Generally, figurative language can be

classified into five:

a). Those that suggest a relationship or
similarity
- Belonging to this category are simile,
metaphor, kenning, conceit, parallelism,
personification, ect...


b). Those that emphasize to make a point
or, on the other extreme, understate a
point

Examples:
hyperbole, litotes, rhetorical question,
antithes, climax, bathos, paradox,
oxymoron, irony, repetition.


c). Words or speech that ape sound

Examples:
alliteration, assonance, repetition,
annaphora, onomatopoeia, aposiopesis.
d). Play with words, verbal calisthenics or
games

The pun and anagram are examples of
verbal play.

e). Figures of speech deliberately used as error

such as malapropism, periphrasis, spoonerisms

Here are the most common figures of
speech, and examples of each:
Simile
- Shows direct or stated similarity between
two different images. The similarity is
expressed through such expressions as like,
as, as in.

Examples:
Explosions in a jewel case!
Trinklets, gems,
Diadems,
Filigree like burning lace
- Tom Prideaux, Silver Fountains
Metaphor
- a more direct equation of similarity, a simile
that skips a step and directly equates a subject
with the object to which it is being compared,
no longer using the words like or as in.

Personification
- Gives human or animate qualities to nonliving
things or abstract ideas.

Examples:
The old familiar boots, no longer in dignified
isolation, were huddled in the single window.

Hyperbole
- Purposely exaggerated for effect, sometimes
humor, sometimes drama.

Examples:
I must have slept a hundred years.
What are we waiting for? Christmas?

Metonymy
- Use one word for another another closely
related or associated word, using the principle
of associating related ideas.

Synecdoche
- Uses a part to imply the whole.

Examples:
He put two and two together and came to
the conclusion.

The long arm of the law finally caught up
with him.

He went on a vacation, away from prying
eyes.

Rhetorical Question
- Questions asked effect, with no expected
reply.

Examples:
Will we ever see the end of it?

Is the Pope Catholic?

Litotes
- Emphasizes by negation, understatement.

Examples:
Thanks, but no thanks.
No love lost.
Trope
- Implied similarity between two objects. This
is similar to the metaphor, simile, and
personification

Example:
The storm raged and ranted, tearing
everything in its path, houses, trees, electric
posts, everything.


Onomatopoeia
- Words mimicking natural sounds.

Example:
Swish, plok, splak, splash, grrrrr...., hiss,
tweet, sizzle, grumt, grizzle, gurgle

Euphemism
- Mild, purposely tamed vague expression for
reality.



Examples:
My mother passed away. ( meaning: died )

He went to the great beyond.

Who cut cheese? (indirect expression of to
fart)

Oxymoron
- Putting together in one statement two terms
that contradict or may have opposite meanings.
Example:
His room was an organized clutter.



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Prepared by:

Mislang, Emmanuel
Joseph R. ) E.J. (
BSED- English