What is one of the main beauties of human interaction? Of course, in communication, sharing your thoughts, emotions, sensations with each other through language. Now imagine if all our conversations came down solely to the transfer of this or that information, bare data without any figurative characteristics or additional meanings reflecting our attitude to what was said. This would be reminiscent of the communication of machines exchanging various combinations of zeros and ones, only instead of numbers there are words that do not carry any emotional connotation. Expressiveness of speech is important not only in everyday communication, but also in literature (and here it is “vital”). Agree, it is difficult to imagine a novel, poem or fairy tale that does not use figurative definitions and others. This is why epithets are important in our speech, both oral and written. What it is? This is precisely what helps make the words and phrases used more colorful, more accurately convey their essential features and express our attitude towards them. Next, we will take a closer look at this concept, define the role and meaning of epithets in speech, and also try to classify them depending on the purposes and features of application.

The concept of an epithet and types of its constructions

Let's start by presenting a complete and deeper understanding of the word "epithet": what it is, what structure it has, how it is used in certain situations.

Adjectives as epithets

From ancient Greek, “epithet” is translated as something “attached” or “added” to the main thing. This is true. These special expressive words always come as a complement to others denoting some object (object or subject). Usually this is a “definition + noun” construction, where the epithet is a definition, usually an adjective (but not necessarily). Let's give simple examples: black melancholy, dead of night, powerful shoulders, sugar lips, a hot kiss, cheerful colors, etc.

In this case, adjectives are epithets that allow us to draw a more complete picture of a particular subject: not just melancholy, but “black”, oppressive, impenetrable; not just a kiss, but a “hot”, passionate, giving pleasure - such a description makes you feel more deeply what the author wants to convey, experience some sensations and emotions.

Using other parts of speech as epithets

However, the role of epithets can be played not only by an adjective; often in this “role” adverbs, nouns, pronouns, and even participial and participial phrases (that is, not one word, but a combination of them) appear. Often it is these parts of speech that make it possible to more accurately and vividly convey an image and create the desired atmosphere than adjectives would do.

Let's look at examples of using various parts of speech as epithets:

1. Adverbs. In a sentence they are circumstances. Examples: “The grass bloomed merrily” (Turgenev); “And I complain bitterly, and I shed bitter tears” (Pushkin).
2. Nouns. They give a figurative description of the subject. Act as applications or predicates. Examples: “Oh, if only Mother Volga ran back!” (Tolstoy); "Spring of honor, our idol!" (Pushkin).
3. Pronouns. They are used as epithets when they express the superlative degree of a phenomenon. Example: "...combat contractions...they say what kind of contractions!" (Lermontov).
4. Participles. Example: “...I, enchanted, cut the thread of consciousness...” (Blok).
5. Participial phrases. Examples: “A leaf ringing and dancing in the silence of centuries” (Krasko); “...borzopists...who have nothing in their language except words that do not remember kinship” (Saltykov-Shchedrin).
6. Participles and participial phrases. Examples: “...playing hide and seek, the sky comes down from the attic” (Pasternak); “... frolicking and playing, it rumbles...” (Tyutchev).

Thus, epithets in speech can be not only adjectives, but also other parts of speech if they help convey an image and more accurately express the properties of the object being described.

Independent epithets

Rarely, there are cases when expressive means are used in a text without a main word; epithets act as independent definitions without qualifiers. Example: “I look for strange and new things on the pages of old, scribbled books” (Block). Here the epithets “strange” and “new” simultaneously play two roles - both the definition and the defined. This technique is typical for the literature of the era of symbolism.

Methods for classifying epithets

So, now we have a fairly clear idea of ​​such an important term in literary theory as epithets. We looked at what it is and how it is used. However, for a better understanding of this phenomenon, it is important to be able to distinguish and classify epithets according to certain criteria. Despite the fact that the main and most important purpose of using these expressive means always comes down to one thing - to describe, to give an artistic definition of an object or phenomenon, all epithets can be classified. They are divided into groups according to different parameters, which we will consider below.

Types of epithets from a genetic point of view

The first group divides epithets into types depending on genetic origin:

• general language (decorating);
• folk poetic (permanent);
• individually-authored.

General linguistic ones, also called decorative ones, represent any characteristics that describe objects and phenomena and their properties. Examples: gentle sea, deathly silence, leaden clouds, ringing silence, etc. We usually use them in everyday speech in order to better convey the atmosphere of the event/object being described and our feelings to the interlocutor.

Folk poetic, or permanent, epithets are words or entire expressions that over many years have become firmly attached to certain words in people's minds. Examples: good fellow, red maiden, clear month, open field and others.

Individual author's epithets are a product of the creative thought of the author himself. That is, previously these words or phrases were not used in speech in exactly this meaning, and therefore were not epithets. There are a lot of them in fiction, especially in poetry. Examples: “the face of the thousand-eyed trust...” (Mayakovsky); “transparent flattery necklace”, “rosary of golden wisdom” (Pushkin); “...an eternal motive in the middle of life” (Brodsky).

Epithets based on metaphor and metonymy

Epithets can also be divided into groups according to other criteria. Since figurative epithets are often associated with the use of words in a figurative meaning, depending on the type of this figurative word (which is an epithet), we can distinguish:

• metaphorical;
• metonymic.

Metaphorical epithets, as is already clear from the name, are based on “light patterns”, “winter silver” (Pushkin); “dull, sad friendship”, “sad, mournful reflection” (Herzen); “barren fields” (Lermontov).

Metonymic epithets are based on the figurative metonymic meaning of the word. Examples: “her hot, scratching whisper” (Gorky); “birch, cheerful language” (Yesenin).

In addition, epithets based on metaphorical or metonymic meaning can incorporate properties of other tropes: combined with hyperbole, personification, etc.

Examples: “Loudly winged arrows, beating behind the shoulders, sounded / In the procession of an angry god: he walked, like the night” (Homer); “He cursed, begged, cut / climbed after someone to bite into the sides. / In the sky, red as a Marseillaise / the sunset trembled, rounding around” (Mayakovsky).

This use of epithets makes it possible to express the author’s perception of some phenomena/objects even brighter, stronger, and more accurately and to convey these feelings to readers or listeners.

Epithets from the point of view of the author's assessment

Epithets can be divided into groups depending on how the author’s assessment is expressed in the work:

• figurative;
• expressive.

The former are used to express features and focus attention on some significant differences and properties of an object without expressing the author’s assessment of it. Examples: “...in the autumn twilight, how ghostly the transparency of the garden reigns” (Brodsky); “Your fences have a cast-iron pattern / And the flame of the punch is blue” (Pushkin).

Expressive epithets (as is already clear from the name) give readers the opportunity to hear the author’s attitude, his clearly expressed assessment of the described object or phenomenon. Examples: “meaningless and dim light” (Block); “the heart is a cold piece of iron” (Mayakovsky).

However, it is worth noting that such a division is very conditional, since often figurative epithets also have an emotional connotation and are a consequence of the author’s perception of certain objects.

Evolution of the use of epithets in literature

When discussing what epithets are in literature, one cannot help but touch upon the topic of their evolution over time. They are constantly undergoing change, both historically and culturally. In addition, epithets differ depending on the geography (place of residence) of the people who created them. Our upbringing, characteristics and living conditions, experienced events and phenomena, experience gained - all this influences the images created in speech, as well as the meaning that is inherent in them.

Epithets and Russian folk art

Epithets - what are these images in oral folk art? At the early stage of the development of literature, epithets, as a rule, described some physical properties of objects and highlighted significant, key features in them. The emotional component and expression of attitude towards the described object faded into the background or were completely absent. In addition, folk epithets were distinguished by exaggeration of the properties of objects and phenomena. Examples: good fellow, untold riches, etc.

Epithets of the Silver Age and postmodernism

With the passage of time and the development of literature, epithets became more complex, their designs changed, and their role in works changed. The novelty of poetic language, and therefore the use of epithets, is especially clearly visible in the literary works of the Silver Age. Wars, rapid scientific and technological progress and related changes in the world have led to changes in human perception of the world. Writers and poets began searching for new literary forms. Hence the emergence of a large number of “own” (that is, the author’s) words due to the violation of habitual morphemes, stem connections, new forms of words and new ways of combining them.

Examples: “Curls sleep on the shoulders of snowy whiteness” (Muravyev); “Laughers... who laugh with laughter, who laugh with laughter, oh, laugh with laughter!” (Khlebnikov).

Many interesting examples of the use of words and unusual depictions of objects can be found in the works of Mayakovsky. Just look at the poem “The Violin and a Little Tenderly”, in which “the drum... slipped onto the burning Kuznetsky and left”, “the stupid plate clanged out”, “the copper-faced helikon” shouted something to the violin, etc.

The literature of postmodernism is also noteworthy in terms of the use of epithets. This direction (which emerged in the 40s and received its greatest development in the 80s) contrasts itself with realism (especially socialist realism), which dominated in Russia until the end of the 70s. Representatives of postmodernism reject the rules and norms developed by cultural traditions. In their work, the boundaries between reality and fiction, reality and art are erased. Hence - a large number of new verbal forms and techniques, curious and very interesting uses of epithets.

Examples: “The diathesis was blooming / The diapers were turning golden” (Kibrov); “The acacia branch... smells of creosote, vestibule dust... in the evening it tiptoes back into the garden and listens to the movement of electric trains” (Sokolov).

The works of the postmodern era are replete with examples of what epithets are in the literature of our time. One has only to read such authors as Sokolov (an example is presented above), Strochkov, Levin, Sorokin, etc.

Fairy tales and their characteristic epithets

Epithets occupy a special place in fairy tales. Folklore works of different times and different peoples of the world contain many examples of the use of epithets. For example, Russian folk tales are characterized by the frequent use of distance epithets, as well as definitions describing the surrounding nature. Examples: “open field, dark forest, high mountains”; "far away lands, in a distant state" ("Finist - the clear falcon", Russian folk tale).

But Iranian fairy tales, for example, are characterized by oriental imagery and florid speech rich in various epithets. Examples: "... a pious and wise sultan, who delved into state affairs with extraordinary care..." ("The History of Sultan Sanjar").

Thus, using the example of epithets used in folk art, one can trace the cultural characteristics inherent in a particular people.

Epithets in epics and myths of different peoples of the world

At the same time, folklore works from around the world are characterized by common features of the use of epithets that serve a specific purpose. This can be easily seen in the example of ancient Greek myths, Celtic legends and Russian epics. All these works are united by the metaphorical and fantastic nature of the events; epithets with a negative connotation are used to describe frightening places, events or phenomena.

Examples: “boundless dark Chaos” (ancient Greek myths), “wild screams, monstrous laughter” (Celtic legends), “filthy idol” (Russian epics). Such epithets serve not only to vividly describe places and phenomena, but also to form a special perception and attitude of the reader towards what he read.

What is the richness of the Russian language? Epithets and their role in colloquial and artistic speech

Let's start with a simple example. A short dialogue of two sentences: “Hello, son. I’m on my way home. How are you? What are you doing?” - “Hi, mom. Good. I ate the soup.” This conversation is a dry exchange of information: the mother is going home, the child has eaten soup. Such communication does not carry any emotions, does not create a mood and, one might say, does not give us any information about the feelings and real state of affairs of the interlocutors.

It’s another matter if epithets “interfere” in the communication process. What does it change? Example: “Hello, my sweet son. I’m driving home tired and exhausted like a dog. How are you doing? What are you doing?” - “Hello, beloved mommy. I had a hot day today, in a good way! I ate the soup, it was great.” This example very well answers the question of why epithets in modern speech are so important, even if it is an ordinary everyday conversation. Agree, from such a conversation it is much easier to understand what mood each of the interlocutors is in: the mother will be glad that her son is doing well, and is pleased that he liked the soup; the son, in turn, will understand that his mother is tired and will heat up dinner for her arrival or do something else useful. And all this thanks to epithets!

Epithet in Russian: role and examples of use in artistic speech

Let's move from simple to complex. In artistic speech, epithets are no less, and perhaps even more important. Not a single literary work will be interesting and will not be able to captivate the reader if it contains few epithets (with rare exceptions, of course). In addition to the fact that they make it possible to make the image of the depicted phenomena and objects brighter and more expressive, epithets also perform other roles in:

1. They emphasize some characteristic features and properties of the object being described. Examples: “yellow ray”, “wild cave”, “smooth skull” (Lermontov).
2. They explain and clarify the features that distinguish an object (for example, color, size, etc.). Example: “Forest... lilac, gold, crimson...” (Bunin).
3. Used as a basis for creating an oxymoron by combining words with contrasting meanings. Examples: “brilliant shadow”, “poor luxury”.
4. They allow the author to express his attitude to the phenomenon being described, give his assessment and convey this perception to readers. Example: “And we value the prophetic word, and we honor the Russian word” (Sergeev-Tsensky).
5. They help create a vivid idea of ​​the subject. Example: “...the first ringing of spring... rumbles in the blue sky” (Tyutchev).
6. They create a certain atmosphere and evoke the desired emotional state. Example: “...lonely and a stranger to everything, walking alone along an abandoned high road” (Tolstoy).
7. They form in readers a certain attitude towards a phenomenon, object or character. Examples: “A rustic peasant is riding, and he is sitting on a good horse” (Russian epic); “Onegin was, in the opinion of many... / A small scientist, but a pedant” (Pushkin).

Thus, the role of epithets in fiction is invaluable. It is these expressive words that make a work, be it a poem, a story or a novel, lively, fascinating, capable of evoking certain emotions, moods, and assessments. We can safely say that if there were no epithets, the very possibility of the existence of literature as an art would be called into question.

Conclusion

In this article, we tried to most fully answer the question and examined various ways of classifying these means of expression, and also talked about the role of epithets in life and creativity. We hope this has helped you expand your understanding of such an important term in literary theory as epithet.

In the task it is necessary to reveal the definition of the term “epithet” and give examples.

Definition of epithet

Epithets are bright colorful definitions of an object, action or phenomenon. Most often, epithets are adjectives (which? which? which? which?), but they can also be other parts of speech. Epithets are a means of expression, and not a single literary text can do without them. Epithets are used in poems, prose, and are found in all forms of literature.

Most often, epithets are used to describe something or someone. Without epithets, our speech would be dry and primitive.

But even here you need to be careful not to confuse the epithet with a simple adjective. For example, “green (grass)” - “emerald (grass)”. In the first case

The epithet, as it were, embellishes, makes the described object brighter.

In order not to confuse an epithet and a simple adjective, you can cheat a little. For example, take the phrases “yellow autumn” and “golden autumn”. In the first phrase “yellow autumn” there is no epithet, but in the second, autumn is compared to gold. "Golden autumn - autumn is like gold." Thus, an epithet is a figurative comparison. For example, an affectionate child is a child who knows how to express affection, a bitter truth is the truth with bitterness, deathly silence is silence as in a coffin, velvet skin is skin like velvet, a beautiful girl is a girl. having beauty. And it is impossible to find a comparative phrase for phrases like “big house”, “red ribbon”, “crumpled paper”, and accordingly they will not be epithets.

Examples of epithets. How to find an epithet in a text

For example, let's take a short excerpt from a poem by F. Tyutchev.

There is in the initial autumn
A short but wonderful time -
The whole day is like crystal,
And the evenings are radiant...

Let's find epithets:

• a marvelous time (the time is compared to a marvel);
• crystal day (the day is compared to crystal);
• the evenings are radiant (evenings are compared to the rays of dawn).

You should also remember that the adjectives in the expressions “red sun”, “red maiden”, “good fellow” will also be epithets.

The most common phenomenon of artistic syntax is epithets. They are often considered as a speech phenomenon that exists along with words that are allegorical in their meaning - metaphors, comparisons. But it's not right. The same word can be a metaphor from a semantic point of view, or an epithet from a syntactic point of view. For example: “I’m here again with my dear family, my region pensive And gentle"(Yesenin). Sematically, the epithet can also be a metonymy (“Their proud squads || fled northern swords" - Pushkin), and irony (“Where, smart, Are you delusional, head?” - Krylov) or may not have any tangible allegorical meaning (“Night, fragrant warmth wafted from the earth” - Turgenev). But an extended comparison can also include metaphors

ical and other epithets (“My life, or did I dream about you? || As if I were in spring echoing early || Galloped on pink horse!” - Yesenin).

"Epithet" means "adjective" in ancient Greek. Indeed, adjectives in literary speech are very often epithets, but not always. An adjective becomes an epithet only when it is an emotionally expressive development of figurative thought and therefore requires emphatic emphasis with the help of melody and accent, more or less strong. But an adjective can develop a thought logically and in this case is not an epithet. For example: “The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather...” (Gogol). In this phrase, the adjective “wonderful” is a predicate and therefore carries logical emphasis. But at the same time, due to its pronounced emotionality, it also requires an emphatic emphasis with a corresponding increase in tone. Another adjective (“quiet”), defining the circumstance of time (“in ... weather”), it would seem, can also be considered as its epithet, but in fact this is not so. The word “quiet” is not an epithet here, since it is devoid of emphaticity and requires a strong logical emphasis, because it is a member of the logical antithesis that arises further: “with quiet weather”... “wonderful Dnieper”...- “When will the blue clouds roll across the sky like mountains” (i.e., when a thunderstorm breaks out), "terrible then the Dnieper."

This means that not all adjectives as modifiers of nouns are epithets. But many other words, not adjectives, if they require an emphatic emphasis due to the emotionality of their meaning, can be understood as epithets.

These can be verbal adjectives and participles. For example: “What if I, Fascinated, \\ The thread of consciousness that has been broken, || I will return home humiliated, || Can you forgive me? (Block). The first participle bears emphasis and acts as an epithet, while the others (“torn off” and “humiliated”) are not such, since one of them logically explains the previous one, and the other is a logical predicate of a conditional subordinate clause.

A very common grammatical form of an epithet is an adverb of a verb. For example: “The sea was noisy Deaf, angrily "(Bitter); or: “Around the grass funny Tsvela ”(Turgenev). But the adverb can sometimes

have only logical meaning and not be an epithet. For example: “During the entire journey, Kasyan maintained stubborn silence and answered my questions abruptly And reluctantly"(Turgenev). Here adverbs logically develop the idea of ​​the entire sentence.

Sometimes verbal adverbs and gerunds can also have the meaning of an epithet. For example: “I love thunderstorms in early May, || When spring, the first thunder, || As if frolicking And playing||Rumbling in the blue sky" (Tyutchev). But much more often they are devoid of this meaning. For example: “Levin followed him, trying to keep up, and it became more and more difficult for him” (L. Tolstoy).

Epithets can also be nouns that are an appendix to another noun that plays the role of the subject or its complement. For example: “Rides peasant-ruff, and he is a man sitting on a good horse” (epic); or: “And here is public opinion! || Spring of honor, our idol! \\ And this is what the world revolves on!” (Pushkin). And here is an example of an application that has only logical meaning: “Sitting in the pavilion, he saw a short young lady walk along the embankment, blonde"(Chekhov).

The meaning of epithets is sometimes given to nouns that play the role of a predicate. For example: “Onegin was, in the opinion of many || (decisive and strict judges) || Scientist small, But pedant"(Pushkin); or: “Allow me to report || Short and simple: || I'm big hunter live|| Until ninety years old” (Tvardovsky). Here is an example of a predicate noun, not an epithet: “I learned from her, Gypsy - foundling... he was found at the gate of the house, on a bench” (Gorky).

Even complementary nouns sometimes have the meaning of an epithet. For example: “The wonderful air is cool and stuffy and full of Negi..."(Gogol); or: “...I vividly remembered everything yesterday - and the charm happiness... disappeared..." (Chekhov) In most cases, additions have only logical meaning. For example: “The month was ready to plunge into black clouds, hanging on distant the peaks..."(Lermontov).

Finally, the rarest case is a subject noun, which has a tangible emotional-evaluative meaning and therefore plays the role of an epithet. For example: “Thinking bunglers over the words of the prince...” (Saltykov-Shchedrin); or: “On the path of the blue field ||Soon an iron one will come out guest"(Yesenin). Usually

subjects are devoid of emphaticity and are only logically connected with the predicate. For example: "Father with outward calm, but inner malice, he accepted his son’s message” (L. Tolstoy).

So, an epithet is a word or phrase that emotionally characterizes an object or action. The meaning of an epithet can be given to words with different grammatical functions. When considering the system of epithets characteristic of certain works, one must proceed, first of all, not from the grammatical relationships of words, but from their emotional and expressive meaning, which requires for its implementation appropriate emphatic accents and melodic pattern of phrases. With this understanding of epithets, they receive a very wide variety.

The differences that were characteristic of epithets in the artistic literature of different historical eras and different peoples are also significant. A special work by A. N. Veselovsky “From the history of the epithet” is devoted to these problems. (36, 73 -92).

At the early stages of the development of epic creativity - both oral folk and literary - epithets were distinguished by the fact that they did not have a clearly perceptible emotionality, that they had the materiality of their meaning, revealing the physical properties of the depicted phenomena. But the heroes of fairy tales, epic songs and stories, their exploits and adventures were idealized and the corresponding feature was given material epithets in their images. They almost always denoted the most perfect, powerful, valuable physical properties of the depicted phenomena and objects. In the ancient, epically depicted, fairy-tale and song “world” the sun was always “red” or “light”, the wind was “violent”, the cloud was “black”, the sea was “blue”, the forest was “dark”, the field was “clean” ”, well done - “daring”, girls - “red” (beautiful), eyes - “clear”, legs - “spirited”, horses - “greyhounds”, swords - “damask”, etc. In the traditional performance of fairy tales and songs, when their verbal structure was borrowed by some singers and storytellers from others, such materially idealizing epithets of the life depicted were firmly fixed in certain images and passed from one work to another. This tradition extended to lyrical folk poetry. In folkloristics, such epithets are called permanent.

In modern fiction, such epithets were used only in works that followed the traditions of oral folk art and imitated its style. So, from Lermontov: “It does not shine in the sky the sun is red,|| They don't admire him blue clouds...-"; from Koltsov: “They will carry her || The winds are violent|| In all directions || White light..." etc.

In later historical eras, due to the emergence of “personal” creativity next to traditional and nameless folk art, which no longer expresses the collective generic life experience, but the ideological and artistic interests of an individual who has separated from the collective, the epithets gradually changed. They lost their constant and one-sided material-idealizing meaning, were enriched with various psychological associations, and became, in most cases, emotional in content. Veselovsky calls them “syncretistic epithets of modern poetry.”

The culmination of the development of associative and emotional epithets was the emergence of romantic creativity in the advanced countries of the world. Examples of metonymic and metaphorical allegory of artistic semantics are directly related to this.

In the literature of the heyday of the realistic principle of reflecting life, epithets with a material meaning, in their own way emotional, were widely developed. Having lost their idealizing meaning, they acquired specific object-based representation. For example: “Tatyana saw through the window... || On glass lungs patterns, || Trees in winter silver,|| Fourty cheerful in the yard" (Pushkin); or: “He opened the window. It was night fresh And motionless light. Just in front of the window there was a row of trimmed trees, black with one and silver-lit on the other side. Under the trees there was some juicy, wet, curly vegetation..." (L. Tolstoy).

A new flowering of emotional and metaphorical epithets arose in the poetry of the 20th century. (see examples in the previous chapter).

is a minor member of a sentence with the help of which an emotional-figurative thought develops, then ellipsis is the omission of one of the main members of the sentence - the subject or the verbal predicate, or even both. At the same time, the remaining members of the sentence receive stronger accentuation, and the entire intonation of the phrase becomes more expressive and energetic.

Ellipses are often found in colloquial speech (for example: “Well, it’s ready, let’s go!”; “Finally, tomorrow to the theater!”; “Please, a glass of tea!”; “Please, ticket and things!”, etc.). P.); but in it the omitted members of the sentence are implied in the given context of the conversation, and their omission is determined by the desire for speed and brevity of the statement.

Otherwise in artistic speech. Here ellipsis is used for purely emotional and expressive purposes. For example: “They, to run away|| But no one could unravel...” (Krylov). “Tatiana ah! and he roars", "Tatyana into the forest, the bear follows her"(Pushkin).

Ellipses are especially characteristic in Mayakovsky’s poems and poems, where they are created by the increased emotionality of the text and the energy of its declamatory intonation. For example: “After all, it’s not important for yourself ||that bronze,|| and that the heart is cold piece of iron"; or: “...I myself will pull out the soul, ||I will trample it, \\so big!- || and I will give the bloody one as a banner.”

Sometimes in artistic speech not only predicates are missed, but also other, minor members of the sentence. Nominal sentences are created that have special expressiveness in the art of words. For example: “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy,|| Meaningless and dim light" (Blok); or: “I’ll come at four,” said Maria. || Eight. Nine. Ten"(Mayakovsky).

Here are examples of subject ellipsis: "Transformed everything is a joke at first...” (Blok); “I cursed, begged, cut,|| climbed behind someone bite into to the sides. || The sky is red like Marseillaise || the sunset trembled, circling around” (Mayakovsky).

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.

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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

An epithet is a definition that creates an image. Academician A. N. Veselovsky praised it very highly in his “Historical Poetics”: “The history of the epithet is the history of poetic style in an abridged edition,” that is, according to the scientist, every period in the development of literature, every change in literary styles and trends has found its reflected in the development of the epithet. Since an epithet identifies an “essential feature” in a certain concept, and the choice of the most important, essential feature among the “insignificant” is a characteristic of the literary consciousness of the era, the characteristics of the writer’s work, then the epithet itself determines the nature of the poetic style.

Let's say a well-known concept is in use, but it does not make an impression, does not touch thoughts. But the artist identifies an essential feature in this phenomenon, but previously unnoticed; he, as it were, recommends it to the reader’s attention, and the phenomenon acquires an immeasurably deeper meaning.

Such epithets as Pushkin’s “simple-minded slander” or Lermontov’s “incomplete earthly joys” immediately, like a flash of lightning, illuminate for us the content of a phenomenon that we had not thought about before; they bring into consciousness something that was previously only vaguely felt somewhere beyond. outside of it.

The epithet carries a large load of psychological characteristics; it compresses the content into one word. The fundamental difference between an epithet as an artistic definition and a logical definition is that a logical definition shows how one object differs from another; the epithet evokes a holistic idea of ​​the subject considered by the writer from a certain perspective.
From Lermontov:

I enter a dark alley; through the bushes
The evening ray looks and the yellow sheets
They make noise under timid steps.

The word “yellow” is an epithet, because it does not differentiate leaves by color, but gives us an idea of ​​autumn. Sometimes it intensifies one or another symptom (deep silence, terrible storm). TO intensifying epithets we can also include the so-called idealizing epithets(for example, the words of Lensky from Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” “my spring is the golden days”).

We can talk about decorating epithets, which were widely used by classicists and especially romantics. They believed that using a noun without an epithet was unpoetic; he must be elevated by it. Therefore, the use of epithets in the phrases “running ship”, “swift wave”, giving the words a poetic flavor, transferred them from the prosaic category to the poetic.

Many works of ancient literature (especially the Homeric period) and works of oral folk art are characterized by the so-called permanent epithet. One can cite a significant number of examples when a constant, stable epithet is, as it were, “fixed” to a certain life phenomenon: “red maiden”, “clean field”, “steep bank”, “gloomy oak grove”, “good fellow”, “damp land” , “white swan”, “blue sea”.

A. N. Veselovsky, speaking about the epithets of the epic, also uses the expression “ tautological epithets».

The so-called compound epithets. These include “Homeric epithets” (“lavishly dressed”, “silver-shining”, “long-suffering”, “cunning”, “lily-rammed” and others). Compound epithets are often found in the poems of G. R. Derzhavin (“sweet-stringed,” “white-rudded,” “black-fiery”).

Epithets always convincingly characterize the personality of a writer (every significant writer can find a set of his favorite epithets, specific to his literary manner and style). To a certain extent, they characterize literary movements and even entire eras in the development of literature.

Stable, repeatedly repeated epithets characterize the poetry of N. Tikhonov; they are distinguished by tension, pathos, intensity: “a thunderous whirlwind”, “violent roads”, “cruel dawn”, “burning field”, “deep delight”. He also has epithets that express unlimited space and time and include the negation of “not”: “unfading surf”, “endless roar”. Finally, his poems contain many colorful epithets: “green heat”, “green awe”, “green air”, “green fairy tale”, “blue whistle of frost”, “blue lava”.

In his excellent essay “Ode to an Epithet” (Questions of Literature. 1972. No. 4), L. Ozerov writes: “In guidebooks and reference books, statues are defined as follows: marble, copper, bronze. In the books of art historians, they add dimensions, the history of creation, features of style, and manners. Akhmatova defines the statue this way: “Look, it’s fun for her to be sad, so elegantly naked.” Just think: about a statue of a naked woman you can say that it is elegant. This is a paradox! But how he makes you see! And how this vision renews objects. One is “dressy”. “Nude” is something completely different. Anna Akhmatova offers the combination “smartly naked.” Mixing two colors gives a third one - unexpected and sharp. The epithet “smartly naked” speaks of the beauty of the body. The double epithet explodes from the inside both “elegant” and “naked” and gives a third definition - possible only with a strong, heightened artistic vision of the world. The complex epithet here is supported by the contrasting phrase “to be sad cheerfully.”

An epithet reveals new qualities in the depicted object and phenomenon, renews the meaning, and destroys established, traditional concepts about what is depicted.

L. Ozerov is right when he writes that an epithet is thought, color, sound, light, that it is depth, horizons, intuition, vigilance. An epithet is the artist’s power over the depicted object or life phenomenon.