Unit 3
Figures of Speech
 Contents
1. Function of figures of
speech;
2. Some common English
rhetorical devices
 Objectives
Make Ss have a rough
understanding about
English figures of speech
so that they can appreciate
the novel better.
Classroom Activities




News reporting;
Check ss’ understanding about figures of speech and get
them list some common figures of speech with examples;
introduction about some common figures of speech;
Exercises about rhetorical devices.
Introduction




Figures of speech are ways of making our language figurative.
When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal senses
to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create
suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing
figuratively.
For example, it is more vivid and colorful to say that stars
“twinkle like diamonds in the sky” than to say that they “shine
brightly in the sky”.
Except simile, there are also
metaphor, personification, metonymy and so on.
At one time, figures of speech were mainly associated with
poetry and poetic writing—prose, drama, and even scientific
writing and advertisements. In fact, effective writing of any kind
is seldom without a figure or two, and most writers have their
own way of weaving figures of speech so as to form their
characteristic style.
Simile (明喻)

It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between
two unlike elements having at least one quality or
characteristic in common. To make the comparison, words like
as, as...as, as if, as though, than and like are used to transfer
the quality we associate with one to the other.
E.g.:
1) As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far
country.
2) He and his brother are as like as two peas.
3) She is happy as a rose tree in sunshine.
4) My heart is like a singing bird.
cf.:
1) He looks like his brother.
2) He is as tall as his father.
Metaphor (暗喻)

It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two
unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is
implied rather than stated.
E.g.:
1) The world is a stage.
2) He is a fox.
3) The thought was fire in him.
4) a golden opportunity
5) a stony heart
6) a stormy discussion
Metonymy (转喻)

It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the
name of one thing for that of another because they have close
relationship.
E.g.
1) The hall applauded. (audience)
2) The kettle boils. (water in the kettle)
3) Grey hair should be respected. (old people)
4) He has fallen in a possession of a complete Shakespeare.
( books written by Shakespeare )
5) England won. (England team)
6) The pen is mightier than the sword.
(words)
(forces)
Personification (拟人)
It gives human form of feelings to animals, or life and
personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and
abstractions. Simply speaking, a human character is given
to a non-human thing.
E.g.
1) Everything smiled at him.
2) Father time waits for no man.
3) The tree signed in the tree tops.
4) Life has cheated her.
5) the childhood of the earth
6) the thirsty ground
7) The wind whistled through the trees.

Hyperbole / Exaggeration / Overstatement
(夸张)

It is the deliberate use of overstatement or exaggeration to
achieve emphasis. In exaggeration, big words are used to
describe things.
E.g.
1) She almost died laughing.
2) She shed a flood of tears.
3) a sea of flowers (faces, troubles)
Understatement/Litotes (含蓄陈述)

It is the opposite of hyperbole. It achieves its effect of
emphasizing a fact by deliberately understating it, impressing
the listener or the reader more by what is merely implied or left
unsaid than by bare statement. It’s a restrained statement in
ironic contrast to what might be said. The purpose is for
emphasis.
E.g.
1) He has no small chance of success. (a great)
2) The problem is not above us. (We can solve this problem)
3) The place is some distance off. (It is far from here)
4) He did not go to Oxford for nothing. (He is an excellent man)
5) It is no laughing matter.
Irony (反语)

It is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis by saying
the opposite of what is meant, the intended meaning of the
words being the opposite of their usual sense. It means a
humor or light sarcasm that adopts a mode of speech
which is the opposite of the literal sense of the words.
E.g.
1) You are a fine goalkeeper, allowing the other side to score
six goals.
2) This hard-working boy seldom reads more than an hour
per week.
Pun (双关语)

Pun is a figure of speech in which you can find two
meanings or double meaning. It is a play on words, or
rather a play on the form and meaning of words.
E.g.:
1)邦妮洗涤 (帮你）
2) Ask More.
(the advertisement for a cigarette with the name of “More”)
3) The Unique Spirit of Canada.
(the advertisement of the wine “Spirit”)
4) A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms.
(Here "arms" has two meanings: a person's body; weapons
carried by a soldier.)
Oxymoron (矛盾修饰)
In oxymoron, apparently contradictory terms are combined to
produce a good language effect. It is a compressed paradox,
formed by the conjoining of two contrasting, contradictory or
incongruous terms.
E.g:
1) a living death
2) a victorious defeat
3) cruel kindness
4) tearful joy
5) shine darkly
6) speaking silence
7) bitter-sweet memories
8) orderly chaos
9) proud humility

Euphemism (委婉)

It is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive
expression for one that may offend or suggest something
unpleasant, to take the sting out of an unpleasant reality.
E.g.:
1) Die: pass away
2) Kill: eliminate
3) A prisoner: guest of the law
4) To be a loose woman/prostitute: to go on the streets
5) Old: of a certain age
6) Blind: eye trouble
More Forms of Figures of Speech

Climax (渐进): It is derived from the Greek word for "ladder" and implies the
progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of significance or intensity,
like the steps of a ladder ascending evenly. For example, I came, I saw, I conquered.

Anti-climax or bathos (突降): It is the opposite of Climax. It involves stating one's
thoughts in a descending order of significance or intensity, from strong to weak, from
weighty to light or frivolous. For instance, But thousands die, without or this or that,
die, and endow a college, or a cat.

Transferred Epithet (转类形容词): It is a figure of speech where an epithet (an
adjective or descriptive phrase) is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify to
another to which it does not really apply or belong. For instance, I spent sleepless
nights on my project.

Alliteration (头韵): It has to do with the sound rather than the sense of words for
effect. It is a device that repeats the same sound at frequent intervals and since the
sound repeated is usually the initial consonant sound, it is also called "front rhyme".
For instance, the fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.

Antithesis (对照): It is the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in
balanced structural forms to achieve emphasis. For example, speech is silver;
silence is golden.
Exercises---Simile
Directions: Read each unfinished sentence. Write in the blank
space the letter of the part that best completes each simile.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
A field of hay
Shoe leather
Tiny parachutes
Crawling bugs
A withered apple
A broom
Tap dancers
A wary cat
A great waterfall
diamonds
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Leaves drifted down from the maple tree like__.
Yesterday’s quiet brook now roars like __.
The king’s men cut down the enemy like __.
He approached silently, picking his way like __.
From the plane the cars on the road looked like __.
Raindrops on the grass sparkled like __.
The steak was as tough as __.
Steady rain beating on the roof sounded like __.
The March wind swept the street as briskly as __.
The old man’s face had as many wrinkles as __.
Simile and Metaphor
Directions: Read each statement. If the sentence contains a
simile, write S, if it contains a metaphor, write M.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The soldiers crawled like snakes through the enemy lines.
“For secrets are edged tools, and must be kept from children and from
fools.”
“No man is an island, entire of itself.”
“If poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, it had better not come
at all.”
His friend has become a thorn in his side.
“Mr. Gladstone speaks to me as if I was a public meeting.”
“A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a measured speech.”
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to
be chewed and digested.”
“Their learning is like bread in a besieged gown, every man gets a little,
but no man gets a full meal.”
“The fog comes in on little cat feet.”
Personification
Directions: Read each of the following statements. If it contains a
personification, write Y; if it does not contain one, write N.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Little ghosts of wind whispered secrets in the tree tops.
A large bottle of wine had been dropped and broken.
The racing car strained impatiently at the starting line.
The company is worried about the drop in business.
Philosophy is the lumber of the schools.
“Nature, with equal mind, sees all her sons at play.”
“I am, out of the ladies company, like a fish out of water.”
“Spring is coming home with her world-wandering feet.”
“A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can
throw at a man.”
“The river looked at him with a thousand eyes.”
Hyperbole
Direction: Some of the following sentences are examples of
hyperbole, but others could be literally true. Write Y for hyperbole
and N for non-hyperbole.
1.
I have had millions of interruptions this morning.
2.
There are millions of stars in the Milky Way.
3.
It has taken ages for the river to carve out this canyon.
4.
It took me ages to finish this book.
5.
A runaway lorry has crashed into a pillar and brought down
the roof.
6.
His amusing performance brought the house down.
7.
I’ve been beating my brains out all day over that report, and I
still can’t find a way to make my suggestions politely.
8.
The climber fell from the cliff and dashed his brains out on the
rocks below.
9.
Several people were burnt to death in the fire.
10. I’ m sick to death of your everlasting chatter. Do be quiet.
Understatement
Directions: The following statements and quotations are either
hyperbole or understatement. Write H for hyperbole or U for
understatement.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The elephant is a fairly sizable animal.
The mountains touch the sky.
It is not very courteous to poison a guest.
Men have been known to lie.
My sore throats are always worse than anyone’s.
London is a village of some size.
There is food enough for an army on his table.
He found it inconvenient to be poor.
“A thousand apologies for the interruption.”
“The whale that wanders round pole is not a table fish.”
Homework

Read Chapter 4 of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”;

Do newspaper reading;

Begin out-of-class reading preparing for reading report.