Epithet

From the strongest means of displaying the writer's or speaker's emotional attitude to his communication, we now pass to a weaker but still forceful means — the epithet. The epithet is subtle and de­licate in character. It is not so direct as the interjection. Some people even consider that it can create an atmosphere of objective evaluation, whereas it actually conveys the subjective attitude of the writer, showing that he is partial in one way or another.

The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader, and frequently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the ob­ject with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. The logical attribute is purely objective, non-evaluating.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense. The essence of oxymoron con­sists in the capacity of the primary meaning of the adjective or adverb to resist for some time the overwhelming power of semantic change which words undergo in combination. The forcible combination of non-combinative words seems to develop what may be called a kind of centrifugal force which keeps them apart, in contrast to ordinary word combinations where centripetal force is in action Oxymoron as a rule has one structural model: adjective^ noun. It is in this structural model that the resistance of the two component parts to fusion into one unit manifests itself most strongly.

Antonamasia

The interplay between logical and nominal meanings of a word is called antonomasia. As in other stylistic devices based on the inter­action of lexical meanings, the two kinds of meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously. If only one meaning is materialized in the context there is no stylistic device as in hooligan, boycott and other examples given earlier. Here are some examples of genuine antonomasia. Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading. Most characteristic feature of a person or event, at the same time pin­ning this leading trait as a proper name to the person or event con­cerned. In fact antonomasia is a revival of the initial stage in naming individuals. Antonomasia may be likened to the epithet in essence if not in form. It categorizes the person and thus simultaneously indi­cates both the general and the particular.

Antonomasia is a much favoured device in the belles-lettres style

Simile

The intensification of some feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called simile. Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or differ­ence. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things. Comparison takes into consideration all the properties of the two objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes ^1 the properties of the two objects except one which is made common to them. Similes forcibly set one object against another regardless of the fact that they may be completely alien to each other. And without our being aware of it, the simile gives rise to a new understanding of the object characterizing as well as of the object characterized.

The properties of an object may be viewed from different angles, for example, its state, its actions, manners, etc. Accordingly, similes may be based on adjective-attributes, adverb-modifiers, verb-predi­cates, etc. Similes have formal elements in their structure: connective words such as like, as, such as, as if, seem. Here are some examples of similes taken from various sources and illustrating the variety of structural designs of this stylistic device.