Figures of Speech

By Arpita Sen

Figures of Speech

• word or group of words used to give particular emphasis to an idea or sentiment

• Help explain abstract ideas by creating comparisons or other relationships between the abstraction and concrete realities

• A directly stated comparison between two unlike person or thing that uses expressions like, as and as ....... as

Example:His mind is like a sponge.

Simile

•An implied comparison between two unlike things that are alike in the way they are identified

Metaphor

• Unlike simile, no expressions are used to show the comparison in metaphor

Example:In the dark night, the

city lights are glimmering fireflies

• Leads human qualities to things that are not human – animals, plants, in animate objects and abstraction.

Personification

Example:“Will you walk

into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly

•Addresses personified objects as real person, the absent as if they were present and the dead as if were alive

Apostrophe

Example:Ambition you are

a cruel master, I will serve you no more

• A subtle metaphor, it recalls and projects on the imagination memories of the past – a well known person, event, saying or incident – to compare with the present scene.

Allusion

•The reader thus profits from the knowledge he gained

Example:Were I Midas, I

would make nothing else but such golden days of memory

• The substitution of one noun for another which it suggests but it is not base on resemblance but on association

Example:It is the rope for the

criminal (the cause – hanging with a rope for the effect – death)

Metonymy

• A type of metonymy, it gives a significant part to represent a whole

Example:The poor woman has ten

hungry mouths to feed.

Synecdoche

• From the Greek hyper, meaning “beyond” and ballein, meaning “to throw” this is a deliberate exaggeration not to deceive but to emphasize a statement, often used for humorous effect.

Example:He is such a good salesman he

could sell Manila Bay to speculators

Hyperbole

• Used to minimize the impression of the size or importance of reality or to enhance the readers impression of what is said.

• If the understatement is positive, it is called melosis; if it is a miid negative understatement, it is called litotes

Understatement

Example:Nena told her friend, I am a

bit hurt because I was not invited to your wedding. (melosis)

A kinder garden pupil made a speech at his graduation and his proud grandfather said, “Not a bad accomplishment.” (litotes)

• The use of word to signify the opposite of what is said.

• The words used express approval or praise, but the author’s real intention is blame, criticism, scorn or ridicule

• In writing, the context of irony holds the clue; in speech, the tone of the voice or manner of the speaker indicates the irony intended.

Irony