43. Figures of quality: epithet. Semantic and structural types of epithets.

Epithet – an emotionally-evaluative or expressive-imaginary definition (attribute) of some denotatum. In epithet there’s a seme (минимальная единица содержания) which denotes the subjective attitude of speaker towards a subject of speech (poor mother – widowed mother).

It is essential to differentiate between logical attributes and epithets proper. Logical attributes are objective and non-evaluating (a round table, green meadows). Epithets proper are subjective and evaluative, mostly metaphorical. These qualifications make epithets expressive (wild wind, loud ocean).

Epithets may be classified on the basis of their semantic and structural properties.

Semantically, epithets fall into two groups: epithets associated with the nouns modified and epithets not associated with the nouns modified.

Associated epithets point out typical features of the objects which they describe. Such typical features are implied by the meaning of the nouns themselves:

If forest, then – dark

If tears, then – bitter.

Unassociated epithets ascribe such qualities to objects which are not inherent in them, as a result, metaphors emerge fresh, unexpected, expressive: voiceless sands, helpless loneliness.

From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into:

1) simple (adjectives, nouns, participles): e.g. He looked at them in animal panic.

2) compound: expressed by compound adjectives e.g. an apple - faced man;

3) phrasal epithets: expressed by word-combinations of quotation type e.g. It is his do - it - yourself attitude.

4) clausal epithets: expressed by sentences: e.g. I-don’t-want-to-do-it felling.

5) reversed epithets - composed of 2 nouns linked by an of-phrase: e.g. "a shadow of a smile";

44. Figures of quality: Irony. Context types of irony.

Irony denotes a trope / figure based on direct opposition of the meaning to the sense. It is the use of words, word-combinations and sentences in the meanings opposite to those directly expressed by them (i.e. opposite to their logical meaning) for purpose of ridicule. Thus in the sentence: ‘It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.’ The word “delightful’ acquires a meaning quite the opposite to its primary dictionary meaning, that is ‘unpleasant’, ‘not delightful’.

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. The effect of irony largely depends on the unexpectedness and seeming lack of logic of a word used by the author in an incompatible context. The reader is fully aware of the contrast between what is logically expected and what is said. This contrast of meanings very often produces a humorous effect.

Sometimes irony is not pointed out at all: its presence in the text is deduced only by reasoning. The reader cannot possibly believe that the author can be praising the object of speech in earnest. Sometimes the whole of the narrative is ironical, as the case is with the description the matrimonial schemes of Becky Sharp. (Thackeray)

In the stylistic device of irony it is always possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. This is why this type of irony is called verbal irony. There are very many cases, though, which we regard as irony, intuitively feeling the reversal of the evaluation, but unable to put our finger on the exact word in whose meaning we can trace the contradiction between the said and the implied. The effect of irony in such cases is created by a number of statements, by the whole of the text. This type of irony is called sustained, and it is formed by the contradiction of the speaker's (writer's) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes. Many examples of sustained irony are supplied by D. Defoe, J. Swift or by such XX- th c. writers as S. Lewis, K. Vonnegut, E. Waugh and others.

Irony must not be confused with humor. Humor always causes laughter. Irony rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity, regret.