Sound Devices
ENG1DP - Efpatridis
Alliteration: the recurrence of initial consonant sounds (bubbling brook)
Assonance: similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words
ex. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Consonance: similar consonant sounds repeated in successive words; especially evident at the end of words
ex. I gave little thought to what he had brought.
Onomatopoeia: the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes (buzz imitates the
sound of an insect) This is a figure of speech uses words to imitate sounds: boom bang hiss, vroom, etc.
Literary Terms and Figurative Language
Allegory: often within a story, there is a secondary story running parallel or within the existing story. The
characters and events are symbols or symbolic of human life or for a political or historical situation. Writers use
allegory to add different layers of meanings to their works. Allegory makes their stories and characters
multidimensional, so that they stand for something larger in meaning than what they literally stand for. Allegory
allows writers to put forward their moral and political point of views. A careful study of an allegorical piece of
writing can give us an insight into its writer’s mind as how he views the world and how he wishes the world to be.
Allusion: a short, informal reference to a famous person (real or fictional), place, time period or historical event
(He’s the team’s Hercules)
Analogy: a comparison between two things, similar in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying
something unfamiliar or difficult by showing its similarity to something familiar; while similar to a simile, an
analogy is often more concrete and practical, rather than artistic, and is more developed.
Ex. "If you want my final opinion on the mystery of life and all that, I can give it to you in a nutshell. The universe is like a safe
to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe."
Epiphany: a sudden moment of realization
Flashback: a break in the storyline to introduce what has taken place in the past to fill in gaps
Foreshadowing: hints of what will occur in the future in the storyline
Hyperbole: the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis and/or effect; not to
be overused, the hyperbole can effectively grab attention is used sparingly (I’m starving; waiting forever)
Imagery: descriptive language that evokes a sensory experience
i.e. The coach was showered with freezing-cold Gatorade (sight, touch) that ran into his mouth and greeted him
with sweetness (sight, touch, taste)
Irony: the expression of meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite
i) dramatic – the reader has information that the characters do not
ii) verbal – what is said has the opposite meaning or effect
iii) situational – the opposite of what is expected happens
Metaphor: a comparison between two unlike things, asserting that one thing is another; frequently invoking the to
be verb (you are the light of my life; she is a beautiful flower)
Mood (Atmosphere): is the emotional colouring given to a text. It is created through the author’s choice of setting,
characters, diction, themes, description, imagery, and detail included in the story. It is the emotional impression left
on the reader or feeling aroused in a reader by the events of the story and author’s style of writing.
Oxymoron: a paradox reduced to two words for effect and/or emphasis (deafening silence; cruel kindness; inertly
strong) This figure of speech uses contradictory terms.
Paradox: a statement seemingly opposed to common sense that may have some truth in it (poor little rich girl) It is
a contradictory assertion.
Pathetic Fallacy: nature and weather are used to reflect the mood of the story or characters’ disposition
ie. It was a dark and stormy night and the winds destroyed the shelter.
Personification: giving human characteristics to inanimate objects (the water hose danced across
the lawn; the tree stretched its arms into the sky)
Pun: a play on words created for humorous effect; when a word has more than one possible
meaning (A father says to a mother while at the beach with his son and daughter: At least the sun
is bright could refer to the “sun” or the “son”; I used to be a ballerina but I found it too-too
difficult.) Created by exploiting ambiguities and innuendoes.
Simile: a comparison between two unlike things using like, as or
than to emphasize a similarity (her eyes shone like diamonds)
Suspense: is a feeling of uncertainty generated by the author
through the use of short sentences, foreshadowing, vivid verbs, withholding information,
repetition, dramatic irony, and/or understatement
Symbol: an object or concrete idea that stands for or represents something else.
Symbols can be natural, colours, religious, cultural, universal or global, or personal.
(heart for love; four leaf clover for luck)
Symbolism: the use of symbols in literature to suggest other ideas
Understatement: deliberately expressing an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic emphasis or
for politeness and tact; especially useful when dealing with a disagreement (with a speaker or an audience), because
the statement may carry the same
point with less offense (Tiger Woods has talent as a golfer.)