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Stilistica Test

This document defines and provides examples of several literary devices: - Antithesis is the juxtaposition of opposing ideas through contrasting words within parallel structures. Examples given contrast concepts like proposing and disposing, and love and marriage. - Oxymoron combines incongruous terms, like dark light or deafening silence. It can combine an adjective and noun or a noun and verb. - Irony is a contrast between what is said and meant, or expected and actual outcomes. Examples are given of verbal, dramatic, and situational irony. - Anaphora repeats words or phrases at the beginning of clauses for emphasis, like in Dickens' opening to A Tale of Two Cities.

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80 views5 pages

Stilistica Test

This document defines and provides examples of several literary devices: - Antithesis is the juxtaposition of opposing ideas through contrasting words within parallel structures. Examples given contrast concepts like proposing and disposing, and love and marriage. - Oxymoron combines incongruous terms, like dark light or deafening silence. It can combine an adjective and noun or a noun and verb. - Irony is a contrast between what is said and meant, or expected and actual outcomes. Examples are given of verbal, dramatic, and situational irony. - Anaphora repeats words or phrases at the beginning of clauses for emphasis, like in Dickens' opening to A Tale of Two Cities.

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inflexion
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Figures of Speech - Antithesis

What is antithesis?
Antithesis is a figure of speech which refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas. It involves
the bringing out of a contrast in the ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a
parallel grammatical structure.
Examples: These are examples of antithesis:

"Man proposes, God disposes." - Source unknown.

"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing." - Goethe.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong.

"To err is human; to forgive divine." - Alexander Pope.

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice." - William Shakespeare.

"Many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22:14.

Figures of Speech - Oxymoron

What is oxymoron?
An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines incongruous or contradictory terms. The plural
is oxymorons or oxymora.
Examples:
An oximoron can be made of an adjective and a noun:

Dark light

Deafening silence

Living dead

Open secret

Virtual reality

Oximorons can also be a combination of a noun and a verb.

The silence whistles

Stylistic Devices - Irony

What is irony?
Irony is a figure of speech in which there is a contradiction of expectation between what is said what is really
meant. It is characterized by an incongruity, a contrast, between reality and appearance. There are three types
of irony: verbal, dramatic and situational.
Types of irony
1. Verbal irony:
It is a contrast between what is said and what is meant
2. Dramatic irony:
It occurs when the audience or the reader knows more than the character about events. In
other words, what the character thinks is true is incongruous with what the audience knows.
3. Situational irony:
This refers to the contrast between the actual result of a situation and what was intended or
expected to happen.
Examples of irony

His argument was as clear as mud.

The two identical twins were arguing. One of them told the other: "You're ugly"

The thieves robbed the police station.

Stylistic Devices - Anaphora

What is anaphora?
Anaphora is a stylistic device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring
clauses to give them emphasis. This rhetorical device is contrasted with epiphora, also called epistrophe,
which consists of repeating words at the end of clauses.
Examples of anaphora
Some examples of the literary works that use anaphora are listed below:
In time the savage bull sustains the yoke,
In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure,
In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak,
In time the flint is pierced with softest shower.
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, I, vi. 3
Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!
William Shakespeare, King John, II,
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
William Blake, "The Tyger"
Strike as I struck the foe!
Strike as I would
Have struck those tyrants!
Strike deep as my curse!
Strike!and but once!
Byron, Marino Faliero
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we
had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Stylistic devices: alliteration

Alliteration
What is an alliteration?
Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.
Alliteration draws attention to the phrase and is often used for emphasis.The initial consonant sound is
usually repeated in two neighboring words although sometimes the repetition occurs also in words that are
not neighbors.
Examples:

sweet smell of success,

a dime a dozen,

bigger and better,

jump for joy

share a continent but not a country

Here is an example of alliteration in a poem by Wordsworth:


And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.
Remember
1. Only the repetition of the same sound is valid in an alliteration not the consonants themselves.
Examples:

keen camarad.

philosophy fan.

A neat knot need not be re-knotted.

Although they start with different consonants, they constitute perfect instances of alliteration;
2. By contrast, if neighboring words start with the same consonant but have a different initial sound, the
words are not alliterated.
Examples:

a cute child

highly honored (pay attention to the h in honored; it is silent)

Although they start with the same consonants, they are not instances of alliteration since the sounds differ.

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