Are You suprised ?

Single: E.g. She smiled cuttingly at him. /she made him suffer by smiling/

Two-step (i.e. adverb + adjective): E.g. a pompously majestic female

Phrase (i.e. a group of hyphenated words): E.g. a don't-you-touch-me look; a do-it-yourself attitude.

Inverted epithets (or reversed, i.e. presented by of-phrases): E.g. a devil of a job; the shadow of a smile.


Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adiective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense.

E.g. low skyscrapers; sweet sorrow; a pleasantly ugly face.

Oxymoron helps to emphasize contradictory qualities as a unity in the described phenomenon.

E.g. She was dressed with careful carelessness.

Oxymoron can create a humorous effect:

E.g. He seemed doomed to liberty (он был обречен на свободу).

4.1.4. Tropes Based on the Interaction of Logical and Nominal Meanings
Antonomasia is based on the interplay of the logical and nominal meanings of the word, which helps to single out one definite object out of a whole class of similar objects. It is a trope in which a Proper name is used instead of a Common noun or vice versa; here the nominal meaning of a Proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning or the logical meaning acquires a new nominal component.