On Logical Antinomy In Figures Of Speech

Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively; logic is a kind of inference. It is a science to study the form and regularity of thinking, a science of studying concept, judgment, and inference. What is logical is the relationship between premises and conclusion, and the relationship of validity is so strong that it guarantees that the argument will never be refuted by the construction of another argument of the same form with the true premises and a false conclusion. These two subjects have close connections as well as many differences.It is well-known that it is impossible for language to be lacking in logic. We can say that the stronger the statements are in logic, the more effective and persuasive the statements will be. So the research on logic in language never stops, and also a lot of achievements have been got during these years. This thesis by combining logic and rhetoric, especially explores the antinomy in discourses—actually, the illogical phenomena in figures of speech, that is logical antinomy in figures.First the thesis elaborates the logical antinomy in figures: personification, transferred epithet, synaethesia, hyperbole, and metaphor violate the identity of concept and pun violates the identity of judgment, oxymoron, irony, and sarcasm the law of non-contradiction and antithesis (the contrast between the same objects) and paradox the law of excluded middle. Then it analyses the motivation of forming such logical antinomy; at last it explores the special functions of logic antinomy in figures of speech: making statements more vivid, humorous, and creating brevity, novelty and fuzziness.