10 Simile Epithet

Simile expresses likeness between dif. objects. It shouldn’t be confused between an ordinary comparison, as in ordinary comparison no imagination is involved since objects of the same class are compared. S. is based on the comparison of object of dif. spheres involves the element of imagination and exclude all the properties of 2 objects except 1 which is more common to them (as clever as his mother - ordinary comparison; as strong as an ox-S. "She is like her mother" & "She is like a rose"). . This feature is called foundation of a S, may be explicitly mentioned as in: "He stood immovable like a rock in a torrent", or "His muscles are hard as rock". You see that the "rock” in two different S. offers two different qualities as their foundation - "immovable" in the 1st case, and "hard" in the 2nd. When the foundation is not explicitly named, the S. is considered to be richer in possible associations. So "the rose" of the previous case allows to simultaneously foreground such features as "fresh, beautiful, fragrant, attractive", etc. Sometimes the foundation of the S. is not quite clear from the context, and the author supplies it with a key, where he explains which similarities led him to liken two different entities, and which in fact is an extended and detailed foundation. The case of sustained expression of likeness is known as epic, or Homeric simile. The properties of an objects may be viewed from dif. angles-its states, actions, manners. S. may be based on adj. attributed, adverb. Modifier, verb predicates. S. have a formal element in their structure, called connective word-like, such as, as, as…if, seem, mostly. The S. must not be confused with metaphor: My verses flow in streams(metaphor),My verses flow like streams(S.).The ling. nature of these 2 devices is different. The styl. func-n of a S. is the same as of metaphor: 1)to etiolate the object by comparing it with some other object of an entirely dif. nature, to make the description clear and more picturesqere. Hacknate S.:as strong as a lion. . In a S. two objects are compared on the grounds of similarity of some quality. S., often repeated, becomes trite(банальный) and adds to the stock of language phraseology. Most of trite S. have the foundation mentioned and conjunctions "as", "as...as" used as connectives: "as brisk as a bee", "as strong as a horse", "as live as a bird".S. in which the link is expressed by notional verbs such as "to resemble", "to seem", "to recollect", "to remember", "to look like", "to appear", etc. are called disguised, because the realization of the comparison is somewhat suspended, as the likeness between the objects seems less evident:"The ball appeared to the batter to be a slow spinning planet looming toward the earth." .

Epithet.-a styl. device based on the interplay of emotive & logical meanings in an attributive word,phrase or even a sentence used to charact-ze an object and disclose the individ. emot-ly coloured attitude of the writer to the object. (E.g:green meadows, white snow, round table-they describe real natural qualities). E. may be expressed by:1)adjective;2)adverb(He watched her sadly,eagerly); 3)Participle I,II (The freightened movements of the wind);4)nouns(A brief season of happiness).Phrase or sent-ce E. can describe behaviour,manners,facial expression.They are charac-c of modern English prose.There exist a type of the E. based on illogical syntactical relationship between the modifier and the modified.