Oxymoron +Hyperbole and Litotes +Epithet

Oxymoron This is a device which combines, in one phrase, two words (usually: noun + adjective) whose meanings are opposite and incompatible: a living corpse; sweet sorrow; a nice rascal; awfully (terribly) nice; a deafening silence; a low skyscraper. Hyperbole and Litotes

These are stylistic devices aimed at intensification of meaning. Hyperbole denotes a deliberate extreme exaggeration of the quality of the object: He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face. (O. Henry); All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. (Shakespeare); a car as big as a house; the man-mountain ); a thousand pardons; I've told you a million times; He was scared to death; I'd give anything to see it. Litotes (understatement;is a device based on a peculiar use of negative constructions in the positive meaning, so that, on the face of it, the quality seems to be underestimated (diminished), but in fact it is shown as something very positive or intensified: Not bad (= very good); He is no coward (= very brave); It was no easy task (= very difficult); There are not a few people who think so ( = very many); I was not a little surprised (= very much surprised); It was done not without taste (= in very good taste).

Epithet This is a word or phrase containing an expressive characteristic of the object, based on some metaphor and thus creating an image: О dreamy, gloomy, friendly trees! (Trench) Note that in phrases like an iron (silver) spoon, the adjective is just a grammatical attribute to noun, not an epithet, as no figurative meaning is implied; on the other hand, in a man of iron will the adjective is already an epithet, as this is an expressive description, based on covert comparison (metaphor). An epithet may be used in the sentence as an attribute: a silvery laugh; a thrilling story/film; Alexander the Great; a cutting smile , or as an adverbial modifier: to smile cuttingly. It may also be expressed by a syntactic construction (a syntactic epithet): Just a ghost of a smile appeared on his face; she is a doll of a baby; a little man with a Say-nothing-to-me, or — I'll- contradict- you expression on his face. Fixed epithets are often found in folklore: my true love; a sweet heart; the green wood; a dark forest; brave cavaliers; merry old England.