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In today’s class, we will be talking about figures of speech. Enjoy the class!

Figures of Speech

Meaning of figures of speech

Figures of speech can be defined as the use of a word or a phrase, which

transcends its literal interpretation. It can be a special repetition,
arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a
specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of words in I, as in
idiom, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, or synecdoche. Figures
of speech often provide emphasis, the freshness of expression, or clarity.

However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech
introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. A
figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetorical figure or a locution.

Types of figures of speech

1. Alliteration:

Alliteration is a series of words or phrases that all (or almost all) start with
the same sound. These sounds are typically consonants to give more stress
to that syllable. You’ll often come across alliteration in poetry, titles of books
and poems and tongue twisters.

The popular writer, Jane Austen is a fan of this device, for example, her
books Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility exemplifies this.

Also, another example is the tongue twister “Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers.”

2. Anaphora:

Anaphora is when a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of multiple

sentences throughout a piece of writing. It’s used to emphasize the repeated
phrase and evoke strong feelings in the audience. A famous example of
anaphora is Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech.
Throughout this speech, he repeats the phrase “we shall fight” while listing
numerous places where the British army will continue battling during WWII.
He did this to rally both troops and the British people and to give them
confidence that they would still win the war.

3. Euphemism:

A euphemism is when a more mild or indirect word or expression is used in

place of another word or phrase that is considered harsh, blunt, vulgar, or
unpleasant. An example is “I’m so sorry, but he didn’t make it.” The phrase
“didn’t make it” is a more polite and less blunt way of saying that someone
has died.

4. Hyperbole:

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that’s not meant to be taken literally

by the reader. It is often used for comedic effect and/or emphasis. An
example is: “He ate a mountain of pounded yam”. The individual in question
is not eating a mountain but rather a pounded yam that is much in
appearance.

5. Imagery:

Imagery is when an author describes a scene, thing, or idea so that it

appeals to our senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, or hearing). This device is
often used to help the reader visualize parts of the story by creating a strong
mental picture. A typical example is seen in William Wordsworth’s famous
poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”:

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden Daffodils;

Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

6. Irony:

The irony is when a statement is used to express an opposite meaning than

the one expressed by it. There are three types of irony in literature:

Verbal irony: When someone says something but means the opposite
(similar to sarcasm). An example of this type of irony can be found in Edgar
Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. In this short story, a man named
Montresor plans to get revenge on another man named Fortunato. As they
toast, Montresor says, “And I, Fortunato – I drink to your long life.” This
statement is ironic because we the readers already know by this point that
Montresor plans to kill Fortunato.

Situational irony: When something happens that’s the opposite of what

was expected or intended to happen. An example of this is seen in the case
whereby a girl wakes up late for school and quickly rushes to get there. As
soon as she arrives, though, she realizes that it’s Saturday and there is no
school.

Dramatic irony: When the audience is aware of the true intentions or

outcomes, while the characters are not. As a result, certain actions and/or
events take on different meanings for the audience than they do for the
characters involved. An example of this is seen in William Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet. Romeo commits suicide to be with Juliet; however, the
audience (unlike poor Romeo) knows that Juliet is not dead – just asleep.

7. Onomatopoeia:

Onomatopoeia is a word (or group of words) that represents a sound and

resembles or imitates the sound it stands for. It is often used for dramatic,
realistic, or poetic effect. Examples include Buzz, boom, chirp, creak, sizzle,
zoom, etc.

8. Oxymoron:

An oxymoron is a combination of two words that, together, express a

contradictory meaning. This device is often used for emphasis, for humour,
to create tension, or to illustrate a paradox (see next entry for more
information on paradoxes). Example include deafening silence, organized
chaos, cruelly kind, insanely logical, etc.

9. Paradox:

A paradox is a statement that appears illogical or self-contradictory but, upon

investigation, might be true or plausible. Note that a paradox is different
from an oxymoron: a paradox is an entire phrase or sentence, whereas an
oxymoron is a combination of just two words. An example of this is the
famous paradoxical sentence: “This statement is false.” If the statement is
true, then it isn’t false (as it suggests). But if it’s false, then the statement is
true!

Thus, this statement is a paradox because it is both true and false at the
same time. Another popular example is seen in William Wordsworth’s poem
titled “My Heart Leaps Up”. In the poem seventh line, the example “The child
is the father of the man” is seen. This indicates that the character that we
form as children stay with us into our adult life.

10. Personification:

Personification is when a nonhuman figure or other abstract concept or

element is described as having human-like qualities or characteristics.
(Unlike anthropomorphism where non-human figures become human-like
characters, with personification, the object/figure is simply described as
being human-like.) Personification is used to help the reader create a clearer
mental picture of the scene or object being described. Examples include:”
The computer swallowed its floppies”; “The wind moaned, beckoning me to
come outside” and “The sun is smiling at me”.
11. Repetition:

Repetition is when a word or phrase is written multiple times, usually for

emphasis. It is often used in poetry (for purposes of rhythm as well). An
example is seen in the Tony Awards where Lin-Manuel Miranda recited a
poem he had written with the following line: “And love is love is love Is love is
love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside”.

12. Synecdoche:

A synecdoche is a literary device in which part of something is used to

represent the whole or vice versa. It’s similar to a metonym. However, a
metonym doesn’t have to represent the whole – just something associated
with the word used. An example is: “Help me out, I need some hands!” In
this case, “hands” is being used to refer to people (the whole human,
essentially).

In today’s class, we will be talking more about figures of speech. Enjoy the
class!

Figures of Speech II

Types

1. Metaphor:

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that

it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated
object. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical
figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or
resemblance including allegory, hyperbole and simile. An example of this is
“The world is a stage”. Here, the world is compared to the stage where
things are acted on.

2. Simile
 It is a figure of speech that expresses comparison or likeness that directly
compares two objects through some connective word such as like, as, so,
than, or a verb such as resembles. Although similes and metaphors are
generally seen as interchangeable, similes acknowledge the imperfections
and limitations of the comparative relationship to a greater extent than
metaphors. Similes also hedge/protect the author against outrageous,
incomplete, or unfair comparison. Generally, metaphor is the stronger and
more encompassing of the two forms of rhetorical analogies. An example is
“John is as meek as a sheep”. In this example, John is said to have the quality
of a sheep, which is meek.

3. Assonance:

This is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within

phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serve
as one of the building blocks of verse. Assonance is a rhyme, the identity of
which depends merely on the vowel sounds. Thus, assonance is merely a
syllabic resemblance. Assonance is found more often in verse than in prose.
It is used in mainly modern English language poetry and is particularly
important in Old French, Spanish and the Celtic languages. An example of
assonance is: “Men sell the wedding bells”. In this example, observe that the
vowel sound “e” is seen to be repeated in each word that makes up this line
in the poem.

4 Consonance:

This is the repetition of a consonant sound and is typically used to refer to

the repetition of sounds at the end of the word, but also refers to repeated
sounds in the middle of a word. Example of this is seen in: “Pitter Patter,
Pitter Patter”. The repetitions of the “t” and “r” consonant sounds are what is
called consonance.

5. Pun:

This is also called paronomasia. It is a form of wordplay or play on word

that suggests two or more meanings, by exploring multiple meaning of
words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical
effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic,
homographic, metonymic, or metaphorical language. A pun differs from a
malapropism in that a malapropism uses an incorrect expression that alludes
to another (usually correct) expression, but a pun uses a correct expression
that alludes to another (sometimes correct but more often absurdly
humorous) expression. Henri Bergson defined a pun as a sentence or
utterance in which “the same sentence appears to offer two independent
meanings, but it is only an appearance, in reality, there are two different
sentences made up of different words, but claiming to be the same because
both have the same sound”. Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic
constructions, given that their usage and meaning are entirely local to a
particular language and its culture. An example is seen in Oscar Wilde’s play
titled The Importance of Being Earnest, where a character, Jack says: “I
always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn’t I? Well, it is Ernest
after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest”.

6. Rhetorical Question:

This is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked to make a

point. The question, a rhetorical device, is posed not to elicit a specific
answer, but rather to encourage the listener to consider a message or
viewpoint. Though classically stated as a proper question, such a device may
be posed declaratively by implying a question, and therefore may not always
require a direct answer. In many cases, it may be intended to start a
discussion or at least draw an acknowledgement that the listener
understands the intended message. An example of this is: “What’s in a
name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!”

7. Antithesis:

This is used when two opposites are introduced in the same sentence, for
contrasting effect. Examples of this include: “Man proposes, God disposes”;
“Speech is silver, but silence is golden”; “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a
real thing”; “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice”.

8. Metonymy:

This is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for

another with which it is closely associated (such as “crown” for “royalty”).
Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly
by referring to things around it, as in describing someone’s clothing to
characterize the individual. An example is: “The pen is mightier than the
sword”. Here, pen refers to written words, and sword refers to military force.

9. Epigram:

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising

or satirical statement. It is a short witty saying of proverbial wisdom. An
example is: “I can resist everything but temptation”. Oscar Wilde uses this
remarkably witty epigram in one of his works. The temptation is by
definition, something we attempt to resist. By saying he can resist
everything but temptation, the speaker is also saying he can resist nothing.

10. Malapropism:

It is also known as dogberryism or malaprop. This is the use of an incorrect

word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical,
sometimes humorous utterance. An example is: “Texas has a lot of electrical
votes”, rather than “electoral votes”. Another example is: “The doctor
administered the anecdote”, rather than “antidote”.

11. Anaphora:

This is the deliberate repetition of a certain word or phrase at the

beginning of successive lines of writing or speech. It can be used in novels
and short stories, but it is commonly seen in poetry, essays and formal
speeches. It appeals to the feelings, or pathos of your audience. It makes the
reader or listener start to anticipate the next line, and therefore draw them
into the words through a sense of participation. Thus, they are more
receptive to the emotional resonance you are trying to get across. Also,
feelings such as anger, fear, solidarity, or even nostalgia are evoked when
anaphora is used. Martin Luther King Junior’s speech titled “I Have a Dream”
is seen to employ this figure of speech:

“Now is the time to make real promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise
from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial
justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
reality for all of God’s children.”

Observe that at each successive sentence beginning of Martin Luther King

Junior’s speech which is underlined as seen above, he repeats certain
phrases in his speech. This, in view, is an anaphora.