Figurative Language

Figurative Language

The muscles on his brawny arms are strong as iron bands • The road was a ribbon of moonlight • The trees danced in the wind • Giving inanimate objects/animals human characteristics • Wide eyed and wondering while we wait for others to waken. • Beginning of each word SimileMetaphorPersonificationAlliteration

These are both forms of metaphor • Using a part to represent the whole • Ex: All hands on deck • Nice wheels! • Where a thing or concept is not called by it’s name but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. • Look at the skirt that just walked in. SynedocheMetonymy

Repetition of consonant sounds within a series of words • Ex: the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain • Helplessly hoping her harlequin hovers nearby • Repetition of vowel sounds within a series of words • Ex: I bomb atomically—Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses can't define how I be droppin' these mockeries. • Hear the mellow wedding bells ConsonanceAssonance

O! Romeo, Romeo? Wherefor art thou Romeo? • a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present • speaking to inanimate objects • O eloquent just, and mighty Death! Apostrophe

Paradox

a statement which contradicts itself • Ex: The poorest man is the richest, and the rich are poor • Someday you will be young enough to read fairy tales again – CS Lewis • Stone walls do not a prison make • This statement is false The above statement is true Paradox

a reference to a mythological, literary, historical, or Biblical person, place or thing. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. Think of The Veldt Allusion

Antithesis

the juxtaposition (placing together) of contrasting ideas so that each will appear more striking by the contrast • Involves a direct contrast of structurally parallel word groupings • Ex: Many are called, but few are chosen • To err is human, to forgive is divine • Sink or swim • You’re easy on the eyes but hard on the heart • My only love, sprung from my only hate Antithesis

where contrary terms are combined into a single expression • Ex: I think we’re alone now • Friendly fire • Definitely maybe • Dodge Ram • Yeah, no • Jumbo Shrimp • Exact estimate • Alone together • Less is more • Living dead Oxymoron

Understatement

the opposite of hyperbole, it deliberately represents something as less than it is • AKA meiosis • Ex: Tis but a scratch A scratch? Your arm’s off! Understatement

Play on words - eithertheir different meanings orupon two different words sounding the same. • I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me. • The bicycle fell over because it was two tired. • The clock was so hungry it went back four seconds. • Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. • I couldn't quite remember how to throw a boomerang, but eventually it came back to me. Pun

When the opposite of what is expected occurs • 3 Types: Verbal, Situational & Dramatic Irony

Figurative Language