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Figures of Speech and Literacy Devices

This document discusses various literary devices including: 1. Meiosis, litotes, repetition, rhetorical questions, balance, chiasmus, puns, innuendos, climax, anti-climax, and epigrams. 2. Sound devices like alliteration, assonance, cacophony, euphony, and onomatopoeia. 3. Elements of rhythm in poetry including meter, rhyme, and common metrical feet.

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55 views

Figures of Speech and Literacy Devices

This document discusses various literary devices including: 1. Meiosis, litotes, repetition, rhetorical questions, balance, chiasmus, puns, innuendos, climax, anti-climax, and epigrams. 2. Sound devices like alliteration, assonance, cacophony, euphony, and onomatopoeia. 3. Elements of rhythm in poetry including meter, rhyme, and common metrical feet.

Uploaded by

Nory Ventura
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Figures of Speech and Literacy Devices

1. Meiosis – a positive, deliberate understatement with the intention to increase the


impression of what is stated or occasionally, to decrease importance or the size of the
reality.

Note: Meiosis is the opposite of hyperbole, but obtain the same result.

Ex.
1. Iʻm a little worried about my patient”, said the surgeon.”
“I cant find my scissor!”.
2. “ May I have a word with you about the plans for the house.” Jim told his architect.
3. “ joeʻs a bit peeved; you did not invite him to your party.”
4. “foreman, will you come here a minute; Iʻve something to tell you about your work.
5. “Maga, would like to have a glance at my project ?” Jam asked her teacher.

2. Litotes – is a mild understatement intended to suggest a strong affirmative.


Ex.
1. Heʻs not the brightest man in the world.
( He is a stupid fellow)
2. “Your smoking does not help you very much,” the doctor told Jim.
3. “You all did love him once not without causes.” (mark Anthony)
4. “Grief and I are no stranger.”
5. “ Sneaking through the enemy lines was no small matter.”

3. Repetition – repeating word, phrases or whole construction to convey intensity of


emotion or meaning.

Note: the repetition may be in identical form or somewhat altered.

1. “ Break, Break, Break. ( Alfred Tennyson)


2. “ Strive and struggle and wrestle with the job”.
3. “ Vanity! Vanity! All is vanity. ( king Solomon)
4. “ Itʻs useless, Itʻs futile – hopeless- past retrieving.
5. “ Government of the people, by the people and for the people.( Lincalin)
4. Rhetorical Question – a question to which the author does not expect a spoken answer.
Ex.
1. “ What will a man gain if,
he win the whole world but suffer
the loss of his own soul”? ( Matthew)

2. “Hath not a Jew eyes?.”….


If you prick do we not bleed?....
If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
(shylock- “ The merchant of Venice”)

3. “ Is life so dear, so peace so sweet ,


as to be purchased of the price
of chains – and slavery?”

4. “ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”


“ What this ambition? ” ( Mark Anthony to the Romans- instead of saying
“ Caesar was not ambitious)

5. “ Where could I go to escape from you?


Where could I get away from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7)
5. Balance – parallelism in sentence elements of similar ideas.

Ex.

1. “ In love you created man;


in justice, you condemned him ;
but in mercy, you redeemed him.

2. I believed that every right


implies a responsibility; every
opportunity, an obligation;
every possession , a duty

3. . Some book are to be tasted;


Others, to be swallowed ;
and some few to be chewed and digest.
6. Chiasmus - is parallelism in sentence parts of similar or contrasting ideas so arranged
that the second part is in inverted order.

Ex. 1. “ We succeed if we persevere ; if we falter, we fail.”


2. Vigor is the way of youth; the way of age is wisdom.

7. Pun – a play on word of the some or nearly the some sound but of different meanings or
on the some word of different meanings.

Ex.
1. We must hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately .
2. A Turk meeting another Turk said he could not remember his name, but his fez was
familiar.
3. My trouble is mode by in-laws not by out- laws.

8. Innuendo – is subtle hint at something usually derogatory.


Ex.
1. “ When you drive” Jim told his wife, “ I feel closer to heaven. “
2. “ Good afternoon,” the teacher told George , youʻre too early for dismissal .”
3. By the clock his speech was only fifteen minutes long.

9. Climax – the arrangement of a series of words, phrases, clauses or sentences in


ascending order of importance or forcefulness.

Ex.
1. The Martyrs faced disfavor, persecution, imprisonment, starvation, fortune and
finally , death.
2. The people heard him, applauded him and voted for him.

10. Anti-climax – consist in abruptly ending a climax build up with something in significant.

Ex.
1. “ Sir, do you see this little bit of a girl? I am her friend, guide, teacher, father, and
slave!”
2. “ He spoke the greatest orations
The would has ever known- Perioles, Demorthemer, and now me!
( Bob Hope at Athens entertaining the American Troops.

11. Epigram – ( Various definitions)


1. A terse, witty statement .
2. A motion rounded out like snowball for throwing
3. A dwarfish whole its body brevity, and wit its soul
4. Like a bee, a thing of little size, with honey and a sting
- of little size : brevity is of the essence
- with honey : like honey, epigram is sweet, intense
- with sting : a beeʻs sting is hard to forget

Ex.

1. Cancer cures smoking.


2. Slow and steady wins the race.
3. A join may of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.

12. Euphemism – use of pleasant or pale expression instead of unpleasant, harsh or


depressing one.
Ex.
1. “ Experience is the name are gives to his mistake.” ( Oscar wilde)
2. Death – expire, pass away,( Mafia dispatch their associates to a better world)
3. Dull and lazy children – underachiever
4. Special children ( with down syndrome or criticism)
5. Physically challenged

Sound Devices (the castements of literature)

1. Alliteration – the recurrence of the initial consonant at the beginning of accented


syllables in words close together; the prominent repetition of a consonant sound.
Ex.
1. Home is the hunter home from the hill
2. The bat with short, shrill, shriek flits by
3. Break, break, break
2. Assorance – repetition of a vowel sound in a line of text or poetry to accelerate the
musical effect and to add a rhythm to capture the readerʻs interest and attention .
Ex.
1. Hear the mellow wedding bells.
2. Try to bit light the fire.
3. I lie down by the side of my bride.
3. Cacophony – harsh, discordant mixture of sounds
Ex.
( from “ The Great Figure” by William Carlos Williams)
Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure
In gold
on a red
fireworks
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city

4. Euphony a quality of being pleasing to the ear especially through a harmonious


combination of words.
Features :
-use of long vowels sound, which are more melodious than consonants
-use of harmonious consonants, such as [l], [m], [n] and soft [t]and [v] sound
-use of soft consonants or semi-vowels, including [w], [s], [y], and [th] or [wh]
extensively to create more pleasant sounds.

Ex. (from “ Ode to Autumns” by John Keats)


“ Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Close bosom - friend of the maturing sun;
5. Onomatopoeia – use of words whose sound suggests sense, action or movement.
Ex.
1. The thunder boomed and crackled
2. Bullets whistled and pinged on our tug as we chugged away

Rhythm in Poetry

Rhythm – the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed long and short , or high-pitched or

Low - pitched syllables creating a pattern in the lines of a poem.

Purpose – to give the poem its melodious quality to create the following poetic

texture or moods:
- grand, solemn and majestic
- sonorous and full
- slow and mournful/resounding/strong
- rapid and light
- airy and whimsical/fanciful/amusing
- crystalline/clear

Essential Elements of Rhythm


1. Meter
2. Rhyme

Meter – is the measured pattern or grouping of syllables, called metric foot, according to accent
and length.

A group of metric feet forms a poetic line or verse. A group of poetic lines or verses is called a
stanza.

Basic Metrical Feet Patterns

1. The Iamb (Iambic Foot)- ( x / )


Ex. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
(Thomas Gray)
2. The Anapest ( Anapestic Foot) – ( x x /)
Ex. Did you faint in the spurt?
3. The Trochus ( Trochaic foot)- (x x /)
Ex. This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks.

Number of the Metric Feet in a Poetic line

1. monometer ( 1 foot) 6. Hexameter (6 feet )


2. dimeter ( 2 feet) 7. Heptameter (7 meter)
3. trimeter (3 feet) 8. Octameter (8 feet)
4. tetrameter (4 feet) 9. Nanometer (9 feet)
5. pentameter (5 feet)

Activity : Name the rhythm pattern of the given examples.

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