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Interjections and Exclamatory Words
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Interjections are words we use when we express our feelings ^strongly and which may be said to exist in language as coriyeritional symbols of human emotions/The role of interjections in creating emotive meanings has already been dealt with (see p. 67). It remains only to show how the logical and emotive meanings interact and to ascertain their general functions and spheres of application”
In traditional grammars the interjection is regarded as a part of speech, alongside other parts of speech, as the noun, adjective, verb, etc. But there is another view which regards the interjection not as a part of speech but as a sentence. There is much to uphold this view* Indeed, a word taken separately is deprived of any intonation which will suggest a complete idea, that is, a pronouncement; whereas a word-_ interjection will always manifest a definite attitude on the part of the speaker towards the problem and therefore have intonation. The pauses between words are very brief, sometimes hardly perceptible, whereas the pause between" the interjection and the words that follow is so long, so significant that it may be equalled to the pauses between sentences.
However, a closer investigation into the nature and functions of the interjection proves beyond doubt that the interjection is not a sentence; it is a word with strong emotive meaning. The pauses that frame interjections can be accounted for by the sudden transfer from the emotion-*** al to the logical or vice versa. Further, the definite intonation with whicli interjections are pronounced 4^Pe^ds on the sense of the preceding of*^ following sentence. Interj'ections have no sentence meaning if taken in^
dependently.
Let us take some examples of the use of interjections:
Oft, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers? (Kipling) The interjection oh by itself may express various feelings, such as regret, despair, dis^ppointpierit, sorrow, woe, surprise, astonishment, lamentation, entreaty and many others. Here it precedes a definite sentence and must be regarded as a part of it. It denotes the ar-"dent tone of the question. The Oh here may be regarded, to use the terminology of theory of information, as a signal indicating emotional tension in the following utterance.
The same may be observed in the use of the interjection oh in the
following sentence from "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens: I
"Oft! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge."
The Oft here is',a signaMndicating the strength of the emotions of
the author, which are further revealed in a number of devices, mostly
syntactical, like elliptical sentences, tautological subjects, etc. The tneaning of the interjection Oft in the sentence can again be pinned down only from the semantic analysis of the sentence following it and then it becomes clear that the emotion to be understood is one of disgust or scorn.
So interjections, as it were, radiate the emotional element over the whole of the utterance, provided, of course, that they precede it.
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It is interesting to note in passing how often interjections are used by Shakespeare in his sonnets. Most of them serve as signals for the sestet which is the semantic or/and emotional counterpart to the octave,1 or example:
"0, carve not with thy horns..." (Sonnet 19)
"0, Let me, true in love, but..." (21)
"0, therefore, love be of thyself...." (22)
"0, let my books be, then, the..." (23)
"0, then vouchsafe me..." (32)
"0, absence, what a torment..." (39)
"0, no! thy love, though much..." (61)
"0, fearful meditation..." (65)
"0, if I say, you look..." (71)
"0, lest your true love..." (72)
"0, know, sweet love..." (76)
Mft, do not, when my heart..." (96)2
Interjections can be divided into p r i mar у and derivative. Primary interjections are generally devoid of any logical meaning. Derivative interjections may retain a modicum of logical meaning, though this is always suppressed by the volume of emotive meaning. Oft! Ahl Bahl Poohl GosM Hushl Alasl are primary interjections, though some of them once had logical meaning. 'Heavens!', 'good gracious!', 'dear me!', 'God!', 'Come on!', 'Look here!', 'dear!', 'by the Lord!', 'God knows!', 'Bless me!', 'Humbug!' and many others of this kind are not interjections as such; a better name for them would be exclamatory words and word-combinations generally used as interjections,' r.e. their function is that of the interjection.
It must be noted here that some adjectives, nouns and adverbs can also take on the function of interjections—for example, such words as terrible!, awful!, great!', wonderful!, splendid!', fine!, man!, boy! With proper intonation and with an adequate pause such as follows an interjection, these words may acquire a strong emotional colouring and are equal in force to interjections. In that case we rrfay say that some adjectives and adverbs have acquired an additional grammatical meaning, that of the interjection.
Men-of-letters, most of whom possess an acute feeling for words, their meaning, sound, possibilities, potential energy, etc., are always aware °f the emotional charge of words in a context. An instance of such acute
2 It is interesting to note here that out of the four interjections used by Shakespeare jn his^sonnets (0, Ah, alack (alas), ay) the interjection 0 is used forty-eight times, Ah *ive times, alack — twice, and ay — twice.
awareness is the following excerpt from Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge" where in a conversation the word God is used in two different senses: first in its logical meaning and then with the grammatical meaning of the interjection:
"Perhaps he won't. It's a long arduous road he's starting to travel, but it may be that at the end of it he'll find what he's seeking." "What's that?"
"Hasn't it occurred to you? It seems to me that in what he said to you he indicated it pretty plainly. God."
"God!" she cried. But it was an exclamation of incredulous surprise. Our use of the same word, but in such a different sense, had a comic effect, so that we were obliged to laugh. But Isabel immediately grew serious again and I felt in her whole attitude something like fear.
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the change in the sense of the word god is indicated by a mark of exclamation, by the use of the word 'cried' and the words 'exclamation of incredulous surprise' which are ways of conveying in writing the sense carried in the spoken language by the intonation.
Interjections always attach a definite modal nuance to the utterance. But it is impossible to define exactly the shade of meaning contained in a given interjection, though the context may suggest one. Here are some of the meanings that can be expressed by interjections: joy, delight, admiration, approval, disbelief, astonishment, fright, regret, woe, dissatisfaction, ennui (boredom), sadness, blame, reproach, protest, horror, irony, sarcasm, meanness, self-assurance, despair, disgust and
many others.
Interesting attempts have been made to specify the emotions expressed by some of the interjections. Here are a few lines from Byron's "Don JuanJ which may serve as an illustration:
"All present life is but an interjection
An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery, Or a 'Ha! ha!' or 'Bah!'—a yawn or 'Pooh!' Of which perhaps the latter is most true."
A strong impression is made by a* poem by M. Tsvetayeva “Молвь” in which three Russian interjections “ox”, “ax” and “эх” are subjected to a poetically exquisite subtle analysis from the point of view of the meanings these three interjections may express.
Interjections, like other words in the English vocabulary, bear features which mark them as bookish, neutral* or с о I I o q и i~ a I. Thus oft, aft, Baft and the like are neutral; a/as, egad (euphemism for “by GocP), Lo, Яаг1Гаге bookish *\ gosh, why, well are colloquial. But ais with other woTcTsTff any stratum of vocabulary, the border-line between the three groups is broad and flexible. Sometimes therefore a given interjection may be considered as bookish by one scholar and as neutral
by another, or colloquial by one and neutral by another. However, the difference between colloquial and bookish will always be clear enough. In evaluating the attitude of a writer to the things, ideas, events and phenomena he is dealing with, the ability of the reader to pin-point the emotional element becomes of paramount importance. It is sometimes hidden under seemingly impartial description or narrative, and only an insignificant lexical unit, or the syntactical design of an utterance, will reveal the author's mood. But interjections, as has been said, are direct sigrialstlia^ charged, and insufficient attention on the part' of the literary critic Tomcfuse 6! interjections will deprive him of a truer understanding of the writer's aims.
1 The last two are somewhat archaic and used mostly in poetical language. Egad is also archaic.
The Epithet
From the strongest means of displaying the writer's or speaker's emotionaj. attitude to his communication, we now pass to a weaker but still forceful, means — the ep i th e t..The epithet is subtle and delicate in character. It is not so direct as the interjection. Some people ^even cbnsider tHaf it can create an atmosphere of objective evaluation, whereas it actually conveys the subjective attitude of the writer, showing that lie is partial in one way or another;
""The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotiv,e and logicaT meaning in an attributive word/phrase or even sentenc§ used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader, and f re-quently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the ob-ject with the aim of giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluative. The logical attribute is purely objective, non-evaluating. It is descriptive and indicates an inherent or prominent feature of the thing or phenomenon in question.
Thus, in 'green meadows', 'white snow', 'round table', 'blue skies', 'pale complexion', 'lofty mountains' and the like,- the adjectives are more logical attributes than epithets. They indicate those qualities of the objects which may be regarded as generally recognized. But in 'wild wind', 'loud ocean',, 'remorseless dash of billows', 'formidable waves', 'Heart-burning smile', the adjectives do not point to inherent qualities of the objects described. They are subjectively evaluative.
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The epithet makes a strong impact on the reader, so much so, that he^imwittingly begins to see and evaluate things as the writer wants Turn io. Indeed, in such word-combinations as 'destructive charms', 'glorious sight', 'encouraging smile', the interrelation between logical and emotive meanings maj be said to manifest itself in different degrees. The word destructive has retained its logical meaning to a considerable extent, -but at the same time an experienced reader cannot help perceiving the emotive meaning of the word which in this combination will signify 'conquering, irresistible, dangerous'. The logical meaning of the word glorious in combination with the word sight has almost entirely faded out. Glorious is already fixed in dictionaries as a word
having an emotive meaning alongside its primary, logical meaning. As to the word encouraging (in the combination 'encouraging smile') it is half epithet and half logical attribute. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between eplffief and logt-"cal attribute. Iff some passages the logical attribute becomes so strongly | enveloped in the emotional aspect of the utterance that it begins to radiate emotiveness, though by nature it is logically descriptive. Take, for example, the adjectives green, white, blue, lofty (but somehow not round) in the combinations given above. In a suitable context they may all have a definite emotional impact on the reader. This is probably explained by the fact that the quality most characteristic of the given object is attached to it, thus strengthening the quality.
Epithets may be classified from different standpoints: s e т a n-t i с and '"§t r и с t и r at. Semantically, epithets may be divided into wo groups: those associated with the noun following arid those
n a s s ° ° I a t e d w^h it.
Associated epithets are those which point to a feature which ~is es-describe: the idea expressed in the epithet is to
^gn^Qo^Jb^Jibjects they aescnoe: ше mea слр^оо^ *** „^ ~r..._,_ __
a cerfam extent jnfierent in the concept of the object. The associated epllhef'Immediately refers the mind to the concept in question due to some actual quality of the object it is attached to, for instance, 'dark
-•forest1, 'dreary midnight', 'careful attention', 'unwearying research', 'ifP"^ def at igable assiduity', 'fantastic terrors', etc.
Unassociated epithets are attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent inJL i.e. a feature which may be so unexpected as to strike the reader by its novelty, as, for instance, 'heartburning smile', 'bootless cries', 'sullen earth', 'voiceless sands', etc. The adjectives here do not indicate any property inherent in the objects in question. They impose, as it were, a property on them which is fitting only in the given circumstances. It may seem strange, unusual, or even
accidental. *••
In any combination of words it is very important to observe to what degree the components of the combination are linked. When they are so
• closely linked that the component parts become inseparable, we note that we are dealing with a set expression. When the link between the component parts is comparatively close, we say there is a stable word-^ combination, and when we can substitute any word of the same grammati" cal category for the one given, we note what is called a free combination
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of words.
With regard to epithets, this-division becomes of paramount importance, inasmuch as the epithet is-a powerful means for making the desired impact on the reader, and therefore its ties with the noun are generally contextual. However, there are combinations in which the ties between the attribute and the noun defined are very close, and the whole combination is viewed as a linguistic whole. Combinations of this type appear as a result of the frequent use of certain definite epithets with definite nouns. They become stable word-combinations. Examples are: 'bright face', valuable connections' 'sweet smile', 'unearthly beauty', 'pitch darkness', 'thirsty deserts',"'deep feeling', 'classic example', 'powerful influ-
ence', 'sweet perfume' and the like. The predictability of such epithets is very great.
Tfae functjjao of epithets of this kind remains basically the same: "to show the evaluating, su_bjejctiye attitude,of the writer towards the |tfiing"descnbed. ButTof this purpose the author does not create his own, 'new, unexpected epithets; he uses ones that have become traditional, and may be termed "language epithets" as they JbeI6ng^6"Welanguage-as-a-system. Thus epithetsTfriay~ be liivided into language epithets and sp e e c^(Tp~~tthets. Examples of speech epithets are: 'slavish knees', 'sleepless bay.'
~~~ The process of strengthening the connection between the epithet and the nouaJtn^^^njetimes go^o far as to build a specific unit which does not lose its poeticITavour. Such epithets are calle,d,Xl^^ d and ^emosi^ ly used in ballads^ajni(ifpj[^ songs. Her of fixed epithets: 'true love', 'dark forest', 'sweet Sir', 'green wood', 'good ship', 'brave cavaliersV •- - -...—.......,.....____
Structurally, epithets can be viewed from the angle of a) composition and b) distribution.
From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into simple, с о т p о и n d, p h r a s e and sentence epithets. Simple epithets are ordinary adjectives. Examples have been given above. 'Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives. Examples are: 'heart-burning sigh', 'sylph-like figures', 'cloud-shapen giant',
"...curly-headed good-for-nothing,
And mischief-making monkey from his birth." (Byron)
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 p h r as e e p i t h e t s. A phrase and even a whole sentence may become an epithet if the main formal requirement of the epithet is maintained, viz. its attributive use. But unlike simple and compound epithets, which may have pre- or post-position, phrase epithets are always placed before the nouns they refei to.
An interesting observation in this respect has been made by O. S. Akh-manova. "The syntactical combinations are, as it were, more explicit, descriptive, elaborate; the lexical are more of an indication, a hint or a clue to some previously communicated or generally known fact, as if one should say: 'You know what I mean and all I have to do now is to point it out to you in this concise and familiar way'." x
This inner semantic quality of the attributive relations in lexical combinations, as they are called by O. S. Akhmanova, is, perhaps, most striking in the phrase and sentence epithets. Here the 'concise way' is most effectively used.
Here are some examples of phrase epithets:
.. luAkhmanova 0. S. Lexical and Syntactical Collocations in Contemporary English. Zeitschrift fur Anerli.stik unH Ampribinkttk" M 10КЯ Hpff T n 1Q
"It is this do-it-yourself, go-it-alone attitude that has thus far heldlJack real development of theTVliddle East's river resources." (N. Y. T. Magazine, 19 Oct., 1958.)
"Personally I detest her (Gioconda's) smug, mystery-making, Qome-hither-but-go-away-again-because-butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth expression." (New Statesman and Nntion, Jan. 5, 1957)
"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")
"Freddie was standing in front of the fireplace with a 'well-thafs-the-story-what-are-we-going-to-do-about-it* air that made him a focal point." (Leslie Ford, "Siren in the NighT7)
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An interesting structural detail of phrase and sentence epithets is that they are generally followed by the worus^expression, air, attitude and others which describe behaviour or facial expression. In other words, such epithets seem to transcribe into language symbols a communication usually" conveyed by non-linguistic means.
Another structural feature of such phrase epithets is that after the nouns they refer to, there often comes a subordinate attributive clause beginning with that. This attributive clause, as it were, serves the purpose of decoding the effect of the communication. It must be noted that phrase epithets are always hyphenated, thus pointing to the temporary structure of the compound word.
These two structural features have predetermined the functioning of phrase epithets. Practically any phrase.or, sentence which deals with the psychological state of a person may serve as an epithet. The phrases and sentences transformed into epithets lose their independence and assume a new quality which is revealed both in the intonation pattern (that of ш attribute) and graphically (by being hyphenated).
Another structural variety of the epithet is the оде which we shall term r eve r s e d. The reversed epithet is composed of two nouns linked 4ft an e/-phrase. The subjective, evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun structurally described, for example: "the shadow of a smile"; "a devil of a job" (Maugham); "...he smiled brightly, neatly, efficiently, a military abbreviation of a smile" (Graham Green); "A devil of,a sea rolls in that bay" (Byron); "A little Flying Dutchman of a cab" (Galsworthy); "a dog of a fellow" (Dickens); "her brute of a brother" (Galsworthy); "...a long nightshirt of a mackintosh..." (Cronin)
It will be observed that such epithets are metaphorical. The noun to be assessed is contained in the of-phrase and the noun it qualifies is".a''metaphor ^(shadow, devil, military abbreviation, Flying*Dutchman, ^2~^jr~The grammatjcai aspect, viz. attributive relation between the members of the combination shows that the SD here la an epithet.
It has been acknowledged that it is sometimes difficult to draw a line of demarcation between attributive and predicative relations. Some at-
tributes carry so much information that they may justly be considered bearers of predicativeness. This is particularly true of the epithet, especially genuine or speech epithets, which belong to language-in-action and not to language-as-a-system. These epithets are predicative in essence, though not in form.
On the other hand, some word-combinations where we have predicative relations convey so strongly the emotional assessment of the object spoken of, that in spite of their formal, structural design, the Predi^jyjss_c^ as epithets. Here are some examples:
'Fools that they are'; 'Wicked as he is.';
The inverted position of the predicatives tools' and 'wicked' as well as the intensifying 4hat they are' and 'as he is' mark this border-line variety of epithet.
Some language epithets, in spite of opposition on the part of orthodox language purists, establish themselves in standard English as conventional symbols of assessment for a given period. To these belong words we have already spoken of like terrible, awful, massive, top, dramatic, mighty, crucial (see p. 66).
From the point of view of the dis^tji^ujj^n^^f the epithets in the sentence, the first model to b€^omTecToulTs thes t r i n g ofepi-the is. In his depiction of New York, O. Henry ^TvSTB^loTrowing sffing^ of epithets:
"Such was the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city;"
Other examples are: a plump, rosy-cheeked, wholesome apple-faced young woman (Dickens); "a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple." (Dickens)
As in any enumeration, the.string of epithets gives a many-sided depfttton of the object. 3ut in this many-sidedness there is always a suggestion of an ascending order of emotive elements. This can easily be observed in the intonation pattern of a string of epithets. There is generally an ascending scale which culminates in the last epithet; if the last epithet is a language epithet (great), or riot an epithet (young), the culminating point is the last genuine epithet. The culminating point in the above examples is at fatal, apple-faced, and give-and-take.
Another distributional model is the Јra n^s f e r r e d epithet. Transferred epithets are ordinary logical ^attributes generally describing the state of a human being, but made to refer to an inanimate object, for example: "sick chamber, sleepless pillow, restless pace, breathless eagerness, tinbreakfasted morning, merry hours, a disapproving finger, Isabel shrugged an indifferent shoulder.
As may be seen, it is the force contributed to the attribute by its position, and not by its meaning, that hallows it into an epithet. The main feature of the epithet, that of emotional assessment, is greatly diminished in this model; but it never quite vanishes. The meaning of the logical attributes injuch combinations acquires a definite emotional colouring.
Language epithets as part of the emotional word-stock of the language have a tendency to become obsolescent. That is the fate of many emotional elements in the language. They gradually lose their emotive charge and are replaced by new ones which, in their turn, will be replaced by neologisms. Such was the fate of the language epithet good-natured. In the works of Henry Fielding this epithet appears very often, as, for example, *a good-natured hole', 'good-natured side'. The words vast and vastly were also used as epithets in the works of men-of-letters of the 18th century, as in 'vast rains', 'vastly amused'.
The problem of the epithet is too large and too significant to be fully dealt with in a short chapter. Indeed, it may be regarded as the crucial problem in emotive language and epithets, correspondingly, among the stylistic devices of the language.
It remains only to say that thegpithet is a direct and straightforward way of showing the author's attitude towards the things described, whereas other stylistic devices, even image-bearing ones, will reveal the author's evaluation of the object only indirectly. That is probably why those authors who wish to show a seeming impartiality and objectivity in depicting their heroes and describing events use few epithets. Realistic authors use epithets much more sparingly, as statistical data have shown. Roughly speaking, Romanticism, on the other hand, may to some extent be characterized by its abundant use of epithets. In illustration we have taken at random a few lines from a stanza in Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage":
The horrid crags, by toppling convent, crowned, The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep,
The mountain-moss by scorching skies imbrown'd, The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep,
The orange tints that gild the greenest bough..8
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', 'horribiy ^ЪеаиШиГ, 'a deafening silence',
If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoronMs lost. This is the case with what were once oxymoronic combinations, for example, 'awfully nice', 'awfully glad', 'terribly sorry' and the like, where the words awfully and terribly have lost their primary logical meaning and are now used with emotive meaning only, as intensifiers. The essence of oxymoron consists in the capacity of the primary meaning of the adjective or adverb to resist for some time the overwhelming power of semantic change which words undergo in combination. The forcible combination of non-combinative words seems to develop what may be called a kind of centrifugal force which keeps them apart, in contrast to ordinary word-combinations where centripetal force is in action.
We have already pointed out that there are different ratios of emotive-logical relations in epithets. In some of them the logical meaning is hardly perceived, in others the two meanings co-exist. In oxymoron the logical meaning holds fast because there is no true word-combination, only the juxtaposition of two non-combinative words.
But still we may notice a peculiar change in the meaning of the qualifying word. It assumes a new life in oxymoron, definitely indicative of the assessing tendency in the writer's mind.
Let us take the following example from O. Henry's story "The Duel" in which one of the heroes thus 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,"
Even the superlative degree of the adjectives fails to extinguish the primary meaning of the adjectives: poor, little, haughty, etcs But by some inner law of word-combinations they also show the attitude of the speaker, reinforced, of course, by the preceding sentence: "I despise its very vast-ness and power."
It will not come amiss to express this language phenomenon in terms of the theory of information, which states that though the general tendency of entropy is to enlarge, the encoding tendency in the language, which strives for an organized system of language symbols, reduces entropy. Perhaps, this is due to the organizing spirit of the language, i.e. the striving after a system (which in its very essence is an organized whole) that oxymoronic groups, if repeated frequently, lose their stylistic quality and gradually fall into the group of acknowledged word-combinations which consist of an intensifier and the concept intensified.
Oxymoron has one main structural model: a d j e с t i v e 4- n о и п. It is in this structural model that the resistance of the two component parts to fusion into one unit manifests itself most strongly. In the a d-v e r b + adjective model the change of meaning in the first element, the adverb, is more rapid, resistance to the unifying process not being so strong.
Sometimes the tendency to use oxymoron is the mark of certain literary trends and tastes. There are poets in search of-new shades of meaning in existing words, who make a point of joining together words of contradictory meaning. "Two ordinary words may become almost new," writes V. V. Vinogradov, "if they are joined for the first time or used in an unexpected context." l
Thus, 'peopled desert', 'populous solitude', 'proud humility' are oxymoronic.
Sometimes, however, the tendency to combine the uncombinative is revealed in structurally different forms, not in adjective-noun models. Gorki criticizes his own sentence: "I suffered then from the fanaticism of knowledge," and called it "a blunder". He points out that the acquiring of knowledge is not blind as fanaticism is. The syntactic relations here are not oxymoronic. But combinations of this kind can be likened to oxymoron. The same can be said of the following lines from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage":
"Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth! Immortal, though no more, though fallen, great!"
Oxymoronic relations in the italicized part can scarcely be felt, but still the contrary signification is clearly perceived. Such structures may be looked upon as intermediate between oxymoron and antithesis (see p. 222).
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