Zeugma in the System of Enumeration Stylistic Devices (A Typological Analysis of English Examples)

The aim of the article is to identify the place of zeugma in the system of stylistic devices differentiating it from related phenomena and determining hierarchical relations between them. A brief review of the scientific sources shows that zeugma is usually studied along with the similar stylistic device of syllepsis. All the views on the correlation between zeugma and syllepsis are of three kinds: zeugma and syllepsis are synonyms, zeugma is a subtype of syllepsis and vice versa. All the researchers point to semantic or grammatical miscoordination in the both devices. To build a typology of enumeration stylistic devices, the article uses the method of model patterns. The model pattern he took his hat and his leave is chosen to represent zeugma as the example corresponds to the prevailing point of view on zeugma as a device with semantic discrepancy. The model pattern with grammatical miscoordination neither they nor it is working represents syllepsis. Identification of common and differentiating features of the model patterns is the next step on the way to the typology of enumeration stylistic devices. The common features of the model patterns of zeugma and syllepsis are as follows: the minimal number of constituents is three; two of the constituents are syntactically homogeneous; homogeneous constituents are in different either semantic or grammatical relations with the third constituent. The differentiating feature of the zeugma model pattern is the semantic heterogeneity of enumeration members, the differentiating feature of the syllepsis model pattern is a grammatical one. The common features allow identifying generic term for them-syllepsis, and differentiating features give grounds to put them into two different subgroups of grammatical and semantic syllepses. Zeugma as a member of the semantic syllepsis subgroup has one more characteristic: its core constituent realizes different meanings in relations with different enumeration members. This characteristic opposes zeugma to semantically false chains like he took his hat, his umbrella and the purse out of the host's pocket, in which enumeration members are semantically heterogeneous, but the core constituent realizes only one meaning in relations with all enumeration members. So the typological analysis allowed classifying all the enumeration stylistic devices (syllepses) on the basis of the heterogeneity type of enumeration members into two groups: grammatical and semantic syllepses. In its turn, semantic syllepsis includes zeugma, with the core component realizing several meanings, and semantically false chains, with the core component realizing one meaning.

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