Subiectul 3: Epithet, irony, comparison, oxymoron, simile

Epithet Is an adjective or word combination used to express a characteristic

of an object both existing and imaginary. Its basic property is emotiveness and
subjectivity. Our speech is emotionally coloured and the epithet is the emotive
meaning of a word that is focused on other the dictionary meaning.
The epithet has remained other the centuries the most widely used stylistic device as it
enables the author to characterize each object subjectively. It is often used in prose, publicistic
style and everyday speech. Some epithets become fixed due to frequent usage. These epithets are
related to folklore and can be traced back to folk balance.
E. g. true love, merry Christmas
Semantically, there are 2 main groups of epithets:
1. Affective or emotive proper which serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the
object by the speaker. Most qualifying words found in dictionaries can be used as
affective epithets. E.g. fabulous.
2. Figurative or transferred formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by
adjectives. E.g. the smiling sun, the frowning, the sleepless pillow.
Epithets are used simply or in pairs and in inverted constructions, also as phrases. Pairs
are represented by two epithets joined by conjunction or without conjunction.
E.g. incredible and incomparable beauty, a tired old town
Two epithets as old because the process of qualifying passes two stages: the qualification
of the object and the qualification of qualification itself.
E.g. a pompously majestic woman
Phrase epithets produce an original impression and are usually joined by dashes.
E.g. the sunshine in the breakfast room smell
Inverted epithets consist of two nouns joined by the preposition of.
E.g. That devil of a woman, this devilish woman, the hell of a job, a fairy of a girl.
Irony Is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or
contradicted by the words used. Irony involves the perception that things are not
what they are said or seem to be. The context is arranged so that the qualifying
word in irony reverses the direction of evaluation and the word positively charged
is understood as a negative qualification or viceversa. Irony is a device in which
the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary
meaning. So, irony can not exist outside the context which may vary from a word
combination as in ,,She turn with the sweet smile of an alligator (I.
Steinback) to the context of the whole book.
In the case of irony, it is always possible to indicate the exact word whose meaning is
opposite to its dictionary meaning. This type of irony is called Verbal irony.
However, there are cases which are regarded as irony intuitively feeling the reversal of
evaluation. The effect of irony in such cases is created by several sentences. This type of irony is
called Sustained irony.
E.g. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in the
pockets.
Comparison is a figure of speech involving the similitude between two
things, people from the same category. Comparisons are used to compare things
belonging to the same class in order to establish the degree of similarity or
difference.
E.g. He is like his father.
Simile Is a figure of speech involving comparison between 2 unlike entities.
In the simile, unlike the metaphor, the resemblance is explicitly indicated by the
words like or as. The common heritage of similes in everyday speech usually
reflects simple comparisons based on natural world or familiar domestic objects
as in He eats like a bird. He is as slow as a snail.
The function of simile is to intensify a certain feature of the thing referred to. Simile
compares objects belonging to different classes without taking into consideration all the
properties characterizing these objects.
E. g. She dances like a butterfly.
Oxymoron Is a combination of contradictory or non-coresponding words
for a stylistic effect.
E.g. thunderous silence, bitter sweet.
The structure of an oxymoron is adjective + noun. But patterns consisting of adverbe +
adjective are also common.
E.g. awfully nice
The essence of oxymoron consists in the capacity of the primary meaning of the adjective
or adverb to resist the power of the semantic change which words receive when combining.