Figure of Speech part - 1

            Figure of Speech

An expression that uses words to mean something different from their ordinary meaning in order to produce a greater effect.

                       OR

A figure of speech is a deviation from the ordinary use of words in order to produce a greater effect.

Examples:

There are six pillars to the verandah of this house.

Here the world pillars is used in its ordinary are literal sense.

That man is a pillar of the state.

Here the word pillar is used in a figurative or non literal sense and signifies support.

Break a leg is a figure of speech meaning good luck. 

Kinds of figure of speech 

1.Alliteration -The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more words that are close together and the beginning consonant sounds must be stressed.

Examples:

--She sells sea shell by the seashore.

--Sing a song of sixpence.

--The beautiful bouquet blossomed in the bright sun.

     2. Consonance - It is the repetition of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel.

  - live long; pitter patter

  -‘Out of this house, ’said rider to reader. 

- Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.

- Few flocked to the flight.

- ‘Yours never will, ‘said fearer to farer.

3. Assonance – The effect created when two syllables in words that are close together have the same vowel sound but different consonants or the same consonants but different vowels.

                     OR

The similarity in sound between two syllables in words that are close together, created by the same vowels but different consonants or by the same consonants and different vowels.

Examples:

- Back and hat/ hit and hat

- Mellow wedding bells

- sonnet and porridge

- Rise high in the bright sky.

                          OR

Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowels especially  in stressed syllables in a sequence of nearby words.

Rules for identifying stressed syllables:

a) It is longer.   Comp-u-t-e-r

b) It is louder.  ComPUTer.

c) We also find a change in the pitch.

d) Stressed syllables are said more clearly.

e) It uses larger facial movement.          aMENded.  aHEAD 

f) Thou still unravished bride of quietness

    Thou faster child of silence and slow time.

4. Hyperbole -The figure of speech or trope called hyperbole is bold overstatement or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility. It may be used either for serious or ironic or comic effect.

                       OR

A way of speaking or writing that makes someone or something sound bigger, better, more,etc. than they are.

Hyperbole is the use of such language to express humour or great emotions.

i. Drink to me only with thine eyes.

ii. Vegetable love should grow vaster than empires.

iii. A hundred should go to praise thine eyes.

iv. Here’s the smell of blood; all the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.

v. Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with tears.

vi. Hamlet! Thou hast cleft my heart in  twain.

5. Simile - Comparison between two dissimilar things or persons on certain points is called simile. From this it shows that likeness between two different things is shown on a few points only. The words commonly used to introduce simile are like, as, just ---- in the same way, even at ---- so, as---- so.

                        OR 

The use of expression comparing one thing with another, always including the words like or as.

Examples:

i. The soul was like a star.

ii. My heart is like a singing bird.

iii. Your face is as a book where man

        May read many strange matters.

6. Metaphor – Comparison between two dissimilar things or persons on all points is called metaphor. The qualities of one object are thus completely transferred to another and there is cent percent correspondence between the two objects compared.

                       OR

Metaphor is a figure of a speech that describe a person or object as something else that has similar characteristics. A metaphor is used when a person or object is said to possess the qualities of someone or something else.

Metaphor means transferring.

From this it is clear that two things cease to be different and become one. For example:

i. He is the star of the family.

ii. The camel is the ship of the desert.

iii. This news is a dagger to my heart.

 An expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object.

7. Antithesis – It is a contrast or opposition in the meanings of contiguous phrases or clauses that manifest parallelism – that is, a similar word order and structure – in their syntax.

Examples:

i. Man proposes, God disposes.

ii. To err is human, to forgive divine.

iii. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy  has no pleasure.

iv. United we stand divide we fall.

In this figure of speech, one set of words or phrases in the first part of a sentence is set against another in the second part. There is some sort of contrast between two sets of words or phrases and they are balanced against each other.

8. Oxymoron – A phrase that combines two words that seem to be the opposite of each other such as:

i. A deafening silence 

ii. A noiseless noise among the leaves.

iii. And all its aching joy joys are no more.

9. Metonymy – (change of name) The literal term for one thing is applied to another with which it has become closely associated because of a recurrent relationship in common experience. 

The act of referring something by the name of something else that is closely connected with it. 

- The pen is mightier than the sword.

- Here the pen is used for the writer and            sword for soldier.

- He drank the cup = the contents of the                                                cup.

- I have never read Homer = the works of                                                            Homer.

10. Synecdoche –( taking together) A part of something is used to signify the whole, or the whole is used to signify a part.

 A word or phrase in which a part of something is used to refer to the whole of it, for example, a pair of hands for a worker, or the whole of something is used to refer to a part, for example the law for a police officer.

A) A part substituted for a whole

i. He managers to earn his bread.

ii. Five more hands are needed.

iii. All hands at work =men

iv. A fleet of fifty sails = fifty ships

B) A whole substituted for a part.

i. He is a poor creature = man 

ii. She sailed in her vessel = ship 

iii. The smiling year= the smiling     season                                              or spring.