The Stylistic Potential of the Transferred Epithet

This article deals with the transferred epithet which is defined as a figure of speech where the attribute is transferred from the noun it logically belongs to, to another one which it fits grammatically but not logically. In the fictional discourse the transferred epithet shows considerable stylistic potential as it is based on an unconventional co-occurrence of the modifier and the modified noun and the resulting semantic discord which causes the effect of unexpectedness. The ambivalent, amorphous and complex nature of the transferred epithet generates new implicit meanings which enrich and complicate the original meaning. It allows the author to express something that is difficult to convey with standard structures. Such characteristics of transferred epithets as their referential diffusion, the ability to convey emotional and evaluative connotations and their semantic capacity allow using them to create polyphony. The mapping of different mental spaces causes a logical contradiction which leads to a comic effect. The latter is especially vivid when the mental spaces of the body parts or artifacts overlap with mental spaces of human emotional states.


Introduction
The object of this research is the transferred epithet defined as a figure of speech in which an attribute grammatically modifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually describing (Khazagerov, 2009, p.172), as in the examples green days in forests, blue days at sea (Arnold, 1990, p.92).In the transferred epithet the attribute is transferred from the noun it logically belongs to, to another one which it fits grammatically but not logically (Galperin, 1981, p.161).Sometimes the transferred epithet is referred to as a hypallage but this is a broader term which means "an interchange of two elements in a phrase or sentence from a more logical to a less logical relationship" (Gorte, 2007, p.86).The transferred epithet can be regarded as an example of metonymy because the relations between the two objects involved in the attribute transference are based on contiguity (e.g. a powerful throne).This device may also be a form of personification in which something non-human is described as having human emotions or characteristics because a modifier is shifted from the animate to the inanimate (as in cheerful money or suicidal sky) (Harris, 2010; Dorst, 2011).The transferred epithet is based on an unconventional co-occurrence of the modifier and the modified noun which causes the effect of unexpectedness which is the basis of any stylistic device and accounts for its expressiveness (Levitskaya & Fitterman, 1976).
The transferred epithet with its expressive potential in focus has received a great deal of scholarly attention (Hall, 1973;Ryabtseva, 1973;Zhirmunskiy, 1977;Galperin, 1981;Kukharenko, 1988;Arnold, 1990;Sandakova, 2004;Coulson & Oakley, 2006;Kubaeva, 2009).Still, the employment of transferred epithets as rhetorical devices in different types of discourse remains under-investigated.Meanwhile, such constructions are quite typical of the English language and frequently used in the fictional discourse as the representative sample of 1200 transferred epithets from the works of English-speaking writers of the 19 th-21 st centuries demonstrates.Therefore, the analysis of their stylistic functioning seems topical.Thus, the subject of this research is the stylistic potential of the transferred epithet.In this article we analyse how the expressiveness of the transferred epithet is created in English fictional discourse.To achieve this, the following objectives are set: 1) to examine the meaning augmentation which occurs in transferred epithets; 2) to find out how polyphony contributes to the stylistic effect created by transferred epithets; 3) and to show how a comic effect can be produced with the help of this stylistic device.
The novelty of the research lies in the approach to the transferred epithet as a specific discursive-cognitive complex which can realize its expressive potential only in the discourse.In such a capacity it is able to reflect a peculiar artistic world perception and conceptualization, to facilitate the communication between the author and the reader and to convey new meanings without increasing the utterance volume.This approach adds to the previous research conducted from other perspectives, thus providing a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon under study.
The selected transferred epithets were analysed with the combined application of general scientific and linguistic research methods.The descriptive linguostylistic analysis was based on the sampling, analysis, classification and the following synthesis of the language material.The componential and definition analysis was conducted with the help of Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, Longman New Universal Dictionary, The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus.The methods of the research also include the contextual and conceptual analysis and the methods of syntactic paraphrasing.
The findings may be useful in many areas of investigation that deal with stylistics, rhetorical devices, epithets, metonymy and discourse analysis.They may be of interest to teachers and students of English and can be applied in designing courses in semantics, stylistics and text interpretation.The findings may also contribute to a better understanding and more efficient usage of the language expressive means.

Theoretical Background
The transferred epithet, being a multifaceted and complex phenomenon, has long been an area of interest for linguists who have analyzed its structure, nature, the functioning mechanism, semantic relations within such constructions and the stylistic functioning.
Transferred epithets have been studied from the perspective of semantic syntax (Arutyunova, 1976).They are referred to as adjective constructions with the deviance of the semantic and syntactic concord.Arutyunova (1976) points out that in transferred epithets the subject loses its subject reference and when the sense of the sentence is decoded the latter is unfolded into a proposition.The proposition can be simultaneously derived from the attribute and the context (pp.139-140).
In terms of combinatorial semantics transferred epithets are viewed as the result of the deviation from the rules of collocation.Examining the mechanisms of such non-standard combinations researchers conclude that they are based on the semantic-syntactic processes of the resubordination and contraction (Nikitin, 1983;1996).The resubordination is the violation of the logical norms while combining the elements of the senses.The example "There rises the hidden laughter/ Of children in the foliage, in the lion's intolerant look" contains all the elements of the sense but they are combined in an unconventional manner, thus, their interpretation involves the reorganization of the elements in accordance with the logical associations: "the laughter of hidden children, in the intolerant lion's look" (Nikitin, 1986, pp.81-82).The contraction means omitting a linking element which can be mentioned or implied and restored while decoding the sense of the utterance (Nikitin, 1996, p.200).
Similar conclusions are drawn by Norman (1994) who investigated transferred epithets from the perspective of the speech production processes.He distinguishes between two types of syntactic transference depending on the changes in the utterance structure.In the first type the quantitative utterance structure remains the same while the quality of the elements and their position in the construction change.The second type is characterized by both quantitative and qualitative transformations resulting in a contracted utterance.These types correspond to the resubordination and contraction processes described by Nikitin (1996).
Transferred epithets are mentioned in the works on conceptual integration by Fauconnier&Turner (1995; 1996; 1999) and Sweetser (1999).Lakoff (1981) points out that the usage of such constructions is determined by the knowledge-represenation structure (p.350).But these researchers do not carry out a thorough investigation of the factors which determine the speaker's need to use transferred attibutes in the process of transition from the sentence idea to its lexical and grammatical representation.
The great interest in transferred epithets is explained to a large extent by their expressiveness and there are a number of works where such constructions are studied in terms of stylistics and referred to as a rhetorical device (Ryabtseva, 1973;Galperin, 1981;Kukharenko, 1988;Arnold, 1990).According to Galperin (1981), transferred epithets are "logical attributes generally describing the state of a human being, but made to refer to an inanimate object" as in unbreakfasted morning, a disapproving finger, sleepless pillow (p.161).Such logical incongruity of the components generates the stylistic effect.Ryabtseva (1973) believes that the transferred epithet is the overlap point for two stylistic devices -metonymy and epithet (p.18).The components of the transferred epithet are the modified noun, or topic, and the transferred attribute.The topic is assigned a new attribute transferred from another object, or image, which is contiguous with the topic.Within this approach two types of transferred epithets are distinguished: those in which both the topic and image are stated in the context (combinations of semantic and positional contiguity), and those in which only the topic is stated but the image is implied (combinations of semantic contiguity and positional similarity) (Ryabtseva, 1973, pp.57-67).The linguist puts special emphasis on the interaction of the transferred attribute and the modified noun and analyses the meaning augmentation in such constructions.The conclusion that the transferred epithet acquires new semantic elements is made in other research as well (Dolgikh, 1984;Potsepnia, 1997;Tsur, 2007).The extent of the meaning transformation and augmentation depends on the nature of the image and topic linked by the common attribute.The more unusual and unconventional this link is, the more expressive the transferred epithet appears.
On the expressiveness scale, according to Kubaeva (2009, p.11), transferred epithets can be divided into: • author's transferred epithets (individual, original and highly expressive); • clichéd transferred epithets (conventional, common and slightly expressive); • "dead" transferred epithets (inexpressive, where the first component lost its semantic independence long ago and only intensifies the meaning of the modified noun).
Author's transferred epithets are of particular interest for the stylistic analysis as they manifest a writer's linguocreative potential.
The cognitive-discursive paradigm enables researchers to develop new approaches to studying the transferred epithet and to reveal its new important parameters.From this perspective the transferred epithet is regarded as discursive attributive metonymy which functions only within the text and does not exist outside it (Raevskaya, 2000, p.50).It reveals such features as occasionalism, expressiveness, emotional colouring and obligatory ties to the context.Sandakova (2004) in her research of attributive metonymy in Russian distinguishes between lexical and discursive metonymy and provides a comprehensive description of the latter.She points out that the mechanisms of attributive metonymy in discourse are ellipsis, nominative substitution of the modified noun and a word-building mechanism.To understand and interpret attributive metonymy in fictional discourse the reader should have relevant background knowledge as well as draw on knowledge about the language and the world and analyse the context.

Discussion
The expressiveness of the transferred epithet is accounted for by its typical semantic discord resulting from the dislocation of the regular positions of its components.The violation of the lexical valency causes the stylistic effect and appeals to the reader.The reader has not only to restore the original logical structure of the components but to manipulate the units at the cognitive level which inevitably triggers associations and creates imagery.The semantic capacity of the transferred epithet and its ability to convey emotional and evaluative connotations allow them to generate new implicit meanings and create polyphony.The contradiction resulting from the mapping of different mental spaces may create a comic effect.

Generating New Meanings
One of the inherent characteristics of the text perception is the process of filling in certain "gaps" (Karaulov, 1981, p.212) as any text is incomplete and represents a skeleton which has to be built up by the reader (Shklovskiy, 1983).Any text conveys not only explicit but implicit information as well which is not worded but derived from the relations between appositional text units (Arnold, 1990).Thus, the overall meaning of the text is the result of the interaction between its explicit and implicit meanings (Nikitin, 1996, p.625).According to Maslennikova (1999), implicit meanings are perceived by the reader and interpreted in keeping with their language competence, background knowledge and certain indicators contained in the text.
Researchers distinguish between two types of implicit meanings: extensions and sophistications (Nikitin, 1996;Maslennikova, 1999).Extensions correspond to some omitted elements in the text which can be easily restored in the context and included into the linear text structure (Nikitin, 1996, p.634).Sophistications overlap the original meaning structure of the word enriching and complicating the overall utterance meaning calling for the interpretation by the recipient (Maslennikova, 1997, p.147).Transferred epithets can be considered as the combination of both types of new implicit meanings generated in the discourse.
The ability of the transferred epithet to convey implicit information is accounted for by the deviation from the logical subordination (Nikitin, 1996, p.200).Understanding such word combinations requires the restoration of the original logical relations: There he recalls a number of mean dirty shops, and particularly that of a plumber and decorator with a dusty disorder of earthenware pipes, sheet lead, ball taps, pattern books of wall-paper, and tins of enamel (Wells, 2000).
In the original three-member structure with the successive subordination a disorder of dusty earthenware pipes the attribute "dusty" of the object "pipes" is shifted to the periphery of the word combination and becomes the attribute of the object "disorder".Here we see an example of the meaning-extension.Because of this intentional deviation from the rules of logical subordination the reader's attention is captured and the context requires creative analysis.In the word combination "dusty disorder" both components contain the seme "untidiness", which is thus enhanced.The meaning "untidiness" is also supported by the context (the word combination "dirty shops", the enumeration of all objects sold in the shop serve to create and intensify the impression of a shambles), and this an obvious case of the meaning-sophistication.
In the case of contraction, when the object from which the epithet is transferred is not mentioned but implied, there reader has to find this missing object: The gloomy little study with windows of stained glass to exclude the view, was full of dark green velvet and heavilycarved mahogany […].In the rich brown atmosphere peculiar to back rooms in the mansion of a Forsyte, the Rembrandtesque effect of his great head, with its white hair, against the cushion of his high-backed seat, was spoilt by the moustache... (Galsworthy, 1973).
In the given example the adjective "brown" is syntactically related to the noun "atmosphere" while semantically it belongs to the word "furniture" which is not mentioned but merely suggested.The reader challenged by the obvious semantic discord has to restore the omitted object.This operation generates a new meaning-extension.In this extract such an object is mentioned in the previous context and this is the word "mahogany" ("dark brown wood used for furniture") which metonymically stands for "furniture".The full implicit meaning-sophistication is extracted thanks to the following context (the epithet "Rembrandtesque").
What is foregrounded here is not the dark furniture but the gloomy and oppressive atmosphere of the old Forsyte's loneliness which is similized to the lonesome old people in Rembrandt's brown pictures.
The transferred epithet also conveys the evaluation, or the author's positive or negative attitude to the designatum (Rakhilina, 2000).The evaluative meaning can be seen as the meaning-sophistication because the reader has to guess and interpret the author's attitude.Some researchers point out that transferred epithets mainly contain a negative seme and are used to express a subjective evaluation of the events and characters' physical features and spiritual qualities (Kubaeva, 2009, p.11): I patted the thin malicious arm (Chandler, 1983).
Constructions with transferred epithets being ambivalent, amorphous and complex allow the author to express something which is difficult to convey with standard structures.All this gives the reader the freedom of interpretation unlocking their associative potential.

Creating Polyphony
The ability of the transferred epithet to generate new meanings and catalyze associative thinking provides opportunities for creating the polyphonic narration.The term "polyphony" was introduced by M. Bakhtin (1979) and assumes that a character's point of view functions alongside with the narrator's one as well as the other characters' voices.
A distinctive feature of the XX century literature is its subjectivism, or personalism.The narration becomes a means to show a character's consciousness.In a number of novels written in the XX century all events are presented through the perception of the character even though formally it may be third-person narration.Authors use such a narration technique as point of view showing the events through the eyes of the characters, shifting the point of view from character to character thus achieving the objectivity of the narration and polyphony (Booth, 1983).The point of view means that the narration is organized as the reflection of those things which get into the physically limited sphere of somebody's perception (Likhacheva, 1977, p.46).In this case the omniscient author opts out and the narration is based on the character's perspective.The examples for this part are taken from the works of J. London, K. Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence who clearly demonstrate the above mentioned features in their style (Lunina, 2010;Trofimova, 2011;Antonova, 2011).
The transferred epithet can act as a means of delivery of an "alien" point of view in the third-person narration as we can see in the following example: The Thirty Mile River was wide open.Its wild water defied the frost, and it was in the eddies only and in the quiet places that the ice held at all.Six days of exhausting toil were required to cover those thirty terrible miles (London, 2009).
The novel is told from the perspective of an anonymous third-person narrator but the events that are recounted are those that the main character, the dog Buck, experiences directly.The animal is anthropomorphized, given human traits and attributed human thoughts and insights.Throughout the novel the writer emphasizes the human qualities of the dog.Therefore the transferred epithet in the given example reflects the point of view of the dog for whom the next part of the trail is going to be hard due to the severe Alaskan conditions as well as terrible because of the cruel treatment of his masters.At the same time this transferred epithet shows the point of view of the human characters who envisage the passage with the starving weakened sled dogs as terrible.Thus, the transferred epithet, being a compressed construction which can be unfolded into larger pieces, contains implicit information.
The reader conjectures the unsaid and creates the character's image adopting a certain attitude.
In fictional discourse the points of view of the narrator and the characters frequently interweave, even within one utterance (Bazerman, 1989).The presence of several points of view on an object or a situation enables to show them from different perspectives which makes the literary work polyphonic and multi-dimensional.
She [Rosemary] was outside on the step, gazing at the winter afternoon.Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark came too, spinning down like ashes.[...] Sad were the lights in the houses opposite.Dimly they burned as if regretting something.[...] But at the very instant a young girl, thin, dark, shadowy -where had she come from?-was standing at Rosemary's elbow and a voice like a sigh, almost like a sob, breathed: "Madam, may I speak to you a moment?"[...] Rosemary peered through the dusk and the girl gazed back at her. [...] Rosemary stepped forward and said to that dim person beside her: "Come to tea with me" (Mansfield, 1953).
In this example the epithet "dim" transferred from Object 1 "light" to Object 2 "person" carries two meanings simultaneously: 1) not bright; and 2) not clear.
The second meaning is determined by the first: a dim figure is not clear because there is not much light.On the one hand, the transferred epithet describes the objective characteristic of the atmosphere reflecting the narrator's point of view.On the other hand, it shows the character's perception because it was Rosemary who could not clearly see the girl.Moreover, the transferred epithet acquires an additional contextual meaning "nondescript, humble, timid" which demonstrates Rosemary's attitude to the girl.
Sometimes the same scene can be described from different points of view which creates polyphony: (1) Still she (Minette) stared into his (Gerald's) face with that slow, full gaze which was so curious and so exciting to him.[...]She wore no hat in the heated cafe, her loose, simple jumper was strung on a string round her neck.But it was made of rich yellow crepe-de-chine, that hung heavily and softly from her young throat and her slender wrists.
(2) Gerald's face was lit up with an uncanny smile, full of light and rousedness, yet unconscious.He sat with his arms on the table, his sun-browned, rather sinister hands, that were animal and yet very shapely and attractive, pushed forward towards her [Minette].And they fascinated her.And she knew, she watched her own fascination (Lawrence, 1996).
In the first case the transferred epithet conveys Gerald's point of view who is watching the girl.The second case shows the girl's perception who is, in her turn, watching Gerald.With the help of these two transferred epithets the author creates a silent dialogue between the characters.

Creating a Comic Effect
Another important stylistic function of the transferred epithet is creating a comic effect as the analysis of the material suggests.This function is accounted for by the very nature of the transferred epithet which is based on the semantic discord, discrepancy and contradiction caused by the fact that an object or a phenomenon acquires a distant and alien property (Gak, 1998, p.285).At the same time discrepancies and contradictions are the source for the comic which is created by the convergence of the unconvergable (Propp, 1997, p.225).Contradictions, contrasts, discrepancies, which are the basis for the comic, are diverse but always there exists the necessary amalgamation of the incomparable aspects (New Philosophic Encyclopedia, 2001, p.277-278).
Let us track down how the transferred epithet contributes to creating a comic effect.
The processes of resubordination and contraction typical of the transferred epithet account for the discord at the verbalsemantic level (Nikitin, 1996, p.200).This discord is based on the overlap of different mental spaces (Kubaeva, 2009).The contradiction caused by different nature of the approaching cognitive rows may produce a comic effect (Brône et al., 2006).The representative sampling of the illustrative material lets suggest that a comic effect arises when the following two mental spaces approach at the cognitive level: the mental space represented by the body parts nominations and the mental space of human feelings.Moreover, the attractors are usually such nouns as "hand, foot, finger, ear, mouth".When the attractors are the words "eye" or "face" a comic effect is rare because when these nouns are modified by the adjectives denoting mental states they acquire the meaning "look" and "expression" respectively losing expressivity.
As I sat in the bath tub, soaping a meditative foot and singing, if I remember correctly, 'Pale Hands I Loved Beside the Shalimar,' it would be deceiving my public to say that I was feeling boomps-a-daisy (Wodehouse, 2008).
In this example the transferred epithet "a meditative foot" is based on the overlap of the mental space of inanimate objects represented by the word "foot" and the mental space of human mental states (the word "meditative").The transferred epithet helps to show the author's irony aimed at the character.
In the following example we see a multi-component transferred epithet where the modified noun is preceded by two adjectives: the adjective "large" in its literal meaning and the adjective "determined" metonymically related to the noun "thumb": Jake awoke in the darkness with a slight hangover, a headache due to fatigue and Coors, and the distant but unmistakable sound of his doorbell ringing continually as if held firmly in place by a large and determined thumb.(Grisham, 2005).
Here the transferred epithet ironically depicts the character who in his hangover perceives the reality in an exaggerated form.The character's poor condition is amplified by the stylistic device of zeugma.
Sometimes nouns denoting body parts can become attributes in the constructions with transferred epithets: In the furies of separation Mrs Battensby, a woman of broad-hipped charm who wore slacks all day… (Bates, 1955).
The image created by the author becomes a succinct portrait of the character and produces a comic effect.
A comic effect can arise when the mental spaces of human feelings and artifacts overlap: Then, very gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing shoe (Fitzgerald, 1973).
In this case we see an example of pseudo-personification which, as some researchers point out, leads to creating a comic effect (Zolina, 1980, p.31).
Also, a comic effect can appear when the noun-attractor from the mental space of human feelings is modified by the adjective describing human appearance: A tight-lipped arrogance had long since replaced the warm reception given to the visitors in the first few days after the shootings (Grisham, 2005).
The transferred epithet may create various shades of the comic, from humour and harmless banter to sarcasm and causticity: The Priory of Sion believed that it was this obliteration of the sacred feminine in modern life that had caused what the Hopi Native Americans called koyanisquatsi -"life out of balance" -an unstable situation marked by testosteronefuelled wars, a plethora of misogynistic societies and a growing disrespect for Mother Earth (Brown, 2004).
Another way of creating a comic effect with the help of a transferred epithet is to place it into a set phrase.This stylistic device is referred to as the decomposition of set phrases which consists in the interplay between the literal meaning and the phraseological meaning (Galperin, 1981, p.189;Vrbinc & Vrbinc, 2011).
She was pretty and soft, but she weighed 120 pounds -a lusty last straw to the load dragged by the weak and starving animals (London, 2009).
The adjective "lusty" (full of strength, power, or health) added to the idiom "the last straw" reveals the author's sarcastic attitude towards the girl.On the one hand, it explicitly points at her healthy appearance.On the other hand, it implies that the girl does not fully realize that the situation is deadly serious when she insisted on being carried by the dogs.The comic effect is enhanced by the contrast between the adjective "lusty" referring to the girl and the adjectives "weak, starving" describing the animals.
In the example below the adjective "wild" is incorporated into the set phrase "to have butteflies (in one's stomach)": Not long after the last margarita Jake bolted from the couch and stared at the clock on his desk.He had slept for three hours.A swarm of wild butterflies fought violently in his stomach (Grisham, 2005).
The author humorously describes the panic state of the character, a thirty-two-year-old attorney Jake, who nearly overslept on the date of the important trial.At the outset Jake is admirably self-disciplined, organized and in control of his life.But having to send away his wife and daughter for safety reasons and left without their stabilizing influence, Jake slides quickly into immature, irresponsible behavior.

Conclusions
In this paper we investigated transferred epithets.The findings provide insights into their stylistic potential in English fictional discourse which can be developed in three main directions: generating new meanings, creating polyphony and creating a comic effect.The analysis showed that transferred epithets generate new implicit meanings-sophistications, which enrich and complicate the original meaning, and meanings-extensions, which have to be restored from the context.Such characteristics of trans-ferred epithets as their referential diffusion, the ability to convey emotional and evaluative connotations and the semantic capacity allow using them to create polyphony.The mapping of different mental spaces causes logical contradiction which produces a comic effect.The latter is especially vivid when the mental spaces of the body parts or artifacts overlap with the mental spaces of human emotional states.