Literary Terms Vocabulary #5
1.Analogy – A similarity between like features of two distinct things on which a comparison may be based. Similes and metaphors are commonly used to create an analogy, however, an analogy may be more extensive then just a metaphor or simile alone.
2.Euphemism – A mild word or phrase that substitutes for another that is less desirable. For example, “kick the bucket” is a euphemism that describes the death of a person. Many organizations use the term “downsizing” for the distressing act of “firing” its employees. You may remember Squealer’s use of euphemism in chapter nine of Animal Farm when he announces the reduction of food to the animals of the farm: “For the time being, certainly, it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations (Squealer always spoke of it as a ‘readjustment,’ never as a ‘reduction’)” (77).
3.Figures of speech – Literary devices that involve unusual use of language, often to associate or compare distinct things. There are two general categories of figures of speech: rhetorical figures and tropes.
4.Hyperbole – A figure of speech that uses deliberate exaggeration to achieve an effect, also known as overstatement. For example, “During the week of finals, I had a million essays to grade.”
5.Metaphor– A figure of speech that associates two distinct things. He was a lion on the basketball court
6.Metonymy – A figure of speech in which one thing is represented by another that is commonly and often physically associated with it. Examples: Let me give you a hand. (“hand” refers to the help); Bow down before the crown. (“crown”refers to the king/queen); WashingtonDC is at odds with Tehran. (The U.S. and Iranian capitals are referring to the governments of those countries).
7.Onomatopoeia – a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting. The different sounds of animals such as meow, neigh, moo, are also considered as examples of onomatopoeia. A group of words reflecting different sounds of water are: plop, splash, gush, sprinkle, drizzle, drip. And words related to different sounds of wind, such as: swish, swoosh, whiff, whoosh, whizz,whisper.
8.Oxymoron – A figure of speech that juxtaposes two opposite or apparently contradictory words to present an emphatic and dramatic paradox for a rhetorical purpose or effect. See if you can find any examples in this passage from Romeo and Juliet:
O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!
Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damnèd saint, an honorable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In moral paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace! (3.2.79-91)
9.Personification – A figure of speech that gives human qualities to abstract ideas, animals, and inanimate objects. Example from Romeo and Juliet: “When well-appareled April on the heel / Of limping winter treads.”
10.Simile – A figure of speech that compares two distinct things by using words such as like or as.Example from “The Scarlet Ibis”: “They named him William Armstrong which is like tying a big tail on a small kite.”
11.Synecdoche – A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, For example using the word “sail” to refer to the whole ship; saying there’s a nice set of “:wheels” (car); all “hands” on deck (sailors); “boots” on the ground referring to soldiers.
12.Trope – One of the two major divisions of figures of speech, trope means to turn or twist (figuratively speaking) some word or phrase to make it mean something else. Metaphor, metonymy, personification, simile, and synecdoche are sometimes referred to as the principal tropes.