English 10: Pre-Advanced Placement

Mrs. S. GoddardHome of the Coronado Cougars

Henderson, Nevada

Figures of Speech and Rhetorical Devices

alliteration antithesis apostrophe assonance consonancefigures of speech

hyperbole metaphorirony onomatopoeia oxymoron

paradox personification pun repetition rhyme

sarcasm simile synecdoche understatement

anaphora chiasmus

epiphora litotes metonymy

Figures of SpeechWords or phrases that describe one person/place/thing in terms of something else. They always involve some sort of imaginative comparison between seemingly unlike things.

Not meant to be taken literally, figurative language is used to produce images

in a reader’s mind and to express ideas in fresh, vivid

and imaginative ways.

Alliteration

“The twisting trout twinkled below.”

is the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same consonant sound.

The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

Anaphora

"It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place."(Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, 1951)

Antithesis

“…for richer or poorer…”

Sink or swim

is a direct juxtaposition of structurally parallel words, phrases, or clauses for the purpose of

contrast: e.g., “sink or swim.”

Apostrophe

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,How I wonder what you are.Up above the world so high,Like a diamond in the sky."(Jane Taylor, "The Star," 1806)

"Blue Moon, you saw me standing aloneWithout a dream in my heartWithout a love of my own."(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")

"Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me, crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart, and leave me in darkness."(Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818)

the repetition of accented vowel sounds in a series of words

the repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to

produce a harmonious effect

“And each low u k a

rawing- own of blind ”

“Cr b the hills s de”

"I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me."(advertising jingle for Band-Aid Brand)

"Do I love you because you're beautiful?Or are you beautiful because I love you?"(Oscar Hammerstein II, "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?")"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."(William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i)

"I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me.“ (Ovid)

"You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006)

"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."(David Foster Wallace)

Chiasmi(us):In rhetoric, a verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed.

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised."(Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean)

"I've gotta be your damn conscience. I'm tired of being your conscience. I don't enjoy being your conscience."(Dr. Wilson to Dr. House in House)

"I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper, she's a Pepper, we're a Pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too? Dr. Pepper."(advertising jingle for Dr. Pepper soft drink)

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don’t give me the same idiot.”(Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, speaking about FEMA Chief Michael Brown, Sep. 6, 2005)

Epiphora:A rhetorical term for the repetition for a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

"Wardrobe malfunction…"(Justin Timberlake's description of his tearing of Janet Jackson's costume during a half-time performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII)

pre-owned for used or second-hand; enhanced interrogation for torture;industrial action for strike; misspoke for lie; tactical withdrawal for retreat; revenue augmentation for raising taxes; wind for belch or fart;Let go for fired convenience fee for surcharge; courtesy reminder for bill; unlawful combatant for prisoner of war…

Euphemism:The substitution of an inoffensive term, such as “She passed away.” for one considered offensively explicit, such as, “She’s dead.”

HyperboleA deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration:

Irony

Situational irony: when a situation turns out differently from what one would expect — though often the twist is oddly appropriate: e.g., a deep sea diver drowning in a bathtub.

Verbal irony: when a person says one thing, but means the exact opposite: e.g., “It is easy to stop smoking. I’ve done it many times.”

Dramatic irony: when a character or speakersays or does something that has different meanings from what he or she thinks it has, though the audience and other characters understand the full implications of the speech or action: e.g., Romeo kills himself believing Juliet has died, while the audience knows Juliet is still alive.

“Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?”

Litotes:Consists of an

understatementin which an affirmative

is expressed by negating its opposite

"Are you also aware, Mrs. Bueller, that Ferris does not have what we consider to be an exemplary attendance record?"(Jeffrey Jones as Principal Ed Rooney, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986)

"I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives."(Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, May 7, 1776)

"Litotes describes the object to which it refers not directly, but through the negation of the opposite. . . .”I want to claim that the rhetorical figure litotes is one of those methods which are used to talk about an object in a discreet way. It clearly locates an object for the recipient, but it avoids naming it directly."(J.R. Bergmann, "Veiled Morality," in Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew and John Heritage. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992)

"I'm not doing this for my health."(O.J. Simpson, in a paid appearance at a horror comic book convention)

Metaphor

Table of contents

An implied comparison between two seemingly unlike things, but they actually

have something in common

“TIME IS MONEY.”

MetonymyMetonymies are frequently used in

literature and in everyday speech. A metonymy is a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word.

One famous example of metonymy is the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword," which originally came from Edward Bulwer Lytton's play Richelieu.

This sentence has two examples of metonymy:

• The "pen" stands in for "the written word”

• The "sword" stands in for "military aggression and force"

The examples below include both the metonymy and the possible words for which the metonymy would fill in:

•Crown - in place of a royal person•The White House - in place of the President or others who work there •The suits - in place of business people•Dish - for an entire plate of food•Cup - for a mug•The Pentagon - to refer to the staff•The restaurant - to refer to the staff•Ears - for giving attention ("Lend me your ears!" from

Marc Antony in Julius Caesar)•Eyes - for sight•The library - for the staff or the books•Pen - for the written word•Sword - for military might•Silver fox - for an attractive older man•Hand - for help•The name of a country - used in place of the

government, economy, etc.•The name of a church - used in place of its individual

members•The name of a sports team - used in place of its

individual members

OnomatopoeiaThe use of words that mimic the sounds they

describe: e.g., “hiss,” “buzz,” and “bang.”

When onomatopoeia is

used on an extended scale in a poem, it is called imitative harmony.

OXYMORONA form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression.

PARADOXAh, yes … everything is going according to my

plans…Paradox occurs when

the elements of a statement contradict each other. Although the statement may

appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have a

coherent meaning that reveals a hidden

truth: e.g., “Much madness is Divinest

sense.”

Emily Dickinson

Personification

What is a pun? A pun is defined by Webster as "the humorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but have different meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possible applications; a play on words."

Why do people groan when a pun is told? A pun is often considered obvious humor, since the person relating it is merely balancing the humor in it on a twist of a word's meaning or sound. Children love this type of obvious humor and can laugh at it without reproachments. Adults, on the other hand, are more likely to have a twinge of envy, and “Why didn't I think of that?". It is this envy in adults that sub-conciously causes them to groan upon hearing a pun. As time goes on, it can only be hoped that we adults will eventually learn to react more like a child and less like a groan-up!

Homophonic Puns…are created by substituting one word for a similar-sounding word.•A good pun is its own reword.•I bet the butcher the other day that he couldn’t reach the meat that was on the top shelf. He refused to take the bet, saying that the steaks were too high.

Homographic Puns…are created in one of two ways: either by using a word that has two different meanings, or by substituting a word with the exact same spelling as the word for which it was substituted.•Corduroy pillows are making headlines.•Did you hear about the optometrist who fell into a lens grinder and made a spectacle of himself?

Compound Puns…are made by using a string of two or more words that sound similar to a string of different words.•Where do you find giant snails? On the ends of giants’ fingers.

RepetitionThe deliberate use of any element of language more than once.

This can be repetition in sound, word, phrase, sentence, grammatical pattern, or rhythmical pattern.

Types of Rhyme: true rhyme or perfect rhyme — late-fate; hollow-follow

Masculine rhyme: a single stressed syllable — still-hill

Feminine rhyme (also double rhyme): a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable — ending-bending

eye rhyme: appears the same, but does not sound the same — prove-love; come-doom

imperfect rhyme, partial rhyme, near rhyme, slant rhyme — loads-lids-lads, groaned-crooned

The use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it: e.g., “As I fell down the stairs

headfirst, I heard her say, “Look at that coordination!”

A comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words “like” or “as.” A definitely stated comparison where the author says one thing is like another. For example…

Synecdoche Synecdoche is a form of metaphor where part of something is

used to signify the whole: e.g., “All hands on deck.”

The reverse, whereby the whole can represent a part, is also synecdoche: e.g., “Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals”

Another form of synecdoche is when the container represents the thing being contained: e.g., “The pot is boiling.”

In one last form of synecdoche, the material from which an object is made stands for the object itself: e.g., “The quarterback tossed the pigskin.”

The opposite of hyperbole. A kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is:

“They’re gonna need some more CTU guys.”

"Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse."(Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, 1704)

"I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."(Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)

"I am just going outside and may be some time."(Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912)