Figurative language with an unexpected twist in meaning

• Mixing one type of sensory image with another in an impossible way , such as “a bright sound” or “a quiet color.”
-“I catch the sound and it takes me into the cold.” (Emily
Raboteau, The Professor’s Daughter. Henry Holt, 2005)
– The scent of the rose rang like a bell in the garden.
– What is the flavor of guilt?
– I caressed the darkness with lonely fingers.

• Using a different part of speech to act as another, such as a verb for a noun, a noun for a verb, etc.
– Gift him with a magazine subscription.
– He sang his didn’t; he danced his did.
– With that prank, you totally Scooby-doo’d me.

Euphemism :Trope
• Substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered explicit.
Dr. House: “Who were you going to kill in Bolivia?”
CIA Doctor: “We don’t kill people.”
Dr. House: “I’m sorry, who were you going to
‘marginalize’?”

• The rhetorical device that occurs when a harsh word is replaced by a softer, more acceptable word.
– Passed instead of died
– Overweight instead of fat
– Slow instead of stupid

An extreme exaggeration; an exaggeration used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement.
-I had a ton of homework.
-I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
-Eddie’s brain is the size of a pea.
Trope

●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
An understatement, especially by using terms that make something seem less significant than it really is or ought to be.
Examples:
“grease monkey” for mechanic
”shrink” for psychiatrist
”tree-hugger” for environmentalist
Litote: an understatement negating its opposites.
Examples
-He's not the most handsome fellow!
-They aren't the happiest couple around.

• A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
• Ex.: Let’s just say that Ms. Hilton is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
• This is a trope.

Ex.) Sure, I’d love to go crawl inside that rotting goat carcass and find your missing wallet.

• Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.
• A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant
• Irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.

A self-contradictory statement that at first seems true.
-you can save money by spending it.
-the beginning of the end
-Computers are meant to save people time but they’re always in need of maintenance.

A combination of contradictory or incongruous words
-cruel kindness
-accidentally on purpose
-a little big
-bittersweet
-Iiving dead

Pun
A play on words; also known as paronomasia
-Dental care in Panama is called a route canal.
-Where do polar bears vote?
The North Poll
-What do you call a sleeping bull? A Bulldozer

A set expression of two or more words that means something other than its literal meaning in a set of words; an expression that is not predictable from the usual meanings
If we play our cards right, we might pass this test.
Last night, my hamster kicked the bucket.

The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences; the exact opposite
-Love is an ideal thing; marriage a real thing.
-You’re easy on the eyes, hard on the heart.
-Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.

Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which an idea or part of the idea takes the place of it.
- “plastic” for credit cards
--”pigskin” for football
A part to the whole
-”white hair” for an elderly person
-”wheels” referring to a car
In other words, whenever you speak of something but mean the whole thing, that's synecdoche

Synecdoche
All hands on deck!

• Metonymy is similar to synecdoche, but it uses something more generally or loosely associated with a concept to stand for it.
• The difference between synecdoche and metonymy is in metonymy the word you employ is linked to the concept you are talking about, but it isn’t actually a part of it.
"The pen is mightier than the sword,"
• The "pen" stands in for "the written word“
• The "sword" stands in for "military aggression and force"

Metonymy
The White House asked the television networks for airtime.

●
A figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.
●
Examples:
-"Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own."
●
-"O western wind, when wilt thou blow
That the small rain down can rain?"

Type of euphemistic understatement:

The Big Bang Theory

• Reverse parallelism
• Parallelism:
– Learned unwillingly and forgotten gladly.
– He labors without complaining and rests without bragging.
• Chiasmus
– Learned unwillingly and gladly forgotten.
– He labors without complaining and without bragging rests.

• On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then it had a flat on the way home.
• On the way to school, my car ran out of gas; then on the way home, it had a flat.
• Sitting together at lunch, the kids talked incessantly; but they said nothing at all sitting in the dentist’s office.
• Sitting together at lunch, the kids talked incessantly; but sitting in the dentist’s office, they said nothing at all.
• The computer mainframe is now on sale; available also at a discount is the peripheral equipment.
• The computer mainframe is now on sale; the peripheral equipment is also available at a discount.

• The repetition of a word or phrase broken up by one or more intervening words
• Figure of repetition in the same word or phrase occurs on either side of an intervening word or phrase
• Example
– This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!
-"The people everywhere, not just here in Britain,
everywhere -- they kept faith with Princess Diana."
-- Tony Blair
-"And we read, incredible as it seems, we read of survivors struggling in the water...." --
Peter Marshall (on the Titanic tragedy
(scheme)

Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next.
( Scheme )

Anadiplosis : Scheme
• The repetition of the last word of one line to begin the next
• Ex. “ Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense fear in you”
• Ex: "When I give I give myself.“
• "My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things -- trout as well as eternal salvation --come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy." - Norman
McLean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

• Repetition of a word or phrase
This PowerPoint is awesome. This PowerPoint is amazing. This PowerPoint is legit.
This PowerPoint is ours.
(Trope)

• A rhetorical term for a repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses
• i.e. I’m a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper, we’re a pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too? (Dr.
Pepper theme song)
( scheme
)

Ex.
The writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses
"He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.“
"It is a northern country; they have cold weather, they have cold hearts.”
"In some ways, he was this town at its best--strong, harddriving, working feverishly, pushing, building, driven by ambitions so big they seemed Texas-boastful."
(Mike Royko, "A Tribute")

• A repetition of independent clauses without a conjunction.
The difference between asyndeton and parataxis is that the latter must always be an independent clause— not a single word. This term is a specialized form of asyndeton.
• Example
– I came, I saw, I conquered (Julius
Caesar )
– I eat, I dance, I read.
(scheme )

•
• The repetition of
dependent clauses without a conjunction
Contrast of parataxis
"When I was around nine or ten I wrote a play which was directed by a young, white schoolteacher, a woman, who then took an interest in me, and gave me books to read, and, in order to corroborate my theatrical bent, decided to take me to see what she somewhat tactlessly referred to as 'real' plays."
(James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son," 1955)
• Examples
• "Let the reader be introduced to Joan Didion, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing table in her own room in her own house on Welbeck Street."
(Joan Didion, Democracy,
1984)
(scheme)

A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at regular intervals: a refrain.
"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."
(The Bible, Phil. 4.4)
"Next time there won't be a next time."
(Phil Leotardo in The Sopranos)
“Nothing can be created out of nothing” (Lucretius).
“Men of few words are the best men” (Henry IV 3.2)."