The Russian language is one of the most diverse and rich in the world, its expressive potential is truly enormous. Various means of speech expressiveness used in the process of writing a work give special emotionality and originality to the text. Their list is quite extensive.
Means of speech expression in various spheres of life
It's no secret that the same idea can be presented in different ways. For example, a television announcer will say this: “Today, heavy precipitation in the form of snow was observed in the region, accompanied by heavy winds.” And two old women drinking tea in the kitchen can use the following phrase in a conversation: “Yes, it’s piled up like snow! And the wind - it knocks you off your feet! In fiction, this phenomenon can be represented as follows: “Snow flakes fell from the sky, like fluff from an open pillow, scattered by a strong wind, and huge white snowdrifts covered the frozen earth yearning for them …”. The picture described in different ways is almost the same, but each of the options is different from each other and affects differently.to the human subconscious. All means of speech expressiveness of the language are to some extent based on the associative perception of the text. Looking through the presented statements, the reader imagines people who can express themselves in this way. Therefore, the authors of literary texts use different styles to characterize characters and create a certain color.
Phonetic expressions
For the greatest impact on the imagination of the interlocutor or reader, viewer or listener, a variety of methods are used. Means of speech expressiveness literally permeate all language levels. They can be observed both in phonetics and in syntax, which makes the understanding of the author's intention deeper and more comprehensive. Phonetic means of speech expressiveness are one of the most powerful ways of speech influence. The sensation of the sound image of the word occurs at the subconscious level, regardless of the desire of the person. That is why most poetic texts are based on the use of sound expressive means. As an example, we can cite the following sentence: "The leaves rustled, their rustle seemed to come from everywhere." Here, the repeated use of the “sh” sound in the phrase seems to create an accompaniment to the picture drawn by the imagination.
Alliteration
Phonetic speech expressiveness has some variability. Widespread are such opposed to each othermeans like alliteration and assonance. They are based on the repetition in the text of sounds that are identical or similar in some phonetic feature - consonants with alliteration and vowels with assonance. A striking example of alliteration is the phrase “Thunderstorm rumbles, thunder rumbles”, reading which, a person subconsciously evokes a vivid image of crackling lightning in front of him.
Assonance
Writers and poets use vowel repetition a little less often. For example, assonance is presented in the sentence “There was a flat field around” - the repeated sound “o” creates a feeling of length, breadth of space.
Anaphora, epiphora in literary texts
There are also other figures of speech that serve to make the text more expressive. For example, anaphora and epiphora are unusual devices. They are variants of repetitions of similar sounds, words or groups of words at the beginning (anaphora) or at the end (epiphora) of each parallel independent segment of speech. “This is the act of a man! This is the act of a real person!” - forcing and amplification with each repetition are observed with anaphora. Epiphora is most often found at the end of poetic segments in the form of repetition of individual phrases or entire sentences. But it can also be considered on the example of a separate prose sentence: “Everything in this room was black: the walls were black, the carpet on the floor was also black, the lamps were black, and even the bed linen shone black. Only the bed was pure white, creating a striking contrast in the design.”
Language means of speech expressiveness: allegory
In the style of the Russian language there is a huge variety of tropes, or figures of speech. The main source of expressiveness is vocabulary. It is with its help that most of the author's intentions in the text are realized. For example, an allegory is a kind of transfer of the meaning or characteristics of an object to another object, an image of an abstract concept through a specific image. To explain what an allegory is, one can resort to considering traditional examples: the sun is a symbol of warmth, kindness; wind is a symbol of freedom, free-thinking, inconstancy. Therefore, this principle is often used in speech to characterize people. "Oh, you sly fox!" - talking about someone in jest. Or they can even say about a fickle personality like this: "His character is windy, eccentric." Thus, answering the question of what an allegory is, one should refer to symbolism, a comparison of objects by quality.
Allegory in parables, fairy tales, fables
The wonderful fabulist Krylov gives a colorful picture of the use of this technique. Although in fact he is the successor of Aesop. It was from his works that many plots of the fables of the Russian classic were taken. After all, everyone understands that when talking about a monkey trying on glasses on his tail, the author means an ignoramus, a person who is used to treating everything superficially, judging hastily, without thinking about the meaning. For children's perception, fairy tales are best suited in whichbeast heroes. On their example, the baby learns the basic laws of life: goodness returns a hundredfold, a dirty, deceiver and lazy person will be punished, you can’t laugh at someone else’s pain, etc. Short fables or allegorical tales resemble Caucasian-style table toasts, at the end of which morality is displayed after a sentence drink “For…”.
Allegory in poetry and lyrical songs
And Lermontov's wonderful poems about a lonely sail running through the waves? After all, here the thoughtful reader is drawn to the state of mind of a restless personality that no one understands in the world of today. Until now, adults love many folk songs in which allegorical examples of plants - flowers, trees - describe human relationships. “Why are you standing, swaying, thin rowan?” - sadly sings a girl who herself experiences loneliness, dreams of joining her fate with a reliable person, but for some reason she cannot do this …
Litota, hyperbole
Language means of speech expressiveness are also represented by other tropes. For example, there are also such opposite figures as hyperbole, litote. The Russian language has a wide range of possibilities for the gradual expression of qualities. These techniques denote artistic understatement (litotes) and exaggeration (hyperbole). The Russian language becomes brighter and more figurative thanks to them. For example, such a property as the volume of the human body can be expressed as an artificially underestimatedside ("waist as wide as the neck of a bottle" - litote), and from the side of exaggeration ("shoulders the size of a doorway" - hyperbole). The Russian language even boasts of stable expressions of this type: wasp waist, tall as a Kolomna verst.
Synonyms and antonyms in fiction
The use of synonyms and antonyms in the text increases its emotionality and expressiveness. Words that are semantically similar or different diversify the work, reveal the author's intention from different angles. In addition, synonyms and antonyms simplify the perception of the text, as they clarify the meaning of individual semantic objects. But their use in oral and written speech should be approached with some caution, since some dictionary synonyms lose the proximity of meanings in a particular context, and contextual antonyms are not always antonymous in their main dictionary meaning. For example, the adjectives "fresh" and "stale" when used with the noun "bread" are antonyms. But, if we are talking about the wind, then the antonym for the adjective "fresh" will be the word "warm".
Irony in works of art
A very important means of artistic expression is irony. Examples from the literature prove the high figurativeness of this technique. Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky - these Russian classics are true masters of the use of irony in literature. Zoshchenko's stories are still in demand amongcontemporary satirists. Some phrases of the classics, which have become winged, are also used in everyday speech. For example, Zoshchenko's expression: "Take back your cake!" or “Maybe you should also be given the keys to the apartment where the money is?” Ilf and Petrov know absolutely everything. And the appeal to the gentlemen of the jury, which refers to the broken ice, is still perceived with a great deal of irony. And the phrase "Who is so big here with us?", addressed to a child in everyday life, has an ironic character, built on the use of antonymy. Irony is often present in the form of self-poking fun of one of the characters or the protagonist, on whose behalf the story is being told. These are the detectives of Daria Dontsova and other authors who also write in this style.
Different layers of vocabulary in fiction
High expressive potential in fiction has non-standardized vocabulary - jargon, neologisms, dialectisms, professionalism, vernacular. The use of words from these sections in the text, especially in direct speech, gives a figurative and evaluative characterization of the character. Each hero of a literary work is individual, and these lexical elements, carefully and appropriately used, reveal the image of the character from various angles. For example, the saturation of Sholokhov's novel "The Quiet Don" with dialect vocabulary creates an atmosphere characteristic of a particular territory and a particular historical period. And the use of colloquial characters in speecheswords and expressions perfectly reveals their characters. It is also impossible to do without special professional vocabulary when describing life on a ship. And in works where the heroes, albeit minor ones, are former repressed people or people from the category of homeless people, it is simply impossible to avoid jargon and even slang.
Polyunion as a means of expression
Another stylistic figure of speech is polysyndeton. In another way, this technique is called polyunion and consists in the use of homogeneous members or phrases in the text, connected by the same repeating unions. This increases expressiveness by creating unplanned pauses in the sentence at the points where its parts are connected by the service parts of speech and at the same time increasing the importance of each enumeration element. Therefore, writers and poets often use polyunion in their works. Examples:
- "The sea storm roared, and tore, and swayed, and destroyed, and frightened" - each element of a series of homogeneous members here has an emphasized importance.
- "In Natalia's house, every thing was in its place: a bunch of keys, and an armchair with a bright self-knitted cape, and a huge floor vase with dry branches of some plant, even an open book - everything is always at any time of the day on in the same place" - here each homogeneous member, with the help of polyunion, enhances the impression of the accuracy and clarity of the arrangement of objects in the heroine's dwelling.
- "And the wind blew and thunderthundered, and the branches of the trees swayed, knocking on the windows, and the clouds hid the sky in black waves - all this together frightened, instilled excitement and forced to pull the blanket up to the very chin”- here homogeneous sentences, coupled with polyunion, create the effect of intensifying the state of fear and hopelessness.
Thus, linguistic means of speech expressiveness is a necessary element of artistic speech. Without them, the literary text looks dry and uninteresting. But do not forget that the material should be focused on the reader. Therefore, the selection of linguistic means used in the work must be carried out in the most careful way, otherwise the author risks being misunderstood and underestimated.
