FIGURES OF SPEECH

FIGURES OF SPEECH

What are stylistic devices?

In literature and writing, a figure of speech (also called stylistic device or rhetorical device) is the use of any of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling.

Sometimes a word diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase has a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it. Examples are metaphor, simile, or personification

Personification

What is Personification?

Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object.

·         Examples

·         My car tends to give up on long hills.

·         Summer's healing rays

 Simile

A simile likens one thing to another (usually achieved by the use of the word like or as). For example:

·         He eats like a gannet.

·         This sandwich tastes like sawdust between two doormats.

·         She sings like an angel.

·         It's like water off a duck's back.

What is antithesis?

Antithesis is a figure of speech which refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas. It involves the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel grammatical structure.

Examples:

These are examples of antithesis:

·         "Man proposes, God disposes." - Source unknown.

·         "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong.

"To err is human; to forgive divine." - Alexander Pope

What is a metaphor?

Unlike simile, metaphor is language that directly compares unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things not using like or as. In the simplest case, this takes the form:
X - is - Y

Examples of metaphor:

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;

·         We don't need dinosaurs in this company.

Alliteration

What is an alliteration?

Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.

Alliteration draws attention to the phrase and is often used for emphasis.The initial consonant sound is usually repeated in two neighboring words although sometimes the repetition occurs also in words that are not neighbors.

Examples:

·         sweet smell of success,

·         a dime a dozen,

·         bigger and better,

Hyperbole

What is hyperbole?

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally. Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or effect.

Examples

Examples of hyperbole include:

• The bag weighed a ton.
• I was so hungry; I could eat a horse!
• She's older than the hills.
• I have a million problems.
• I'll die if I don't finish this crossword

What is understatement?

Understatement is a figure of speech used by writers or speakers to deliberately make a situation seem less important or serious than it really is.

Examples of understatement

• "It stings a bit" - a soldier describing the pain he feels after he has just lost his leg.
• "It has rained a little more than the average" - describing a flooded area.

Assonance

Assonance is a figure of speech that is found more often in verse than in prose. It refers to the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences.

Examples of Assonance

These are some examples:

• "the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" - The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe
• "The crumbling thunder of seas" - Robert Louis Stevenson

"That solitude which suits abstruser musings" - The Princess

What is tautology?

Tautology is a statement that says the same thing twice in different ways, or a statement that is unconditionally true by the way it is phrased.

Examples of tautology

• Forward planning.
• It's a free gift.
• The mobile phone is a new innovation.

·         In my point of view, it is completely useless