FIGURES OF SPEECH

and other
LITERARY TECHNIQUES

Lesson Objectives:
o Distinguish the literary uses of language from the non- literary and understand their use
as well as the formal features and conventions of literature
o Identify the figures of speech and other literary techniques and devices in the text

LITERAL or FIGURATIVE?
He was late for dinner. Literal
Time is money. Figurative
The field is calm and quiet. Literal
She is as fast as a cheetah! Figurative
The darkness surrounded them with a cold embrace. Figurative

LITERAL or FIGURATIVE?
Literal language means exactly what it says
Figurative language uses similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification to describe
something often through comparison with something different.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
What is a figure of speech?
o A figure of speech is a creative use of language to generate an effect.
o Language that uses figures of speech is known collectively as figurative language.
o You will find examples of figurative language in novels, poems, essays, and plays.
o Some figures of speech, like metaphor, simile, and metonymy, are found in everyday
language.
o Others, like antithesis, circumlocution, and puns take more practice to implement in
writing.

1. Simile
A simile compares two dissimilar things using “like” or “as.” The goal of simile is to give the
reader a more vivid understanding of something.

Example: It was the first real day of summer, and by the time she came back indoors, she was as
red as a tomato.

"Your teeth are like stars;

They come out at night.
They come back at dawn
When they're ready to bite."

2. Metaphor
A metaphor is the direct comparison of dissimilar things to create more vivid imagery or
understanding. It helps the reader understand what the author is trying to say about an abstract
concept.
Example:
 He was an onion; to understand him, she had to peel back the layers.
 Her grief was a wall she couldn’t cross.
 Your bedroom is a dump.
 “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”----- (As You Like It
by Shakespeare)

3. Personification
Personification is assigning human attributes to nonhuman things.

Example:
 The floorboards groaned under the weight of each step.
 The wind wrapped itself around my face.
 Death had come for her.
 The alarm clock screamed at me this morning.

4. Metonymy
Metonymy is a literary device in which a word or object stands in for a closely related word or
object. Metonymy gives a writer more variability with descriptions.

Example:
 Elon Musk
“I’m a Silicon Valley guy. I just think people from Silicon Valley can do anything.”
 Marlon Brando
“Most of the successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings. ”

Some common examples of metonymy that you’ll hear in everyday speech are:
 Dish as a substitute for a whole plate of food.
 Hand as a substitute for assistance.
 Tongue as a substitute for language.
 Metonymy also occurs frequently when places become closely associated with an
industry or activity.
 For example, “Wall Street” is often a stand-in for the financial industry,
 “Silicon Valley” is a substitute for the tech industry, and
 “Washington” pertains to anything having to do with the American government.

5. Synecdoche
Synecdoche is when a smaller unit is used to signify a larger unit or vice versa.

Example:
 New England won the game by a touchdown. (Here, New England means New England’s
football team.)
 We live under the same roof. (which means we live it the same house)
 “All hands on deck!” — uses “hands” to signify the whole sailors.
 “I need a headcount by morning,” — uses “head” to represent a whole person.
 “Nice wheels!” — uses “wheels” to designate a whole car.
Synecdoche vs Metonymy
Synecdoche is a form of metonymy where you take part of an object and use it to refer to the
whole.
So synecdoche is referring to your car as your “wheels” since they are a single part of your car,
while “ride” is metonymy because it’s a related word that replaces the term car.

6. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration that adds emphasis, urgency, or excitement to a
statement.

Example:
 If I don’t eat soon, I’m going to die of hunger.
 My feet are killing me.
 That plane ride took forever.
 I love you to the moon and back.

A hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast;
(To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell)

7. Apostrophe
Apostrophe is when a character addresses someone or something that isn’t present or cannot
respond.
The character might speak to someone deceased, an inanimate object, or a concept.

Example:
 Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are!
 Welcome, O Life!
 Alarm clock, please don’t fail.
 Seven, you are my lucky number.
 “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”--- William Shakespeare, ROmeo and
Juliet.

8. Euphemism
Euphemism is the usage of mild word in substitution of something that is more explicit or
harsh— like money, death, or sex.

Example:
 Death- “kicked bucket”, “passed away”, or “no longer with us”
 He passed away in his sleep.
 This mall has good facilities for differently- abled people.

9. Irony
Irony is a situation that subverts a reader’s expectations. Sarcasm in which the usage of words
conveys the opposite of their literal meaning often used in humorous manner
Example:
  Coming home to a big mess and saying, “it’s great to be back”
 Telling the rude customer to “have a nice day”.

One of the characters in the story is hypochondriac, always convinced that they have an exotic
and incurable disease. An ironic ending for that character would be if they died of a common
cold.

IRONIC by Alanis Morissette

An old man turned 98
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn't it ironic, don't you think?
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
And who would've thought, it figures

10. Understatement
Understatement is the intentional downplaying of a situation. This can create a humorous or
deadpan effect in writing. It usually has an ironic effect an opposite of hyperbole (over
statement)

Example:
 “I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the
brain.” —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
 Swimming with those starving sharks might be a bit unpleasant.
 She gave birth to me, raised me from an infant, always provided for me … Maybe I owe
her one.
 Walking across the entire continental United States might take you a minute.

11. Paradox
Paradox is a statement that appears to contradict itself but contains some truth, theme, or
humor.

Example:
 “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”---- George
Orwell, Animal Farm
 “War is good. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is power”.--- George Orwell, 1984
 “Some of my biggest triumphs have also been failures”.--- Pearl Bailey
 Save money by spending it.
 If I know one thing, it’s that I know nothing.

The Paradox of our Time

The paradox of our time in history is that We spend more, but have less;
we have taller buildings but shorter we buy more but enjoy less
tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We have bigger houses and smaller
families, more knowledge, but less judgement;
more conveniences, but less time; more experts, yet more problems,
we have more degrees, but less sense; more medicine, but less wellness.

12. Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a phrase that uses two contradictory words to create a new meaning and should
not be confused with ironies and paradoxes

Example:
That strawberry cake was awfully good. melancholy merriment (Byron 1819)
absent presence (Sidney 1591) beggarly riches (Donne 1624)
brisk vacancy (Ashbery 1975) comfortable misery (Koontz 2001)
darkness visible (Milton 1667) falsely true (Tennyson 1862)
lascivious grace (Shakespeare 1609) "sweet sorrow" (Shakespeare 1595)
liquid marble (Jonson 1601)

13. Antithesis
Antithesis is a literary technique that places opposite things or ideas next to one another i n
order to draw out their contrast.

Example:
 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”---Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two
Cities.
 Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.
 Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open.
 Life begins, where fear ends.
 “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” – ...

14. Litotes
Litotes is a literary technique that uses a double negative to create a positive impact.

Examples:
 You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
 Meaning you did, in fact, warn them.
 That wasn’t half bad.
 Meaning it was actually quite good.
 You’re not wrong.
 They’re right (though maybe you don’t want to admit it).

Litotes is an ironic understatement.

How to identify:
 Litotes is always a form of understatement
Ex. She wasn’t unconvinced.
 Litotes always involve negation- if the phrase is an understatement but does not
contain negative, it isnot litotes.
Ex. It’s not inedible.
 Litotes describes things by invoking what they Aren’t
 Ex. He’s no Prince Charming— Beauty and the Beast
I am no prophet— T.S. Eliot

15. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the action or object
referred to.

Example:
 The buzzing bee flew over my head.
 The stone hit the water with a splash.
 The boulder hit the ground with a flump.
 Leaves rustle in the wind and are whipped into the air.

16. Alliteration
Alliteration is a sentence that consists of a series of words that have the same consonant sound
at the beginning.
Examples:
 She sells seashells on the seashore.
 A good cook could cook as many cookies as good cook who could cook cookies.
 Barry bought a book to to bring to the backyard barbecue.
 “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
 Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before– The Raven by Edgar
Allan Poe

17. Assonance
Assonance is the repetition of the same vowel sound at the beginning or inside successive
words.

Example:
 Eager beaver
 Chips and dips (Repetition of the /i/ vowel sound)
 Surf and turf (Repetition of the /u/ vowel sound)
 Go slow over the road (Repetition of the short /o/ vowel sound)
 Do good have good (Repetition of the /oo/ vowel sound)
 No pain, no gain (Repetition of the /ai/ vowel sound)

18. Consonance
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in the middle or end of a line or
stanza.

Example:
 And all the air a solemn stillness holds.
 Mike likes his new bike.

“He gives his harness bells a shake.

To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.” (‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost)
19. Anaphora
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the start of several sentences or clauses.

Example:
 “Go big or go home.”
 “Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.”
 “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
 “Give me liberty or give me death.”
 “You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.”
 “Stay safe. Stay well. Stay happy.”

20. PUN
Pun a figure of speech that includes a play of words that have more than one meaning or those
that sound alike. Pun equals fun. All that one requires is a creative intellect and some wit to
create humorous puns.

Examples:
Leopards cannot hide in the jungle as they are always spotted.
That was an emotional wedding, even the cake was in tiers.
The opinion of elephants is important, why? Because his opinions are heavyweight.
A bicycle can never run because it is two tired.
Never write with a broken pencil because it is pointless.

Forming puns can be an easy job if you know how to use words skillfully to create a humorous
effect.

 Using homonyms can be the best and most effective way to form puns. Homonyms
include:
 Homophones (words that have the same sound but different meanings and/or different
spellings) and
 Homographs (words that have the same spelling but different meanings and/or different
pronunciation).

Other Figures of Speech:

 CONCEIT  CIRCUMLOCUTION
 PLEONASM  ALLUSION
 ANASTROPHE  ELLIPSIS
 ENTHYMEME  IDIOMS
 TAUTOLOGY  CLIMAX
 LOGOSGLYPH  MERISM
 EPITHET  ANTICLIMAX
 TRANSFERRED EPITHET  PLEONASM
 CATAPHORA  METAPLESIS
 PROLEPSIS  EPIPHORA
 EPIGRAM  CHIASMUS
 PARENTHESES  DYSPHEMISM