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Abstract
This article explores the national-cultural specificity of epithets in English literary texts from a stylistic and pragmatic perspective. While epithets are traditionally regarded as expressive modifiers, this study argues that they function as culturally embedded linguistic units reflecting national worldview, value systems, and socio-historical context. Drawing on functional stylistics, discourse analysis, and pragmatic theory, the research analyzes selected English literary works to identify culturally marked epithets and examine their evaluative, emotional, and ideological functions. The findings demonstrate that English literary epithets encode cultural attitudes toward nature, individualism, morality, and social hierarchy. The study contributes to stylistics and discourse studies by highlighting the role of epithets as carriers of national-cultural meaning.
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