SYSTEM OF ATTRIBUTES IN THE SIEGE OF SZIGET

Abstract

Attributives are among the most prominent stylistic devices in Zrinyi’s epic poem, The Siege of Sziget. In our paper we study constructions with attributes of qualification from the aspect of grammatical category and structure. Regarding grammatical category – next to adjectival attributes – attributive nouns are extremely powerful and of condensing nature, while participles as attributes have special stylistic effect; all three types are found in the corpus. Structurally there are three types of attributives: simple (containing one attribute), multiple and cumulative attributives. In the latter type the attributes in the structure can be co-ordinate, and in this case they semantically strengthen each other, or the sequence of attributes entwine and thus have the character of gradation. There are a number of attributes which function as a decorative element or are there for the sake of prose rhythm or rhyming, and they are often recurrent; they function as kind of permanent attributives, creating thus the typical “Zrinyi-attributes”. Synesthetic or metaphoric attributives also give a special atmosphere to this epic poem. Next to the stylistic function of the attributives semasiological aspects were also considered alongside the contextual issues of pictorialness, metaphoricalness and attributes, for example, attributive constructions built into similes.