By figures of speech we refer here to those rhetorical devices termed tropes in classical rhetoric. Tropes have to do with the way words are made to mean other than what they would normally imply, and therefore involve deviation from the ordinary and literal meaning of words. They are ways of making our language figurative.
A knowledge of the figures, and of how they are best used will be of help to us not only in deepening our understanding of what we read, but also in appreciating more fully the finer points of a writer’s style. In the process, we might even learn to write better ourselves.
The number of figures ranged from 65 to 200 in classical times. We will only choose those that are of most universal appeal, and of the greatest practical value.
1. simile:
It is a comparison between two distinctively different things and the comparison is indicated by the word as, like, as if, than. A simile is made up of three parts, the tenor, the vehicle, and the indicator of resemblance or simile marker.
A simile is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic in common. The comparison is purely imaginative, that is, the resemblance between the two unlike things in that one particular aspect exists only in our minds, in our “inward eye” and not in the nature of the things themselves. To make the comparison, words like as, as … as, as … so, like, as if, as though, similar to, to bear a resemblance to, and comparative structure, prepositional phrases, and other collocations are used to transfer the quality we associate with one to the other. Sometimes the association is between unfamiliar and familiar things, or between abstract and concrete images. The stronger the association that is felt, the greater the force of the comparison, the stronger the power of suggestion and the sharper the image produced.
1) like
a. And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school … (Shakespeare)
b. He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen for him to crow.
c. Records fell like ripe apples on a windy day.
d. Mother was short and plump and pretty. Her eyes were blue, and her brown hair was like a bird’s smooth wings …
e. Habit may be likened to a cable; every day we weave a thread, and soon we cannot break it.
2) as
a. Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark: and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
b. As the lion is king of beasts, so is the eagle king of birds.
3) as if, as though
a. She spoke hurriedly, as if her heart had leaped into her throat at the boy’s words.
b. He was a beautiful horse that looked as though he had come out of a painting by Velasquez.
4) what
a. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
b. What salt is to food, that wit and humour are to conversation and literature.
5) than
a. He has no more idea of money than a cow.
b. A home without love is no more than a body without a soul.
6) and
a. A word and a stone let go cannot be recalled.
b. Love and cough cannot be hid.
7) with
a. With the quickness of a long cat, she climbed up into the nest of cool-bladed foliage.
2. metaphor:
It is the use of a word which originally denotes one thing to refer to another with a similar quality. It is also a comparison between two distinctively different things, but the comparison is implied, not expressed with the word as or like. Metaphor is also called Condensed Simile. Metaphors are used not only after verb to be, and not only nouns can be used metaphorically, adjectives, adverbs, verbs can also be used metaphorically.
1) n.
a. The parks are the lungs of our city.
b. Money is a lens in a camera.
2) v.
a. Applications for jobs flooded the Employment Agency.
3) adj.
a. The mountainous waves swallowed up the ship.
4) of phrase
the bridge of friendship, the valley of despair, a flower of a girl
1. analogy
It is also a form of comparison, but unlike simile or metaphor, which usually concentrates on one point of resemblance, analogy draws a parallel between two unlike things that have several common qualities or points of resemblance. Analogy is chiefly used for the purpose of persuasion or for the explanation or exposition of an idea. Analogy could be a simile or a metaphor, it is a combination of different figurative usages.
a. “The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. …”
b. It’s with our judgments as with our watches; none go just alike, yet each believes his own.
c. Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.
d. The inspiration for a story is like “a pull on the line… the outside signal that has startled or moved the creative mind to complicity and brought the story to active being…”
Analogy looks like simile in form, but the difference is: analogy provide the reason for the differences while simile and metaphor remain unexplained.
2. allegory:
It is a milder figurative use than metaphor, it applies concrete images to illustrate abstract notions, it leads the readers to get to the nature of things or profound concepts through concrete images and easy facts.
a. No rose without a thorn.
b. It’s time to turn swords into ploughs.
Names of books: Pilgrim’s Progress; Animal Farm
Many allegories come from classical myths, some English proverbs and idioms are good examples of allegory.
All that glisters is not gold. (from The Merchant of Venice)
3. metonymy:
It is substituting the name of one thing for that of another with which it is closely associated. There are four kinds:
1) the container for things contained (bottle for wine, kettle for water, pot for soup)
a. The kettle is boiling.
2) the instrument for the agent (pen—writing, gun/sword—fighting)
a. The pen is stronger than the sword.
3) the sign (cradle—childhood, crown—king, throne—king)
a. He must have been spoilt from the cradle.
b. The grey hair should be respected.
c. What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.
d. Having finished the law school, he was called to the Bar.
e. She has the eye for the fair and the beautiful.
4) others
Journalists often use metonymy to refer to all kinds of people or things. It is very brief and humorous.
a. Romeo: lover
b. Helen: beautiful woman
c. John Bull: England/ the English people
d. Downing Street: the British government/cabinet
e. The Pentagon: the U.S. military establishment
f. Big apple: New York
4. synecdoche:
When a part is substituted for the whole or the whole is substituted for a part, synecdoche is applied. (hand—man, bread—food, creature—woman)
a. More hands (working men) are needed at the moment.
b. We had dinner at ten dollars a head (each person).
c. All the plants in the cold country are turning green in this smiling year (the spring).
5. allusion:
It is a brief reference to a person, place, phrase, or event drawn from history or literature. Allusions are effective not because of the meaning of the words themselves but because of the associations or connotations that allusive words carry for the intelligent reader. The use of allusion allows poets to reinforce an argument by illustration, to compress complex ideas into brief phrases, and to suggest thoughts they may not wish to state directly. Names are the most common forms of allusion and the easiest to identity. There are different sources of allusions, like nursery rhymes, fairy tales, myths, legends, fables and literary works, etc.
a. Cinderella: pretty girl, mistreated by stepmother but helped by fairy godmother to win her Prince Charming: a rags-to-riches theme.
b. “Open Sesame”: code word to the treasure cave in story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; the key to hidden treasures, knowledge, etc.
c. Sour Grapes: a fox called the grapes it couldn’t reach sour. When we can’t get what we want, we often disparage it.
d. Noah and his Ark
e. Solomon: a wise man, who can judge between right and wrong, true and false.
f. Judas: the disciple who betrayed Christ to his enemies for 30 pieces of silver.
★Exercises: Identify the figures of speech in the following sentences:
a. In rivers the water that you touch is the last of that has passed and the first of that which comes: so with time present. (analogy)
b. Greece was the cradle of western culture. (metaphor)
c. Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone. (allegory)
d. The city has it philharmonic but also its poverty. (metonymy)
e. I took a last drowning look at the title as I gave the book into her hand. (metaphor)
f. He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. (simile—the suggestion of overwhelming conceit in the man)
g. Then he cut me open and took out the appendix and stitched me up again. (synecdoche—cut his abdomen open)
1. personification:
It is to treat a thing (including an animal) or an idea as if it were human or had human qualities. It is also a kind of figurative usage, esp. a metaphor.
a. The sun kissed the green fields.
b. The youth were singing, laughing and playing the music instruments. The trees and flowers around them danced heartily as if touch by merry mood.
c. The little goat was so fussy that he often cried for wolf.
d. Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair.
2. zoosemy:
It is to treat a person as a thing (including an animal, plant, lifeless thing, abstract notion, etc.).
a. His spoilt children are ill-gotten goods that’ll never prosper.
b. “A lucky dog you are!” exclaimed Jim.
c. Children are flowers of our country.
d. O, my love is like a red, red, red rose.
e. He slept like a log.
3. onomatopoeia:
The formation of words that are like natural sounds.
chortle, snigger, snore, mumble, cackle, baa, clink, clank, bump, boom, grumble, crack, splash, buzz, hum, tinkle, chatter, rumble, hiss, smack, etc.
V. Irony, paradox, oxymoron, innuendo, sarcasm
1. irony:
It is the use of words which are clearly opposite to what is meant, in order to achieve a special effect. Words expressing the real meaning don’t appear in the sentence.
a. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.
b. By midmorning a forty-one-year-old teacher had been shot dead, with his security card in hand, and another teacher struck by two nine-millimeter bullets, was extraordinarily lucky to be alive. Two others narrowly escaped Nicholas Elliot’s bullets.
c. They are almost as wise as the wise men of Gotham. (a village of fools)
2. oxymoron:
In oxymoron apparently contradictory terms are combined to produce a special effect. Words are contradictory, appearing in the sentence at the same time but they might not be the same part of speech.
a. living death
b. tearful joy
c. cold pleasant manner
d. poor rich guys
e. dully bright
f. falsely true
g. hasten slowly
h. groan loudly
i. love-hate relationship
j. the sound of silence
An ambiguous statement that is intended to be humorous is called a pun. Puns almost invariably attain their effect by using one of the thousands of word pairs in English (called homonyms) that are identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning.
a. You will go nuts for the nuts you get in Nux. (an ad.)
b. Try our sweet corn. You’ll smile from ear to ear.
c. Drunk drivers put the quart before the hearse.
d. Why is an empty purse always the same? Because there is never change in it.
e. We would like very much to have you for dinner.
Just as a pun is a form of ambiguity that plays on words, a paradox plays on ideas. In general, a paradox involves a contradiction between the physical or material meaning of words and their spiritual, emotional, or supernatural connotation.
a. More haste, less speed.
b. In fact, it appears that the teachers of English teach English so poorly largely because they teach grammar so well.
c. Paradoxically, the faster he tried to finish, the longer it seemed to take him.
4. innuendo:
It is a mild form of irony, hinting in a rather roundabout way at something disparaging or uncomplimentary to the person or subject mentioned.
a. “The weatherman said it would be warm. He must take his readings in a bathroom.” (The author is hinting at the inaccuracy of the weatherman’s weather report. The weather is cold, rather than warm.)
b. Have you finished my book yet? Sorry, I stopped at page 412, with 40 pages to go.
5. sarcasm:
It is just the opposite of innuendo. It attacks in a taunting and bitter manner, and its aim is to disparage, ridicule and wound the feelings of the subject attacked.
a. “In the evening the poor wounded boy was taken to that experienced doctor, who by applying some poisonous concoction of crushed leaves to his left eye, succeeded in blinding him!”
b. When children call a boy “Four Eyes” because he wears glasses, they are speaking in sarcasm.
1. euphemism:
It is the substitution of a mild or vague expression for a harsh or unpleasant one.
a. garbageman— G-man
b. butcher —meat technologist
c. lavatory—bathroom, restroom, washroom, ladies’/gentlemen’s room
d. fat— plump/overweight
e. third class—business class, economic class
f. die—pass away
g. old— to be elderly/senior
h. pregnant— to be expecting
i. mean—economic/thrifty
2. overstatement/hyperbole—understatement:
In overstatement the diction exaggerates the subject, and in understatement the words play down the magnitude or value of the subject.
a. For she was beautiful—her beauty made
The bright world dim, and everything beside
Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.
b. Only here can you have such jeans of the best quality and the lowest price at downtown.
a. Sorry, this is in fact more than I can promise.
b. The piece of work is nothing to be proud of.
c. If this regime is out of power, no tear in to be shed.
3. litotes:
A way of expressing a thought by its opposite, esp. with words like not or no.
a. From his mouth flowed speech sweeter than honey.
b. They almost died laughing.
c. That’s no laughing matter. (That’s a serious matter.)
d. She was not without ambition.
1. alliteration:
It refers to the appearance of the same initial consonant sound in two or more words.
promise, problem and provision; as proud as a peacock
2. assonance:
It is the repetition in two or more nearby words of similar vowel sounds (chalk wall fall).
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
3. consonance:
It is the repetition in two or two more nearby words of similar consonant sounds preceded by different accented vowels (chalk, pluck, knock).
rough and tough; a blessed ghost
1. contrast:
It is used to show clearly the differences. The elements in a contrast form contrast in meaning, but the structure remain different.
a. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of laboring those problems which divide us.
b. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
2. parallelism:
It is over-regularity in language use. The creative writer may restrict himself in language choice by using paralleled structures, which shows parallelism or repetition.
a. To err is human, to forgive divine.
b. In good weather, the passage from England to America could take twenty days; but in bad weather, it could take more than two months.
c. He had plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
d. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.
3. antithesis:
It is a combination of parallelism and contrast, that is to say, the elements in the sentence should be paralleled in structure and contrastive in meaning.
a. “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” ---Abraham Lincoln
b. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. ----John. F. Kennedy
c. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
1. transferred epithet:
An epithet is an adjective or descriptive phrase that serves to characterize somebody or something. A transferred epithet is one that is shifted from the noun (or pronoun) it logically modifies to a word associated with that noun.
a. a dizzy height: a height that causes people to feel dizzy
b. a sweet voice: (taste to hearing)
c. a sleepless night
d. a happy childhood
e. There was an amazed silence. Slowly Alexander turned away.
f. The big man crashed down on a protesting chair.
2. syllepsis:
It has two connotations. In the first case, it is a figure by which a word, or a particular form or inflection of a word, refers to two or more words in the same sentence, while properly applying to or agreeing with only one of them in grammar or syntax.
Either the children or I are going. (are is relation to children, not I)
In the second case, syllepsis is a figure by which a word may refer to two or more words in the same sentence, applying to one literally and to the others figuratively. This aspect of the figure, plays more on the sense or idiom of words, than on grammar.
a. I got up early yesterday and managed to catch a bus and a cold.
b. She had to swallow bread and butter and a spasm of emotion.
3. zeugma (syllepsis):
It is a figure of speech by which a single word is made to modify or to govern two or more words in the same sentence, either properly applying in sense to only one of them, or applying to them in different senses.
The sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night.
X. Rhetorical question
It is one question asked for effect, no answer being needed. It is not asked to seek an answer, or the answer is self-evident.
a. To acquire wealth is difficult, to preserve it more difficult, but to spend it wisely most difficult.
b. I came, I saw, I conquered. ---Julius Cacesar
c. It was the ruin of the family, the uprooting of moral, the destruction of Germany.
a. The explosion completely destroyed a church, two houses, and a flowerpot.
b. The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is doubtless a separation.
There are three things which the public will always clamour for sooner or later, namely, novelty, novelty, novelty.
XIV. Antonomasia
A substitution of a title
Beverly Hills/Manhattan’s upper west side—residential areas for the rich （Lesson Three, Page 41, Para 14，Line 8）
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