The scientific and pedagogical

24 
 
T.Khalilova 
 
Paradox is a fine example of defeated expectancy. The following example 
demonstrates how paradox works in such highly predictable cases as proverbs and 
phraseology. Everybody knows the proverb Marriages Are Made In Heaven. 
Oscar Wilde, a renowned master of paradox, introduces an unexpected element 
and the phrase acquires an inverted implication Divorces are made in Heaven, The 
unexpected ironic connotation is enhanced by the fact that the substitute is actually the 
antonym of the original element. The reader is forced to make an effort at interpreting 
the new maxim so that it would make sense. 
 
Coupling 
Coupling is another technique that helps in decoding the message implied in a 
literary work. While convergence and defeated expectancy both focus the reader’s 
attention on the particularly significant parts of the text coupling deals with the 
arrangement of textual elements that provide the unity and cohesion of the whole 
structure.  
Coupling is more than many other devices connected with the level of the text. 
This method of text analysis helps us to decode ideas, their interaction, inner semantic 
and structural links and ensures compositional integrity. 
Coupling is based on the affinity of elements that occupy similar positions 
throughout the text. Coupling provides cohesion, consistency and unity of the text form 
and content. 
Like defeated expectancy it can be found on any level of the language, so the 
affinity may be different in nature; it may be phonetic, structural at semantic. 
Particularly prominent types of affinity are provided by the phonetic expressive means. 
They are obviously cases of alliteration, assonance, paranomasia, as well as such 
prosodic features as rhyme, rhythm and meter. 
Syntactical affinity is achieved by all kinds of parallelism and syntactical 
repetition–anadiplosis, anaphora, framing, chiasmus, epiphora to name but a few. 
Semantic coupling is demonstrated by the use of synonyms and antonyms, both 
direct and contextual, root repetition, paraphrase sustained metaphor, semantic fields, 
recurrence of images, connotations or symbols. 
The latter can be easily detected in the works of some poets who create their own 
system of recurrent esthetic symbols for certain ideas, notions and beliefs. 
Some of the well-known symbols are seasons (cf. the symbolic meaning of winter 
in Robert Frost’s poetry), trees (the symbolic meaning of a birch tree, a maple in Sergei 
Yesenin’s poetic work, the meaning of a moutain-ash tree for Marina Tsvetaeva), 
animals (the leopard, hyena, bulls, fish in Ernest Hemingway’s works) and so on. These 
symbols do not only recur in a separate work by these authors but also generally 
represent the typical imagery of the author’s poetic vision. 
An illustration of the coupling technique is given below in the passage from John 
O’Hara’s novel Ten North Frederick. The main organizing principle here is contrast. 
Lloyd Williams lived in Collieryville, a mining town three or four miles from 10 
North Frederick, but separated from the Chapins’ home and their life by the accepted 
differences of money and prestige; the miners’ poolroom, and the Gibbsville Club; 
sickening poverty, and four live-in servants for a family of four, The Second Thursdays, 
and the chicken-and-waffle suppers of die English Lutheran Church. Joe Chapin and 
Lloyd Williams were courthouse-corridor friends and fellow Republicans, but Joe was a 

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25 
 
T.Khalilova 
 
Company man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man who was a Republican because to 
be anything else in Lantenengo County was futile and foolish. (O’Hara) 
The central idea of the, passage is to underline the difference between two men 
who actually represent the class differences between the rich upper class and the lower 
working class, So the social contrast shown through the details of personal life of the 
two characters is the message with a generalizing power. This passage shows how 
coupling can be an effective tool to decode this message. 
There is a pronounced affinity of the syntactical structure in both sentences. The 
first contains a chain of parallel detached clauses connected by and (which is an 
adversative conjunction here). They contain a number of antitheses. The contrast is 
enhanced by the use of contextual antonyms that occupy identical positions in the 
clauses: the miners’ poolroom and the Gibbseville Club; sickening poverty and four 
servants for a family of four, The Second Thursdays and the Church suppers. The same 
device is used in the second sentence: Joe was a Company man and Lloyd Williams was 
a Union man. There are a few instances of phonetic affinity, alliteration: four servants 
for a family of four, courthouse-corridor, friends and fellow Republicans; futile and 
foolish. 
The passage presents alt interesting case of semantic coupling through symbols. 
The details of personal and class difference chosen by the author are all charge with 
symbolic value. There is a definite connection between them all however diverse they 
may appear at first sight. They are all grouped so that they symbolize either money and 
prestige or poverty and social deprivation. 
The first group creates the semantic field of wealth and power: money, social 
prestige, the Gibbsville Club (symbol of wealth, high social standing, belonging to the 
select society), four live-in servants for a family of four (that only rich people can 
afford), The Second Thursdays (traditional reception days for people of a certain circle, 
formal dinner parties for people of high standing), a Company man (a member of a 
financially and socially influential group, political elite). The second semantic field 
comprises words denoting and symbolizing poverty and social inferiority: miners’ 
poolroom (a working class kind of leisure), sickening poverty, chicken-and-waffle 
suppers of, the English Lutheran Church (implying informal gatherings where people 
cook together and share food), a Union man (a representative of the working class). 
The similarity of these elements’ positions in this text makes the contrast all the 
more striking. 
A minor case of coupling in the passage above is the use of zeugma in the first 
sentence when the word separated is simultaneously linked to two different objects 
home and life in two different meanings–direct and figurative. 
Semantic field 
Semantic field is a method of decoding stylistics closely connected with coupling. 
It identifies lexical elements in text segments and the whole work that provide its 
thematic and compositional cohesion. To reveal this sort of cohesion decoding must 
carefully observe not only lexical and synonymous repetition but semantic affinity 
which finds expression in cases of lexico-semantic variants, connotations and 
associations aroused by a specific use or distribution of lexical units, thematic 
pertinence of seemingly unrelated words. 
This type of analysis shows how cohesion is achieved on a less explicit level 
sometimes called the vertical context. Lexical elements of this sort are charged with  

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