Examining Figurative Language

EQ: How does the author's use of figurative language affect the meaning of the text?

Standard: ELACC6L5: Demonstrate the understanding of figurative language.

Types of figurative language:

- metaphor - idioms

- simile - alliteration

- personification -assonance

- hyperbole - consonance

Metaphor: comparing two things without using like or as.

Ex: Jake's mind is a computer. Bob is a snake in the grass. That baby is an angel.

Simile: Comparing two things using like or as.

Ex: Marty's feet smell like rotten fish. She is moving as slowly as Christmas!

Personification: giving an object human characteristics.

Ex: The sun smiled down on us. She did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door. The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. The flowers danced in the wind.

Hyperbole: using great exaggeration.

Ex: I have a million things to do. I have a ton of homework. I am so hungry; I could eat a horse.

Idioms: words, phrases, or expressions that are not interpreted logically or literally. In other words, they don't make logical sense.

Ex: It's raining cats and dogs outside! Shake a leg! We have to get going. Hold your horses; I'm coming. Man, Tom sure has a chip on his shoulder.

Onomatopoeia: words that are spelled the way they sound.

Ex: tick tock Ring! Boom!

Alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sound in two or more neighboring words or syllables.

Ex: the wild winds of winter Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Alliteration Poem Example:

WEATHER Whether the weather be fine

Or whether the weather be not,Whether the weather be cold

Or whether the weather be hot,We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather,Whether we like it or not.

            -- Anonymous

Alliteration is NOT just repeating consonant sounds at the beginning of words, it could be in the middle of a word. This is also known as “consonance.”

Consonance is a lot like alliteration, except the letters being repeated can appear at the beginning or at the end of the word.

Examples of Consonance:1. More men came home that day than we ever expected.2. She gave the big dog a hug.

When vowels alliterate with other vowels it is called “assonance.”

Example:fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks.