Figures of Speech and stylistic devices:
1. Simile:
It is a figure of speech which is used to compare two or more things that possess a similar quality. It uses words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ to make the comparison.
2. Metaphor:
It is a figure of speech used to make the comparison in a different way. To make comparison ‘as’, ‘like’ these words are not used. A comparison is made between two things that are not alike but they have something in common.
3. Personification:
It is a figure of speech in which an inanimate objects and abstract ideas are presented as having life and intelligent.
Examples:
1. It was very small, five months child. (Poem, Cherry Tree)
2. The angry Ocean attacked the ships.
4. Hyperbole:
It is used to make something look and sound a lot better than it actually is. In other words, it can be said to be a form of exaggeration.
The Collins Dictionary defines a hyperbole is an expression that is used to “say or write things that make something sound much more impressive than it really is”.
5. Euphemism:
It is an indirect word or expression that is used instead of a more direct one while talking about something that is unpleasant or embarrassing.
OR
It is an inoffensive word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant.
6. Antithesis:
It is a figure of speech which refers to the occurrence of opposing or contrasting ideas. It involves the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by contrast in the words, clauses or sentences.
Examples:
1. Give me liberty or give me death.
2. Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
7. Irony:
It is used to express an intended meaning by using language that conveys the opposite meaning when taken literally.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, irony is defined as “the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning”.
Types of Irony:
Followings are the main types of Irony:
1. Dramatic irony 2. Verbal Irony 3. Situational Irony
8. Pun:
Pun includes a play of words that have more than one meaning.
The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘pun’ as “the clever or humorous use of a word that has more than one meaning, or of words that have different meanings but sound the same”.
9. Onomatopoeia:
In this figure of speech you will see the uses words to describe the sounds made by all living things including people, animals, birds and all inanimate objects.
According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, onomatopoeia is defined as “the fact of words containing sounds similar to the noises they describe”.
10. Alliteration:
Alliteration is a literary device in which a series of words begin with the same consonant sound.
Examples:
1. She sells seashells by the sea-shore.
11. Synecdoche:
It is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that refers to a part of something is substituted to represent the whole or vice versa.
Examples:
1. Man’s estrangement from a man made world.
2. Stale chapatti
3. The phrase “all hands on deck” is a demand for all of the crew to help, yet the word ‘hands’ – just a part of the person represents the whole crew.
12. Metonymy:
Metonymy is when a phrase is replaced with another which has a similar meaning, used to describe something in an indirect manner.
13. Transferred Epithet:
Transferred Epithet is when an objective usually used to describe one thing is transferred to another. Epithets are usually adjectives like ‘happy’ that describes a noun like ‘person’. Transferred epithet is when this adjective is transferred to a different noun.
Examples:
1. Happy Birthday
2. I sat in the bathtub, soaping a meditative foot.
14. Climax:
It is a figure of speech in which successive words, phrases, clauses or sentences are arranged in ascending order of importance.
CLIMAX has the effect of building excitement and anticipation.
Examples:
1. Let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country and his God.
15. Inversion:
Inversion is a term used to refer to the inverting of the normal word order in a line of a poem, a sentence or a phrase. Writers use inversion to maintain a particular meter or rhyme scheme on poetry or to emphasize a specific word in prose.
Examples:
1. A cat, fluffy and fat.
16. Imagery:
It presents descriptive sensory language, including details of sound, taste, touch, sight, smell. It is used even in everyday speech to convey meaning.
Examples:
“It was a starry night, filled with the sound of cicadas and fragrant with the night queen blooming”
It is an example of imagery in that the reader immediately tries to picture the kind of setting in which the story may take place. Using imagery helps the reader to develop a more fully realized understanding of the imaginary world that the author has created.