15. Simile. Epithet

Simile is based on comparison of two things that are dissimilar. The presence of formal elements is necessary. To such elements we refer different connectives, suffixes and hyphen.

It is worthwhile to mention that comparative constructions are not regarded as similes if no image is created, when the object with which somebody is compared is not accepted as a generally known example of the quality (John skates as beautifully as Kate does). Unlike simile, metaphor contains a covered comparison which is also included into the figurative meaning of the word.

Epithet is a stylistic device that is based on interplay of a dictionary and contextual meanings in an attributive word, phrase or sentence. It contains an expressive characteristic of an object. Epithets are always subjectively evaluative. They create an image, while simple adjectives indicate those features of the object which are generally recognized as inherent properties of the thing spoken about. The epithet may be an attributive or adverbial modifier (a cutting smile, to smile cuttingly).

There are different types of epithets: simple (a thrilling story), compound (a snow-white skin), phrasal (they are used attributively and are hyphenated: I-told-you-so satisfaction), sentence (Fool!), reversed (a shadow of a mile), transferred (a sleepless pillow) and fixed (used in poetry and folklore: true love, dark forest).

16. Hyperbole. Oxymoron. Allusion

Hyperbole is a stylistic device which is based on a deliberate extreme exaggeration of some quality, quantity, size, etc.: He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face (“Sixes and Sevens” by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter); September 11, 1862, Greensboro, North Carolina – June 5, 1910, New York City).

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech. But some words are used in this stylistic device more often. For example, all, every, everybody: She was all angles and bones (Culpurnia from “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Nelle Harper Lee; born April 28, 1926, Monroeville, Alabama). Numerals and numerical nouns are also often used in this stylistic device: I told you hundreds of times.

When characteristic features of an object are not overrated, but underrated, we deal with understatement: She was a sparrow of a woman. This stylistic device renders the emotionally colored perception of the speaker. It’s a transient subjective impression that finds its realization in this stylistic device. English is well-known for its preference for understatement.

Oxymoron is a stylistic device in which two antonymous words are joined into one syntagm. It’s a clash of semantic and syntactic structures: O, loving hate! (“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare; 26 April 1564 (baptized), Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England – 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England). This stylistic device helps to emphasize the contradictory qualities simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a dialectical unity.

The most widely used structure of oxymoron is attributive. The subjective part of this stylistic device is embodied in the attributive epithet. But there are also verbal structures (to cry silently). There are some other non-attributive structures: Silence was louder than thunder.

Oxymorons seldom become trite. However, there are few colloquial oxymorons, all of them showing a high degree of the speaker’s emotional involvement into the situation: awfully pretty.

Allusion is an indirect reference to some historical or literary fact, personage, mythology, the Bible. Allusion presupposes the knowledge of such effect on the part of the speaker, listener or reader. So no particular explanation is given: He felt as Balaam, must have felt when his ass broke into speech. It’s an allusion to the Biblical parable.