Hypallage (/haɪˈpælədʒiː/; from theGreek:ὑπαλλαγή,hypallagḗ, "interchange, exchange") is afigure of speech in which the syntactic relationship between two terms is interchanged,[1] or – more frequently – a modifier is syntactically linked to an item other than the one that it modifiessemantically.[2] The latter type of hypallage, typically resulting in the impliedpersonification of an inanimate or abstract noun, is also called atransferred epithet.[3]
"On theidle hill of summer/Sleepy with the flow of streams/Far I hear..." (A. E. Housman,A Shropshire Lad) — "Idle", althoughsyntactically modifying "hill",semantically describes the narrator, not the hill.
"Restless night" — The night was not restless, but the person who was awake through it was.
"Happy morning" — Mornings have no feelings, but the people who awaken to them do.
"Beside theclock's loneliness" - The clock is not lonely, but the poet is; fromTed Hughes' "The Thought Fox".
"While he's waiting, Richard pops anervous handful of salted nuts into his mouth." (A. M. Homes,This Book Will Save Your Life)
"Flying over thesleeping countryside" — The countryside is not sleeping, the people living there are.
"Corruption reaps theyoung ..." (Theodore Roethke, first line of "Feud," inOpen House (1941). Subject and object are interchanged: corruption does not reap the young, the young reap corruption (because of the feud).
Hypallage may be seen inAncient Hebrew writings. Examples may includeBook of Job 21:6, where "my flesh seizes trembling" seems to mean "trembling seizes my flesh"[4] andPsalms 116:15, where "precious in the eyes of the LORD isdeath, as to his faithful ones" seems to mean "thelife of his faithful ones is precious in the eyes of the LORD," so he does not lightly let them die.[5]
Hypallage is often used strikingly inAncient Greek andLatin poetry. Examples of transferred epithets are "the winged sound of whirling" (δίνης πτερωτὸς φθόγγος), meaning "the sound of whirling wings" (Aristophanes,Birds 1198), andHorace'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."
Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920).Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. p. 678.ISBN0-674-36250-0.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
