Figures of Speech

In all walks of life, everything can be expressed literally and figuratively.

So now…

What is the difference between…

Literaland

Figurativelanguage?

Literal means…• The actual, dictionary meaning of a

word; language that means what it appears to mean

• Avoiding exaggeration, metaphor, or embellishment

• Conforming to the most obvious meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or story

In other words…

–It means exactly what it

says! Word for word.Example One: The U.S. is a large country.

What does it mean? Exactly what it says!

Example Two: The weather is beautiful today.

What does it mean? Exactly what it says!

In other words…

–Figure it out! There’s a deeper meaning hidden in the words.

Example: Fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose. -Hada Bejar

• Does it mean you have a smelly hand? NO!

• What does it mean?Giving to others is gracious and the good feeling of giving stays with you.

So…Read between the

lines because not

everything is as it

appears.

Ladies and gentlemen,put your hands together as I proudly present to

you, the essential…

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

Ingrid Bergman

IntroductionFigures of

Speech

Authors often uses figures of speech in both literature and poetry to enhance their writing.

Figures of speech present ordinary things in new or unusual way.

They communicate ideas that go beyond the words usual literal meanings

These are language devices intended to bring to the reader or to the listener fresh reactions to a scene or an object

Using figures of speech in language is like sprinkling condiments over your bland food so that it tastes better

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

Recognize some of

the figures of speech

Identify figures of speech in poems

Figures of Resemblance

Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Apostrophe

Antonomasia

Simile Comparing two unlike things using like or as.

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

She sways like a pearl.

She hangs like a star.

His temper was as explosive as a volcano.

Patterns in Simile

Verb + like + Noun

As + Adjective + as + Noun

– Friends are like parachutes. If they aren’t there the first time you need them, chances are, you won’t be needing them again.

-James A. Lovell Jr.

– Does this mean that I should jump out of an airplane with my friend strapped to my back? Absolutely not!

– Friends are being compared to parachutes using the word like. (friends = parachutes)

– Friends and parachutes are dissimilar and unlike

each other, yet we have found a way to relate and compare them.

What is the meaning

of…?• Parachutes must be there for

you the first time you need

them or you will fall to your

death. If they are not there

for you the first time you

need them, you will not need

them again. You’ll be dead!

• Friends are the same way. If

you have a crisis and need

your friend to support you,

but he doesn’t come through,

you don’t really need that

friend for help again.

Metaphor Comparison between two unlike things that actually have

something important in common

Life is one big roller coaster ride.

The boy is a fish in the water.

He is my knight in shining armor.

–A good laugh is sunshine in a

house. -Thackeray

– Does this mean that a laugh is actually light

from the sun? Absolutely not!

– A good laugh is being compared to sunshine

by saying that it is sunshine.

(laugh = sunshine)

– A good laugh and sunshine are dissimilar and

unlike things being compared to each other.

– Sunshine brings joy and happiness

to people. It brightens up a room,

a house or where ever its rays

strike.

– Laughter does the same thing. It

also brings joy and happiness to

people and brightens up a room,

a house, or where ever it is heard.

What is the meaning of…?

Simile Metaphor

In the battle, he fought

bravely like a lion.

She was as busy as a bee

handling several tasks at

once.

That boy is as messy as a pig.

He was a lion in the battle.

She’s a busy bee flitting around the

office handling several tasks.

That boy is a pig.

Personification

The sun stretched his golden arms and greeted everyone

with his kind smile.

The trees were fluttering and dancing in the breeze

Representing an inanimate object or an abstract idea as a person and

endowing it with human traits.

• The tree bowed and

waved to me in the wind.

• Does this mean a tree actually

recognized I was there and

acknowledged me by taking a bow and

waving to me? Absolutely not!

• The tree is being given the human

characteristics or actions of waving

and bowing. The tree is being

personified. It now has character.

• Again, unlike or dissimilar things are

being compared. (tree = person)

What is the meaning of this…?

• This simply draws the picture in our

minds that it must be an extremely

windy day for the trees branches to

‘wave’ and the trunk to bend as if it

were ‘bowing.’

• The tree is being given the human

characteristics or actions of waving

and bowing. The tree is being

personified. It now has character.

Apostrophe

“O Liberty, what things are done in thy name.”

“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts.”

-- Macbeth

“Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not and yet I see thee still.”

-- Macbeth

The addressing of a usually absent person or usually

personified thing

• “O western wind, when wilt thou blow that the small rain down can rain?”

• “Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone,Without a dream in my heart,Without a love on my own.”

• “Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,Die not, pooredeath, nor yet canst thou kill me.”

Antonomasia

Abraham- father of many

David and Jonathan- friends

Apollo- handsome

Cain- murderer

Portia- beauty and brains

Penelope- faithful

Substitution of a title or an epithet for a proper name. It is also used to convey an idea taken form history, myths, legends

and the Bible.

Mrs. Cruz is a Penelope. Her husband has been an OFW for almost ten

almost and no one can accuse her of even flirting with other men.

Their relationship is like that of David and Jonathan. They are even closer

than blood brothers.

With looks like that of Apollo, can you blame the girls for running after

you?

Figures of Sound Effects

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Assonance

Onomatopoeia Is a word that sounds like its meaning. It can also be described as the use of the word which imitates a sound such as

screech, whirr, sizzle, crunch, bang, zap, roar, growl, click, snap, crackle and pop.

A snap of a finger.

The camera clicks smoothly.

The wild bang of a rockstar.

• “Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. The little train rumbled over the tracks.”

• “Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng! An alarm clock clanged in the dark and silent room.”

• “I’m getting married in the morning!Ding dong! the bells are gonnachime.”

Alliteration

Don’t drink and drive

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers….

But a bit of better butter will make my batter better.

Six silly swans went swimming in the sea.

Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, Dunkin Donut, KitKat, Spongebob Squarepants

Is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds and frequent recurrence of the

same initial letter or sound. It is derived from Latin’s “Latira” meaning “letters of

alphabet”

•She sells seashells.

•Walter wondered

where Winnie was.

•Blue baby bonnets

•Nick needed new

notebooks.

•Fred fried frogs.

Assonance

Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is

that no man knows how and why the first poems came. –Early Moon of Carl Sandburg

Describe a high-rise, Well it rises high into the bright blue sky.

The fat cat had a snack.

Alas! It was a tough nut to crack

The use of words that have the same very similar vowel sound near other one.

• “Those images that yetFresh images beget,That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.”

• “If I bleat when I speak it’s because I just got . . . fleeced.”

Figures of Emphasis

Hyperbole

Anaphora

Hyperbole

I nearly died laughing.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I’ve told you a million times.

My backpack weighs a ton.

It is a major exaggeration or overstatement. Authors use this figures of speech to emphasize a point or a humor

• I’m so hungry I could

devour a horse!

• Does this mean I could actually eat an entire

horse or that someone can really run inside your

skull? Of course not!

• Are you tired? It’s because

you keep on running on my

mind.

• A ridiculous image is being painted in our minds

to get the significance and importance of the

point across.

What is the meaning of this…?

• The first obviously means that I

am extremely hungry but in no

way could I eat a 400 pound

horse!

• The second clearly means that

you are in love and you think

everyday about the person who

is the apple of your eye but in no

way the person you will run over

skull!

Hyperbole

can be

funny…!

• Here are a few

humorous

hyperboles:

• “My sister uses so much makeup, she

broke a chisel trying to get it off last

night!” Johnny, Baton Rouge, LA

• “My teacher is so old, they’ve already

nailed the coffin shut.” Michelle S.,

Knoxville, TN

• “I could do this forever.” Ashley Brosseau

• “I don’t believe in courtship. Just love

me now and I will court you forever.”

Anaphora• Repetition of the same word or phrase

at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

• We shall go on to the end. We shall fight with growing

confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall

depend our island.

• I came, I saw, I conquered - Julius Caesar

• Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! - King John II, William Shakespeare

• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness -A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Irony

Antithesis

Chiasmus

Paradox

Oxymoron

Euphemism

Figures of Parallelism and/or Contrast

Irony

Water, water everywhere,And all the boards did shrinkWater, water everywhere,Nor any drop to drink.

--Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge

Nothing is written in stone.

“Oh my God! I love your skirt, where did you get it?” That is the ugliest skirt I’ve ever seen

“It was my mom’s in the 80’s” Vintage! So adorable

A situation that is strange of funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of

what you expected

• “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.”

• He is as smart as a soap dish.

• The Titanic was said to be unsinkable but sank on its first voyage.

• “How nice!” she said, when I told her I had to work all weekend.

• The audience knows the killer is hiding in a closet in a scary movie but the actors do not.

• I lost my wallet. This is my lucky day.

Examples!

Antithesis

This one is a small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

Better to reign in hell, than serve in Heaven--monologue of Satan in Paradise Lost of

John Milton

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

-- A Tale of Two Cities of Charles Dickens

Literal meaning is opposite. A rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a

contrasting effect.

Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

• “Nice to see you, to see you, nice!”

• “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”

• “In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers; it’s whether the president delivers on the speeches.”

• One must eat to live, not to live to eat.

• “Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.”

Paradox • A statement that appears to contradict itself.

• "War is peace."

• "Freedom is slavery."

• "Ignorance is strength.“

• "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.“

• The child is the father of man.

Oxymoron • A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

• “The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.”

• “A yawn may be defined as a silent yell.”

• "act naturally," "original copy,“"found missing," "alone together,"

"peace force," "definite possibility," "terribly pleased," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "alone together," “pretty ugly”

Euphemism • The substitution of an inoffensive termfor one considered offensively explicit. It is a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term.

• 'A little thin on top' instead of 'going bald'

• 'Homeless' instead of 'bum'

• 'Letting him go' instead of 'firing him'

• 'Passed away' instead of 'died‘

• Get rid of him instead of ‘kill him’

• 'Economical with the truth' instead of 'liar'

Figures of Association

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Metonymy • A FIGURE OF SPEECH in which a part represents a whole or a whole represents a part. It is used when a noun is substituted for another noun.

• The dagger of the United States sliced

Saddam Hussein’s army to pieces.

and

• I pledge my service to the crown.

• Did just a knife alone destroy Sadaam’s

armies? Absolutely not! The knife

represents a part of the whole United

States Armed Forces. (knife = U.S. Armed

Forces)

• Do I pledge my service to just a crown that

sits atop the king’s head? No! The

solitary crown represents a part of the

whole king and kingdom to whom I pledge

my service.

(crown = king and kingdom)

Fragrance always

stays in the hand that

gives the rose. -Hada Bejar

(hand = the whole person who gives)

A part (hand) represents a whole

(person).

We study Shakespeare in our

English class

Shakespeare, the writer’s name is

used when what is meant are his

works.

Synecdoche • A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole (ABCs for alphabet) or the whole for a part (“England won the World Cup in 1966″).

• Wheels - a car• The police - one

policeman• Plastic - friends• Coke - any cola drink• Army - a soldier

• Give us this day our daily bread (Taken from the Bible, bread is only part of food.)

• I bought myself a new set of wheel for my travel (Set of wheel is only part of a vehicle)