FIGURES OF SPEECH

 

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds in successive words. Tongue Twisters are best examples. Alliteration is a type of assonance/consonance where the associated assonant or consonant sound is repeated at the beginning of closely connected words.

Ex. “Yours Never Will Said Farer to Fearer”- O Where Are You Going? by W H Auden;

“The snake slept under as pray”.; “full fathom five thy father lies”-The Tempest; She sells sea shells.; Tim took tons of tools to make the toys.; Nick needed new books.; “Much Madness is divinest Sense -To a discerning Eye -Much Sense -- the starkest Madness -” - Emily Dickinson.; “I have a dream” - speech by Dr. Martin Luther King; Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux”- The Rape of the Lock.

 

Assonance: repetition of Vowel sounds especially in stressed syllables.

Ex: /ea/ sound in ‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary’ (“The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe).

/a/, /i/ sounds in "Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability"(Francis Bacon in ‘Of Studies’)

 

Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds: "Zach sneezed when he heard jazz music."; A little more than kin, and less than kind. (In Hamlet by Shakespeare)

 

Aphorism: short, witty statement that expresses a general truth or observation.

Ex: The grass is always greener on the other side.; The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.; All is fair in love and war.;

 

Anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases, or clauses. Anaphora works as a literary device to allow writers to convey, emphasize, and reinforce meaning in speeches, lyrics, poetry, and prose.

Ex: “Stay home, stay safe, stay happy’’.; It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …” -A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; Five years have passed; Five summers, with the length of Five long winters! …” -Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth.

 

Circumlocution: usage of more words than are necessary to express an idea. Latin circum-, meaning "around," and locutio, meaning "speech", literally means "roundabout speech." Another word for “circumlocution” is “periphrasis.” Politicians are experts in circumlocution.

Ex: “the vehicle that I use to drive to work in the mornings” is a circumlocution for “my car.”;

“Our Father who art in Heaven.” is used for “God”;

“sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”- (eye of heaven=Sun) In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”(for Autumn)- In Keats’ To Autumn.

“The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide”- (glitt'ring forfex=scissors)- In Pope’s Rape of the Lock.

 

Chiasmus: a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order. Ex: Beauty is Truth, Truth is beauty-(Ode on a Grecian Urn- Keats); Fair is foul, Foul is fair (Macbeth- Shakespeare); Better a witty fool than a foolish wit (Twelfth Night- Shakespeare)

 

Epistrophe(epiphora):  is a stylistic device that can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the ends of the clauses or sentences.

Ex: Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people"

 

Refrain: It is somewhat different from repetition. Refrain is repetition of usually a line, a phrase, two or three lines, or even words in a poem. It refers to a phrase, line, or lines repeated at regular interval in the poem, often at the end of the stanza.

Ex:  Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening (By Robert Frost)-  “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”;  “Sweet Thames run softly while I sing my song” in Spencer’s Prothalomion

 

Antithesis: one word or idea is set against another by contrast. 

Ex: God Made the country but man made the town.; United we stand, divided we fall.; Speech is silver, but silence is gold.; To err is human, to forgive is divine.; Men must work but women must weep.; A jack of all trades but master of none.; Man proposes but God disposes-Alexander Pope.; Come to learn and go to serve.;

Simile: A comparison between two distinctly different things is indicated by the word ‘like’, ‘as’, so’.

Ex. Robert Burn’s “O my love is like a red, red rose”.; She fought like a lion.; The story is as old as the hills.; She is as busy as a bee.; The officer was as blind as a bat.; He sings like an angel.; “Life is like a box of chocolates.”.; “Hang there like a fruit, my soul, Till the tree die!” - Cymbeline, by Shakespeare.; “Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa.” — Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.; I wandered lonely as a cloud- Daffodils poem by Wordsworth.

 

Metaphor: (when one thing is said to be another thing.) A word or expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to distinctly different kind of thing, without asserting a comparison. It is a implied simile. Words like, as, so are usually omitted.

Ex. “Revenge is a kind of wild justice”.; Life is bed of thorns.; She’s a shining star.; He’s a night owl.; The test was a breeze.; “All the world’s a stage...” - As you like it, by Shakespeare.; “Busy old fool, unruly sun…” - The Sun Rising, by John Donne.; “The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid near and nearer the sill of the world.” - Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.; He is a lion.; The camel is the ship of the desert.; Teachers are the pillars of the nation.;

 

Apostrophe: objects are addressed as if they were alive. It is a direct and explicit address either to an absent person or to an abstract or nonhuman entity. 

Ex. Spenser’s Prothalamion: “Sweet Thames! Run softly, till I end my song.; O wild West Wind! Thou breath of Autumn’s being.; Oh! death where is thy song?

Note: Eliot used it in his The Waste Land in Fire Sermon.

 

Personification: In which either an inanimate object or an abstract concept is spoken of as though it were endowed with life or with human attributes/ feelings.

Ex. “Opportunity knocks on the door but once”.; Death embraced him.; The lady duck smiled at him.; The clouds danced.; Death lays its icy hands-on kings.; Love is not time’s fool.; The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.; “My new car, the 67 Chevy Impala, is a beauty, isn’t she?’.; “Two sun flowers move in the Yellow room…”- by William Blake (poem has a dialogue between the flowers).; April is the cruelest month, breeding. Lilacs out of the dead land,” - The Waste Land, by TS Eliot.; “Life will hit you, hard, in the face...” - If I should have a daughter, by Sarah Kay. 

 

Paradox: It is a statement which seems on its face to be logically contradictory or absurd, yet turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes sense. 

Ex.: “less is more”; “the more you give, the more you get”; “The child is the father of man”. “Poverty brings plenty.”; He is the best teacher who teaches nothing.; The death lives long.;

Oxymoron: It is an association of two words or phrases having opposite meaning.

Ex. “He is a friendly enemy.’’; Wisest fool.; Idly busy.; sweet sorrow.; dear idiot.; kind cruelty.; cheerful pessimist.; honorable villain.; Definitely, maybe.; Open secret.; Deafening silence.; The country lost many lives in the friendly fire.; “A joke is a very serious thing.” - Winston Churchill.; “I must be cruel, only to be kind.” - Hamlet, by Shakespeare.; There is a kind cruelty in surgeon’s knife.; “A terrible beauty is born”- W B Yeats in Easter 1916;

Irony: The real meaning is just the opposite of that which is literally conveyed by the language used.

Ex. “He was the cleverest general that ever lost a battle”.; Death ended his sorrows kindly.; A fire station burns down.; A pilot with a fear of heights.; “Water, water everywhere, nor any a drop to drink.” - Rime of the Ancient Mariner.; “Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here! This is the war room!” - Kubric’s Dr. Strangelove (1964).; Otto Lilienthal, creator of the flying glider, died in a flight crash.

 

Euphemism: it the way of expressing an unpleasant idea in a pleasant way.

E. g. “He has fallen asleep”. (=he is dead).; His version is but a fairy tale. (=a lie)

 

Understatement: to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is.

Ex: In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield says: “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”

 

Hyperbole: It is an exaggeration made to give effective meaning.

Ex. “She wept oceans of tears”. All India shocked at the news.; He plucked a million stars.; For ages, I haven’t met you.; “I love Ophelia, forty thousand brothers could not” (In Hamlet)

 

Litotes: use of negative to express a strong affirmative.

Ex: ‘’not bad’’; He is no fool. (=wise).; I am a student of no ordinary college.; He is no dullard.; These men are no inferior to them.

 

Onomatopoeia: The formation of words is like natural sounds and they reflect the sense.

Ex. “The murmurs haunt of flies on summer eves”. The buzzing bee flew away.; The sack fell into the river with a splash.; The books fell on the table with a loud thump.; He looked at the roaring.; The rustling leaves kept me awake.; The leaves kept rustling.; The kid jumped into the pool & made a big splash.; They kept murmuring & giggling.; Swish, swoosh, flutter, gasp, slap, thud, neigh, moo, tweet, ribbit, etc.; “How they clang, and clash, and roar!” (about bells in) The Bells, by Edgar Allan Poe.

 

Pun: A play on words that are either identical in sound or very similar in sound, but are sharply in significance.

Ex. “I can mend your soul”.; I am too much in the sun.; Thy went and told the Saxton and the Saxton tolled the bell.; In G.B Shaw’s “Arms and Man”, Arms is a pun on weapons and love (in Farewell to arms, it is weapons in war, and arms of her beloved.); “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man”- in Romeo and Juliet (graveman means a serious or dead man)

 

Epigram: a brief saying.

Ex: Failures are the stepping stones of success.; Fools rush where angels fear to tread.; Child is the father of man.; Vision is the art of seeing invisible things.;

 

Metonymy: Substituting the thing named for the thing meant. substitution of cause for effect, proper name for one of its qualities.       

Ex: The Pen(poet) is the mightier than sword(king).; You must address the chair.; I have read Milton.; The bench heard the case.; Man travels from the cradle to grave.;

 

Synecdoche: understanding part for whole or whole for part. 

Ex: "suits" (for "businessmen"), "boots" (for "soldiers"), "America" (for "the United States of America"), He drank the bottle(wine).; Wheels (signifies a vehicle).’ Behind bars (signifies being in jail).; Referring to the alphabet as the "ABCs.".; "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears." Julius Caesar, Shakespeare.;  “Two tickets are given per head(head instead of person)”

 

Climax: (a Greek term meaning “ladder,”) refers to a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance.

Ex: He came, he saw, he conquered.; He begs, he lies, he steals, he kills for gold.;

 

Anticlimax: Opposite of climax. Arranged in decreasing order of importance.

Ex: He lost his wife, his dog, and a three-penny bit.;

 

Spoonerism: is an error in speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched between two words in a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and ordained minister William Archibald Spooner.

Ex:  "The Lord is a shoving leopard" instead of "The Lord is a loving shepherd."; "Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (rather than "dear old queen’’); "Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (as opposed to "customary to kiss"); "A blushing crow." ("crushing blow"); "A well-boiled icicle" ("well-oiled icycle"); "You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." ("lighting a fire"); "Is the bean dizzy?" ("Dean busy").

 

Malapropism: is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous. It comes from a character named "Mrs. Malaprop" in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals. Malapropism is also referred to as Dogberryism, named after Officer Dogberry in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." Both characters made these speech errors. 

Ex: Rainy weather can be hard on the sciences. (sinuses); Alice said she couldn't eat crabs or any other crushed Asians. (crustaceans); I have no delusions to the past. (allusions); You could have knocked me over with a fender. (feather); A rolling stone gathers no moths. (moss); Good punctuation means not to be late. (punctuality); Having one wife is called monotony. (monogamy)

 

Epithet: an adjective to describe a person or a thing. Ex: "Swift-footed Achilles", "god-like Hector", "red-haired Menelaus", "laughter-loving Aphrodite", "white-armed Helen”, “Ox- eyed queen", "Athene of the flashing eyes", Alexander the Great, "weary way", "labouring clouds", etc.

 

Transferred Epithet: Epithet means adjective. Shifting or transfer of an epithet from one subject or word to another. Ex: “The Ploughman homewards plods his weary way” (In Gray’s Elegy, The epithet ‘weary’ belongs to ‘ploughman, but it is transferred to ‘way’.)

Tautology: If two or more words in the same line convey the same meaning, the Figure of Speech in that line is called Tautology. Ex: It brought joy and cheer. They groaned with aches and pains.

Zeugma: a word applies to two others in different senses. Ex: John and his driving licence expired last week”, “His boat and his dreams sank”