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Using Figurative Language

Using Figurative Language. Writing Center Workshop. Figures of speech can add excitement and variety to writing. When these expressions are understood, they can give a work a depth and richness not present otherwise; when not understood, they can confuse the reader. Alliteration.

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Using Figurative Language

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  1. Using Figurative Language Writing Center Workshop

  2. Figures of speech can add excitement and variety to writing. When these expressions are understood, they can give a work a depth and richness not present otherwise; when not understood, they can confuse the reader.

  3. Alliteration • Definition: The repetitious use of the same beginning consonant sound in two or more nearby words. • Example: “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln

  4. Allusion • Definition: A reference, usually brief, to a person, place, thing, or event with which the reader is presumably familiar. The allusion lets the reader condense great meaning into only a few words. Allusions often refer to mythology, history, religious and literary texts, etc. • Example: “He has the patience of Job.”

  5. Apostrophe • Definition: A figure of speech addressing an absent person as if he or she were present or an abstract concept or inanimate object as if it were capable of understanding. • Example: The poet’s addressing the urn in “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is an example of an apostrophe.

  6. Epithet • Definition: An adjective used to limit a noun which it cannot logically modify. • Examples:dusty death rosy-fingered dawn wine-dark sea

  7. Hyperbole • Definition: An exaggeration to make emphasis and heighten the overall effect (comic or serious) of a work. • Example: “This backpack weighs a ton!”

  8. Irony • Definition: A contrast between appearance and reality. • Types of Irony: • Verbal • Dramatic • Situational

  9. Verbal Irony • Definition: A difference between what is literally said and what is actually meant. • Example: “Well, thanks a lot!” (spoken when someone has not been at all helpful)

  10. Dramatic Irony • Definition: When the reader or audience knows that the situation is exactly the opposite of what the participants think it is. • Example: In William Shakespeare’s Othello, the audience knows Iago is the villain, but Othello believes Iago is his most trusted friend.

  11. Situational Irony • Definition: When the outcome of circumstances is the opposite of what is expected or appropriate. • Example: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is found to be a liar and an adulterer, but he is also a clergyman.

  12. Metaphor • Definition: A comparison of two unlike objects without the use of the word like or as. • Example: “The cat's eyes were jewels, gleaming out of the darkness.”

  13. Metonymy • Definition: Substituting a word with a term meaning an object closely associated with the original word. • Example: Using “The White House” when referring to the President is an example of metonymy.

  14. Onomatopoeia • Definition: Using a word (or a group of words) whose sound reinforces its meaning. • Examples:buzz pop fizz

  15. Oxymoron • Definition: A figure of speech which brings together contradictory terms for rhetorical effect. • Examples:living death sweet sorrow cheerful pessimist

  16. Paradox • Definition: An apparently self-contradictory statement which seems absurd at first but turns out to have a valid meaning. • Examples: “The child is father to the man.” – William Wordsworth

  17. Personification • Definition: Giving human attributes and/or feelings to an idea or thing as if it were human. • Examples:a wicked tongue a lonely road a lazy day

  18. Pun • Definition: A play on words which uses words that sound alike but have different meanings. • Example: “The dentist joined the infantry because he liked to drill.”

  19. Simile • Definition: A comparison of two unlike objects using the word like or as. • Example: “My love is like a red, red rose.” – Robert Burns

  20. Symbol • Definition: Any word, object, character, or action used to stand for something else, embodying and evoking a range of additional significance and meaning. • Example: In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses a journey up the Congo River to symbolize an exploration of the dark side of the human heart and human civilization.

  21. Synecdoche • Definition: Use of a part to signify the whole or, more rarely, the whole to signify a part. • Examples:wheels = automobile steel = sword the law = police officer

  22. References • Definitions and examples taken from Pickering and Hoeper’s Literature, 1990. • Other examples taken from: • http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LTEpithet.html • http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/S/synecdoche.htm • http://www.bartleby.com/61/70/S0967000.html • http://www.geocities.com/sir_john_eh/scarletletter.html • http://www.spellingpolice.com/higher/metaphor.html • http://www.spellingpolice.com/higher/pun.html

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