Hyperbole and understatement.

Hyperbole is a stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration. It is one of the most common expressive means used by all writers. They resort to it when they want to intensify the quantitative aspect of the described objects. Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech.

I was scared to death when he entered the room. (J.D. Salinger)

Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (F.S. Fitzgerald)

Four loudspeakers attached to the flagpole emitted a shattering roar of what Benjamin could hardly call music, as if it were played by a collection of brass bands, a few hundred fire engines, a thousand blacksmiths' hammers and the amplified reproduction of a force-twelve wind. (A. Saxton)

But when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are not overrated, but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement.

She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J. Reed)

The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hands solemnly on middle. (J. Galsworthy)

She was a sparrow of a woman. (Ph. Larkin)

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes. It emphasizes contradictory qualities simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a dialectical unity. The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive, but there are also others, in which verbs are employed.

A neon sign reads "Welcome to Reno - the biggest little town in the world." (A. Miller)

Their bitter-sweet union did not last long. (A. Cronin)

She was a damned nice woman, too. (E. Hemingway)

He behaved pretty lousily to Jan. (D. Cusack)

Irony

Irony is a stylistic device by which the words and phrases are used to express a meaning opposite to their direct meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word or phrase reverses the direction of evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood by the reader as a negative qualifica­tion.

She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator. (J. Steinbeck)

"I have nothing to add except my thanks for your politeness," said Miss Murdstone.

"Bah! Stuff and nonsense!" said my aunt. "Don't talk to me!"

"How exquisitely polite," exclaimed Miss Murdstone. "Overpowering, really!" (Ch. Dickens)

PUNCTUATION

The importance of punctuation marks in English is indisputable. They are indispensable to help a reader to understand exactly what is meant by the written or printed matter. There are cases when the meaning of this or that sentence depends entirely upon its punctuation. Though such sentences are regarded to be of a bad quality, they persist. The best sentence is that which stands least in need of punctuation. Good writers try to depend upon punctuation as little as possible. But they cannot do without it altogether.

The main punctuation marks used in English are the following:

 

.	the full stop, the period
?	the mark (point, note) of interrogation, the question mark, the interrogation mark (point)
!	the mark (point) of exclamation, the exclamation point (note)
,	the comma
;	the semicolon
:	the colon
-	the dash
“ ”	(double) quotation marks, inverted commas, double quotes
‘	the apostrophe
-	the hyphen
()	parentheses, marks of parenthesis, (round) brackets
…	a series of periods, suspension periods, leaders, the ellipsis

4.1. The full stop or the period is to be used:

(1) to mark the end of a complete sentence that is neither a question nor an exclamation;

(2) to indicate an abbreviation or an abbreviated title:

I.e. (that is); e.g. (for example); viz. (namely); etc. (and so forth); ltd. (limited);

p. (page); Mr. (Mister); Dr. (Doctor); N.Y. (New York); R.E. Jameson, Esq. (Esquire);

D.C. (District of Columbia);

There is a tendency, however, to omit the full stop in some abbreviations:

UNO (United Nations Organization); GMT (Greenwich Mean Time); PO (Post Office); WW I (World War I);

(3) to join fractions to whole numbers in decimals (decimal fractions are said with each figure separate):

0.5 (nought point five, or point five); 3.375 (three point three seven five); 25.999 (twenty-five point nine nine nine).

 

4.2. The note of interrogation (the question mark) is to be used:

(1) after every direct question:

Note that the question mark is not needed when a question is only reported as having been asked, e.g.: When I looked in at the door, the woman asked me what I wanted.

(2) after an indirect question if the main clause is also a question:

Do you know where they will be? (G. Greene)

What did you say your name was, honey? (M. Twain)

(3) at the end of a sentence that is not a question in form, but containing the information which requires an answer:

We expect you will want to stay at the Carlton Hotel?

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy. (0. Henry)

(4) after a question-tag that is used at the end of a sentence (affirmative or negative) asking for confirmation of something we are not sure about, or for agreement:

You're the new secretary, aren't you?

You haven't seen my watch around, have you?

"Annabel," he said, "give me that rose you are wearing, will you?" (0. Henry)

 

4.3. The exclamation mark is used:

(1) after utterances which are not complete sentences and which include exclamations:

What wonderful weather! What a beautiful day! How interesting! Good heavens! Goodness gracious!

(2) at the end of exclamatory sentences:

Oh, Aunt Polly, come! Tom's dying! (M. Twain)

"Francis, will you please try to speak sensibly!" his wife said. (E. Hemingway)

Tom said: "Get away from here!" "Go away yourself!" (M. Twain)

(3) very sparingly after a direct address:

"Oh, Tom! Then I ain't the first you've ever been engaged to!" "Tom! Come back, Tom!" (M. Twain)

(4) at the end of simple sentences denoting wish:

Success attend you in your noble activity! If he could be with us! If only he were more diligent!

Ah, if he could only die temporarily! (M. Twain)

(5) after an isolated and self-contained interjection like Oh.', Ah.', Alas.', Hurrah', Behold!, etc.

 

The comma

Between the beginning of a sentence, which is marked by a capital letter, and the full stop indicating the end there will be normally other stops. Chief of these is the comma, which in many ways is the most important as it is the most difficult stop in punctuation. It is often used indiscriminately. Writers sometimes sprinkle commas on the paper like pepper out of a pepper-pot. But used properly, with a due regard for its rightful and varied functions, the comma is the writer's friend and ally in his efforts to communicate with the reader.

The comma is to be used:

(1) to indicate a small natural pause at the end of a phrase or a clause so that the sense of the passage should be quite clear:

Upon hearing from us, Messers Holden Sons, makers of the article you require, will get in touch with you.

When they had discussed the situation, the Committee adjourned for a week.

(2) to separate simple sentences which are not opposed to each other:

The door was quickly unlocked, and he entered. (M. Twain)

A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the spirits ofthe

dead complaining at being disturbed. (M. Twain)

(3) to separate homogeneous parts of a simple sentence in a series that has more than two members:

I had a bowler, a home, a nice little wife, a nice little baby, and a bank account (J. Cary)

Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. (Ch. Dickens)

(4) to set off words denoting direct address:

"It was very nice of you to think of me, Mary darling," said Anne, smiling the tightcat's smile. (Al. Huxley)

Don't groan so, Tom, it's awful. (M. Twain)

(5) to separate words and phrases that might be incorrectly joined while reading:

After washing, the men filed into the dining tent. Above, the sun burned a dull red; below, the sand radiated heat like a furnace.

(6) after an introductory phrase or word, before and after anything that may be omitted without altering the main sense of the sentence:

However, this time she was, probably, a bit too categorical.

Unfortunately, most of the correspondence between Mark and his wife was later destroyed.

(7) to separate detached parts of the sentence:

The road to Lyvern lay through acres of pasture land, formerly arable, now abandoned to cattle, which made more money for the landlord than the men whom they had displaced. (B. Shaw)

The train coming in a minute later, the two brothers parted and entered their respective compartments. (J. Galsworthy)

Herr Paul, a small white flannel cap on his head, gloves on his hands and glasses on his nose, was watering a rosebush. (J. Galsworthy)

The semi-colon

In relation to the full stop, the semi-colon marks a smaller syntactical pause in the sentence. Some people call it a ‘three-quarter stop’. The semi-colon indicates also a smaller degree of separation in the sentence and a greater connection between its parts. In other words, the full stop used between the sentences says: “Here one idea ends and another one starts.” The semi­colon is used to say: “Here one idea ends and another one starts that has something to do with it.”

Here is an example to show what difference a semi-colon can make:

Janet has many friends. Her parents are very rich.

In this example, with a full stop between the two sentences, there is nothing to show whether the two ideas are connected with each other. Now look at it with a semicolon:

Janet has many friends; her parents are very rich.

Here the semi-colon says that there is a connection between Janet's many friends and the fact that her parents are very rich. It has turned a simple statement into an unpleasant remark.

As you see, a semi-colon shows the connection between two or more ideas without the use of a single extra word. It is a very fine tool of writing if you know how to use it; it helps the reader to read 'between the lines'.

A very common use of the semicolon is to mark off coordinate clauses (connected asyndetically) in long compound sentences, with commas used in it for subordinate divisions.

Sherburn ran his eyes slow along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to outgaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked sneaky. (M. Twain)

The moon was above, lustrous and serene; vehicles and pedestrians were few; sparrows twittered sleepily in the eaves - for a little while the scene might have been a country churchyard. (0. Henry)

There was no voice of rebuke; but there were averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a chill to the culprit's heart. (M. Twain)

The semicolon is also used to separate items in a list, particularlyif thereare commas in them.

The colon

The colon is a stop and ‘a curtain raiser’. It points toward something that follows. It says: “There is something missing in this sentence and here it comes.” It is mainly used for two purposes: to introduce direct quotations and to introduce listings of two or more things.

Quotation marks

Whenever, in your writing, you want to quote exactly what someone has said or written, you use quotation marks (" "). These quotation marks are put around the exact words of the speaker or writer to show where the quotation begins and ends.

There are a number of points to note about the correct use of quotation marks.

(1) The actual quotation is separated from the author's words (he said, she said, etc.) by a comma.

"I don't feel like eating", said Nick.

But if the author's words precede the quotation we use a comma or a colon to separate them.

He said, "It's up to you now".

At six-fifty-five George said: "He's not coming".

(2) The first word of a quotation is capitalized because it is the beginning of a sentence.

"You know everything", Nick said.

(3) When a quotation ends with a? or a! we do not use a comma. These punctuation marks serve instead of commas.

“Did she go all right?” Bill said.

“How strange!” said Macomber.

(4) When a quotation consists of more than one sentence, one setof quotation marks will do, at the beginning and at the end of the conversation.

He smiled, and went on soft-voiced: "Right away I liked him and when I got out I looked him up. He likes to think I'm crazy and I don't mind. I like to be with him and I like seeing the country and I don't have to commit no larceny to do it I like living like a gentleman."

(5) When you are quoting or writing conversation, be sure to starta newparagraph for each speaker.

"When are we going to eat, Burgs?" the prizefighter asked.

"Right away"

"Are you hungry, Nick?"

"Hungry as well."

"Hear that, Bugs?"

"I hear most of what goeson."

(6) Very often, however, the author's words come in the middle of the quotation and they break it. The following simple rules govern the placing of quotation marks in broken quotations:

a) If the first part of the quotation is not a complete sentence, put a comma after the author's words to show that this part is not a complete sentence. Begin the second part of the quotation with a small letter to show that it is part of the same sentence. There are quotation marks around the two parts of the whole quotation.

"You may go if you wish," my uncle said, "but I think it's a risky business."

b) If the part of the quotation that continues is a complete sentence, put the punctuation marks like this:

"Don't bother," Nick said. "I'm going on to the town."

"That's right," Ad said happily. "She never speeds up."

Words or Phrases Quoted. If the quotation is less than a complete sentence the closing quotation marks precede the final punctuation mark.

The performance, he complained sharply, had been "little short of a fiasco".

He described the performance as a "humiliating, total flop".

Quotation Marks within Quotation Marks. If you have to place one quotation within another quotation, change from double to single quotation marks, or the other way round, as you place the quotations. Be sure you have written both quotation marks of each pair - and that single quotation mark is paired with single quotation mark and double with double.

“She shouted, 'I will never do that!'” my brother said.

“Have you read ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’?”

“I have just read ‘Can You Read Faster?’”

“Have you read ‘Can You Read Faster?’”

“Is there a Russian proverb like ‘Look before you leap’?” he asked.

‘The librarian definitely said, “I've got your brother's copy of 'Hard Times'”’, my sister told me.

 

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is used to show the possessive case of nouns and indefinite pronouns.

(1) If a word (either singular or plural) does not end in -s,add an apostrophe and-s to form the possessive.

the woman's book               

the women's books

the child's book                 

the children's books

the man's book                  

the men's books

someone's book                 

people's books

(2) If the singular of a word ends in -s, add an apostrophe and s unless the second s makes pronunciation difficult; in such cases, add only the apostrophe.

                      Lois's book               James's book

But: Moses' leadership     Sophocles' dramas

(3) If the plural of a word ends in -s, add only the apostrophe.

the girls' books     the boys' books      the Smiths' books

(4) In compounds, make only the last word possessive.

father-in-law's book (singular possessive)

mothers-in-law's books (plural possessive)

someone else's book

(5) In nouns of joint possession, make only the last noun possessive; in nouns of individual possession, make both nouns possessive.

John and Paul's book (joint possession)

John's and Paul's books (individual possession)

(6) An apostrophe is also used to indicate the omission of a letter or number.

It's    doesn't      can't    the earthquake of '88    won't    o'clock

(7) In reproducing speech, writers frequently use an apostrophe to show that a word is given a loose or colloquial pronunciation.

"An’ one o’ the boys is goin’ t’ be sick," he said.

(8) Sometimes an apostrophe and s are used to form the plurals of letters, numbers, and words used as words. In such cases, the letters, numbers, and words are italicized, but the “s” is not.

Cross your t 's and dot your I ’s.

There are two l ’s in the word 'travelling'.

Count to 1,000 by 2 ’s.

Tighten your sentence structure by eliminating unnecessary and ’s.

4.9. Hyphen

In questions concerning hyphenation we can give only general rules, and each specific use of a hyphen should be verified in the dictionary.

(1) A hyphen is used to divide a word at the end of a line where the word continues over onto the next line.

(2) A hyphen is used to form most compound words containing the following word elements:

 

cross-eyed                        

single-space

cross-fertilization                  

single-valued

great-grandmother                 

double-edged

great-hearted                     

double-talk

light-handed                      

ill-suited

light-headed                      

ill-mannered

heavy-armed                      

well-balanced

heavy-laden                       

well-prepared

 

(3) Hyphens are used between the words of a compound modifier whenit occurs before the noun but are usually omitted when the modifier follows the noun or when it is used in other ways. We do not hyphenate a compound modifier if it contains an adverb ending in- ly:

She gave us a word-for-word translation of the text. The translation was word for word. He got a hand-to-mouth salary. We were living hand to mouth. The students liked her well-prepared lesson. Everybody liked this carefully prepared lesson.

(4) A hyphen is used to join nouns in. forming compound nouns that show a combination of qualities or functions: director-producer, counselor-psycholog­ist, secretary-treasurer, etc.

(5) Hyphens are used to form compound nouns made up of different parts of speech. We do not hyphenate compound nouns denoting certain governmental positions:

an old stick-in-the-mud             

mother-in-law

a good-for-nothing                 

sergeant-at-arms

a tenth-grader                    

postmaster general

editor-in-chief                       

lieutenant-colonel

(6) A hyphen is used to form many compound words containing certain prefixes or suffixes:

ex-president                      

senator-elect

ex-housewife                     

mid-December

self-doubt                        

neo-Nazi

(7) A hyphen may be used after a prefix if the prefix causes doubling of a vowel:

 

re-examine                         pre-establish co-operative

extra-atmospheric anti-imperialism                     re-enlist

 

(8) A hyphen is used to separate the parts of a compound number under one hundred when written out:

twenty-seven                 nineteen hundred and twenty-five

seventy-second box       She is thirty-five years old.

(9) A hyphen is also used to separate the numerator and denominator of a fract­ion used as an adjective when written out:

a two-thirds majority

one-half cup of tea

 

Marks of Parenthesis

 

(1) A real parenthesis, that is, a phrase or a clause independent of the general construction of the sentence, is usually indicated by being enclosed within brackets ().

The whole mass of material wealth produced in society over a specific period (for example, a year) constitutes the gross social product.

(2) Very often to indicate a parenthesis you may use dashes.

Even nature itself - woods, meadows, the Earth's atmosphere - is transformed under the impact of social practice.

(3) Another use of the dash is to indicate that what follows it is of special significance, or is not natural or expected outcome of what goes before.

For my birthday I got a sweater, a chocolate and - a camera.

Removing envelope after envelope with ever increasing eagerness he finally disclosed - his own letter.

(4) In an informal style (especially personal letters), many people use dashes instead of colons or semi-colons.

There are three things I can never remember - names, faces, and I've forgotten the other.

We had a great time in the Caucasus - the kids really enjoyed it.

 

A series of periods

A series of periods (...) is used to indicate the author's intentional omission of a word or some words within a sentence. This punctuation is also used to express a character's hesitation in expressing this or that idea.

She was like a person so dazed by the horror of what has happened that he walks away – anywhere, as though by walking away he could escape... (K. Mansfield)

N o t e: When the omission comes at the end of a sentence, four periods are used.

She hardly dared to look into the cold mirror – but she did look, and it gave her back a woman, radiant, with smiling, trembling lips, with big, dark eyes and an air of listening, waiting for something... divine to happen... that she knew must happen... infallibly. (K. Mansfield)