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The Figurative and Rhetorical LanguageFigures of speech: are
broadly, any way of saying something other than the ordinary
way;more narrowly a way of saying one thing and mean another.
Tropes: figures which change or relate to the typical meaning of
word (s). It may presentstylistic effects.Imagery: is the
representation through language of sense experience that produces a
mental
picture.Metaphysical Conceit: a fanciful or unusual image in
which two apparently dissimilar thingsare shown to have a
relationship.Metaphor: is a comparison between two objects for the
purpose of describing one of them,and it states that the one is the
other. (There is no relationship between the two objects)Kenning, a
metaphorical compound word used as a poetic device.Archetype: an
image, story pattern, or character type that recurs frequently in
literary worksand evokes strong, often unconscious, association in
the reader.Simile: is a comparison between two objects in an
explicit way and it states that the one is like,similar, resembles,
seems, as the other.Analogy: a comparison made between two objects,
situation, or ideas that are somewhat alike
but unlike in most respect.Symbol: is a thing that stands for
something else, but it is not merely descriptive.Allegory: is a
narrative or description having a second meaning beneath the
surface one.Personification: is the act of representing objects or
qualities as human beings.Pathetic fallacy: is the effect produced
when animals and things are shown as having humanfeelings.Pun: is
the same word in two or more senses in order to make people
laugh.Onomatopoeia: is a word that echoes the sound which the word
describes.Paradox (overstatement) : is a statement that contains
two opposite ideas or seems to beimpossible but they are implicitly
related.Oxymoron: is a phrase that combines two words that seem to
be the opposite of each other.Hyperbole: exaggerated or extravagant
statement used to make a strong impression, but notintended to be
taken literally.Caricature: exaggeration of prominent features of
appearance or character.Metonymy: is the fact of referring to
something by the name of something else closelyconnected to it,
used especially as a form of shorthand for something familiar or
obvious. It is anoun is substituted for a noun in such a way that
we substitute the cause of the thing of whichwe are speaking for
the thing itself; this might be done in several ways: substituting
theinventor for his invention, the container for the thing
contained or vice versa, an author for hiswork, the cause for the
effect or vice versa.Irony: a situation, or a use of language,
involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy.The main three
kinds of Irony are:1. Verbal Irony: a figure of speech in which
what is said is the opposite of what is meant.2. Dramatic Irony: an
incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks
andwhat the reader knows to be true (or between what a character
perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive)3.
Irony of Situation: a situation in which there is an incongruity
between appearance andreality, or between expectation and
fulfilment or between the actual situation and what wouldseem
appropriate.
Metalepsis: a double metonymy in which an effect is represented
by a remote cause.Synecdoche: substitution of part for whole, genus
for species, or vice versa.
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Anthimeria: the substitution of one part of speech for another;
for instance, an adverb for anoun or a noun for an adverb.Litotes:
deliberate understatement or denial of the contrary.
Metaplasmic Figures: figures which move the letters or syllables
of a word from their typical places.Prosthesis: addition of letter
(s) to the beginning of a word.Aphaeresis: omission of letter (s)
from the beginning of a word.Epenthesis: addition of letter (s) to
the middle of a word.Syncope: omission of letter (s) from the
middle of a word.Paragoge: addition of letter (s) at the end of a
word.Apocope: omission of letter (s) at the end of a
word.Antisthecon: substitution of a letter or sound for another
within a word.Metathesis: transposition of a letter out of its
normal order in a word.
Figures of Omission:figures which omit something (word (s),
phrases (s), and clause (s))
from the sentence.Ellipsis: omission of word (s).Zeugma: an
ellipsis of a verb, in which one verb is used to govern several
clauses.Scesis/Onamaton: omission of the verb of a
sentence.Anapodoton: omission of a clause.Aposiopesis: stopping a
sentence in midcourse so that the statement is unfinished.
Figures of repetition (words, clauses and ideas) : figures which
repeat a word a phrase, a clause or an idea.Epizeuxis: emphatic
repetition of a word with no other words between.
Polyptoton: repetition of the same word or root in different
grammatical functions or forms.Antanaclasis: repetition of a word,
but in two different meanings.Anaphora: repetition of a word at the
beginning of a clause, line, or sentence.Epistrophe: repetition of
a word at the end of a clause, line, or sentence.Symploce:
repetition of a both beginnings and endings.Epanalepsis: repetition
of the beginning at the end.Anadiplosis: repetition of the end of a
line at the beginning of the next.Gradatio: repetition of
anadiplosis.Congeries: a heaping together and piling up of many
words that have a similar meaning.Antimetabole: repetition of
words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order;
aChiasmus (reversal of grammatical structures or ideas in
successive phrases or clauses, whichdo not necessarily involve a
repetition of a word) on the level of words.Pleonasm: the needless
repetition of words; a Tautology (needless repetition of the same
ideain different words) on the level of a phrase.Auxesis:
arrangement of clauses or sentences in ascending order of
importance.Isocolon: repetition of phrases or clauses of equal
length and corresponding grammaticalstructure.Antithesis: a figure
of speech in which one word or idea is set against another with the
objectheightening the effect of what is said by
contrast.Periphrasis: the replacement of a single word by several
which together have the samemeaning; a substitution of more words
for less.
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Figures of Unusual Word Order: figures which alter the ordinary
order of words or sentences.Anastrophe: arrangement by reversal of
ordinary order, usually confined to the transpositionof two words
only.Hyperbaton: departure from ordinary word
order.Hysteron/Proteron: reversal of temporal order.Hypallage: a
reversal of words which seems to change the sense.Parenthesis: a
word, a phrase, or sentence inserted as an aside in a sentence
complete by itself.
Figures of Thought: a miscellaneous group of figures which deal
with emotional appealsand techniques of argument.Adynaton: the
impossibility of expressing oneself adequately to the topic.Aporia:
true or feigned doubt or deliberation about an issue.Correctio: a
correction or revision of previous words.Prosopopoeia: representing
an imaginary or absent person as speaking or acting;
attributing
life, speech or inanimate qualities to dumb or inanimate
objects.Apostrophe: is a figure of speech in which someone absent
or dead or something nonhuman isaddressed as if it is alive and
present and could reply.Cacophony: a harsh, discordant,
unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.Euphony:
smooth, pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds.
Other Literary Concepts to Deliberate:Editorializing: writing
that departs from the narrative or dramatic mode and instructs
thereader how to think or feel about the events of a story or the
behaviour of a character.Proverb: a wise saying, usually quite old
and usually of folk origin.Aphorism: a brief saying embodying a
moral.Sermon: a written version of a speech on some aspect of
religion, morality, conduct and thelike.Condescending statement: is
a statement in which the speaker kindly, from a lower place,looks
at someone.Patronizing statement: is a statement in which the
speaker haughtily, from a higher place,looks at someone. Epithet: a
descriptive expression, usually mentioning a quality attribute of
the person or thing
being described.Sarcasm: bitter or cutting speech; speech
intended by its speaker to give pain to the
personaddressed.Suspense: a quality that makes the reader or the
audience anxious to know what is next.Sentimentality: unmerited or
contrived tender feeling; that quality in a story that elicit
tearsthrough an oversimplification.Metamorphosis: a change, mainly
of the shape or form.Allusion (Flash back): is a reference to
something happened in history or previous literature.Foreshadowing:
hinting for something that will happen in the future in a literary
work.Invocation: the call on deity or muse for help or
inspiration.Paraphrase: a summary or repetition of a literary
work.Parody: a humorous imitation of serious writing. It follows
the same form but often changesthe sense to ridicule the writers
style.Prologue: a section preceding the main body of a work and
serving as an introduction.
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