Poetic devices are an important part of a beautiful, rich poem. Poetic techniques significantly help to make the poem interesting and varied. It is very useful to know what poetic devices the author uses.

Poetic devices

Epithet

An epithet in poetry is usually used to emphasize one of the properties of the described object, process or action.

This term has Greek origin and literally means "attached". At its core, an epithet is a definition of an object, action, process, event, etc., expressed in artistic form. Grammatically, an epithet is most often an adjective, but other parts of speech, such as numerals, nouns, and even verbs, can also be used as an adjective. Depending on their location, epithets are divided into prepositional, postpositional and dislocational.

Comparisons

Comparison is one of the expressive techniques, when used, certain properties that are most characteristic of an object or process are revealed through similar qualities of another object or process.

Trails

Literally, the word “trope” means “turnover” translated from Greek. However, the translation, although it reflects the essence of this term, cannot reveal its meaning even approximately. A trope is an expression or word used figuratively by the author, allegorically. Thanks to the use of tropes, the author gives the described object or process a vivid characteristic that evokes certain associations in the reader and, as a result, a more acute emotional reaction.

Tropes are usually divided into several types depending on the specific semantic connotation on which the word or expression was used in a figurative sense: metaphor, allegory, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, irony.

Metaphor

Metaphor is an expressive means, one of the most common tropes, when, based on the similarity of one or another characteristic of two different objects, a property inherent in one object is assigned to another. Most often, when using metaphor, authors, to highlight one or another property of an inanimate object, use words whose direct meaning serves to describe the features of animate objects, and vice versa, revealing the properties of an animate object, they use words whose use is typical for describing inanimate objects.

Personification

Personification is an expressive technique in which the author consistently transfers several signs of animate objects onto an inanimate object. These signs are selected according to the same principle as when using metaphor. Ultimately, the reader has a special perception of the described object, in which the inanimate object has the image of a certain living being or is endowed with qualities inherent in living beings.

Metonymy

When using metonymy, the author replaces one concept with another based on the similarity between them. Close in meaning in this case are cause and effect, material and a thing made from it, action and tool. Often the name of its author or the owner's name for ownership is used to identify a work.

Synecdoche

A type of trope, the use of which is associated with changes in quantitative relationships between objects or objects. Yes, it is often used plural instead of the only thing or vice versa, a part instead of the whole. In addition, when using synecdoche, the genus can be designated by the name of the species. This expressive means is less common in poetry than, for example, metaphor.

Antonomasia

Antonomasia is an expressive means in which the author uses a proper name instead of a common noun, for example, based on the presence of a particularly strong character trait in the character cited.

Irony

Irony is a powerful means of expression that has a hint of mockery, sometimes slight mockery. When using irony, the author uses words with opposite meanings so that the reader himself guesses about the true properties of the described object, object or action.

Gain or Gradation

When using this expressive means, the author places theses, arguments, thoughts, etc. as their importance or persuasiveness increases. Such a consistent presentation makes it possible to greatly increase the significance of the thought expressed by the poet.

Contrast or antithesis

Contrast is an expressive means that allows you to produce a special strong impression on the reader, to convey to him the author’s strong excitement due to the rapid change of concepts of opposite meaning used in the text of the poem. Also, opposing emotions, feelings and experiences of the author or his hero can be used as an object of opposition.

Default

By default, the author intentionally or involuntarily omits some concepts, and sometimes entire phrases and sentences. In this case, the presentation of thoughts in the text turns out to be somewhat confusing and less consistent, which only emphasizes the special emotionality of the text.

Exclamation

An exclamation can appear anywhere in a work of poetry, but, as a rule, authors use it to intonationally highlight particularly emotional moments in the verse. At the same time, the author focuses the reader’s attention on the moment that particularly excited him, telling him his experiences and feelings.

Inversion

To give the language of a literary work greater expressiveness, special means poetic syntax, called figures of poetic speech. In addition to repetition, anaphora, epiphora, antithesis, rhetorical question and rhetorical appeal, in prose and especially in versification, inversion (Latin inversio - rearrangement) is quite common.

Use of this stylistic device is based on an unusual order of words in a sentence, which gives the phrase a more expressive connotation. Traditional sentence construction requires next sequence: subject, predicate and attribute standing before the designated word: “The wind drives the gray clouds.” However, this word order is characteristic, to a greater extent, of prose texts, and in poetic works there is often a need for intonational emphasis on a word.

Classic examples of inversion can be found in Lermontov’s poetry: “A lonely sail turns white / In the fog of the blue sea...”. Another great Russian poet, Pushkin, considered inversion one of the main figures of poetic speech, and often the poet used not only contact, but also remote inversion, when, when rearranging words, other words are wedged between them: “The old man obedient to Perun alone...”.

Inversion in poetic texts performs an accent or semantic function, a rhythm-forming function for building a poetic text, as well as the function of creating a verbal-figurative picture. IN prose works inversion is used to place logical stresses, to express author's attitude to the characters and to convey their emotional state.

Alliteration

Alliteration refers to a special literary device consisting of the repetition of one or a number of sounds. Wherein great importance has a high frequency of these sounds in a relatively small speech area. For example, “Where the grove neighs the guns neigh.” However, if entire words or word forms are repeated, as a rule, there is no question of alliteration. Alliteration is characterized by irregular repetition of sounds, and this is precisely the main feature of this literary device. Usually the technique of alliteration is used in poetry, but in some cases alliteration can also be found in prose. So, for example, V. Nabokov very often uses the technique of alliteration in his works.

Alliteration differs from rhyme primarily in that the repeating sounds are not concentrated at the beginning and end of the line, but are absolutely derivative, albeit with high frequency. The second difference is the fact that, as a rule, consonant sounds are alliterated.

The main functions of the literary device of alliteration include onomatopoeia and the subordination of the semantics of words to associations that evoke sounds in humans.

Assonance

Assonance is understood as a special literary device consisting in the repetition of vowel sounds in a particular statement. This is the main difference between assonance and alliteration, where consonant sounds are repeated. There are two slightly different uses of assonance. Firstly, assonance is used as an original tool that gives literary text, especially poetic, has a special flavor.

For example,
“Our ears are on top of our heads,
A little morning the guns lit up
And the forests are blue tops -
The French are right there." (M.Yu. Lermontov)

Secondly, assonance is quite widely used to create imprecise rhyme. For example, “hammer city”, “incomparable princess”.

In the Middle Ages, assonance was one of the most commonly used methods of rhyming poetry. However, in modern poetry, and in the poetry of the past century one can quite easily find many examples of the use of the literary device of assonance. One of the textbook examples of the use of both rhyme and assonance in one quatrain is an excerpt from the poetic work of V. Mayakovsky:

“I won’t turn into Tolstoy, but into the fat one -
I eat, I write, I’m a fool from the heat.
Who hasn't philosophized over the sea?
Water."

Anaphora

Anaphora is traditionally understood as a literary device such as unity of command. At the same time, most often we're talking about about repetition at the beginning of a sentence, line or paragraph of words and phrases. For example, “The winds did not blow in vain, the storm did not come in vain.” In addition, with the help of anaphora one can express the identity of certain objects or the presence of certain objects and different or identical properties. For example, “I’m going to the hotel, I hear a conversation there.” Thus, we see that anaphora in the Russian language is one of the main literary devices that serve to connect the text. The following types of anaphora are distinguished: sound anaphora, morpheme anaphora, lexical anaphora, syntactic anaphora, strophic anaphora, rhyme anaphora and strophic-syntactic anaphora. Quite often, anaphora, as a literary device, forms a symbiosis with such a literary device as gradation, that is, increasing the emotional character of words in the text.

For example, “Cattle die, a friend dies, a man himself dies.”

Antithesis is a means of expression that is often used in the Russian language and in Russian literature because of its powerful expressive possibilities. So, antithesis definition is such a technique in artistic language when one phenomenon is contrasted with another. Those who want to read about the antithesis of Wikipedia will certainly find there different examples from poems.

I would like to define the concept of “antithesis” and its meaning. It is of great importance in language because it is a technique that allows compare two opposites, for example, “black” and “white”, “good” and “evil”. The concept of this technique is defined as a means of expressiveness, which allows you to very vividly describe any object or phenomenon in poetry.

What is antithesis in literature

Antithesis is an artistic figurative and expressive means that allows you to compare one object with another based on oppositions. Usually she's like artistic medium, is very popular among many modern writers and poets. But you can also find a huge number of examples in the classics. Within the antithesis can be opposed in meaning or in their properties:

• Two characters. This most often happens in cases where positive character opposed to negative;
• Two phenomena or objects;
• Different qualities of the same object (looking at the object from several aspects);
• The qualities of one object are contrasted with the qualities of another object.

Lexical meaning of trope

The technique is very popular in literature because it allows you to most clearly express the essence of a particular subject through opposition. Typically, such oppositions always look lively and imaginative, so poetry and prose that use antithesis are quite interesting to read. She happens to be one of the most popular and known means artistic expression literary text, be it poetry or prose.

The technique was actively used by the classics of Russian literature, and modern poets and prose writers use it no less actively. Most often, the antithesis underlies contrast between two characters in a work of art, When positive hero is opposed to negative. At the same time, their qualities are deliberately demonstrated in an exaggerated, sometimes grotesque form.

Skillful use of this artistic technique allows you to create a lively, imaginative description of characters, objects or phenomena found in a particular work of art (novel, story, story, poem or fairy tale). It is often used in folklore works(fairy tales, epics, songs and other genres of oral folk art). During runtime literary analysis text, you must definitely pay attention to the presence or absence of this technique in the work.

Where can you find examples of antithesis?

Antithesis examples from literature can be found almost everywhere, in the most different genres fiction starting from folk art (fairy tales, epics, legends, etc. oral folklore) and ending with works modern poets and writers of the twenty-first century. Due to its characteristics of artistic expression, the technique is most often found in the following genres of fiction:

• Poems;
• Stories:
• Fairy tales and legends (folk and author's);
• Novels and stories. In which there are lengthy descriptions of objects, phenomena or characters.

Antithesis as an artistic device

As a means of artistic expression, it is built on the opposition of one phenomenon to another. A writer who uses antithesis in his work chooses the most character traits two characters (objects, phenomena) and tries to reveal them as fully as possible by contrasting each other. The word itself, translated from ancient Greek, also means nothing more than “opposition.”

Active and appropriate use makes the literary text more expressive, lively, interesting, helps to most fully reveal the characters of the characters, the essence of specific phenomena or objects. This is what determines the popularity of the antithesis in the Russian language and in Russian literature. However, in other European languages ​​this means of artistic imagery is also used very actively, especially in classical literature.

In order to find examples of antithesis during the analysis of a literary text, you must first examine those fragments of the text where two characters (phenomena, objects) are not considered in isolation, but are opposed to each other from different points of view. And then finding a reception will be quite easy. Sometimes the whole meaning of a work is built on this artistic device. It should also be borne in mind that the antithesis can be explicit, but maybe hidden, veiled.

Find the hidden antithesis in art literary text It’s quite simple if you read and analyze the text thoughtfully and carefully. In order to teach how to correctly use a technique in your own literary text, you need to familiarize yourself with the most striking examples from Russian classical literature. However, it is not recommended to overuse it so that it does not lose its expressiveness.

Antithesis is one of the main means of artistic expression, widely used in the Russian language and in Russian literature. The technique can easily be found in many works of Russian classics. They actively use it and modern writers. The antithesis enjoys well-deserved popularity because it helps to most clearly express the essence individual heroes, objects or phenomena by contrasting one character (object, phenomenon) with another. Russian literature without this artistic device is practically unthinkable.

Everyone knows well that art is the self-expression of an individual, and literature, therefore, is the self-expression of the writer’s personality. "Baggage" writing person comprises vocabulary, speech techniques, skills in using these techniques. The richer the artist’s palette, the great opportunities when creating a canvas, he has. It’s the same with a writer: the more expressive his speech, the brighter images the deeper and more interesting statements, the more powerful emotional impact his works will be able to influence the reader.

Among the means of speech expressiveness, more often called “artistic devices” (or otherwise figures, tropes) in literary creativity In first place in terms of frequency of use is metaphor.

Metaphor is used when we use a word or expression in a figurative sense. This transfer is carried out by the similarity of individual features of a phenomenon or object. Most often, it is metaphor that creates an artistic image.

There are quite a few varieties of metaphor, among them:

metonymy - a trope that mixes meanings by contiguity, sometimes suggesting the imposition of one meaning on another

(examples: “Let me eat another plate!”; “Van Gogh is hanging on the third floor”);

(examples: “nice guy”; “pathetic little man”; “bitter bread”);

comparison is a figure of speech that characterizes an object by comparing one thing with another

(examples: “like the flesh of a child is fresh, like the call of a pipe is tender”);

personification - “revival” of objects or phenomena of inanimate nature

(examples: “ominous darkness”; “autumn cried”; “blizzard howled”);

hyperbole and litotes - a figure in the meaning of exaggeration or understatement of the described object

(examples: “he always argues”; “a sea of ​​tears”; “there wasn’t a drop of poppy dew in his mouth”);

sarcasm is an evil, caustic mockery, sometimes outright verbal mockery (for example, in popular Lately rap battles);

irony - a mocking statement when the speaker means something completely different (for example, the works of I. Ilf and E. Petrov);

humor is a trope that expresses a cheerful and most often good-natured mood (for example, the fables of I.A. Krylov are written in this vein);

grotesque is a figure of speech that deliberately violates the proportions and true dimensions of objects and phenomena (often used in fairy tales, another example is “Gulliver’s Travels” by J. Swift, the work of N.V. Gogol);

pun - deliberate ambiguity, a play on words based on their polysemy

(examples can be found in jokes, as well as in the works of V. Mayakovsky, O. Khayyam, K. Prutkov, etc.);

oxymoron - a combination in one expression of the incongruous, two contradictory concepts

(examples: “terribly handsome”, “original copy”, “pack of comrades”).

However verbal expressiveness is not limited to stylistic figures only. In particular, we can also mention sound painting, which is an artistic technique that implies a certain order in the construction of sounds, syllables, words to create some kind of image or mood, imitation of sounds real world. The reader will often encounter sound writing in poetic works, but this technique is also found in prose.

If you look at the sky, you will see the sun. Without the sun, life on Earth is impossible. The sun has attracted people's attention for thousands of years. In ancient times they worshiped him and made sacrifices.

• Red wolf - message about a rare animal

  Among known species Animals in the fauna world are distinguished by those that have features due to which they can be classified as rare. It may be unusual appearance, warm skin or nutritious meat of an animal

• Soap - message on chemistry grade 10

  Any self-respecting person cannot live without soap. It symbolizes cleanliness and personal hygiene. From a scientific point of view, soap is a solid or liquid substance.

• Laws of Hammurabi - report message

  Hammurabi's code of laws is the oldest monument written laws. It was created by one of the rulers of Babylon of the Hammurabi dynasty. The text of the laws was carved on basalt tablets. Subsequently, at the beginning of the twentieth

• How to teach a child to work and work?

  Today, the younger generation often, instead of doing housework or helping relatives in some other area of ​​activity, simply choose to walk down the street or play computer games.

Writing activity, as mentioned in this is the most interesting creative process with its own characteristics, tricks and subtleties. And one of the most effective ways highlighting a text from the general mass, giving it uniqueness, unusualness and the ability to arouse genuine interest and the desire to read it in full are literary writing techniques. They have been used at all times. First, directly by poets, thinkers, writers, authors of novels, stories and others works of art. Nowadays, they are actively used by marketers, journalists, copywriters, and indeed all those people who from time to time need to write bright and memorable text. But with the help of literary techniques, you can not only decorate the text, but also give the reader the opportunity to more accurately feel what exactly the author wanted to convey, to look at things from a perspective.

It doesn’t matter whether you are engaged in writing texts professionally, you are taking your first steps in writing skills or creating a good text just appears on the list of your responsibilities from time to time, in any case, it is necessary and important to know what literary techniques a writer has. The ability to use them is a very useful skill that can be useful to everyone, not only in writing texts, but also in ordinary speech.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the most common and effective literary techniques. Each of them will be supplied a shining example for a more precise understanding.

Literary devices

Aphorism

• “To flatter is to tell a person exactly what he thinks about himself” (Dale Carnegie)
• “Immortality costs us our lives” (Ramon de Campoamor)
• “Optimism is the religion of revolutions” (Jean Banville)

Irony

Irony is a mockery in which true meaning is put in contrast to the real meaning. This creates the impression that the subject of the conversation is not what it seems at first glance.

• A phrase said to a slacker: “Yes, I see you are working tirelessly today.”
• A phrase said about rainy weather: “The weather is whispering”
• A phrase spoken to a person business suit: “Hey, are you going for a run?”

Epithet

An epithet is a word that defines an object or action and at the same time emphasizes its peculiarity. Using an epithet, you can give an expression or phrase a new shade, make it more colorful and bright.

• Proud warrior, be steadfast
• Suit fantastic colors
• beauty girl unprecedented

Metaphor

Metaphor is an expression or word based on the comparison of one object with another based on their common feature, but used in a figurative sense.

• Nerves of steel
• The rain is drumming
• Eyes on my forehead

Comparison

Comparison is a figurative expression that connects various items or phenomena by means of some common features.

• Evgeny went blind for a minute from the bright light of the sun as if mole
• My friend's voice reminded creak rusty door loops
• The mare was frisky How flaming fire bonfire

Allusion

An allusion is a special figure of speech that contains an indication or hint of another fact: political, mythological, historical, literary, etc.

• You are truly a great schemer (reference to the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”)
• They made the same impression on these people as the Spaniards did on the Indians. South America(reference to historical fact conquest of South America by conquistadors)
• Our trip could be called “The incredible movements of Russians across Europe” (a reference to the film by E. Ryazanov “ Incredible adventures Italians in Russia")

Repeat

Repetition is a word or phrase that is repeated several times in one sentence, giving additional semantic and emotional expressiveness.

• Poor, poor little boy!
• Scary, how scared she was!
• Go, my friend, go ahead boldly! Go boldly, don’t be timid!

Personification

Personification is an expression or word used in a figurative sense, through which inanimate objects properties of the animate are attributed.

• Snowstorm howls
• Finance sing romances
• Freezing painted windows with patterns

Parallel designs

Parallel constructions are voluminous sentences that allow the reader to create an associative connection between two or three objects.

• “The waves splash in the blue sea, the stars sparkle in the blue sea” (A.S. Pushkin)
• “A diamond is polished by a diamond, a line is dictated by a line” (S.A. Podelkov)
• “What is he looking for in a distant country? What did he throw in his native land? (M.Yu. Lermontov)

Pun

A pun is a special literary device in which, in one context, different meanings the same word (phrases, phrases), similar in sound.

• The parrot says to the parrot: “Parrot, I’ll scare you.”
• It was raining and my father and I
• “Gold is valued by its weight, but by pranks - by the rake” (D.D. Minaev)

Contamination

Contamination is the creation of one new word by combining two others.

• Pizzaboy - pizza delivery man (Pizza (pizza) + Boy (boy))
• Pivoner – beer lover (Beer + Pioneer)
• Batmobile – Batman's car (Batman + Car)

Streamlines

Streamlined expressions are phrases that do not express anything specific and hide the author’s personal attitude, veil the meaning or make it difficult to understand.

• We will change the world for the better
• Acceptable losses
• It's neither good nor bad

Gradations

Gradations are a way of constructing sentences in such a way that homogeneous words in them increase or decrease their semantic meaning and emotional coloring.

• “Higher, faster, stronger” (Yu. Caesar)
• Drop, drop, rain, downpour, it’s pouring like a bucket
• “He was worried, worried, going crazy” (F.M. Dostoevsky)

Antithesis

Antithesis is a figure of speech that uses rhetorical opposition between images, states, or concepts that are interconnected by a common semantic meaning.

• “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter” (A.S. Pushkin)
• “He who was nobody will become everything” (I.A. Akhmetyev)
• “Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin” (G.R. Derzhavin)

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is stylistic figure, which is considered a stylistic error - it combines incompatible (opposite in meaning) words.

• Living Dead
• Hot Ice
• Beginning of the End

So, what do we see in the end? The number of literary devices is amazing. In addition to those we have listed, we can also name parcellation, inversion, ellipsis, epiphora, hyperbole, litotes, periphrasis, synecdoche, metonymy and others. And it is this diversity that allows anyone to apply these techniques everywhere. As already mentioned, the “sphere” of application of literary techniques is not only writing, but also oral speech. Supplemented with epithets, aphorisms, antitheses, gradations and other techniques, it will become much brighter and more expressive, which is very useful in mastering and development. However, we must not forget that the abuse of literary techniques can make your text or speech pompous and not as beautiful as you would like. Therefore, you should be restrained and careful when using these techniques so that the presentation of information is concise and smooth.

For a more complete assimilation of the material, we recommend that you, firstly, familiarize yourself with our lesson on, and secondly, pay attention to the manner of writing or speech outstanding personalities. There are a huge number of examples: from ancient Greek philosophers and poets to the great writers and rhetoricians of our time.

We will be very grateful if you take the initiative and write in the comments about what other literary techniques of writers you know, but which we have not mentioned.

We would also like to know if reading this material was useful for you?

The arsenal of techniques is quite large: metaphor, oxymoron, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes, allegory, comparison, epithet, allusion, paraphrase, anaphora, epiphora, anticipation, antithesis, paronym, permutation, gradation, etc.

Metaphor is the transfer of the properties of one object (phenomenon) to another based on a feature common to both compared members (“speaking waves”, “bronze of muscles”, “Keeping money at home means freezing it!”, etc.)

Personification is a type of metaphor, transferring the properties of animate objects to inanimate ones (“her nurse is silence”).

Oxymoron (oxymoron) - a relationship by contrast, a combination of words with opposite meanings, a connection of concepts that is logically excluded (“living corpse”, “avant-garde tradition”, “small big car" etc.).

Metonymy is the replacement of one word with another based on the connection of their meanings by contiguity (“the theater applauded” - instead of “the audience applauded”).

Synecdoche is a type of metonymy, the name of a part (smaller) instead of the whole (larger) or vice versa (“my little head is missing” - instead of “I’m missing”).

Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration (“rivers of blood”, “mountains of money”, “ocean of love”, etc.).

Litota is a deliberate understatement (“a small man”).

Allegory is the depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. In this case, the connection between meaning and image is established by analogy or contiguity (“love is the heart,” “justice is a woman with scales,” etc.).

Comparison is the likening of one object to another (“huge, like an elephant”). When comparing objects, the stronger one (explaining) transfers part of its positive and already known characteristics to an unknown object (explaining). In this way, it is easier to explain the unfamiliar through the familiar, the complex through the simple. With the help of comparisons, you can achieve greater clarity and originality.

However, comparisons often fall short and can be misinterpreted. A person will begin to think about the explanatory subject and will be distracted from the main idea.

It would be useful to evaluate whether the object is being compared with an object worse than itself, and whether the comparison will bring negative results. If in doubt, it is better not to use comparison.

An epithet is a figurative definition that gives additional artistic description object (phenomenon) in the form of a hidden comparison (“open field”, “lonely sail”, etc.) It should be borne in mind that small epithets weaken the text (“very”, “too”, “a little”, “enough” etc.).

Allusion - a hint through a similar-sounding word or mention of a well-known real fact, historical event, literary work, etc. (“Secrets of the Madrid Court”).

Paraphrase is an abbreviated statement, a descriptive conveyance of the meaning of another expression or word (“The writer of these lines” - instead of “I”).

Anaphora is the repetition of identical letters, identical parts of a word, whole words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence (“Outside of politics! Out of competition!”).

Epiphora is the repetition of identical words or phrases at the end of a sentence.

Anticipation is a deviation from the usual linear sequence of elements in which the sign necessary to understand another precedes it instead of following it, resulting in the effect of anticipation (“It’s not so new, this phenomenon called patriotism” or “ And what conversations these were – historical!”)

Antithesis is opposition in meaning, contrast. (“Small computers for big people” White Wind Company). For example, I. Ehrenburg often resorted to the antithesis: “The workers continue to stand at the levers: cold, heat, screeching, darkness. Mr. Eastman, far from the bustle of the world, eats an ostrich egg.”

Paronyms are words that are similar in sound, but different in meaning (“base” and “basis”, “hot” and “fiery.” V. Vysotsky: “And whoever does not honor quotations is a renegade and a bastard”).

Permutation is a change in the places occupied by words. (“The heart of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is in the heart”).

Gradation - sequential increase or decrease in the strength of homogeneous expressive means artistic speech (“I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...”).

A rhetorical question is a question that does not require an answer, a question to which the answer is known in advance, or a question to which the person asking himself gives the answer (“Who are the judges?”)

Often phraseological units (idioms) are effectively used in the text - stable combinations words that are metaphors figurative expressions a certain concept or phenomenon (“A mosquito won’t hurt your nose”, “Seven troubles - one answer”, etc.)

Phraseologisms are easily recognized by the reader. With their help, the memorability of individual phrases and the perception of the entire text are improved.

Proverbs and sayings also “work” on the imagery and conciseness of the text. M. Gorky spoke about them:

“It is proverbs and sayings that express the thinking of the masses in a particularly instructive completeness, and it is extremely useful for beginning writers to become acquainted with this material, not only because it excellently teaches economy of words, speech conciseness and imagery, but here’s why: the quantitatively predominant population of the Land of Soviets is the peasantry , the clay from which history created workers, townspeople, merchants, priests, officials, nobles, scientists and artists...

I learned a lot from proverbs, otherwise, from thinking in aphorisms.”

Catch words are also effective. These are apt expressions, quotes, aphorisms that have become widespread in living speech as proverbs and sayings (“To be or not to be!”, “The ears of a dead donkey,” “And finally I will say,” etc.).

The use of phraseological units, proverbs, sayings and winged words in the texts various types copywriting is based on the preservation of semantic and evaluative associations evoked in a stable manner. This image is not destroyed even when freely arranged by the author. At the same time, a formal, superficial use of phraseological units and catchwords is often observed. In such cases, either the meaning is completely distorted or semantic contradictions arise.

Often authors resort to reminiscence - a reference to well-known literary facts or works. Reminiscence can be in the form of an exact or inaccurate quotation, “quoted” or remaining implicit, subtextual. Reminiscences link the text with a general cultural and social context and also allow authors not to repeat themselves, but to make do with a more laconic description of events or facts. One of the most frequently used reminiscences is a reference to a particular fragment of the Bible text. Reminiscence is one of the favorite techniques of postmodernists.

(It is curious that, by and large, each text is a set of explicit or implicit quotes and references to other texts.)

Unfinished sentences, indicated in the text by ellipsis, are successfully used. Humans have an inherent desire for completion. In this regard, he tries to finish the sentence and is thus drawn into actively reading the text.

Very often, the basis for unfinished sentences is taken well famous sayings, popular expressions, quotes from literary works(“Fisherman of fishermen...”, “Without difficulty...”, “I gave birth to you...”, etc.) Naturally, the reader must complete the sentence exclusively with the variant of words provided by the copywriter.

One of the frequently used techniques is repetition (complementary and clarifying reminders of what has already been said). With the help of repetitions, the most important, especially significant points of the text are highlighted and emphasized.

Puns are also used in various texts - a play on words based on the sound similarity of different sounding words or phrases (“Osip is hoarse, and Arkhip is hoarse”).

A play on words can be based not only on the sound content, but also on the spelling.

Examples of using written puns in advertising:

AT LEAST COUTURE

(Sign on the store)

THIS is who he is!

(Trading house"Oton")

Connotation is an additional, accompanying meaning that can inspire the desired attitude towards an object. For example, Putinka vodka, President vodka, Kremlin vodka.

The additional value may change in strength over time. For example, in Soviet time the word “imported” gave the product additional attractiveness, but lost it over time.

Often, striving for novelty and originality, copywriters create neologisms - their own words and expressions, the unusualness of which is clearly felt by native speakers. So, for example, the words “substance” and “thermometer” were invented by M. Lomonosov, “industry” - N. Karamzin, “bungling” - M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “to shy away” - F. Dostoevsky, “mediocrity” - I. Severyanin , “exhausted” - V. Khlebnikov, “hulk” - V. Mayakovsky, etc.

It is curious that the first person in history to use the word “gay” in literature was Gertrude Stein. She gave the world the definition of “ lost generation" This lesbian writer hated punctuation. Her most famous quote is “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”

Sometimes, in the pursuit of originality, words are created that, without special explanation, are not understood by a significant part of the audience or no one at all.

In cases where it is necessary to replace a rude, aggressive or too direct expression with a softer one, a euphemism is used. It is necessary to ensure that the technique does not complicate perception or lead to misunderstanding. After all, under one word for different people may be different.

Such a “tool” as cacofemism is also used in copywriting - reduced, replacing the normative, decent. For example, instead of “die,” in some cases you can write “glue your fins,” “throw away your skates,” “play the box,” etc.

A very interesting technique is defamiliarization (from the word “strange”). This term was introduced by V. Shklovsky:

“Distamiliarization is seeing the world through different eyes.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau defamiliarized the world in his own way; he seemed to live outside the state.

The world of poetry includes the world of defamiliarization.

Gogol's troika, which rushes over Russia, is a Russian troika, because it is sudden. But at the same time, it is a global troika, it rushes over Russia, and over Italy, and over Spain.

This is a movement of new, self-affirming literature.

A new vision of the world.

Defamiliarization is a matter of time.

Defamiliarization is not only a new vision, it is a dream of a new and only therefore sunny world. And a colored shirt without Mayakovsky’s belt is festive man's clothing, firmly believing in tomorrow."

Striving for originality and defamiliarization, copywriters sometimes use techniques that are more like tricks. For example, the writer Ernest Vincent Wright has a novel called Gadsby, which consists of more than 50,000 words. In the entire novel there is not a single letter E, the most common letter in the English language.

More detailed information on this topic can be found in the books of A. Nazaikin