Using Figurative Language

Writing Center Workshop

Figures of speech can add excitement and variety to writing. When these expressions are understood, they can give a work a depth and richness not present otherwise; when not understood, they can confuse the reader.

Alliteration

• Definition: The repetitious use of the same beginning consonant sound in two or more nearby words.

• Example: “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Allusion

• Definition: A reference, usually brief, to a person, place, thing, or event with which the reader is presumably familiar. The allusion lets the reader condense great meaning into only a few words. Allusions often refer to mythology, history, religious and literary texts, etc.

• Example: “He has the patience of Job.”

Apostrophe

• Definition: A figure of speech addressing an absent person as if he or she were present or an abstract concept or inanimate object as if it were capable of understanding.

• Example: The poet’s addressing the urn in “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is an example of an apostrophe.

Epithet

• Definition: An adjective used to limit a noun which it cannot logically modify.

• Examples: dusty deathrosy-fingered dawnwine-dark sea

Hyperbole

• Definition: An exaggeration to make emphasis and heighten the overall effect (comic or serious) of a work.

• Example: “This backpack weighs a ton!”

Irony

• Definition: A contrast between appearance and reality.

• Types of Irony:• Verbal• Dramatic• Situational

Verbal Irony

• Definition: A difference between what is literally said and what is actually meant.

• Example: “Well, thanks a lot!” (spoken when someone has not been at all helpful)

Dramatic Irony

• Definition: When the reader or audience knows that the situation is exactly the opposite of what the participants think it is.

• Example: In William Shakespeare’s Othello, the audience knows Iago is the villain, but Othello believes Iago is his most trusted friend.

Situational Irony

• Definition: When the outcome of circumstances is the opposite of what is expected or appropriate.

• Example: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is found to be a liar and an adulterer, but he is also a clergyman.

Metaphor

• Definition: A comparison of two unlike objects without the use of the word like or as.

• Example: “The cat's eyes were jewels, gleaming out of the darkness.”

Metonymy

• Definition: Substituting a word with a term meaning an object closely associated with the original word.

• Example: Using “The White House” when referring to the President is an example of metonymy.

Onomatopoeia

• Definition: Using a word (or a group of words) whose sound reinforces its meaning.

• Examples: buzzpopfizz

Oxymoron

• Definition: A figure of speech which brings together contradictory terms for rhetorical effect.

• Examples: living deathsweet sorrowcheerful pessimist

Paradox

• Definition: An apparently self-contradictory statement which seems absurd at first but turns out to have a valid meaning.

• Examples: “The child is father to the man.”

– William Wordsworth

Personification

• Definition: Giving human attributes and/or feelings to an idea or thing as if it were human.

• Examples: a wicked tonguea lonely roada lazy day

Pun

• Definition: A play on words which uses words that sound alike but have different meanings.

• Example: “The dentist joined the infantry because he liked to drill.”

Simile

• Definition: A comparison of two unlike objects using the word like or as.

• Example: “My love is like a red, red rose.”

– Robert Burns

Symbol

• Definition: Any word, object, character, or action used to stand for something else, embodying and evoking a range of additional significance and meaning.

• Example: In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses a journey up the Congo River to symbolize an exploration of the dark side of the human heart and human civilization.

Synecdoche

• Definition: Use of a part to signify the whole or, more rarely, the whole to signify a part.

• Examples: wheels = automobilesteel = swordthe law = police officer

References

• Definitions and examples taken from Pickering and Hoeper’s Literature, 1990.

• Other examples taken from:• http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LTEpithet.html• http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/S/synecdoche.htm• http://www.bartleby.com/61/70/S0967000.html• http://www.geocities.com/sir_john_eh/scarletletter.html • http://www.spellingpolice.com/higher/metaphor.html• http://www.spellingpolice.com/higher/pun.html