PUMPA - SMART LEARNING
எங்கள் ஆசிரியர்களுடன் 1-ஆன்-1 ஆலோசனை நேரத்தைப் பெறுங்கள். டாப்பர் ஆவதற்கு நாங்கள் பயிற்சி அளிப்போம்
Book Free DemoA transferred epithet is a figure of speech where an adjective or epithet describing a noun is transferred from the noun it is meant to describe to another noun in the sentence.
An epithet is an adjective or phrase that is used to describe the main quality of a person or thing. Great monarchs and people usually had epithets like 'The Great' 'The Third' etc., behind their names to make them noteworthy and easily identifiable. But in a transferred epithet, this epithet usually used to describe a particular subject is used to describe another.
- They were in an Unhappy marriage - This denotes that the people in the marriage are unhappy, but the epithet 'unhappy' is given to the word marriage to indicate the effect.
- I had a sleepless night - Nights cannot be sleepless. But the epithet is attached to the word 'Night' to intensify the amount of sleeplessness.
- I had a wonderful day - The day is not wonderful, rather it denotes how the speaker felt in the day.
Example:
Transferred epithet in the poem "No Men Are Foreign":
They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war's long winter starv'd - "starv'd" is an epithet which is placed beside the noun 'winter'. However, it does not describe the 'winter' as being starved but describes the pronoun 'they'. Historically many wars were fought during the winter, while the harvest season was essentially peaceful. 'They' refers to the soldiers in uniform who had to starve during winter while fighting for their land.
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