What is an epithet definition? What is an epithet in Russian? Literary use of epithets

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. This article is devoted to one of the most common techniques in literature, which makes any text more vivid and interesting. We're talking about epithets.

Today you will find out the answers to the questions:

1. - what it is
2. - what parts of speech can act as epithets
3. - what types are they divided into?
4. - and, of course, you will see just a sea of ​​examples of epithets from literature and poetry.

What is an epithet - examples and definition

It's always worth starting with a definition of the term, it seems to me:

But to better explain what it is, it’s best to immediately give an example. Here is the famous poem by Afanasy Fet:

On an evening so GOLDEN and CLEAR,
In this breath of all-victorious spring
Do not remind me, oh my BEAUTIFUL friend,
You are talking about our timid and poor love.

See the six highlighted words? Now imagine what the same quatrain would look like, but without them:

On an evening like this
In this breath of spring
Don't remind me, oh my friend,
You are about our love.

The essence of the message has not changed much. The author is still sad about past feelings. But you must admit, our feelings are already different. And the picture as a whole is not so bright, and the depth of feelings is no longer the same. And all because those same epithets were removed from the text.

It is the epithets make each image more complete:

1. the evening is GOLDEN AND CLEAR - a picture of a sunset immediately appears before your eyes, and there is not a cloud in the sky;
2. ALL-VICTORIOUS spring - the beginning of something new, changes for the better, a sign that old disappointments will soon be a thing of the past;
3. BEAUTIFUL friend - emphasizing that the author has maintained a good attitude towards the one to whom the message is addressed;
4. TIMID and POOR love - the understanding that feelings were initially doomed to failure for some reason, and this makes the relationship even sadder.

And now, after this analysis, I hope the definition of “epithet” will sound more clear.

An epithet is a word with ancient Greek roots that literally translates as “application.” Its purpose is to emphasize the words adjacent to it, to give them an emotional connotation, enhance their meaning, emphasize imagery. But most importantly - more beautiful.

Epithet constructions

Most often, adjectives act as epithets., with the help of which they decorate a noun. Here are the simplest examples:

1. dead night - not just night, but very dark, impenetrable;
2. black melancholy - the most sad state;
3. sugar lips - lips that are impossible not to kiss;
4. hot kiss - a kiss full of passion;
5. nerves of steel - a person cannot be unbalanced.

By the way, some people mistakenly believe that any adjective can be considered an epithet. This is wrong! It all depends on in what context and what noun they refer to, and whether they fulfill main function - strengthening the image.

Judge for yourself - the difference between the expressions “warm home” and “warm attitude”. In the first case, it is simply a statement of the fact that there is heating in the room, and in the second, it is emphasized that there are good relationships between people.

Or compare “red marker” and “red sunrise.” In both cases we are talking about color. But in the first it is simply a statement of fact, and in the second the beauty of the moment of sunrise is more vividly conveyed.

However, not only adjectives, but also other parts of speech can act as epithets. For example, adverbs:

The grass was blooming FUN. (Turgenev)
And I complain BITTERLY, and I shed BITTER tears. (Pushkin)

Or nouns. Example:

A golden cloud spent the night on the chest of a GIANT cliff (Lermontov)
SPRING of honor, our idol. (Pushkin)
It’s as if MOTHER Volga ran backwards. (Tolstoy)

Or pronouns, with which you can give words an excellent form. For example:

Do you remember combat fights? Yes, they say, WHAT MORE! (Lermontov)

Or participial phrases. Example:

What if, enchanted, I HAVE BREAKED THE THREAD OF CONSCIOUSNESS... (Block)
LEAF RINGING AND DANCING IN THE SILENCE OF CENTURIES. (Krasko)

PLAYING HIDE AND HIDE, the sky comes down from the attic. (Parsnip)
As if frolicking and playing, it rumbles in the blue sky. (Tyutchev)

See epithets can be absolutely any part of a sentence, with the possible exception of verbs. But they all serve the same purpose - to make the text more imaginative and rich.

Types of epithets - decorative, permanent, copyright

Despite the common goals, all epithets can be divided into several categories:

1. decorating (they are also called general language);
2. permanent (folk-poetic);
3. copyright (individual).

Decorating epithets- This is the largest group. This includes any combination that describes the characteristics of something. Many of the expressions can be found not only in literary works, we regularly use them in everyday life:

DEADLY silence, TENDER sea, LEAD clouds, piercing wind, CRACKING frost, GENIUS solution, FUNNY colors and many others.

Go to category constant epithets include phrases that, after many years, have become firmly entrenched in people’s minds. They even became, and the words are no longer pronounced individually (or extremely rarely):

A GOOD fellow, a HANDSOME maiden, a CLEAR field, a CLEAR month, GOLDEN autumn, WHITE RUNS, DENSE forest, INCREDIBLE riches and so on.

By the way, if you noticed, many of the constant epithets are right away - or with songs. That is why their second name is folk poetic.

MARMALADE mood. (Chekhov)
TRANSPARENT flattery NECKLACE, GOLDEN rosary of wisdom. (Pushkin)
The face of the THOUSAND EYES trust. (Mayakovsky)
FUCKING indifference. (Pisarev)

The meaning of epithets for literature and language in general

Not a single literary work can do without epithets (and). If they don't exist, then the text will turn out dry and lifeless, and it definitely won’t be able to captivate the reader. Therefore, the more the author uses them, the better.

But in our everyday speech we should not forget about such techniques. For example, exchanging SMS or messages on social networks. After all, the simple question “How are you?” You can simply answer “Fine”, or you can also “Fine, it was a hot day, but I was tired as a dog.”

In the first case, it will be just dry information, but in the second, the interlocutor will also know your emotional state, which is much more important.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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What is an epithet in literature?

Epithets: examples from literature

Along with colloquial speech, epithets are used in literature, most likely more often than in interpersonal communication. Here is an example of an epithet in literature:

"On an evening like this golden And clear,
In this breath of spring all-victorious
Don't remember me, oh my friend beautiful,
You are about our love timid And poor».

At all, epithet- this is a word that gives the subsequent word expressiveness and imagery. It is, as it were, the definition of this word. Often this word is an adjective, less often an adverb, but it can also be a verb or even a noun. For example, the phrase " winged swing“contains the epithet “winged,” which helps the reader imagine the swing not just as a piece of iron moving back and forth, but as some kind of bird soaring in the air. Now you can object that epithets are simple adjectives. But no! In order for a simple adjective to become an epithet, you need to “award” it with a deep meaning, and at the same time have a imaginative imagination. Here are some more examples of epithets:

• “The grass was blooming so merrily all around” (I. Turgenev).
• “What if I, enchanted, return home humiliated, can you forgive me?” (Alexander Blok).
• “In saucers - lifebuoy glasses” (V. Mayakovsky).
• “Ghostly Reigns” (I. Brodsky).
• “Sneaking, playing hide and seek, the sky descends” (B. Pasternak).

Epithets in the age of information technology.

Unfortunately, epithets are gradually disappearing from our lives. Nowadays people are so busy that they try to speak briefly and only to the point. By avoiding unnecessary phrases, we eliminate epithets from our speech.

Please note that our speech is becoming more and more rough, angular and abbreviated. Modern people spend more and more time sitting at the computer on social networks. Emoticons and pictures replace epithets for us.

An epithet is a metaphor that acts as a definition that transfers the properties of one object or phenomenon to another. As examples of epithets The following phrases can be cited: gentle wind, nasty day, heart of stone.

The founder of the doctrine of epithets was Alexander Veselovsky. There is still no established view in the literature on the nature of epithets: some scientists attribute epithets to figures of speech, others to tropes. Also, some literary scholars believe that epithets are only found in poetic speech, while others find them in prose.

In literary criticism, he distinguishes several types of epithets: figurative and lyrical.

Types of epithets

Figurative epithets convey properties or qualities perceived by the senses (for example: rainy day, bitter laughter).

Lyrical epithets capture properties that convey emotions and various moods (for example: a large garden, a gentle wind).

Thus, based on the predominance of one or another type of epithets in the text, we can conclude that the author perceives the world within himself (with the dominance of lyrical epithets) or the world outside himself (with the dominance of figurative epithets).

Also, when defining and characterizing epithets, one should take into account the concept of how constant epithets, which are mainly characteristic of folklore works (for example: red, well done). Constant epithets are attached to the word in a certain way and are closely connected with it.

Epithets can be expressed by any part of speech (noun - noise of fun, heartache; adverb - passionate love; verb - desire to forget, etc.).

With a word, influencing its expressiveness, the beauty of pronunciation. It is expressed primarily by an adjective, but also by an adverb (“to love dearly”), a noun (“fun noise”), and a numeral (“second life”).

Without having a definite position in the theory of literature, the name “epithet” is applied approximately to those phenomena that are called a definition in syntax, and an adjective in etymology; but the coincidence is only partial.

There is no established view of the epithet in literary theory: some attribute it to figures of speech, others consider it, along with figures and tropes, an independent means of poetic depiction; Some consider the epithet to be an element of exclusively poetic speech, others find it in prose as well.

This “oblivion of real meaning,” in the terminology of A. N. Veselovsky, is already a secondary phenomenon, but the very appearance of a constant epithet cannot be considered primary: its constancy, which is usually considered a sign of epic, epic worldview, is the result of selection after some diversity.

It is possible that in the era of the most ancient (syncretistic, lyric-epic) song creativity this constancy did not yet exist: “only later did it become a sign of that typically conventional - and class - worldview and style, which we consider, somewhat one-sidedly, to be characteristic of epic and folk poetry" [ ] .

Epithets can be expressed by different parts of speech (Mother Volga, wind-tramp, bright eyes, damp earth). Epithets are a very common concept in literature; without them it is difficult to imagine a work of art.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ What is an epithet? [Lectures on literature]

✪ Russian language | Preparation for the OGE | Task 3. Means of speech expression

✪ Unified State Exam 2017. Literature. Epithet

Subtitles

Dictionaries of Epithets

Epithets of Literary Russian Speech. A. Zelenetsky. 1913

The dictionary contains common and reverse articles. A regular article provides a list of epithets for a key word - a noun:

worry O property

unaccountable, boundless, pointless, continuous, causeless, painful, gnawing, deaf, oppressive, formidable, burning <Некрасов> , creepy(colloquial), hidden, lung, feverish, painful, involuntary, inexplicable, extraordinary, extraordinary, indefinite, haunting, unclear, acute, strong, hidden, vague <Серафимович> , sucking, strange, scary(colloquial), secret, languid, alarming, painful, terrible(colloquial), painful

A viscous, gratifying, sacred <Некрасов>

Reverse The article shows with which supporting words a specific epithet is used - an adjective (in 3 gender variants):

Selection of epithets.

more e famous14 (more e znennaya21, more e valuable11, more e valuable)

anxiety, insomnia, pallor, imagination, scream, hunger, dreams, grimace, a pity, care, languor, scream, face, Love, curiosity, dream, music, thought, resentment, insult, habit, irritation, wound, blush, sobbing, pride, light, dream, old age, moan, passion, fear, body, anxiety, hit, fatigue, fantasy, feeling, selfishness, phenomenon, rage

A evening, delight, dreams <Надсон> , day <Тютчев> , language

Types of epithets

The Dictionary presents 4 types of epithets: general linguistic, folk-poetic, rare (individually authored) and phraseological units, which also usually have a specific author’s source.

General language epithets are the most numerous group of words. Some nouns (for example, face, look, eyes, smile, life) hundreds of characterizing definitions have been recorded. Among them are adjectives with both free and bound meanings. Wed. On the one side: crimson sunset , insightful sight , ironic smile , high forehead, and on the other - dejected sight , beaded handwriting , crackling freezing , sardonic smile . Among the general linguistic epithets there are words used in both literal and figurative meanings, stylistically neutral and with a bright stylistic coloring. Wed: full silence and (translated) grave silence , fast sight and (translated) fulminant sight , dark oak and (translated) black-headed oak ; unbearable pain and (colloquial) creepy pain , strong freezing and (colloquially) vigorous freezing . The characteristic features of general linguistic epithets are the relative stability of the connection between the determiner and the defined, the reproducibility of such phrases, and the repeated use of them in the literary language.

Folk poetic epithets came into the literary language from oral folk art. Their main feature is the constancy and limited combinations of the determinant with the defined. Typical examples are: pure field, blue sea , bitter grief , violent wind , red Sun , grey wolf etc. Many folk poetic epithets are characterized by: a) the use of an adjective in a truncated form (cheese Earth, clean field); b) transfer of stress ( green O wine , silk O high meadows ); c) inversion of the determinant and the defined ( winds violent, legs frisky, grief bitter).

To a separate area A highlighted rare (individually-authored) epithets. They are based on unexpected, often unique semantic associations, therefore they are usually irreproducible, their use is of an occasional nature. However, under certain conditions (authority of the writer, brightness, freshness of the image, etc.) these epithets can become general linguistic. Thus, the boundary between general linguistic and individual author’s epithets is conditional and fluid. Here are some examples of individual author's epithets: blue mood <Куприн> , marmalade mood <Чехов> , cardboard Love <Гоголь> , sheep Love <Тургенев> , chumpy indifference <Писарев> , blue joy <Куприн> , colorful joy <Шукшин> , moth beauty <Чехов> , wet-lipped wind <Шолохов> , tearful morning <Чехов> , flabby laughter <Мамин-Сибиряк> , candy pain <Вс. Иванов>. Combinations of opposite concepts (oxymorons) occupy a significant place among rare epithets. The illogic of combining words creates a psychological effect, attracts the reader’s attention, and enhances the expressiveness of the image. The functions of such epithets are similar to the reception of antithesis. For example: gray-haired youth <Герцен> , joyful sadness <Короленко> , sweet sadness <Куприн> , hating Love <Шолохов> , sad joy <Есенин> , dreary joy <М. Горький>. The inclusion of individual author's epithets in the Dictionary enriches our understanding of the possibilities of figurative use of words and shows bright literary discoveries.

In addition to the actual epithets in the zone L The most commonly used everyday and terminological definitions are also presented (they are often called logical definitions). For example:

b O l

L head, chest, gastric, dental, irradiating, local, migraine, reflected, peripheral, epigastric, gouty, prenatal, rheumatic, generic, phantom and so on.

Lists of such definitions expand the understanding of the range of typical combinations of the noun listed in the Dictionary. It should also be taken into account that many relative adjectives in context can acquire a qualitative meaning and thus be used as characterizing definitions (i.e. epithets). For example: army discipline (same as in the army) autumn rain (the kind that happens in the fall), funeral ringing (such as at a funeral), etc.