Developing Influential Oral Communication via

Figures of Speech

T.K. Vedharaja, Ph.D.

Language as a Tool of Communication

One should have fewer disputes in the world if words function simply as the signs of ideas alone. However, our speech, in all contexts, is pregnant with many meanings, both intended and unintended. These features may help or hamper our communication with others. Therefore, we need to understand that language is a tool of communication; it is a vehicle to persuade and accomplish something – to draw people together, establish agreement, and promote meaningful action. Effective communication is made possible with the help of language either spoken, or written, or signals, or heard or felt.

Figures of Speech

Figures of speech are a very vital and prominent instrument for effective communication. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines figure of speech as “a word or a phrase used in a different way from its usual meaning in order to create a particular mental image or effect.” It can also be used as a rhetorical device that achieves a special effect by using words or phrases in distinct ways.

There are hundreds of figures of speech. I take up thirteen types for discussion in this paper. These are1. Allusion,

2. Anaphora,

3. Antithesis,

4. Hyperbole,

5. Hypophora,

6. Litotes,

7. Parallelism,

8. Repetition,

9. Rhetorical Question,

10. Understatement,

11. Irony,

12. Paradox and

13. Pun.

Allusion is a brief but indirect reference to a person, place or event. The allusions should be familiar to the listeners otherwise the effect is lost. One of the most powerful and influential speeches that the world has ever listened to is ‘I Have a Dream’, a speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. that prompted equality for all men. His reference to ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ ( is a reference to the United States Declaration of Independence. Moreover, the speech carries numerous biblical allusions that provide moral basis for his arguments.

Even in daily conversations, the usage of allusions can make it powerful and influential, for example, if one happens to address an indecisive person, he can say,

  • you can’t be a Hamlet.

MGR becomes an allusion of generosity in rural Tamil society even today because of his well-publicized and orchestrated munificence.

Anaphora is repeating words at the beginning of neighbouring clauses. Further repetitions emphasize the pattern and increase the rhetorical effect.

‘I have a dream’ is repeated in eight successive sentences, and is one of the most often cited examples of anaphora in modern rhetoric. ‘One hundred years later’( is another phrase used thrice in beginning of successive sentences. Instead of saying,

  • I love you and so you are the queen of my dreams, hence I wish to marry you

or

  • I love you, you are the queen of my dreams, it would be a blessing to marry you

or with any other structural pattern, it would not be as forceful as

  • I love you, I dream you, I wish to marry you.

Antithesis is a rhetorical term for the juxtaposition of ideas in balanced phrases or clauses. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in St. Louis, Missouri, March 22, 1964, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” ( Neil Armstrong has motivated human beings stating ‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind’. ( Above all, ‘Do or Die’,is one of the strongest slogans of antithesis used by Gandhi. ( In normal conversation people say,

  • I live to die.

Hyperbolemakes use of an exaggerated or extravagant statement to create a strong emotional response and it is not intended to be taken literally. The famous hyperbolic statement may be Caullitus’:

Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred more, another thousand, and hundred,…. (Let’s Live and Love: to Lesbia)

The repeated hyperboles one listens to are:

  • I am so tired I could sleep for a year
  • I have told you a thousand times not to lie.

Hypophora is used to ask one or more questions by a speaker and answered by him at length to his own question(s).

For example, in King Lear, Cordelia utters, "What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent." (Act I, Scene I, l 52) And Bill Clinton in 1992 DNC Acceptance Address makes use of this rhetorical device:

What is George doing about our economic problems? He has raised taxes on the driving pickup trucks and lowered on the people riding in limousines. (

Students’ utilization of this device is popular,

  • Sir, you ask anybody? I won’t lie.

Litotes is a particular form of understatement. It is produced by refusing the opposite of the word which otherwise would be used. Depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement, or becomes an intensifying expression. Andrew Marvell in his poem “To His Coy Mistress” makes use of litotes,“The grave's a fine a private place, But none, I think, do there embrace” and Ronald Regan in his Farewell Address to the Nation, on January 20, 1989 speaks:

We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all. (

One can notice some saying,

  • He who examines his own self will not long remain ignorant of his failings.
  • Overall, the flavours of the mushrooms, herbs, and spices combine to make the dish not at all disagreeable to the palate.

Parallelism is recurring syntactical resemblance. A speaker uses this device to highlight the importance of several parts of a sentence or several sentences. It adds stability and rhythm and, clarity to the sentence. This is also called parallel structure. The following are good examples of parallelism:

  • For, the end of a theoretical science is truth, but the end of a practical science is performance. Aristotle (
  • Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. T.S. Eliot ( › Nonfiction › TS Eliot › The Sacred Wood)
  • The more we do, the more we can do. William Hazlitt (

In day-to-day conversation one listens to statements of parallelism such as the following:

  • I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door.
  • Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book.
  • He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit.

The rhetorical question is usually defined as any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks. Shylock in Merchant of Venice asks many rhetorical questions,

Hath not a Jew eyes?

Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh?

If you poison us, do we not die? (Act III, Scene I, L 58-61)

In normal speech one listens to people question,

  • Why are you so stupid?

and children recounting to their parents,

  • I said, who listened to me?

Patterns of communication are an integral part of everyday life. Individuals need to adapt their communication to a variety of settings based on the role they assume in the interaction and should be aware of the appropriateness of the messages they communicate because their messages create an impact on the listeners. Figures of speech, when used appropriate to the context and content, contribute a lot to effective communication of the intended messages.

References

Edwards Tryon. A Dictionary of Thoughts. Bangalore. Standarad Book Company, 1955

Irmscher. F, William. The Holt Guide to English: A Comprehensive Handbook of Rhetoric, Language, and Literature. New York. HarcourtSchool. 1981

Lanham, A. Richard. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. California. University of California Press. 1991

McGuigan, Brendan. Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers. Clayton. Prestwick House, Inc. 2010

20-12-2010