epithets

As an effective instrument in functional linguistics for examining the factors affecting the inference of meanings, situational context probes the relationship of words and sentences to instances outside the language system. The study of this context leads to an understanding of the meanings of literary techniques, including epithets. epithets are the artistic use of adjectives in the speech that has different meanings in the context of literary speech. With a descriptive-analytical method and the American school of comparative literature, the study seeks to analyze the semantics of epithets in the poetry of Hafez Mousavi (1954), the contemporary Iranian poet, and Wadī‛ Sa‛ādah (1948), according to Halliday’s Functional Linguistics. The results showed that the meanings of the epithets in two poets’ poetry could be divided into two categories-- dark and light. The frequency of dark epithets was higher than light ones due to the depiction of social issues. However, there is often a glimmer of hope throughout their poetry. Narrativity and appropriate verbs are the most prominent features of the stylistic epithets in the two poets’ poetry. The poets’ choices as the prominent participants in the clauses caused their direct presence in the poetry space. The Notification mood is frequent in the clauses, inducing the concept of probability and commonality in the form of the dependency aspect element because the two poets choose epithets as an arena to express their biographies and societies.

Epithets are attributes that, unlike attributes in the grammatical and logical sense, have many artistic and poetic functions, and in this way, cause the poetry language to be distinguished.Hafez is superior in the discovery, construction, and use of this type of epithets, but his artistic techniques have not been well studied yet, and as a result, most of the opinions on this subject are presented just about a few of his poems; so the present paper tried to examine this issue in Hafez’ sonnetsscientifically using the content analysis. According to this paper, it has been determined that Hafez has over 1400 descriptive compositions, 560 successor attributes, and 58 descriptive groups, from which more than 480 are epithets; that is, they have aesthetic function and made the language prominence.
These epithets are analyzed in this paper based on the type of function, and it has been determined that the epithets of Hafez in his sonnets have the functions of beatification (Sarve Senoubarkharaam), uglification (Dajal Fe’l Molhedolshekl), magnification (Zabaane Atashin), metaphorical (Ashke ghammaz), sarcastic(Kootah Astinaan), simile (Dele senoubari) and allegory (Adame Beheshti). Since most of them are associated with a kind of innovation and fantasizing, they have cause the poetic language to be prominent and distinguished; therefore, Hafez is a great poet in this regard. This issue can be studied on literary masterpieces such as Shahnameh and Boostan by which the different epithets can be found in literary genres.

There is a theory about the form of lyrical poetry according to which the composition of love odes has been the origin and basis of this form in later centuries; on the other hand، it is well known already that the composition of love odes is، in real fact، an introduction to lyrical poems in which the virtues of the “beloved”، the themes of “love” and being in love، or the description of natural landscapes and cycles، such as spring، autumn، etc.، appear. By using the analysis- description method، it has been attempted، in this essay، to consider the theme of love، which possesses the two heroes- the “lover” and the “beloved” - in Rudaki''s lyrical or other types of poems; moreover، love in the view of Rudaki، who is a pioneer in the Persian poetry، is discussed، and it is argued whether his view of love is physical or spiritual، positive or negative، etc; at the same time، the epithets given to the “beloved” of his poems، and their virtues and states of love in them are explained، and Rudaki''s ability in his use of figures of speech in the description of the outward beauties of the “beloved”، and her/his status، gender – whether male or female – and being heavenly or earthly have been considered as well.