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Figures of Speech

Mary Grace C. Raborar


BSECE ETEEAP
LIT102

Definition
A

change from the ordinary manner of


expression, using words in other than their
literal sense to enhance the way a thought is
expressed.
Word or words are used to create an effect,
often where they do not have their original or
literal meaning.

Categories
Schemes

- from the Greek schma (form or


shape) are figures of speech that change the
ordinary or expected pattern of words. For
example, the phrase, "John, my best friend"
uses the scheme known as apposition.
Tropes - from the Greek tropein (to turn)
change the general meaning of words. An
example of a trope is irony, which is the use
of words to convey the opposite of their usual
meaning.

Schemes

Alliteration - series of words that begin with the


same consonant or sound alike. Ex: Best Buy,
Circuit City, V for Vendetta
Anacoluthon - change in the syntax within a
sentence. More specifically, anacoluthons (or
"anacolutha") are created when a sentence abruptly
changes from one structure to another. Ex:
Agreements entered into when three states of facts
exists are they to be maintained regardless of
changing conditions?

Schemes

Anadiplosis - repetition of a word at the end of a


clause at the beginning of another. Ex: "Fear leads
to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to
suffering." Yoda, Star Wars
Anaphora - repetition of the same word or group of
words at the beginning of successive clauses. Ex:
segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation
forever... George Wallace

Schemes

Anastrophe - inversion of the usual word order. Ex:


Saying "smart you are" to mean "you are smart.
Anticlimax - arrangement of words in order of
decreasing importance. Ex: The pirates finally found
the treasure chest... only to find it empty.
Antimetabole - repetition of words in successive
clauses, in reverse order. Ex: Eat to live, not live to
eat.
Antithesis - juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting
ideas. Ex: Many are called, but few are chosen.

Schemes

Aphorismus - statement that calls into question the


definition of a word. Ex: How can you call yourself a
man?
Aposiopesis - breaking off or pausing speech for
dramatic or emotional effect. Ex: Well, I lay if I get a
hold of you I'll. Mark Twains Tom Sawyer
Apostrophe - directing the attention away from the
audience and to a personified abstraction. Ex: "O
Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2.

Schemes

Apposition - placing of two elements side by side, in


which the second defines the first. Ex: Dean Martin, a
very popular singer, will be performing at the Sands
Hotel.
Assonance - repetition of vowel sounds, most
commonly within a short passage of verse. Ex: Gradually
kids who talked about Narnia kept getting balmier and
balmier.
Asyndeton - omission of conjunctions between related
clauses. Ex: The US Declaration of Independence
includes an example of asyndeton, referring to the
British: "We must... hold them, as we hold the rest of
mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."

Schemes

Cacophony - juxtaposition of words producing a


harsh sound. Ex: Breakers crashed onto jagged
rocks and clawed the sands with brutal strikes,
pummeling the beach.
Cataphora - co-reference of one expression with
another expression which follows. Ex: If you need
one, there's a towel in the top drawer.
Chiasmus - word order in one clause is inverted in
the other (inverted parallelism). Ex: He knowingly
led and we blindly followed.

Schemes

Climax -arrangement of words in order of increasing


importance. Ex: "There are three things that will
endure: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of
these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
Consonance - repetition of consonant sounds, most
commonly within a short passage of verse. Ex: "And
the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple
curtain."

Schemes

Ellipsis - omission of words. Ex: What if I miss the


deadline? (The verb phrase "will happen" was
omitted, as in "What will happen if I miss the
deadline")
Enallage - substitution of forms that are
grammatically different, but have the same meaning.
Ex: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
(Song of Solomon 1.2).

Schemes

Enjambment - breaking of a syntactic unit (a


phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or
between two verses. Ex:
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.

Schemes

Enthymeme - informal method of presenting a


syllogism. Ex: For instance, a lawyer might say:
"Only she had the means, the motive and the
opportunity to kill him. She must be the killer."
Logically, what's missing? A connection between the
statements, which we tend to fill in automatically.
Hence the argument...
P1: Only she had the means, the motive and the
opportunity to kill him.
P2: The one with the means, motive and
opportunity to kill him is the killer. (unstated)
C: She must be the killer.

Schemes

Epanalepsis - repetition of the initial word or words


of a clause or sentence at the end of the clause or
sentence. Ex: The king is dead, long live the king.
Epistrophe - repetition of the same word or group of
words at the end of successive clauses. The
counterpart of anaphora (also known as
antistrophe). Ex: "What lies behind us and what lies
before us are tiny compared to what lies within us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Schemes

Hendiadys - use of two nouns to express an idea


when the normal structure would be a noun and a
modifier. Ex: Sound and fury" (from act V, scene 5
of Macbeth) seems to offer a more striking image
than "furious sound". In this example, as typically,
the subordinate idea originally present in the
adjective is transformed into a noun in and of itself.
Hendiatris - use of three nouns to express one
idea. Ex: "Cry God for Harry, England and St.
George" (Henry V).

Schemes

Homeoptoton - in a flexive language the use the


first and last words of a sentence in the same forms.
Ex: "Am I to praise a man abounding in good luck,
but lacking in virtue?"
Homographs - words that are identical in spelling
but different in origin and meaning. Ex: The word
close. First meaning: "Will you please close that
door!" Second meaning: The tiger was now so close
that I could smell it...

Schemes

Homonyms - words that are identical with each


other in pronunciation and spelling, but differing in
origin and meaning. Ex: The word bow. Bow can
mean the front of the ship or a kind of tied ribbon
(e.g. bow on a present, a bowtie).
Homophones - words that are identical with each
other in pronunciation but differing in origin and
meaning. Ex: Merry, marry, and Mary in most
American accents.

Schemes

Hypallage - changing the order of words so that


they are associated with words normally associated
with others. Ex: Happy morning" Mornings have
no feelings, but the people who are awake through
them do.
Hyperbaton - schemes featuring unusual or
inverted word order. Ex: "Bloody thou art; bloody will
be thy end" - William Shakespeare in Richard III,
4.4, 198.

Schemes

Hyperbole - exaggeration of a statement. Ex: "The


bag weighed a ton.
Hysteron proteron - the inversion of the usual
temporal or causal order between two elements. Ex:
An example of hysteron proteron encountered in
everyday life is that of a person getting up and
putting on their "shoes and socks", rather than
socks and shoes.

Schemes

Isocolon - use of parallel structures of the same


length in successive clauses. Ex: A well-known
example of this is Julius Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I
came; I saw; I conquered), which also illustrates that
a common form of isocolon is tricolon, or the use of
three parallel members.
Internal rhyme - using two or more rhyming words
in the same sentence. Ex: Ah, distinctly I remember,
it was in the bleak December" The Raven, Edgar
Allan Poe

Schemes

Merism - referring to a whole by enumerating some


of its parts. Ex: The phrase lock, stock, and barrel
originally referred to the parts of a gun, by counting
off several of its more conspicuous parts.
Non sequitur It does not follow: in english.
Statement that bears no relationship to the context
preceding. Ex: "The electoral college is an
antiquated system, so I think I'll go shopping."
Onomatopoeia - word that imitates a real sound.
Ex: Tick-tock or Boom!

Schemes

Paradiastole - repetition of the disjunctive pair


"neither" and "nor. Ex: An example of this technique
can be found in the Gospel of John. John, clarifying
the meaning of Gods children:
They [the believers],
not of blood,
nor of the flesh's desire,
nor of a man's desire,
but of God were born.

Schemes

Parallelism - the use of similar structures in two or


more clauses. Ex: "The inherent vice of capitalism is
the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue
of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Winston Churchill.
Paraprosdokian - unexpected ending or truncation
of a clause. Ex: "If I am reading this graph correctly
I'd be very surprised." Stephen Colbert.

Schemes

Parenthesis - insertion of a clause or sentence in a


place where it interrupts the natural flow of the
sentence. Ex: My umbrella (which is somewhat
broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain.
Parrhesia - speaking openly or boldly, or
apologizing for doing so (declaring to do so). Ex:
The university administration has tolerated hate
speech on this campus, and so to some extent they
are responsible for its widespread use.

Schemes

Perissologia - the fault of wordiness. Ex: The


sentence The individual member of the social
community often receives his information via visual,
symbolic channels can also mean People read.
Pleonasm - use of superfluous or redundant words.
Ex: She slept a deep sleep.
Polyptoton - repetition of words derived from the
same root. "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their
strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness
valiant;" William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida I,
i, 7-8

Schemes

Polysyndeton - repetition of conjunctions. Ex: "But


all you have to do is knock on any door and say, 'If
you let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live,
and I'll think the way you want me to think,' and all
the blinds'll go up and all the windows will open, and
you'll never be lonely, ever again." - Henry
Drummond (Spencer Tracy), Inherit the Wind

Schemes

Pun - when a word or phrase is used in two different


senses. Ex: "Question: Why do we still have troops
in Germany? Answer: To keep the Russians in
Czech. This relies on the aural ambiguity of the
homophones "check" and "Czech".
Sine dicendo - a statement that is so obvious it
need not be stated; when uttered almost seems
pointless. Ex: You can never save too much.
Superlative - saying something the best of
something. Ex: the ugliest, the most precious.

Schemes

Spoonerism - interchanging of (usually initial)


letters of words with amusing effect. Ex: "I'd rather
have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Symploce - simultaneous use of anaphora and
epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or group
of words at the beginning and the end of successive
clauses. Ex: "When there is talk of hatred, let us
stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of
violence, let us stand up and talk against it." - Bill
Clinton

Schemes

Synchysis - interlocked word order. Ex: "I run and


shoot, fast and accurate."
Synesis - agreement of words according to the
sense, and not the grammatical form. Ex: If the band
is popular, they will play next month.
Synonymia - use of two or more synonyms in the
same clause or sentence. Ex: The tribune Marullus
taunts the Roman populace in Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar for their fickleness, calling the people
several different pejorative names: "You blocks, you
stones, you worse than senseless things!"

Schemes

Tautology - redundancy due to superfluous


qualification; saying the same thing twice. Ex: New
innovation. Innovation is already defines as
something new.
Tmesis - division of the elements of a compound
word. Ex: A-whole-nother", in which another
(an+other) is reanalyzed as a+nother.
Zeugma - the using of one verb for two actions. Ex:
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your
ears."William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Tropes

Allegory - extended metaphor in which a story is


told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject.
Ex: The movie Avatar.
"There are obvious layers of allegory [in the movie
Avatar]. The Pandora woods is a lot like the Amazon
rainforest (the movie stops in its tracks for a heavy
ecological speech or two), and the attempt to get the
Na'vi to 'cooperate' carries overtones of the U.S.
involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."
(Owen Gleiberman, review of Avatar. Entertainment
Weekly, Dec. 30, 2009)

Tropes

Allusion - indirect reference to another work of


literature or art. Ex: 15 minutes of fame
Andy Warhol, a 20th-century American artist most
famous for his pop-art images of Campbell soup cans
and of Marilyn Monroe, commented about the explosion
of media coverage by saying, In the future, everyone
will be world-famous for 15 minutes."
Today, when someone receives a great deal of media
attention for something fairly trivial, and he or she is said
to be experiencing his or her 15 minutes of fame, the
allusion is to Andy Warhol's famous saying.

Tropes
Anacoenosis - posing a question to an audience, often
with the implication that it shares a common interest with
the speaker. Ex: Do you not think we can do this now?
Antanaclasis - a form of pun in which a word is
repeated in two different senses. Ex: "If you aren't fired
(up) with enthusiasm, you will be fired, with enthusiasm."
Vince Lombardi
Anthimeria - substitution of one part of speech for
another, often turning a noun into a verb. Ex: "I'll unhair
thy head.
(Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, II, v.)

Tropes

Anthropomorphism

ascribing
human
characteristics to something that is not human, such
as an animal or a god. Ex: The Tale of Two Brothers
(Egypt, 13th century BC) features several talking
cows.
Antimetabole - repetition of words in successive
clauses, but in transposed grammatical order. Ex: To
be kissed by a fool is stupid; To be fooled by a kiss
is worse. Ambrose Redmoon

Tropes

Antiphrasis - word or words used contradictory to


their usual meaning, often with irony. Ex: "It was a
bold antiphrasis that gave such a vernal title
[Greenland] to this birth-place of icebergs.
Antonomasia - substitution of a phrase for a proper
name or vice versa. Ex: "The Dark Knight" or "The
Caped Crusader" for Batman (also referred as "The
Dynamic Duo" when paired with fictional sidekick,
Robin)

Tropes

Aphorism - tersely phrased statement of a truth or


opinion, an adage. Ex: The Biblical Ecclesiastes, The
Sutra Literature of India
Apophasis - invoking an idea by denying its
invocation. Ex: An apophatic theology sees God as
ineffable and attempts to describe God in terms of
what God is not.
Archaism - use of an obsolete, archaic, word(a word
used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language).
Ex: 'Persia' rather than 'Iran', 'Bombay' rather than
'Mumbai', 'Madras' rather than 'Chennai

Tropes

Auxesis - form of hyperbole, in which a more


important sounding word is used in place of a more
descriptive term. Ex: Referring to a scratch as a
wound.
Catachresis - mixed metaphor (sometimes used by
design and sometimes a rhetorical fault). Ex: Using
a word out of context.
"Can't you hear that? Are you blind?

Tropes

Circumlocution - talking around" a topic by


substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or
periphrasis. Ex: A tool used for cutting things such
as paper and hair") to describe something simple
("scissors").
Double negative - grammar construction that can
be used as an expression and it is the repetition of
negative words. Ex: "I do not disagree" could mean
"I certainly agree".

Tropes

Dysphemism - substitution of a harsher, more


offensive, or more disagreeable term for another.
Opposite of euphemism. Ex: "twit" is a dysphemism
for "idiot.
Epanorthosis - immediate and emphatic selfcorrection, often following a slip of the tongue. Ex:
"The psychologist known as Sigmund Fraud
Freud, I mean!

Tropes

Euphemism - substitution of a less offensive or


more agreeable term for another. Ex: Slang, e.g. pot
for "cannabis", laid for "having sexual intercourse"
and so on.
Hyperbaton - words that naturally belong together
are separated from each other for emphasis or
effect. Ex: "Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end" William Shakespeare in Richard III, 4.4, 198.
Hyperbole - use of exaggerated terms for
emphasis. Ex: "The bag weighed a ton".

Tropes

Hypocatastasis - an implication or declaration of


resemblance that does not directly name both terms.
Bullinger gives the following example: one may say to
another, You are like a beast. This would be simile,
tamely stating a fact. If, however, he said, You are a
beast that would be metaphor. But, if he said simply,
Beast! that would be hypocatastasis, for the other
part of the simile or metaphor (you), would be
implied and not stated. This figure, therefore, is
calculated to arouse the mind and attract and excite
the attention to the greatest extent.

Tropes

Hypophora - answering one's own rhetorical


question at length. Ex: "Is He the God of the Jews
only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the
Gentiles also" (Romans 3.29)
Innuendo - having a hidden meaning in a sentence
that makes sense whether it is detected or not. Ex:
Sexual innuendos. Man talking to a woman: "Can I
just feel your melons?" What did he mean? Did he
want to feel the fruit on sale to check it or maybe
something else...?

Tropes

Irony - use of word in a way that conveys a meaning


opposite to its usual meaning. Ex: An ambulance
driver rushes to the scene of an accident, only to run
the victim over, because the victim crawled into the
middle of the street in the darkness of night.
Litotes - emphasizing the magnitude of a statement
by denying its opposite. Ex: "You are not wrong"
instead of saying you are correct.
Malapropism - using a word through confusion with a
word that sounds similar. Ex: "We need an energy bill
that encourages consumption." George W. Bush

Tropes

Meiosis - use of understatement, usually to diminish


the importance of something. Ex: "The Troubles" as
a name for decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Merism - Statement of opposites to indicate reality.
Ex: In Genesis 1:1, when God creates the heavens
and the earth, the two parts combine to indicate that
God created the whole universe.
Metalepsis - Referring to something through
reference to another thing to which it is remotely
related. Ex: "I've got to go catch the worm
tomorrow."

Tropes

Metaphor - Stating one entity is another for the


purpose of comparing them in quality. Ex: "Her eyes
were glistening jewels".
Metonymy - Substitution of a word to suggest what
is really meant. Ex: First, analyze the verb phrase
"lend me your ear" metaphorically to mean "turn
your ear in my direction", since we know that literally
lending a body part is nonsensical. Then, analyze
the motion of ears metonymically we associate
"turning ears" with "paying attention", which is what
the speaker wants the listeners to do.

Tropes

Neologism - The use of a word or term that has


recently been created, or has been in use for a short
time. Opposite of archaism. Ex: The word "sadistic"
is derived from the cruel sexual practices Marquis
de Sade described in his novels.
Oxymoron - Using two terms together, that normally
contradict each other. Ex: "And faith unfaithful kept
him falsely true."
Parable - Extended metaphor told as an anecdote
to illustrate or teach a moral lesson. Ex: "The
Prodigal Son"

Tropes

Paradox - Use of apparently contradictory ideas to


point out some underlying truth. Ex: Statements such
as Wildes I can resist anything except temptation
and Chestertons spies do not look like spies.
Paradiastole - Extenuating a vice in order to flatter
or soothe. Ex: In the Gospel of John:
They [the believers],
not of blood,
nor of the flesh's desire,
nor of a man's desire,
but of God were born.

Tropes

Paraprosdokian - Phrase in which the latter part


causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning.
Ex: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this
wasn't it." Groucho Marx
Parallel irony - An ironic juxtaposition of sentences
or situations (informal). Ex:
as soft as concrete
as clear as mud
as pleasant as a root canal
"as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake"
(Kurt Vonnegut from Breakfast of Champions)

Tropes

Personification - Attributing or applying human qualities to


inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
Ex: "The sun shone brightly down on me as if she were
shining for me alone".
Proverb - Succinct or pithy expression of what is commonly
observed and believed to be true. Ex: Haste makes waste.
Repetition - Repeated usage of word(s)/group of words in
the same sentence to create a poetic/rhythmic effect. Ex:
Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately
linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for
everybody.
(Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues, 1962).

Tropes

Rhetorical question - Asking a question as a way


of asserting something. Or asking a question not for
the sake of getting an answer but for asserting
something (or as in a poem for creating a poetic
effect). Ex: Ex: "How much longer must our people
endure this injustice?", no formal answer is
expected.
Simile - Comparison between two things using like
or as. Ex: He flopped like a fish out of water

Tropes

Superlative - Saying that something is the best of


something or has the most of some quality. Ex: The
ugliest, the most precious etc.
Synecdoche - Form of metonymy, in which a part
stands for the whole. Ex: Calling a worker "hands",
e.g. Many hands make light work; All hands on
deck!
Truism - a self-evident statement. Ex: "All cats are
mammals."

Tropes

Tricolon - Combination of three elements, each


decreasing in size. Ex: "I came; I saw; I conquered."
Zeugma - A figure of speech related to syllepsis, but
different in that the word used as a modifier is not
compatible with one of the two words it modifies. Ex:
"The skyand my hopesis falling."
Zoomorphism - Applying animal characteristics to
humans or gods. Ex: The common representation of
the Holy Spirit as a dove in Christianity.

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