.
Rhetorical silence is actively used in lyrical digressions. The writer does not express his thought to the end and gives rise to further reasoning.
Syntactic figures
Such techniques are achieved by buildingsentences and include word order, punctuation; they contribute to intriguing and interesting sentence design, which is why every writer strives to use these tropes. The examples are especially noticeable when reading the work.
- Multi-union - the intentional increase in the number of unions in a sentence.
- Unionlessness - the absence of unions when listing objects, actions or phenomena.
- Syntactic parallelism - comparison of two phenomena by their parallel image.
- Ellipsis is the intentional omission of a number of words in a sentence.
- Inversion is a violation of the word order in the construction.
- Parcellation is the intentional division of a sentence.
Figures of speech
Tropes in Russian, examples of which are given above, can be continued indefinitely, but do not forget that there is another conditionally distinguished section of means of expression. Artistic figures play an important role in written and spoken language.
- Anaphora - repetition of the initial segments of speech.
- Epiphora - repetition of final segments of speech.
- Gradation is a gradual and ever-increasing ascension from one thought to another.
- Pun is the use of the same sounding words with different meanings in the same sentence.
- Antithesis is a sharp opposition.
- Oxymoron - a combination of opposite words.
Table of all trails with examples
For high school students, graduatesIt is important for humanitarian faculties and philologists to know the variety of means of artistic expression and the cases of their use in the works of classics and contemporaries. If you want to know in more detail what tropes are, the table with examples will replace dozens of literary critical articles for you.
| Lexical means and examples | |
| Synonyms | Let us be humiliated and insulted, but we deserve a better life. |
| Antonyms | My life is nothing but black and white stripes. |
| Phraseologisms | Before you buy jeans, find out about their quality, otherwise you will be slipped a pig in a poke. |
| Archaisms | Barbers (hairdressers) do their job quickly and efficiently. |
| Historisms | Lapti is an original and necessary thing, but not everyone has them today. |
| Dialectisms | Goaters (snakes) were found in this area. |
| Stylistic tropes (examples) | |
| Metaphor | You have nerves of steel, my friend. |
| Incarnation | The leaves sway and dance in the breeze. |
| Epithet | The red sun sets over the horizon. |
| Metonymy | I've already eaten threeplates. |
| Synecdoche | The consumer always chooses quality products. |
| Periphrase | Let's go to the zoo to see the king of beasts (about the lion). |
| Allegory | You are a real ass (about stupidity). |
| Hyperbole | I've been waiting for you for three hours already! |
| Litota | Is this a man? A man with a fingernail, and nothing more! |
| Syntactic figures (examples) | |
| Anaphora | How many I can be sad with How few I can love. |
| Epiphora |
We'll go for raspberries! Do you like raspberries? No? Tell Danilo, Let's go for raspberries. |
| Gradation | I think of you, longing, remembering, missing, praying. |
| Pun | It was your fault that I began to drown sadness in wine. |
| Rhetorical figures (appeal, exclamation, question, default) |
When will you, the younger generation, become polite? Oh, what a wonderful day today! And you say you know the material superbly? When you get home soon, look… |
| Multiunion | I'm great at algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, and geography,and biology. |
| No union | The store sells shortbread, crumbly, peanut, oatmeal, honey, chocolate, diet, banana cookies. |
| Ellipsis | Not there (it was)! |
| Invert | I would like to tell you a story. |
| Antithesis | You are everything and nothing to me. |
| Oxymoron | A living corpse. |
The role of means of artistic expression
The use of tropes in everyday speech elevates each person, makes him more literate and educated. A variety of means of artistic expression can be found in any literary work, poetic or prose. Paths and figures, examples of which every self-respecting person should know and use, do not have an unambiguous classification, since from year to year philologists continue to explore this area of the Russian language. If in the second half of the twentieth century they singled out only metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche, now the list has grown tenfold.
