Stylistic devices/ figures of speech

1. Stylistic devices/figures of speech BY: Makenzie Scott

2. How to analyze figures of speech • Identify the stylistic device. • Explain how it works in your particular context. • Explain its function or its function on the reader. • Example: • “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it.” • Comparison: act innocent and nice, not showing your true evil intentions. • Function: Creates a vivid mental image in the reader’s mind.

3. Functions of stylistic devices • Catch the reader’s attention/ arouse the reader’s interest. • Create a vivid mental image. • Ex: Personification, Metaphor, Symbol, Comparison/ Simile • Make the reader smile and is meant to be funny. • Ex: Irony, Exaggeration • Make the reader think. • Ellipsis, Paradox • Emphasize or put an emphasis on a certain aspect/fact • Ex: Repetition, Alliteration

4. More Functions of stylistic devices • Focus the reader’s attention on a certain fact. • Ex: Repetition, Anaphora • Express criticism. • Ex: Irony, Hyperbole • Express the author’s opinion. • Ex: Irony, Exaggeration • Entertain the reader.

5. Most common stylistic devices • IMAGES: Comparison, Metaphor, Personification, Symbol • SOUND: Alliteration, Repetition of a sound, Onomatopoeia • STRUCTURE: Anaphora, Parallelism, Enumeration, Antithesis, Ellipsis • OTHERS: rhetorical questions, Paradox, Exaggeration, Understatement, Irony, Euphemism

6. IMAGES • Comparison/ Simile • Ex: Chris was an excellent runner and as fast as a race horse. • Uses the words, “like” or “as.” • Metaphor • Ex: Chris, the speeding bullet, raced along the street. • A comparison without “like” or “as.” • Personification • Ex: The sun shone brightly as if she were shining for me alone. • Giving inanimate objects human qualities. • Symbol • Ex: White dove = peace • Something concrete stands for an abstract idea

7. SOUND • Alliteration • Ex: She sells seashells by the seashore. • Repetition of identical consonants at the beginning of two or more words. • Repetition of a Sound • Ex: With steely insistence, he repeatedly asked the police…. • Consonance: repetition of a consonant sound • Assonance: repetition of a vowel sound • Onomatopoeia • Ex: The steaks sizzled, Croaking frogs. • Imitation of a sound in the spelling/ pronunciation of a word

8. Structure • Anaphora • Ex: A man without ambition is dead. A man without love is dead. A man without…. • Repetition of a sequence of words at the beginning of neighboring clauses. • Parallelism/ Repetition • Ex: The brats who broke her window, mocked her daughter, beat up her son, and invaded her garden…… • Certain sentence structure is repeated.

9. Structure continued • Enumeration • Ex: I came up with three reasons. First, this is my first reason. Second, this is my second reason. Third, this is my third reason. • Can be a list of items, also can be separated by structural words: first, second, third. • Antithesis • Ex: Many are called, few are chosen • Putting contrasting ideas next to each other, usually with the same sentence structure. • Ellipsis • Ex: “More often than not, it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them.” • Deliberately leaving out parts of the structure.

10. others • Rhetorical Question • Ex: Was there really nothing they could do about it? • A question to which the answer is obvious both to the writer and the reader. • Paradox • Ex: The closer we are together, the further we are apart. • A statement which seems nonsensical but makes sense on a deeper level. • Exaggeration/ Hyperbole • Ex: “I have told you a thousand times.” • A strong overstatement

11. Others continued • Understatement • Ex: We may have slightly different opinions about the debate. • A statement is deliberately weakened. • Irony • Ex: You look so good today. • Saying one thing and meaning the exact opposite. The harsher form is sarcasm. • Euphemism • Ex: I’m between jobs. • Replacing an unpleasant word with a more agreeable term.