figures of speech

Figures of speech

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things through some connective, usually "like," "as," "than," or a verb such as "resembles." A simile differs from a metaphor in that the latter compares two unlike things by saying that the one thing is the other thing.

Examples:

1. “For hope grew round me, like the twining vine,”

2. She walks as gracefully as a cat.

Sometimes similes are submerged, used without using comparative words ('Like' or 'As'). 

3. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:“ 

4. "I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park!“ 

5. "How this Herculean Roman does become / The carriage of his chafe.“ .  

metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. In simpler terms, a metaphor compares two objects or things without using the words "like" or "as".

Examples:

One of the most prominent examples of a metaphor in English literature is the All the world’s a stage monologue from As You Like It:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances; —

This quote is a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage. By figuratively asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses the points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the lives of the people within it.

Personification

Anthropomorphism, or personification, is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. 

Examples:

[1] The rock flew down the cliff like a maniac.

[2] The sun kissed the flowers.

[3] The breakers at the North Shore hissed evilly.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. In dramatic works and poetry written in or translated into English, such a figure of speech is often introduced by the exclamation "O".

Examples:

1. "To what green altar, O mysterious priest, / Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, / And all her silken flanks with garlands direst?" 

2. "Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this grief."

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see thee still." 

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is the use of exaggerations as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.

Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or effect. As a literary device , hyperbole is often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech.

Examples:

1. "The bag weighed a ton.“

 Hyperbole makes the point that the bag was very heavy, though it probably doesn't actually weigh a ton.

Euphemism

A euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant.

Examples:

Euphemisms are used for dissimulation, to refer to taboo topics (such as disability, death) in a polite way, and to mask profanity.  

Some euphemisms are so commonly used as to be standard usage:

1. "pass away" for "die".

Antithesis

Antithesis is used when two opposites are introduced in the same sentence, for contrasting effect.

Examples:

1. Many are called, but few are chosen.

2. Rude words bring about sadness, but kind words inspire joy.

3. Man proposes, God disposes.

4. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

Epigram

An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement.

Examples:

1. Some can gaze and not be sick

But I could never learn the trick.

There's this to say for blood and breath;

They give a man a taste for death.

— A.E. Housman 

2. Little strokes

Fell great oaks.

— Benjamin Franklin

Oxymoron

An oxymoron (plural oxymora or oxymorons) is a  figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.

Examples:

1. “And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.“

2. “The silence whistles”.

Irony

The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Examples:

1. THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink

 2. JULIUS CAESAR, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honorable man.

PunThe pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which

suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.

Examples:

Puns in Romeo and Juliet

1. “it is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.”

2. “winter of our discontent” was “made glorious summer by this Son [son] of York.” (Richard III)

Metonymy

Metonymy  is a  figure of speech  used in rhetorical in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept.

Examples:

1. “Hollywood" is used as a metonym (an instance of metonymy) for the U.S. film Industry, because of the fame and cultural identity of Hollywood, a district of the city of Los Angeles , California , as the historical center of film studios and film stars.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche  is a  figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole of something, or vice-versa. 

Examples:

1. By William Shakespeare

“Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears"

2. From "Ozymandias" by Shelley

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is word that phonetically  imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.

Examples:

1. water plops into pond

2. splish-splash downhill

3. warbling magpies in tree

4. trilling, melodic thrill

THE END

MADE BY :- RICHA AGRAWALCLASS       :- XII-BSUBJECT   :- ENGLISH PPT