Epithet

We have seen that words used in their transferred meaning - metaphor, metonymy and antonomasia, suggest certain images, they are figurative. In the figurative use of a word the degree of generalization decreases. This is due to the element of emotional perception that is introduced by the created image.

The element of emotional perception can also be introduced without the creation of a definite image in the mind of the reader. It may be achieved by the provocation of a deliberate reaction on the part of the reader. For this purpose writers very frequently resort to epithets.

Epithets are words or phrases which disclose the individual emotionally colored attitude of the writer towards the object he describes. In the word-combination "destructive charms" and "glorious sight" the writer does not merely characterize the objects; the writer to a certain degree imposes his personal attitude and emotional evaluation of the object on the reader.

On the one hand the epithet renders the notion of a certain object, person or event described. The importance of the epithet in speech is generally stressed by intonation or inversion. Like any attribute, the epithet may be presented by:

1) Adjectives: Her bright golden hair; the naked road.

2) Compound adjectives are usually considered metaphorical as they are based on a comparison between objects belonging to different classes: "The lily-like girl, she hardly knew she was a woman"

3) Nouns or substantivized adjectives (in of-phrases): lips of flames and heart of stone.

4) Adverbs: Her red lips send lovingly.

5) Praseological combinations: The-never-to-be-forgotten day, the don't-touch-me-or-I'll-kill-you expression of his face.

The frequent repetition of a certain epithet with a definite known lessens the degree of the epithet's expressive power. It lessens its emotive meaning. Thus, traditional combinations of epithet and noun appear: bright face, encouraging smile, deep feeling, etc. Epithets here can be called traditional. Sometimes the epithet is so closely linked with the noun it generally modifies that it cannot be separated from it, in other words they present one idea. We call such epithets fixed epithets: true love, dark forest, golden hair, etc. Such epithets are typical of folk lore.

Epithets can be used effectively by writers to evoke the desired emotions in the reader as a result of the interacting between the logical meaning and the emotive meaning, the second often prevailing. Epithets generally show the attitude of the writer to the things described. They give the speech of the writer some emotional coloring.

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