Hypallage

Hypallage (/haɪˈpælədʒiː/; from the Greek: ὑπαλλαγή, hypallagḗ, 'interchange, exchange') is a figure of speech in which the syntactic relationship between two terms is interchanged, or—more frequently—a modifier is syntactically linked to an item other than the one that it modifies semantically. The latter type of hypallage, typically resulting in the implied personification of an inanimate or abstract noun, is also called a transferred epithet. Hypallage (/haɪˈpælədʒiː/; from the Greek: ὑπαλλαγή, hypallagḗ, 'interchange, exchange') is a figure of speech in which the syntactic relationship between two terms is interchanged, or—more frequently—a modifier is syntactically linked to an item other than the one that it modifies semantically. The latter type of hypallage, typically resulting in the implied personification of an inanimate or abstract noun, is also called a transferred epithet. Hypallage is often used strikingly in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. We find such examples of transferred epithets as 'the winged sound of whirling' (δίνης πτερωτὸς φθόγγος), meaning 'the sound of whirling wings' (Aristophanes, Birds 1198), and Horace's 'angry crowns of kings' (iratos...regum apices, Odes 3.21.19f.). Virgil was given to hypallage beyond the transferred epithet, as 'give the winds to the fleets' (dare classibus Austros, Aeneid 3.61), meaning 'give the fleets to the winds.' Literary critic Gérard Genette argued that the frequent use of hypallage is characteristic of Marcel Proust's style.