Zeus Persis Fulton M.

Sale BSIT-2 Figures of Speech

LIT11 (5:31-7:31)M-F

Simile is a figure of speech that says that one thing is like another different thing. We can use similes to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid. His skin was as cold as ice. It felt as hard as rock.

Metaphor is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities. Her home was a prison. George is a sheep.

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that uses an exaggerated or extravagant statement to create a strong emotional response. As a figure of speech it is not intended to be taken literally. They ran like greased lightning. He is older than the hills.

Oxymoron is a figure of speech that deliberately uses two contradictory ideas. This contradiction creates a paradoxical image in the reader or listener's mind that generates a new concept or meaning for the whole. sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind The Sounds of Silence

Alliteration is repetition of an initial consonant sound. Alices aunt ate apples and acorns around August. Beckys beagle barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy.

Antithesis is a figure of speech which refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas. It involves the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel grammatical structure. Man proposes, God disposes. Many are called, but few are chosen.

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!( William Shakespeare, King John, II, i)

Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which an absent person, a personified inanimate being, or an abstraction is addressed as though present. "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art" (John Keats) "Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!" (Edgar Allan Poe, "To Science")

Assonance The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words. "If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced." (Al Swearengen in Deadwood, 2004) "It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!" (advertising slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners, 1950s)

Chiasmus 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. "Nice to see you, to see you, nice!" (catchphrase of British TV entertainer Bruce Forsyth) "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget." (Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006) Euphemism the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit. Adult Entertainment (Pornography) Armed Intervention (War) Hyperbole is a figure of speech (a form of irony) in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. I am so hungry I could eat a horse. I had a ton of homework. Irony The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. A man who is a traffic cop gets his license suspended for unpaid parking tickets. A child asks his parents how the presents got under the Christmas tree to which the parents reply that they have no idea.

Litotes is a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. She's not the brightest girl in the class. (She's stupid!) He's not the most handsome fellow! (he's ugly!) Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). "Fear gives wings."(Romanian proverb) "Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood."(Conan O'Brien) Onomatopoeia the use of words (such as hiss or murmur) that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. "Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng! An alarm clock clanged in the dark and silent room." (Richard Wright, Native Son, 1940) "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."(slogan of Alka Seltzer, U.S.) Paradox is a figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself. "The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot." (Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) "War is peace.", "Freedom is slavery.", "Ignorance is strength."(George Orwell, 1984) Personification is a trope or figure of speech (generally considered a type ofmetaphor) in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. The run down house appeared depressed. Pun is a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words. A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger." Kings worry about a receding heir line. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole (for example, ABCs foralphabet) or the whole for a part ("England won the World Cup in 1966"). All hands on deck. "Take thy face hence."(William Shakespeare, Macbeth) Understatement is a figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. "A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty." (Mark Twain) "This [double helix] structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest." (J. Watson and F. Crick)