1. Associated

e.g. a cold reception, a sweet smile, a brilliant career, a fatigued brain

The idea expressed in an associated epithet is to a certain degree inherent

[in’hi r nt] to the concept of the object.

2. Unassociated

e.g. majestic anger

sullen time / CF: sullen earth

voiceless sands

Unassociated epithets characterize the object by adding a feature which is not inherent to it and which strikes us by its unexpectedness. Unassociated epithets are genuine SDs.

Another category of epithets - transferred epithets denote human qualities, which are used in reference to inanimate objects or abstract notions:

e.g. logical attributes transferred epithets

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sick man sick room

sleepless girl sleepless pillow

merry people merry hours

disapproving man disapproving finger

Oxymoron

(From the Greek ‘oxymoron’ - остроумно-глупое).

Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun, or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meaning of the two clash, being opposite in sense.

e.g. low skyscraper, sweet sorrow, nice rascal, pleasantly ugly face, horribly beautiful, a deafening silence, etc.

If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. This is the case with such combinations as awfully nice, terribly glad, etc. which were once oxymorons; but the words ‘awfully’ and ‘terribly’ have lost their primary logical meaning and are now used with emotive meaning only, as intensifiers.

Thus, oxymoron is a juxtaposition of 2 non-combinative words.

Lexical Stylistic Devices: Interaction of Logical and Nominal Meaning antonomasia

The interplay between the logical and nominal meaning is called antonomasia. Both the meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously. If only one meaning is materialized in the context, we have trite metonymy.

e.g. hooligan

boycott

sandwich

diesel

The nominal meaning of a word is not intended to give any information about the person. It only serves the purpose of identification. (Proper names, i.e. words with nominal meaning, can etymologically, in most cases, be traced to some quality, property or trait of a person, or his occupation – e.g. – Smith. But this etymological meaning may be forgotten and the word understood as a proper name and nothing else). It is not so with antonomasia.

Antonomasia is intended to point out the most typical, characteristic feature of a person or event and at the same time to pin this feature to a person or event concerned as a proper name.

We distinguish 3 types of antonomasia:

1. the use of a proper name for a common noun (e.g. Token or telling names) – always trite

e.g. Vralman, Othello, Molchalin, Korobochka, Monte Cristo, etc.

2) The use of a common noun for a proper name –always genuine SD

e.g. Mr Mischief, Miss Blue Eyes , Miss Mumble

Mr Logic

Miss Fancy

My dear Miss Simplicity