Figures of Speech presentation

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Title: Figures of Speech

1
Unit 3

Figures of Speech

Contents
1. Function of figures of speech
2. Some common English rhetorical devices

Objectives
Make Ss have a rough understanding about English
figures of speech so that they can appreciate the
novel better.

3
Classroom Activities

News reporting
Check ss understanding about figures of speech
and get them list some common figures of speech
with examples
introduction about some common figures of
speech
Exercises about rhetorical devices.

4
Introduction

Figures of speech are ways of making our language
figurative. When we use words in other than their
ordinary or literal senses to lend force to an
idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive
imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing
figuratively.
For example, it is more vivid and colorful to say
that stars twinkle like diamonds in the sky
than to say that they shine brightly in the
sky.
Except simile, there are also metaphor, personific
ation, metonymy and so on.
At one time, figures of speech were mainly associa
ted with poetry and poetic writingprose, drama,
and even scientific writing and advertisements.
In fact, effective writing of any kind is seldom
without a figure or two, and most writers have
their own way of weaving figures of speech so as
to form their characteristic style.

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Simile (??)

It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison
between two unlike elements having at least one
quality or characteristic in common. To make the
comparison, words like as, as...as, as if, as
though, than and like are used to transfer the
quality we associate with one to the other.
E.g.
1) As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good
news from a far country.
2) He and his brother are as like as two peas.
3) She is happy as a rose tree in sunshine.
4) My heart is like a singing bird.
cf.
1) He looks like his brother.
2) He is as tall as his father.

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Metaphor (??)

It is like a simile, also makes a comparison
between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile,
this comparison is implied rather than stated.
E.g.
1) The world is a stage.
2) He is a fox.
3) The thought was fire in him.
4) a golden opportunity
5) a stony heart
6) a stormy discussion

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Metonymy (??)

It is a figure of speech that has to do with the
substitution of the name of one thing for that of
another because they have close relationship.
E.g.
1) The hall applauded. (audience)
2) The kettle boils. (water in the kettle)
3) Grey hair should be respected. (old people)
4) He has fallen in a possession of a complete
Shakespeare.
(
books written by Shakespeare )
5) England won. (England team)
6) The pen is mightier than the sword.
(words) (forces)

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Personification (??)

It gives human form of feelings to animals, or
life and personal attributes to inanimate
objects, or to ideas and abstractions. Simply
speaking, a human character is given to a
non-human thing.
E.g.
1) Everything smiled at him.
2) Father time waits for no man.
3) The tree signed in the tree tops.
4) Life has cheated her.
5) the childhood of the earth
6) the thirsty ground
7) The wind whistled through the trees.

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Hyperbole / Exaggeration / Overstatement (??)

It is the deliberate use of overstatement or
exaggeration to achieve emphasis. In
exaggeration, big words are used to describe
things.
E.g.
1) She almost died laughing.
2) She shed a flood of tears.
3) a sea of flowers (faces, troubles)

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Understatement/Litotes (????)

It is the opposite of hyperbole. It achieves its
effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately
understating it, impressing the listener or the
reader more by what is merely implied or left
unsaid than by bare statement. Its a restrained
statement in ironic contrast to what might be
said. The purpose is for emphasis.
E.g.
1) He has no small chance of success. (a great)
2) The problem is not above us. (We can solve
this problem)
3) The place is some distance off. (It is far
from here)
4) He did not go to Oxford for nothing. (He is
an excellent man)
5) It is no laughing matter.

11
Irony (??)

It is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis
by saying the opposite of what is meant, the
intended meaning of the words being the opposite
of their usual sense. It means a humor or light
sarcasm that adopts a mode of speech which is the
opposite of the literal sense of the words.
E.g.
1) You are a fine goalkeeper, allowing the other
side to score six goals.
2) This hard-working boy seldom reads more than
an hour per week.

12
Pun (???)

Pun is a figure of speech in which you can find
two meanings or double meaning. It is a play on
words, or rather a play on the form and meaning
of words.
E.g.
1)???? (??)
2) Ask More.
(the advertisement for a cigarette with the name
of More)
3) The Unique Spirit of Canada.
(the advertisement of the wine Spirit)
4) A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid
down his arms.
(Here "arms" has two meanings a person's body
weapons carried by a soldier.)

13
Oxymoron (????)

In oxymoron, apparently contradictory terms are
combined to produce a good language effect. It is
a compressed paradox, formed by the conjoining of
two contrasting, contradictory or incongruous
terms.
E.g
1) a living death
2) a victorious defeat
3) cruel kindness
4) tearful joy
5) shine darkly
6) speaking silence
7) bitter-sweet memories
8) orderly chaos
9) proud humility

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Euphemism (??)

It is the substitution of an agreeable or
inoffensive expression for one that may offend or
suggest something unpleasant, to take the sting
out of an unpleasant reality.
E.g.
1) Die pass away
2) Kill eliminate
3) A prisoner guest of the law
4) To be a loose woman/prostitute to go on the
streets
5) Old of a certain age
6) Blind eye trouble

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More Forms of Figures of Speech

Climax (??) It is derived from the Greek word
for "ladder" and implies the progression of
thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of
significance or intensity, like the steps of a
ladder ascending evenly. For example, I came, I
saw, I conquered.
Anti-climax or bathos (??) It is the opposite of
Climax. It involves stating one's thoughts in a
descending order of significance or intensity,
from strong to weak, from weighty to light or
frivolous. For instance, But thousands die,
without or this or that, die, and endow a
college, or a cat.
Transferred Epithet (?????) It is a figure of
speech where an epithet (an adjective or
descriptive phrase) is transferred from the noun
it should rightly modify to another to which it
does not really apply or belong. For instance, I
spent sleepless nights on my project.
Alliteration (??) It has to do with the sound
rather than the sense of words for effect. It is
a device that repeats the same sound at frequent
intervals and since the sound repeated is usually
the initial consonant sound, it is also called
"front rhyme". For instance, the fair breeze
blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed
free.
Antithesis (??) It is the deliberate arrangement
of contrasting words or ideas in balanced
structural forms to achieve emphasis. For
example, speech is silver silence is golden.

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Exercises---Simile Directions Read each
unfinished sentence. Write in the blank space the
letter of the part that best completes each
simile.

A field of hay
Shoe leather
Tiny parachutes
Crawling bugs
A withered apple
A broom
Tap dancers
A wary cat
A great waterfall
diamonds

Leaves drifted down from the maple tree like__.
Yesterdays quiet brook now roars like __.
The kings men cut down the enemy like __.
He approached silently, picking his way like __.
From the plane the cars on the road looked like
__.
Raindrops on the grass sparkled like __.
The steak was as tough as __.
Steady rain beating on the roof sounded like __.
The March wind swept the street as briskly as __.
The old mans face had as many wrinkles as __.

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Simile and MetaphorDirections Read each
statement. If the sentence contains a simile,
write S, if it contains a metaphor, write M.

The soldiers crawled like snakes through the
enemy lines.
For secrets are edged tools, and must be kept
from children and from fools.
No man is an island, entire of itself.
If poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a
tree, it had better not come at all.
His friend has become a thorn in his side.
Mr. Gladstone speaks to me as if I was a public
meeting.
A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a
measured speech.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested.
Their learning is like bread in a besieged gown,
every man gets a little, but no man gets a full
meal.
The fog comes in on little cat feet.

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PersonificationDirections Read each of the
following statements. If it contains a
personification, write Y if it does not contain
one, write N.

Little ghosts of wind whispered secrets in the
tree tops.
A large bottle of wine had been dropped and
broken.
The racing car strained impatiently at the
starting line.
The company is worried about the drop in
business.
Philosophy is the lumber of the schools.
Nature, with equal mind, sees all her sons at
play.
I am, out of the ladies company, like a fish out
of water.
Spring is coming home with her world-wandering
feet.
A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil
can throw at a man.
The river looked at him with a thousand eyes.

19
Hyperbole Direction Some of the following
sentences are examples of hyperbole, but others
could be literally true. Write Y for hyperbole
and N for non-hyperbole.

I have had millions of interruptions this
morning.
There are millions of stars in the Milky Way.
It has taken ages for the river to carve out this
canyon.
It took me ages to finish this book.
A runaway lorry has crashed into a pillar and
brought down the roof.
His amusing performance brought the house down.
Ive been beating my brains out all day over that
report, and I still cant find a way to make my
suggestions politely.
The climber fell from the cliff and dashed his
brains out on the rocks below.
Several people were burnt to death in the fire.
I m sick to death of your everlasting chatter.
Do be quiet.

20
UnderstatementDirections The following
statements and quotations are either hyperbole or
understatement. Write H for hyperbole or U for
understatement.

The elephant is a fairly sizable animal.
The mountains touch the sky.
It is not very courteous to poison a guest.
Men have been known to lie.
My sore throats are always worse than anyones.
London is a village of some size.
There is food enough for an army on his table.
He found it inconvenient to be poor.
A thousand apologies for the interruption.
The whale that wanders round pole is not a table
fish.

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