bad epithets & inelegant variation

[cimorene]

the epithet, which i hate so much in badfic and have ranted about on several occasions over the years, ranted about by other people!

wikipedia-surfing brought me to elegant variation, a term coined by henry watson fowler, author of the british style guide fowler's modern english usage. not only epithets come under the rant, but all gratuitous use of synonymous words or phrases to avoid repetition (or as fowler says, "for the sake of variety").

It is the second-rate writers, those intent rather on expressing themselves prettily than on conveying their meaning clearly, & still more those whose notions of style are based on a few misleading rules of thumb, that are chiefly open to the allurements of elegant variation. [...] The fatal influence [...] is the advice given to young writers never to use the same word twice in a sentence — or within 20 lines or other limit.

in a beautiful essay on the subject, entitled "airs and graces", fowler critiques a number of examples of misuse, mainly journalistic, with dry wit and admirable clarity.

These elephantine shifts distract our attention from the matter in hand; we cannot follow His Majesty's movements, for wondering what the King will be called next time; will it be plain Edward VII? or will something be done, perhaps, with 'the Emperor of India'? When the choice lies between monotonous repetition on the one hand and clumsy variation on the other, it may fairly be laid down that of two undesirable alternatives the natural is to be preferred to the artificial.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! Validation! :D

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yes! also, his term for it is cuter. and putting it in the context of the bigger problem is nice.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

oh, cool!

Also, one note: it bothers me when the phenomen is called 'epithet' because epithet applies to the Homeric epithet of sorts, ie, the one that on the contrary gets repeated a lot, the one adjectival formation which always gets tacked on (see definition (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=epithet)), invariably or near invariably so. And, withint its stylistic canon or as a literary genre marker, I *like* the epithet. What I don't like is the multiplication of adjectives - the (obviously-non)elegant variation syndrom.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

oops, that should be phenomenon, huh.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i originally started calling them epithets after the homeric epithet, in fact, as a joke - because of the way certain "popular" epithets are widely reused in each fandom, such as "the green-eyed man/boy/wizard/teenager/dumbass" for harry potter and "the blond man/boy/teenager/asshole/member of the nobility" for draco. but it's funny that you should link to the modern usage in connection with the homeric epithet, since nowadays there is no requirement that an epithet be as ubiquitous as "richard the lion-hearted" or "achilles, fleet of foot". even a one-off phrase that never comes up again like "the red-headed acrobatic tennis player with the permanent bandage as a facial accessory" would qualify as an epithet in today's usage.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Really? That's not how I read the page I linked to - it seems to say that the homeric epithet is one of the manings of the word, and another meaning is "inulting adjective" - I don't see where it defines modern usage as "any adjective"... *feels lost now*

I have reacted with what I perceive epithet's definition to be in English, because in French an epithet is a grammatical (sub)function - as in, any adjective can be an epithet if it is used in the epithetical position. The other way an adjective can be used is the "attribute" position - so basically, an adjective used in an adjectival position in French can be either epithète or attribut.

So for me the problem is that, in English, epithet doesn't seem to be a grammatical definition for a subclass of adjectives, but it is not either a synonym for "adjective" itself, AND now you say it's not either short for "the homeric epithet"? Things are becoming more obscure instead of less, then. *flails*

Also, to come back to what bothers me, it is that if "epithet" doesn't describe a class of words called like this for their function (like in French) or a specific thing like their narrow usage (the same combo always being tacked on, aka Homeric epithet), then the problem of "the legant variation" should not be called "the epithet thing" or whatever I have seen it labelled as, repeatedly. Basically, the lack of good, clear denomination for the practice of tacking too many adjectives and creating endless useless bad variations is what has bothered me for while.

And I must be really tired because I feel like with all this I still have not maaged expresing what I emant to in a good way. I must be having a heavily French day. grrr.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

well, you know, a lot of words mean more than one thing. which, it's perfectly true, can cause confusion. but that's just the way language evolves. i don't see any huge problems arising from the usages of epithet, though. it's usually clear from context whether someone is talking about a curse word, a descriptor, or a popular nickname.

i don't know whether, or why, anyone else calls fanfiction epithets as such, but i've already explained why i find the term appropriate. you can call it "appositive", if you like. that's the grammatical term in english.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really need good english grammar class, is the problem, yes. And it's hard to come by. :-)