Pun: A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings. Transferred epithet: A transferred epithet often involves shifting a modifier from the animate to the inanimate, as in the phrases. Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. Alliteration: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.