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There’s No Such Thing as Gay Marriage
Sometimes a transferred epithet can be powerful, sometimes it’s just annoying
This is not a political statement, it’s a grammar rant.
There’s an often-used figure of speech known as a transferred epithet, which is when you use an adjective to modify something that the adjective doesn’t really describe.
It’s a literary device that can be powerful. Think of lonely nights (a night can’t be lonely, a person can), dizzy heights (heights aren’t dizzy but they make some people feel that way), or sad eyes (eyes don’t feel emotions, people do).
But as effective and expedient as transferred epithets can be, sometimes they’re just irritating.
Here are three that I find particularly annoying.
Gay marriage
A marriage is a legally or formally recognized union of two people. It doesn’t have a gender or sexual orientation. The people in the marriage do.
Nude pictures (photos)
Pictures can’t be nude; it’s the people in them who are — or aren’t — nude. The images are printed, digital, or whatever other format. They might be color, black and white, or sepia. They might be beautiful or flawed. But they’re not nude. If the…
