Lexical level lexical Stylistic Devices

Oxymoron (оксюморон)
This is a device which combines, in one phrase, two words (usually: noun + adjective) whose meanings are opposite and incompatible (несовместимы): a living corpse; sweet sorrow; a nice rascal; awfully (terribly) nice; a deafening silence; a low skyscraper.
In Shakespearian definitions of love, much quoted from his Romeo and Juliet, perfectly correct syntactically, attributive combinations present a strong semantic discrepancy between their members. Cf.: "O brawling love! О loving hate! О heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!"
The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive, so it is easy to believe that the subjective part of the oxymoron is embodied in the attribute-epithet, especially because the latter also proceeds from the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. But there are also others, in which verbs are employed: "to shout mutely" (I.Sh.) or "to cry silently" (M.W.)
Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures which also, not infrequently, are used to express semantic contradiction, as in "the street damaged by improvements" (O. H.) or "silence was louder than thunder" (U.).


Exercise VIII. In the following sentences pay attention to the structure and semantics of oxymorons. Also indicate which of their members conveys the individually viewed feature of the object and which one reflects its generally accepted characteristic:
1. He caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks. (J.)
2. Sprinting towards the elevator he felt amazed at his own cowardly courage. (G. M.)
3. They were a bloody miserable lot – the miserablest lot of men I ever saw. But they were good to me. Bloody good. (J. St.)
4. He behaved pretty busily to Jan. (D. C.)
5. Well might he perceive the hanging of her hair in fairest quantity in locks, some curled and some as if it were forgotten, with such a careless care and an art so hiding art that it seemed she would lay them for a pattern. (Ph. S.)
6. There were some bookcases of superbly unreadable books. (E.W.)
7. A very likeable young man with a pleasantly ugly face. (A. C.)
8. "Heaven must be the hell of a place. Nothing but repentant sinners up there, isn't it?" (Sh. D.)
9. Harriet turned back across the dim garden. The lightless light looked down from the night sky. (I.M.)
10. Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy; Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend. (J. Car.)
11. He opened up a wooden garage. The doors creaked. The garage was full of nothing. (R.Ch.)
12. She was a damned nice woman, too. (H.)