Interaction of Logical and

Emotive Meanings
 
Epithet, Logical attribute and Oxymoron
 What is the difference?

Adjective+noun Adjective+noun
wild wind
green meadows loud ocean
white snow heart-burning smile
round table destructive charms
blue skies
pale complexion

objective and descriptive Subjective and evaluative

 The epithet

 The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical
meaning in an attributive word/phrase or even sentence used to characterize an
object, giving an individual perception and evaluation of its features or properties.
The logical attribute is also an attributive word, but it is purely objective and
descriptive. It is descriptive and indicates an inherent or prominent feature of the
thing or phenomenon in question (green meadows, white snow, round table, blue
skies, pale complexion, lofty mountains and the like). The epithet is markedly
subjective and evaluative (wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile, destructive
charms, encouraging smile, sweet smile, voiceless sands, etc.).
The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has
led to new compositional models for epithets which we shall call phrase epithets.
Here are some examples of phrase epithets:
“There is a sort of 'Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-
something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler’ expression about Montmorency that has
been known to bring the tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen”
(Jerome K. Jerome,” Three Men in a Boat”).
Another structural variety of the epithet is a reversed epithet that is composed of two
nouns linked in an of-phrase, evaluating, emotional element realized in the first
noun: “a flower of a woman” (ყვავილივით ქალი), “her brute of a brother”
(მისი მხეცი ძმა), “the shadow of a smile” (მკრთალი ღიმილი).
 Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an
adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in
sense, for example:
‘low skyscraper’, ‘sweet sorrow’, ‘nice rascal’, ‘pleasantly ugly face’, ‘horribly
beautiful’, a deafening silence’. Another example taken from O. Henry’s story “The
duel” in which one of the heroes describes his attitude towards New York: “I despise
its very vastness and power. It has the poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the
haughtiest beggars, the plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest
pleasures of any town I ever saw”.