Figures of Speech
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A figure of speech may be said to occur
whenever a speaker or writer, for the sake of
freshness or emphasis, departs from the usual
denotations of words.
• Figures of speech are not devices to state what
is demonstrably untrue. Indeed they often state
truths that more literal language cannot
communicate; they call attention to such truths;
they lend them emphasis
Some kinds of figures of speech:
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Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Hyperbole
Understatement
Metonymy
metaphor
• When a writer or speaker asserts that
something in most ways actually unlike it,
the figure is called a metaphor
example:
What is our life? A play of passion
(Sir Walter Ralegh)
simile
• Simile is a comparison of two things,
indicated by some connective, usually like,
as, then, or a verb such as resembles
example:
Your fingers are like sausages
personification
• Another figure somewhat similar to
metaphor is personification.
• Abstraction is endowed with the qualities
of a human being in such a way as to
render a normally disembodied idea
dramatically effective.
example:
Death lays his icy hand on kings
(Shirley)
hyperbole
• Hyperbole is deliberate, and often
outrageous, exaggeration. It may be used
to magnify a fact or an emotion in such a
way as to attribute great importance to it.
example:
Mark how these statues like men move,
understatement
• The opposite device of hyperbole is understatement.
Here the effect is almost always to magnify the matter
discussed, by implying that the means of expression is
inadequate to the task
example:
We know, too, they are very fond of war
A pleasure—like all pleasures—rather dear;
Calling war “rather dear” is understatement; calling it a
pleasure—which iy certainly is not—is irony.
Understatement is usually ironic, as this simultaneous
occurrence of devices suggests
Metonymy
• Metonymy is the use of an attribute of an object
or of something closely associated with it to
represent that object.
example: Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade
(James Shirley)
Here “sceptre and crown” stand for rulers, while
“scythe and spade” stand for commoners.