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Devices Based on the Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meanings

Epithet. From Greek addition. This is a device emphasizing some quality of a person, thing, idea, phenomenon. It reveals the evaluative attitude of the speaker towards the subject of speech. However epithets should not be confused with logical attributes because the latter so not bear any expressive force.

He is stupid.

Stupid he is.

A monstrous man he is.

Epithets are not considered classical tropes, yet they are placed among other tropes because we may have metaphorical, metonymical and ironical epithets.

Epithets may be expressed by:

a) adjectives or participle in preposition

His lazy fingers.

b) the same words in postposition

His fingers, weary, worn and lazy.

There is a special type of an English epithet consisting of phrases.

She gave Mrs. Sylborn a you-know-how-men-are look.

There is another specific type of English epithets characterized by an unusual syntactical structure.

A mute of a woman.

This type stands very close to metaphor or comparison.

We may at times come across of pairs of chains of epithets in fiction, the whole cluster giving a many-sided description of the object.

He was a masked and muffled man.

Hyperbole. From Greek overstatement. This is exaggeration not meant to be literally understood. It expresses the emotional attitude of the speaker to the subject. There is colloquial and stylistic hyperbole, the former due to its lengthy use is no longer perceived as any exaggeration.

I haven’t seen you for ages.

I’d give worlds to see her.

What on earth do you want from me?!

An expressive (stylistic) hyperbole as distinct from the trite one is exaggeration on a big scale. There must be something illogical in it or unreal, or impossible that is contrary to common sense and stunning by suddenness.

One after another those people lay down on the ground to laugh and two of them died. One of the survivors remarked... (M. Twain)

Hyperbole is often combined with metaphor. The latter in such cases demonstrates a gigantic disproportion between what is named and the characteristics given to it.

This woman could talk the hind leg off a donkey.

Meiosis (or understatement). This is a logical and psychological opposite of hyperbole. It is lessening, weakening, reducing of the actual characteristics of the object of speech. It serves to underline the insignificance of what one speaks about. A typical meiosis is the following:

It will cost you a pretty penny. Это тебе в копеечку выльется.

Meaning that it will cost somebody too much. Numerous examples of trite meiosis can be found among English idioms while the British manner of speech is characterized by frequent use of meiosis and litotes, Americans use more hyperboles.

Litotes. It is believed to be a specific form of meiosis and not an independent trope. It expresses an idea by negating the opposite idea. Thus, wishing to say with his help we may say not without his help.

The result is double negation which generally is avoided in English and becomes highly affirmative. At the same time the general meaning of the utterance is weakened.

The negation may be doubled in different ways. For example, by means of two negative prefixes (unintellectual). It may also be a negation plus the antonym of the idea expressed (not bad).

Oxymoron. From Greek oxys meaning sharp and moros meaning foolish. This is a device presenting two contrasting ideas. Here one element presents an objectively existing feature or quality, while the other conveys the speaker’s attitude towards it. This way a new meaning is being developed.

The classical scheme of an oxymoron is Adverb + Adjective (falsely true) or Adjective + Noun (sweet pain).

Very often oxymorons become set expressions or even clichés.

a wise fool, an honorable villain, sweet sorrow

A genuine or stylistic oxymoron is a free combination of words. Once created by an author it is practically never used in other contexts. However, the English language contains many colloquial traditional combinations such as:

awfully well, pretty bad, mighty small

They do not reveal the contradicting nature of phenomenon described because the left component is nothing but a synonym for very.

In Russian we have: тихий ужас, красные чернила (утратило сему, связанную с черным цветом).

Oh, brawling love! Oh, loving hate!

Oh, anything of nothing first create.

Oh, heavy lightness, serious vanity

Misshaping chaos of well-seeming forms

(“Romeo and Juliet”, W. Shakespeare)


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