Climax and Anticlimax

1. The meaning of approaching and anti finish The Greek word flood tide means ladder the Latin gradatio means ascent, climbing up. In climax we deal with strings of synonyms or at least semantic ally cogitate words belonging to the same thematic group. 4, p. 155 According to Efimov L. P. , climax (or Gradation) is the figure of unequality, which consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it make ups importee, magnificence or horny tension of narration. 1, p. 69 Galperin I. R. iews climax as an arrangement of sentences (or of the homogeneous move of one sentence) which secures a in small stages increase in significance, importance, or wound up tension in the utterance, as in It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city. or in Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide, Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall Rise like the rocks that part Hispanias land from Gaul. (Byron) Gradual increase in emotional evalua tion in the first illustration and in significance in the second is realized by the distribution of the corresponding lexical items.Each successive unit is perceived as stronger than the preceding one. Of course, there be no objective linguistic criteria to estimate the degree of importance or significance of each constituent. It is only the formal homogeneity of these component parts and the test of synonymy in the words lovely, beautiful, fair, veritable gem, in the first example and the sex act inaccessibility of the barriers wall, river, crags, mountains together with the epithets deep and wide horrid, dark and tall that make us feel the increase in importance of each. 1, p. 220 2. Different types of climax A gradual increase in significance whitethorn be maintained in three ways logical, emotional and quantitative. Logical climax is based on the sexual relation importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts embodied in them. This relative i mportance whitethorn be evaluated both objectively and subjectively, the originators military position towards the objects or phenomena in question being disclosed. Thus, the dramatiseing paragraph from Dickenss Christmas Carol shows the relative importance in the uthors mind of the things and phenomena described Nobody ever stop him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me? No beggars imgjored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked Jiim what it -was oclock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to much(prenominal) and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind mens dogs appeared to know him, and when they dictum him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts and then would wag their tails, as though they said, No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark chieftain The put up of the statements shows what the author considers the culmination of the climax. The passage by Dickens should be considered subjective, because there is no general recognition of the relative significance of the statements in the paragraph. The climax in the lines from Byrons Ne barrier may be considered objective because such things as wall, river, crags, mountains are objectively ranked according to their accessibility. Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning, as in the first example with the words lovely, beautiful, fair.Of course, emotional climax based on synonymous strings of words with emotive meaning will inevitably cause certain semantic differences in these words such is the linguistic nature of stylistic synonyms, but emotive meaning will be the prevailing one. Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences, more rarely in longer syntactical units. This is natural. Emotional charge cannot hold long. As becomes obvious from the analysis of the above examples of climatic launch, the arrangement of the comp onent parts calls for parallel construction which, being a kind of syntactical repetition, is frequently accompanied by lexical repetition.Here is another example of emotional climax built on this mock up He was pleased when the child began to adventure across the floors on hand and knees he was gratified, when she managed the trick of balancing herself on two legs he was delighted when she first said ta-ta and he was rejoiced when she recognized him and smiled at him. (Alan Paton) Finally, we come to quantitative climax. This is an evident increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts, as in They looked at hundreds of houses they climbed thousands of stairs they inspected innumerable kitchens. (Maugham) Here the climax is achieved by simple numerical increase. 1, p. 220 3. The indispensable constituents of climax What then are the indispensable constituents of climax? They are a)the distributional constituent close proximity of the component parts arranged in increasing o rder of importance or significance b)the syntactical pattern parallel constructions with possible lexical repetition c)the connotative constituent the explanatory context which helps the reader to grasp the gradation, as no. .. ver once in all his life, nobody ever, nobody, No beggars (Dickens) deep and wide, horrid, dark and tall (Byron) veritable (gem of a city). Climax, like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author discloses his world outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena. The concrete stylistic function of this device is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author (especially in emotional climax), or to impress upon the reader the significance of the things described by suggested comparison, or to depict phenomena dynamically. 3. What is Anticlimax?According to Efimov, bathos (or Bathos) is a stylistic device which consists in arranging the utterance so that each subsequent component of it decreases significance, import ance or emotional tension of narration If Johns eyes contact with tears, you may have no doubt he has been eating raw onions. 2, p. 70 Kukharenko V. A. views anticlimax as an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in perfect(a) semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. 3, p. 93 The device thus called is characterized by some authors as back gradation.As its very name shows, it is the opposite to climax, but this supposal is not kinda correct. It would serve no purpose whatever making the second element weaker than the first, the third still weaker, and so on. A real anticlimax is a sudden deception of the recepient it consists in adding one weaker element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before. The recepient is disaappointed in his expectations he predicted a stronger element to follow instead, some insignificant idea follows the significant one (ones). Needless to say, anticlimax is employed with a humorous aim.For ex ample, in Its abloody lie and not quite true, we see the absurdity of mixing up an offensive statement with a polite remark. 4, p. 156 The ideas expressed may be arranged in ascending order of significance, or they may be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous. A typical example is Aesops fable The Mountain in Labour. In days of yore, a mighty rumbling was heard in a Mountain.It was said to be in labour, and multitudes flocked together, from far and near, to see what it would produce. After long expectation and many omniscient conjectures from the bystanders out popped, a Mouse Here we have deliberate anticlimax, which is a recognized form of humour. Anti- climax is frequently used by humorists like fall guy Twain and Jerome K. Jerome. In Three Men in a Boat, for example, a poetical passage is invariably followed by ludic rous scene. For example, the author expands on the beauties of the sunset on the river and concludes But we didnt sail into the world of golden sunset we went slap into that old punt where the gentlemen were fishing. Another example is This war-like speech, received with many a cheer, Had filled them with desire of fame, and beer (Byron) 1, p. 221 4. Conclusions There are some types of semantically complicated parallelism. They are presente by climax and anticlimax. Climax, like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author discloses his world, outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena.The concrete stylistic function of this device is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author (especially in emotional climax), or to impress upon the reader the significance of the things described by suggested comparison, or to depict phenomena dynamically. Climax which increases emotional tension of the utterance may be called emotional. Emotional gradation is created by synonymic words with emotive meanings nice handsome beautiful marvellous gorgeous Climax revealing the quantity of objects may be called quantitative There were dozens of planets, hundreds of meteorites, innumerable number of stars.There is a device which is called anticlimax. The ideas expressed may be arranged in ascending order of significance, or they may be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous. For example The fire burnt Johns house down and he lost his cell phone. Yesterday I had good sleep but I have to meet my uncle today. References 1. ?. ?. / ?. . . ?. , 1981 2. ?. ?. , ?. ?. ? . - . , 2004. ?. 69-71 3. ?. ?. ? . . , 2000 160 ?. 4. ?. ?. - ? . . . / ?. ?. . 2-? . , . ?. , 2003. 221, 3 ?. ( . ).