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Question

Difficulty: HardFigurative Use of Language and Connotations

Read the sentence below carefully and complete the literary analysis by filling in the missing term. What figure of speech is demonstrated in the sentence?

Answer:In the sentence, 'The exhausted detective spent a sleepless night searching for the missing evidence,' the transfer of the modifier 'sleepless' from the detective to the noun 'night' is an example of 【transferred epithet】.

Answer

transferred epithet (or hypallage)
The correct response is 'transferred epithet' (or 'hypallage'). This figure of speech takes place when an epithet or qualifying adjective ('sleepless') is transferred from the person experiencing the condition (the detective) to a related noun ('night').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the modifier and its modified noun in the sentence.
The adjective 'sleepless' is syntactically attached to the noun 'night'.
Logically, a period of time such as a 'night' cannot experience sleep or sleeplessness; only a living person (the detective) can.
2
Identify the literary device where a modifier is shifted from its logical subject to another associated word.
The device is a transferred epithet (also known in classical rhetoric as hypallage).
A transferred epithet occurs when an adjective (epithet) qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it logically describes.

Key Concept

Transferred Epithet (Hypallage)
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Topics

Figurative Use of Language and Connotations

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