What is paraphrase in literature. What is periphrase: types and examples from fiction
In Russian linguistics in modern world the concept of "text style" came to the fore. Stylistics rightfully took priority positions in the course of the Russian language in high school high school. It is also studied by students of the first and second courses of higher educational institutions linguistic and non-linguistic orientation. This is important because when analyzing a text, the student encounters a large number of different stylistic units. And he must be able to distinguish between them.
In the texts submitted for linguistic analysis, periphrastic units or periphrases are very common. In this article, we will focus on this stylistic unit.
Paraphrase (periphrase) is a unit of style, which, when translated from Greek means "I'm talking around". In stylistics, this term is understood as a lexically indivisible phrase of a descriptive meaning. It allegorically explains another phrase or word.
Examples from fiction:
no./p. | Example | Author |
1 | Titan nailed to the rock | Ancient Greek myths |
2 | Died ..., slave of honor ... | |
3 | A thundering goblet from the sky... | F. Tyutchev |
4 | She rested in eternal sleep | A. Pushkin |
5 | The cheat approaches the tree on tiptoe | I. Krylov |
6 | Morpheus will not close their eyes | A. Pushkin |
7 | The bee town howls and buzzes | A.Tvardovsky |
8 | From the gaps between the clouds, a beam of sun periodically escaped | A. Utkin |
9 | The contents of a dirty iron box were shaken out against the walls of the airport. | A.Torin |
10 | He's just a media plowman | Ch. Aitmatov |
11 | Despising road guards and protecting the rights of pedestrians | Z. Prilepin |
Definition of paraphrase in the section of Russian stylistics literary language can be formulated as follows.
Paraphrase is a stylistic trope whose figurative function is based on the principle of replacing one word with a descriptive phrase.
Kinds
In the modern style of the Russian literary language, linguists distinguish different kinds and subspecies of paraphrase. In this article, we will adhere to the traditional approach to the classification of tropes and name the types of these stylistic units that correspond to the established approach.
Types of paraphrase:
- figurative. This view has a basis in the form of a metaphorical statement. By and large, there is no fundamental difference between this type of periphrase and metaphor. Differences can be found only in the structure of these language units. But this difference is not fundamentally important.
- Brain teaser. In other words, they are synonymous expressions. They replace a broad concept with a concrete one. It is important that at the heart of this fundamentally new specific concept there should be no abstract image.
- Suspenders. This unit of style is a subspecies of periphrase. It was described by the linguist Buzaji. He believes that this subspecies is based on the replacement of a specific concept by a general one with the help of two or more words.
Domestic linguist Ilya Romanovich Galperin adheres to his own classification. He distinguishes two types of these stylistic units. In his classification, the basis is the authorship of a word or phrase.
Two types of stylistic units according to Galperin:
- Original. In other words, these are stylistic units that belong to a particular author.
- Traditional. These units are tightly integrated into the Russian language and their meaning is clear without context. This type can be considered a component of the phraseology of the native language.
Examples in language:
Wikipedia offers three different classifications of periphrases. A lot of information is devoted to the use of the trope in speech.
At the end of the article, in the form of a list, paraphrases that belong to famous people are listed.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Paraphrase
If you go through it, you can find a lot of interesting information on the topic of the article.
Examples in advertising
In today's multi-information world, advertising is becoming an important engine. Paraphrasing is often used in advertising posts and commercials.
It is important that in a commercial or on a banner, the trope should only be used next to the image of the object or phenomenon about which in question. If this rule is not observed, then the reader (watcher) simply will not understand what is at stake.
- Clean, refreshing water. (Aqua Minerale)
- This is a product for those to whom the car has become a home.
- Stop this boredom. (Drink tonic)
- Our devices will turn you on. (Technique in Eldorado)
- Crazy discovery. (Japanese restaurant)
- Each pine or spruce when buying a plot. (Sale)
- a great offer for students. (MTS services)
- Soak the eared in milk. (Nesquik)
- Gypsum-gypsum hooray! (Construction mixes)
- Bath of my dreams. (Processed cheese Hochland)
- Live sour! (Pepsi)
Figurative paraphrases
They are like metaphors. Figurative paraphrases are found very often in texts of artistic and journalistic styles. Such stylistic units give the text a special expression.
- Greetings, desert corner...
- Where are you ..., Freedom, a proud singer?
- Country of birch chintz…
- Through a dream meets the morning of the year.
- I see the proud heads of the Caucasus before me.
- Poet ..., slave of honor.
- One of the five continents, powered by cowboys.
- Ukraine is the homeland of dumplings, huts and oxen.
- Land of the Rising Sun.
- The city of white nights, bridges and canals.
- The pond was bound with icy chains.
- City of three revolutions.
Idioms
It is customary to call an idiom in Russian, the components of which have the same meaning. Among the periphrases, there are those that are part of the phraseology.
Here are examples of such expressions:
- North Venice.
- Flowers of life.
- Foggy Albion.
- Great worker.
- Skillful fingers.
- Take off the yoke from your neck.
- Red warrior.
- Fascist vultures.
- Fifth Ocean.
- Field worker.
- Return your question.
- Turtle pace.
- Wine country.
- Sea of tears.
- Night light.
- Dive into sleep.
- Hare soul.
Useful video
Conclusion
Thus, we can say that a periphrase is a unit of style that gives imagery to speech. In the text, it allows you to make lexical substitution, thereby avoiding unjustified repetitions. Paraphrases enrich the speech of the speaker and writer, allow you to express a variety of emotions, attitudes towards a particular phenomenon. They can be used to convey feelings.
If a person uses paraphrases in written and oral speech, then this is evidence that he has an individual style.
In contact with
Why is fiction so enjoyable and interesting to read? Is it just because of the plot itself? Obviously not. The very style of the author and the way he transfers the story to paper attracts and makes you move from line to line. Writers and poets use a variety of means of expression in their works to attract readers to any details or convey a vivid image. One such tool is paraphrase. Let's find out what a paraphrase is, using examples from fiction and not only.
Definition
The term "periphrase" itself originated from the ancient Greek word, which translates as "allegory, descriptive expression."
In general, this translation conveys the essence of the use of this means of expression. Paraphrase is a term in stylistics denoting a descriptive expression of an object. Such a description arises on the basis of highlighting some bright and significant feature or quality. In Russian, an example of a paraphrase can be found even in ordinary colloquial speech. Very often, the paraphrase is such a vivid expression that it becomes stable and is used by many people in everyday communication.
An example of a paraphrase as a catch phrase
Very often we use various winged expressions, but we don’t even know how they are called correctly. In childhood, watching cartoons and reading books about different animals, every child heard the phrase “king of beasts” and knew that it was a lion, because he looks so important and majestic, so strong and formidable.
Or many, watching films about the conquest of space, heard how the Earth was called the blue planet. After all most its surface is occupied by a blue water surface.
And there are a lot of such examples of paraphrases in Russian. They are used in various fields by a large number of people. For example, about the feeling of glut after eating, you can say “fill your belly”, or when it comes to Margaret Thatcher, someone will definitely exclaim: “ The Iron Lady!»
What is paraphrase used for?
First of all, the paraphrase is used as a means of artistic expression.
This is one of the ways to create a bright and memorable image. Usually poets resorted to the use of paraphrase, because poems are often full of figurative expressions in which nothing is said in plain text. The most popular was the use of paraphrase in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most often, examples of paraphrase are found in the fiction of this particular period. It is worth opening any work and taking a closer look.
Examples of paraphrase from literature
Most likely, there are only a few such people. After all, his poems are an obligatory part school curriculum, starting with the first grade and ending with the eleventh. And in his poems you can find many examples of paraphrase. Everyone who read his poem about autumn will most likely remember the phrase "dreary time." These words also became catch phrase. After all, it is immediately clear what time of the year we are talking about.
There are a lot of examples of paraphrase from fiction. This technique was also used by M. Yu. Lermontov when he called A. S. Pushkin in his poem a slave of honor. And other famous writers resorted to the help of this means of expression.
Paraphrase and journalism
Paraphrases are very common in newspaper headlines or articles. After all, vivid images attract readers. Examples of paraphrase can be found in the articles of critics. For example, V. G. Belinsky once called A.S. Pushkin as the sun of Russian poetry. From the content of the article it was immediately clear who it was about, and this expression is still used in relation to the great poet.
In Soviet times, one could often come across such phrases as "the leader of the proletariat." And it was also clear what it was about. Various newspaper headlines and advertisements still use paraphrase as a means of expression to get people's attention.
Classification
Looking at various examples of paraphrase, you can see that not all of them are similar and are used in the same way. In fact, there is a classification that divides paraphrase into two categories.
The second category is author's paraphrases. These include examples from various works. These are the expressions that belong to writers and poets. The author once created a clear and memorable image, used it in his work, and then these words became a catch phrase.
Also, paraphrase can be divided into two more types.
The first type includes logical paraphrases. They are united into one kind by the existence of a clear connection of descriptive properties. Hearing such a paraphrase, a person immediately guesses the qualities that served as the basis for the formation of the paraphrase. Examples of a logical view: the king of beasts, four-legged friends.
The second type includes figurative periphrases. They are mostly metaphorical. Some researchers believe that only this species can be attributed to the trails. Let's look at examples. N.V. Gogol created a very bright character Plyushkin. This image turned out to be so memorable that even now a stingy person can be called a plush, and it will be clear what personal qualities is being discussed. This is an example of figurative paraphrase.
Who creates paraphrases?
Where do these figurative expressions come from and why are they becoming so popular? Paraphrases come into our speech in different ways. Most often, their authors are well-known writers, publicists, poets, whose works and works are read, loved and discussed by many people. They come from flashy newspaper headlines, advertisements, media mass media, movies, TV shows.
In fact, everyone can become the author of a paraphrase. It can be some expression that conveys an image that is understandable in a narrow circle of family or among friends. It is unlikely that such a paraphrase will become popular and famous, but nevertheless, it can be used with like-minded people.
It is obvious that paraphrase is very common in our life. It’s just that sometimes we don’t think about what this or that expression is. But now there is a reason to look at communication in a new way. Knowledge of the means of expression also allows you to read various works more carefully and thoughtfully and see something new, previously unnoticed by anyone. After reading this article, there may be a reason to re-discover the familiar poems of A. S. Pushkin or M. Yu. Lermontov, to look at them differently, with a fresh look. Mark the means of expression and think about why the author used them, what effect he wanted to produce on the reader.
The term " paraphrase"" or "" comes from the Greek word "periphrasis" (where peri - "around" and phradzo - "I speak") and denotes a trope that is used instead of another word. This turn of phrase is descriptive.
Types of paraphrase.
Paraphrases are divided into:
- general language (understandable to most, popular in some period of time),
- individually-author's.
Common and understandable paraphrases include the allegorical names of a lion - "king of beasts", children - "flowers of life", TV - "blue screen".
One of clear examples periphrases, understandable to many, are such names of St. Petersburg as "City on the Neva", "Northern Venice", "Northern Capital" or "Northern Palmyra". And as an individual author's one can name the trope "Peter's creation" by Alexander Pushkin ("I love you, Peter's creation").
Features of the construction of the paraphrase.
The sign by which a paraphrase is created must be inherent in the object or phenomenon being defined, understandable to many people. This trope allows the author to emphasize one side of what is being described, leaving the rest in the background. For example, autumn in Pushkin's poems turned into a "dull time" and "charm to the eyes."
A feature of periphrase is its semantic (semantic) unity. That is, such statements and phrases cannot be broken or the word in them changed. Thus, the trope becomes a phraseologically related phrase that is understandable to most native speakers.
Paraphrases often found in the media and oral speech:
- the ship of the desert is a camel;
- black gold - oil;
- clerical rat - official;
- the second bread is potatoes;
- the eternal city - Rome;
- the third Rome is Moscow.
- blue planet - Earth;
The role of the trope in speech.
The use of paraphrase in literary texts, journalistic materials and speeches of speakers allows you to enhance the expressiveness of the statement, make it more vivid, memorable, catchy.
Paraphrase examples.
Examples from fiction.
Paraphrase is a figurative and expressive means of speech, therefore it is used in works of art, and of any kind: in the epic, lyrics and drama.
Alexander Pushkin called William Shakespeare "the creator of Macbeth", and George Byron - "the singer of Giaur and Juan."
Mikhail Lermontov, in the famous obituary "The Death of a Poet", written on the death of Alexander Pushkin, used a lot of allegory, never naming his colleague by name or surname: "the poet is a slave of honor", "wonderful genius" and "ceremonial wreath".
Periphrasis, or Periphrasis [gr. perifrasis] is a syntactic-semantic figure that consists in replacing a one-word name of an object or action with a descriptive verbose expression. There are several types of paraphrase:
I. As a grammatical figure:
A) the property of the object is taken as a control word, the name of the object is taken as a control word: “The poet used to amuse khanov rattlesnake poems"(paraphrase of the word" poems ");
b) the verb is replaced by a noun formed from the same stem with another (auxiliary) verb: "an exchange is taking place" instead of "exchange".
II. As a stylistic figure:
C) the name of the object is replaced by a descriptive expression, which is an extended trope (metaphor, metonymy, etc.): “send me, in the language of Delisle, twisted steel piercing the tarred head of the bottle, i.e., a corkscrew "(Pushkin's letter to his brother).
Here are examples of paraphrases: "people in white coats" (doctors), "red cheat" (fox), "king of beasts" (lion), "blue screen" (TV), "night luminary" (moon).
The most common periphrases were at a time when they were strictly related to the selection of vocabulary and simple words considered unpoetic. The use of periphrases was especially developed in the period of late classicism in the 18th century and was retained in early XIX century. Paraphrases are often found in M. Lomonosov:
The art with which Apelles was glorified,
And to whom now Rome has lifted up its head,
If the benefits of Glass are great,
Finifti, Mosaics prove that ...
("Letter on the benefits of glass", 1752).
Here the first two verses are a paraphrase, which means "painting".
Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy and many other writers and poets admired the expressiveness and beauty of the Russian language, whose lives and creative activity were directly related to the word. They noted its euphony, rich, varied vocabulary, extended semantics, allowing them to skillfully use all visual and expressive means.
Introduction to the concept
What is such a linguistic phenomenon as paraphrase? We meet examples of it quite often both in everyday communication and in artistic speech. If you hear how someone instead of the word “moon” says “queen of the night” or “night star”, and instead of “stars” - “guiding lights”, “pearls” and “precious placers”, then know that it was precisely with the above concept. In art, it was distinguished by the ancient Greeks, they also gave it a definition: "an expression that describes one phenomenon with the help of another." That is, allegory, “one instead of the other” - this is how “periphrase” sounds literally in Greek. Examples of such “around the bush” (another translation-interpretation) are quite easy to find. Yes, here is at least the famous Pushkin's appeal to the sea: "Farewell, free element!"
Paraphrase - paraphrase
Which is discussed in the article, people who are ignorant of artistic tropes are often confused with a paraphrase - a word that is very similar in sound, but has a completely different meaning. This term means different types retelling of the text: detailed, abbreviated, adapted, transcriptions from poetry to prose and vice versa. It also includes various comments, including scientific texts. Paraphrase has a completely different purpose. Its examples in speech are in many ways similar to the role of pronouns in grammar. Both linguistic phenomena do not name objects, signs, but point to them: “he” instead of “man” and “one-armed bandit” instead of “gaming machine”.
Speech expressiveness
There are quite a lot of tropes that descriptively express some concepts with the help of others in literary criticism. These are metaphors, and puns, and comparisons. Special place among them is a paraphrase. Examples identified in colloquial speech and make it possible to classify the phenomenon into logical subgroups and figurative. In the logical, descriptive moment is built on explicit, visible, easily distinguishable connections between objects, phenomena, events. And in figurative - on the system of associations and hidden unifying links. What is a logical paraphrase? Examples in Russian are found quite easily. This is "the author of "The Hero of Our Time" instead of "Lermontov", and " green spaces' instead of 'plant'. Their distinguishing feature- widespread, transparent lexical meaning, stereotypical reproduction.
word art
A somewhat different kind of figurative paraphrase. Examples from fiction help to reveal its essence as accurately as possible. If someone is called Oblomov, it will become clear that they mean such qualities of a person as laziness, lack of desire to do anything, idle daydreaming. Plyushkin has long been synonymous with stinginess in its highest manifestation, native speakers of the Russian language often call Moscow "White Stone", and St. Petersburg - with Pushkin's words: "Peter's creation." In this case, we are not dealing with periphrase in its pure form, but with its fusion with other tropes: metaphor and comparison. Often they are realized (that is, they have lost their pronounced figurative meaning), deployed or hidden.
Two in one
What else is interesting about the paraphrase? Examples from the literature and prove its connection with another linguistic phenomenon - euphemism, more precisely, the imposition of one concept on another. In what cases does this happen? If it is necessary to replace a rough, stylistically reduced word with another, more “noble” one. For example, instead of "cough" they say "clear their throat", instead of "fart" they say "spoil the air". A prostitute is called a "woman of easy virtue", "hetera", "representative of the most ancient profession", "Messalina". The process of clearing the sinuses - beautiful expression“use a handkerchief”, etc. Euphemisms appeared and entrenched in the language at a time when its literary norms, there was a struggle for purity and correctness. Even Lomonosov, with his theory of the “three calms”, drew a sharp line between “high”, “medium” and “low” vocabulary. It was believed that refined and educated nobles should not use rudeness in speech. And although the teachings of Lomonosov primarily concerned
literature, genera and genres, it has found the widest application in society.
There is another reason for the appearance of euphemisms: the paraphrase is subjective and is determined by religious and cult factors. For example, instead of "devils" in Rus', especially among the people, it was customary to say "unclean" or "evil". It was believed that such names would not attract undue attention of otherworldly forces to people, and they, in turn, would not annoy "God's souls." In the same way, the peasants did not pronounce the words "brownie" aloud, calling him "master", "grandfather", "helper". The word "Sam" came up quite often. They believed that otherwise the brownie would be offended and we would start playing dirty tricks on them. And if you call it “correctly”, then in this way you can appease the spirit, which will certainly bring good luck to the house.