* Figures of inequality

Clarifying (specifying) synonyms (synonymous repetition used to characterise different aspects of the same referent).

E.g. You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O'Henry)

Climax (gradation of emphatic elements growing in strength).

E. g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned? (O'Henry).

Anti-climax (back gradation--instead of a few elements growing in intensity without relief there unexpectedly appears a weak or contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or ridiculous).

E. g. The woman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse--goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning. (Twain)

Zeugma (combination of unequal, or incompatible words based on the economy of syntactical units).

E.g. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens) Pun (play upon words based on polysemy or homonymy).

E. g. What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward you?--Long ones.

Disguised tautology (semantic difference in formally coincidental parts of a sentence, repetition here does not emphasise the idea but carries a different information in each of the two parts).

E. g. For East is East, and West is West... (Kipling)

* Figures of contrast

Oxymoron (a logical collision of seemingly incompatible words).

E. g. His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. (Tennyson)

Antithesis (anti-statement, active confrontation of notions used to show the contradictory nature of the subject described).

E. g. It was the bestof times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of Darkness... Hope... Despair. (Dickens)

His fees were high, his lessons were light. (O'Henry)

An overview of the classifications presented here shows rather varied approaches to practically the same material. And even though they contain inconsistencies and certain contradictions they reflect the scholars' attempts to overcome an inventorial description of devices. They obviously bring stylistic study of expressive means to an advanced level, sustained by the linguistic research of the 20th century that allows to explore and explain the linguistic nature of the stylistic function. This contribution into stylistic theory made by modern linguistics is not contained to classifying studies only. It has inspired exploration of other areas of research such as decoding stylistics or stylistic grammar that will be discussed in further chapters.

II.2 Homonyms

Many words, especially characterized by a high frequency rating, are not connected with meaning by a one relation-ship. On the contrary, one symbol as a rule serves to render several different meanings. The phenomenon may be said to be the reverse of synonymy where several symbols correspond to one meaning. Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek (homos 'similar' and onoma 'name') and thus expresses very well the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning. (12,123)

E. g. bank, n.- a shore

bank, n.-an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging money

ball, n. -- a sphere; any spherical body

ball, n.- a large dancing party

English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental : the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development.

Homonymy exists in many languages, but in English it is particularly frequent, especially among monosyllabic words. In the list of 2,540 homonyms given in the Oxford English Dictionary 89% are monosyllabic words and only 9,1% are words of two syllables. From the viewpoint of their morphological structure, they are mostly one-morpheme words.

If synonyms and antonyms can be regarded as the treasury of the language's expressive resources, homonyms are of no interest in this respect, and one cannot expect them to be of particular value for communication. Metaphorically speaking, groups of homonyms and pairs of antonyms are created by the vocabulary system with a particular purpose whereas homonyms are accidental creations, and therefore purposeless.

In the process of communication they are more of an encumbrance, leading sometimes to confusion and misunderstanding. Yet it is this very characteristic which makes them one of the most important sources of popular humour.

The pun is a joke based upon the play upon words of similar form but different meaning (i.e. on homonyms) as in the following: "A tailor guarantees to give each of his customers a perfect fit."

(The joke is based on the homonyms: 1 .fit, n.-perfectly fitting clothes; 2.fit,u. -- a nervous spasm)

Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling (as the example given in the beginning of this chapter) are traditionally termed homonyms proper.

The following joke is based on a pun which makes use of another type of homonyms:

"Waiter!"

"Yes, sir."

II.2.1 Sources of Homonyms

One source of homonyms has already been mentioned: phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and thus become homonyms.(12,151)

Night and knight, for instance, were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k in the second word was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound form: O. E. kniht (cf. O.E. niht). A more complicated change of form brought together another pair of homonyms: to knead ( O.E. cnedah) and to need (O.E. neodiah).

In Old English the verb to write had the form writan, and the adjective right had the forms reht, riht. The noun sea descends from the Old English form sae, and the verb to see from O.E. seon. The noun work and the verb to work also had different forms in Old Enhlish: wyrkean and weork respectively.

Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may , in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. So, in the group of homonyms rite, n.- to write, v.-right, adj. the second and third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing (<Lat. ritus). In the pair piece ,n.-peace,n., the first originates from Q.'F.pais, and the second from O.F. (<Gaulish) pettia. Bank ,n.("shore") is a native word, and bank ,n. ("a financial institution") is an Italian borrowing. Fair, adj. (as in a fair deal, it's not fair] is native, and fair, n. ("a gathering of buyers and sellers") is a French borrowing. Match, n. ("a game; a contest of skill, strength") is native, and match ,n. ("a slender short piece of wood used for producing fire") is a French borrowing.

Word-building also contributes significantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type in this respect is undoubtedly conversion. Such pairs of words as comb,n.- to comb,v.,pale,ad]. - to pale, v. To make ,v.- make,n. are numerous in the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms.

Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number of

homonyms. E.g. fan, n. in the sense of "an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer , etc." is a shortening produced from, fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing/aw, n. which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air. The noun rep, n. denoting a kind of fabric (cf. with the R. penc) has three homonyms made by shortening : rep,n. (<repertory), rep,n.(<representative), rep,n.(<reputationy, all the three are informal words. During World War II girls serving in the Women Royal Naval Service (an auxiliary of the British Royal Navy) were jokingly nicknamed Wrens (informal). This neologistic formation made by shortening has the homonym wren,n. "a small bird with dark brown plumage barred with black" (R.крапивник)

Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words e. g. bang, n. ("a loud, sudden, explosive noise") - bang, n. ("a fringe of hair combed over the forehead"). Also: mew, n. ("the sound a cat makes") - mew, n. ("a sea gull") -- mews ("a small terraced houses in Central London").

The above-described sources of homonyms have one important feature in common. In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. (In this respect, conversation certainly presents an exception for in pairs of homonyms formed by conversation one word of the pair is produced from the other: a find < to find.)

Now we come to a further source of homonyms which differs essentially from all the above cases. Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy. From what has been said in the previous chapters about polysemantic words, it should have become clear that the semantic structure of a polysemantic

A somewhat different case of split polysemy may be illustrated by the three following homonyms:

spring, n. -- the act of springing, a leap

spring, n. - a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth (R. родник, источник)

spring, n. -- a season of the year.

Historically all three nouns originate from the same verb with the meaning of "to jump, to leap" (O.E. springan), so that the meaning of the first homonym is

the oldest. The meanings of the second and third homonyms were originally based on metaphor. At the head of a stream the water sometimes leaps up out of the earth, so that metaphorically such a place could well be described as a leap. On the other hand, the season of the year following winter could be poetically defined as a leap from the darkness and cold into sunlight and life. Such metaphors are typical enough of Old English and Middle English semantic transferences but not so characteristic of modern mental and linguistic processes. The poetic associations that lay in the basis of the semantic shifts described above have long since been forgotten, and an attempt to re-establish the lost links may well seem far-fetched. It is just the near-impossibility of establishing such links that seems to support the claim for homonymy and not for polysemy with these three words.

It should be stressed, however, that split polysemy as a source of homonyms is not accepted by some scholars. It is really difficult sometimes to decide whether a certain word has or has not been subjected to the split of the semantic structure and whether we are dealing with different meanings of the same word or with homonyms, for the criteria are subjective and imprecise. The imprecision is recorded in the data of different dictionaries which often contradict each other on this very issue, so that board is represented as two homonyms in Professor V.K. Muller's dictionary, as three homonyms in Professor V.D. Arakin's and as one and the same word in Hornby's dictionary.

II.2.2 Classification of Homonyms

The subdivision of homonyms into homonyms proper, homophones and homographs is certainly not precise enough and does not reflect certain important features of these words, and, most important of all, their status as parts of speech. The examples given in the beginning of this chapter show that homonyms may belong both to the same and to different categories of parts of speech. Obviously, a classification of homonyms should reflect this distinctive feature. Also, the paradigm of each word should be considered, because it has been observed that the paradigms of some homonyms coincide completely, and of others only partially.(12,166)

Accordingly, Professor A. I. Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes:

1. Full homonyms,

2. Partial homonyms.

Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm.

E. g match, n. -- a game, a contest

match, n. - a short piece of wood used for producing fire

wren, n. - a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service wren, n. - a bird

Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups:

· Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words which belong to thesame category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, butit is never the same form, as will be seen from the examples.

E.g. (to) found, v.

found, v. (Past Indefinite, Past Participle of to find)

to lay, v.

lay, v. (Past Indef. Of to lie)

to bound, v.

bound, v. (Past Indef, Past Part, of to bind)

· Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of differentcategories of parts of speech which have one identical form in their paradigms.

E.g. rose, n.

rose, v. (Past Indef. Of to rise)

maid, n.

maid, v. (Past Indef, Past Part, of to make)

left, adj.

left, v. (Past Indef, Past Part, of to leave)

bean, n.

been, v. (Past Part, of to be)

one, num.

won, v. (Past Indef, Past Part, of to win)

· Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms.

E.g. to lie (lay, lain), v.

to lie (lied, lied), v.

to hang (hung, hung), v.

to hang (hanged, hanged), v.

to can (canned, canned)

can (could)

II.2.3 Homonyms in the book

Lewis Carroll used many stylistic devices in his book. One of them is pun. This definition of pun is given in the dictionary of literary terms of J.A.CUDDON.1979 Published by Penguin Books: "Pun-a figure of speech which involves a play upon words. The Greek term is paronomasia. One of the earliest types of word-play, the pun is widespread in many literatures and gives rise to a fairly universal form of humour" Lewis Carroll used homonyms to create the humourous effect, some dialogues are based on the play upon words, and it causes misunderstanding. Here are the extracts from the book where homonyms are used on this purpose.1. "Mine is a long tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. "It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this:

"Fury said to

a mouse, That

he met in the house, 'Let

us both go

to law: I

will prose-

cute you.

Come, I'll

take no de-

nial; We

must have

a trial:

For really

this morn-

ing I've

nothing

to do.'

Said the

mouse to

the cur,

'Such a trial,

dear Sir, With

no jury

or judge,

would

be wast-

ing our

breath.'

I'll be

judge,

I'll be

Jury,'

Said cun-

ning

old

Fury:

'I'll

try

the

whole

cause,

and

con-

demn

you to

death.'"

This way L. Carroll realizes the unwanted mistake of Alice, caused by homonymy of the words "tale" and "tail": and there appeared the verse in the shape of mouse's tail. (2 ,44) 'Tale' and 'tail' are homophones

Tale

tale-['teil]-w., a story, number, count (Practical English Dictionary)

tale --n., a story, told story <Old English talu ; Old German zala (german Zahl "number"); Old Island tola "story; number" (A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms)

Webster's School Dictionary:

- Tale \ ?tвl \ n 1 : man oral relation or recital <a tale of woe> 2: a story about imaginary event <a fairy tale> 3 : a false story : LIE 4: a piece of harmful gossip <all sorts of tales were going around about them> 5 a : COUNT 1, TALLY b : a number of things taken together : TOTAL [ Old English talu ]

Tail

Tail-n.,<Old English taegel; Old German zagal (german dial. Zagel); Old Island tagl "a tail of a horse"; got. tagl "hair"(A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms)

Webster's School Dictionary:

-tail \?tвl \ n 1: the rear end or a lengthened growth from the rear end of the body of an animal 2: something resembling an animal's tail <tail of a kite> [Old English tegel]

Tail-[teil]-n., the projecting continuation of the backbone at the hinder end of an animal(Practical English Dictionary)

2. "You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well - eh, stupid?"

"But they were in the well," Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this last remark. "Of course they were," said the Dormouse: "well in".

Here Carroll continues playing upon words: by changing the word order he changes words' meaning. He used the proper homonym 'well' in this joke.

Well

Well-['wel]-adv. In a good manner or degree. - a. In good health; suitable. Well-[wel]-n. a deep hole for water; a spring. - v. i. to flow out or up (Practical English Dictionary)

well[wel] >(A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms) I n., a deep hole for water <Old English wella; Old German wella (Germ. Welle) "a wave"; Old Island veil "boiling"; relative Lit. vilnis "wave"; Russian eonna II adv., in a good manner or degree <Old English wel; Old German wela, wola (Germ. wohl); Old Island vel, Got. waila; relative Latin velle "to want"

Webster's School Dictionary:

Well \?wel\ n 1 a : an issue of water from the earth : a pool fed by a spring b: a source of supply: WELLSPRING <was a well of information> 2: a hole sunk into earth to reach a natural deposit (as of water, oil, or gas) 3 something suggesting a well (as in being damp, cool, deep, or dark) [Old English welle] Well adv.la: in a pleasing or desirable manner <me party turned out well> b : in a good or proper manner < did the work well> 2; in a full or generous manner < eat well> <the orchard bore well> 3: with reason to courtesy: PROPERLY <we could not very well refuse> 4: in all respects <a well deserved ovation> 5: in an intimate way<know a person well> 6: without trouble or difficulty <I could well have gone> 8: exactly la <remember it well> [Old English wel]

3. "It's a mineral, I think," said Alice.

"Of course it is," said the Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to everything that Alice said: "there's a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is - 'The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours." The author uses the homonymy of the word "mine". It's a proper homonym.

Mine

Mine-pron., that belonging to me(Practical English Dictionary)

Mine-n., a deep hole for digging out coal, metals, etc.; an underground gallery with a charge of explosive; a large shell or canister of explosive placed in the sea to destroy ships. (Practical English Dictionary)

A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms: Mine

I pron., that belonging to me < Old English mоm; Old German mоm (Germ, mein);Old Island minn, Got. meins; relative Russian меня>

II n., an underground gallery with a charge of explosive; a deep hole for digging outcoal, metals, etc. <XIII, from (Old) French mine, perhaps from Celt. (MiddleIsland, Gael, mein "ore")>

v., to obtain from a mine <XIV>

Webster's School Dictionary:

?mine \min, 'mоm\ adj., archaic : my - used before a word beginning with a vowel or h <mine eyes> <mine host> or sometimes as a modifier of a preceding noun <mother mine> [Old English mm]

²mine \'mоn\ pron., sing or pl in construction : that which belongs to me : those which belong to me - used without a following noun as an equivalent in meaning to the adjective my

³mine \'mоn\ n ; a pit or tunnel from which mineral substances (as coal or gold) are taken 2 : a deposit of ore 3: a subterranean passage under an enemy position 4a : a charge buried in the ground and set to explode when disturbed (as by an enemy) b : an explosive device placed underwater to sink enemy ships 5: a rich source of supply <a mine of information> [Middle French]

mine \'mоn\ vb l : to dig a mine 2: to obtain from a mine <mine coal> 3: to work in a mine 4a : to burrow in the earth : dig or from mines under a place b : to lay military mines in or under <mine a harbor>

4. "And how many hours a day did you do lessons?" said Alice, in a hurry to changethe subject.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Turtle: "nine the next and so on." "What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked: "because they lessen from day to day."

The character gives the funny etymology of the noun lesson. Of course, he is not as serious as I am. The author used the pair of homophones:

Lesson

Lesson-[lesn]-n., a portion of scripture read in church; something to be learnt by a pupil; a part of course of teaching; an experience that teaches. (Practical English Dictionary)

A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms:

Lesson (96,83%) n., a part of course of teaching; <XIII, from (Old) French leqon\ -Latin lectio, lection "collecting, reading" from lect-, stem pp from legere "to collect; to read">

Webster's School Dictionary:

Lesson \?les-n\ n 1 : a passage from sacred writings read in a worship servise

2 : a piece of instruction <the story carries a lesson>; esp : a reading or exercise to be studied by a pupil <master each lessori> 3 a : something learned by study or experience <the lessons of life> b: a rebuke or punishment meant to forestall the repetition of an offence <gave the naughty child a lessori> [Old French legon, from Latin lectio "act of reading", from legere "to read"]

Lessen

A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms:

(3,17%) v., to decrease <XIV, from less, comparative of little a.,"small": Old English lяtel, compar. Iжssa; Old Friz. lзssa>

Webster's School Dictionary:

Lessen \'les-n\ vb : to make or become less less \?les\ adj. 1 : of a small number: FEWER <less than three> 2 : of lower rank, degree, or importance < no less a person than the principal> 3a : of reduced size or extent b : more limited in quantity <in less time> [Old English lжs, adv. and n., and lжssa, adj.]

Lessen-[lesn]-v. t. to diminish. (Practical English Dictionary)

5. "Nothing can be clearer than that. Then again - before she had this fit' - younever had fits, my dear, I think?" said the King to the Queen.

"Never!" said the Queen furiously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke.

"Then the words don't fit you," said the King looking round the court with a smile. There was a dead silence.

"It's a pun!" the King added in an angry tone, and everybody laughed, "Let the jury consider their verdict," the King said, for about the twentieth nine that day.

-The King's pun is based on two different meanings of the word 'fit':

fit-[fit]-n., a sudden passing attack of illness; a seizure with convulsions, spasms,loss of consciousness, etc., as of epilepsy, hysteria, etc., a sudden and passing stateand mood. (Practical English Dictionary)

fit-a. well-suited, worthy; proper, becoming; ready; in good condition. (PracticalEnglish Dictionary)

A Dictionary of English Homonyms and Homoforms: Fit

I n., a sudden passing attack of illness <Old English fitt "a struggle";

II n., "part of a ballad; musical stanza" <Old English fitt; perhaps relative GermanFitze; Old Island fit

III a., suitable, ready < XIV, source is unknown, perhaps it's connected with II n.v., to suit; to supply <XIV, from IIIa.>

II.3 Lewis Carroll and his book

Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was born at Darsbery Parsonage , Jan. 27, 1832, and died at Guilford, Jan. 14 1898.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a Professor of mathematics, he worked in Oxford University as a tutor, he was the author of several works on mathematics and logic. Professor Dodgson liked to communicate with children very much, and he had more friends among them than among adult people. Most of all his friends he liked Alice Lidell, a daughter of head of Christ Church College. She was that person who was presented the first hand-written text of the fairy tale "Alice's adventures Under Gruond", which Doctor Dodgson had told Alice and her sisters Lorine and Edith in the famous picnic on 4^th of July in 1862. The hand-written text was illustrated with author's drawings. And only in 1865 supplemented variant of the tale was published under another title "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", this time illustrated by Jon Daniel, under Carroll's control. (8,157)

During 125 years that have passed from the day of publication of "Alice in Wonderland" it became clear that his book - in not only an outstanding work but an innovating one, and that the modest tutor of Oxford was an unusual thinker, which pondered over many problems of contemporary with him knowledge, and at times surpassing his time. It became definitely clear nowadays when his diaries and letters, his works at logic and puzzles, and when several modern scientists began to search his works, including two tales about Alice, from the positions of our times.

III. Practical part

Practical part consist s of two levels .

The first level is designed for lessons of lexicology in Nekrasov State Teaching College.

The second level is is designed for home reading lessons at secondary school.

III.1 First level

I. Consider your answers to the following.

Which words do we call homonyms?

Why can't homonyms be regarded as expressive means of the language?

What's the traditional classification of homonyms? Illustrate your answer withexamples.

What are the distinctive features of the classification of homonyms suggested byProfessor A. I. Smirnitsky?

What are the main sources of homonyms? Illustrate your answer with examples.

In what respect does split polysemy stand apart from other sources of homonyms?

Prove that the language units board ("a long and thin piece of timber") and board("daily meals") are two different words (homonyms) and not two different meaningsof one and the same word. Write down some other similar examples.

What is the essential difference between homonymy and polysemy? What do theyhave in common? Illustrate your answer with examples.

II. Find pairs of homonyms in these extracts from the text and define the typeof these homonyms. On what linguistic phenomenon is the joke in the followingextracts based? What causes misunderstanding?

1. "Mine is a long tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.

"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?"

2. "It's a mineral, I think," said Alice.

"Of course it is," said the Duchess, who seemed ready to agree to everything that Alice said: "there's a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is - 'The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours."

3. "You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should think youcould draw treacle out of a treacle-well - eh, stupid?"

"But they were in the well," Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this

last remark.

"Of course they were," said the Dormouse: "well in".

4. "And how many hours a day did you do lessons?" said Alice, in a hurry to changethe subject.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Turtle: "nine the next and so on." "What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked: "because they lessen from day to day."

5. "Nothing can be clearer than that. Then again - before she had this fit' - you never had fits, my dear, I think?" said the King to the Queen. "Never!" said the Queen furiously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke. "Then the words don't fit you," said the King looking round the court with a smile. There was a dead silence.

III. Find homophones to the underlined words:

.. .the Mock Turtle yawned ant shut his eyes. "Tell her about the reason and all that," he said to the Gryphon.

" The reason is," said the Gryphon, "that they would go with the lobsters to the dance. So they got thrown out to sea. So they had to fall a long way. So they got their tails fast in their mouths. So they couldn't get them out again. That's all." "Thank you," said Alice, "it's very interesting. I never knew so much about whiting."

IV. Explain the homonyms which form the basis for the following jokes. Classify their types.

An observing man claims to have discovered the colour of the wind. He says hewent out and found it blew.

Child: Mummy, what makes the Tower of Pisa lean?

Fat mother:! have no idea, dear, or I'd take some myself.

Advertisement: "Lion tamer wants tamer lion."

Father: Didn't I tell you not to pick any flowers without leave?Child: Yes, daddy, but all these roses had leaves.

Diner: Waiter, the soup is spoiled.Waiter: Who told you that?

D i n e r: A little swallow.

The difference between a cat and a comma is that a cat has its claws at the end ofits paws, and a comma has its pause at the end of a clause.

A canner exceedingly canny

One morning remarked to his grannie: "A canner can't can anything that he can, But a canner can't can a can, can'e?"

V. Provide homonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes andextracts and classify them according to Professor A.I. Smirnitsky'sclassification system.

1.Teacher: Here is a map. Who can show us America? Nick goes to the map and finds America on it. Teacher: Now, tell me, boys, who found America? Boys: Nick.

2.Father: I promised to buy you a car if you passed your examination, and you have failed. What were you doing last term? S o n: I was learning to drive a car.

3. "What time do you get up in summer?"

"As soon as the first ray of the sun comes into my window." "Isn't that rather early?" "No, my room faces west."

4. "Here, waiter, it seems to me that this fish is not so fresh as the fish you servedlast Sunday."

"Pardon, sir, it is the very same fish."

5.Old Gentleman: Is it a board school you go to, my dear? Child: No, sir. I believe it be a brick one!

6. Stanton:! think telling the truth is about as healthy as skidding round a corner at sixty.

Freda: And life's got a lot of dangerous corners - hasn't it, Charles?

S t a n t o n: It can have - if you don't choose your route well. To lie or not to lie - what do you think, Olwen? (From Dangerous Corner by J. B. Priestley)

Conclusion

As For the conclusion we 'd like to say the book of Lewis Carroll is a universal book, and it can be used not only as the source of texts for reading at the lessons of English language but it generously provides philologists with the examples of many language phenomenons, such as polysemy, homonymy, Carroll used a lot of stylistic devices in his book, for example pun, personification. Carroll lavishly used resources of his native language in his books about Alice's adventures. This book is full of original language discoveries, the author of "Alice in Wonderland" experiments with the language, plays with it. We admire his bright imagination of Professor Dodgson, and try to guess, why a raven is like a writing desk....

We hope that my work would be useful for colleagues in the process of teaching English and, perhaps, it would inspire other final-year students to work on Lewis Carroll's books in other new directions, though, , the process of investigating this book is interminable.

Sources

stylistic translation carroll expressive

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4. Bailey, Richard W. Current Trends in the Analysis of Style. "Style", vol. 1, No. 1, 1997.

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