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)