Transcript Figure of Speech
Figure of Speech
HangYuan Zou
Introduction
A figure of speech is a use of a word that diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it such as a metaphor, simile, or personification. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.
However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. A figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetoric or a locution.
Classical rhetoric detected four fundamental operations that can be used to transform a sentence or a larger portion of a text.
They are: expansion, abridgement, switching, transferring.
Examples
"It's raining cats and dogs" means it's raining intensely.
"Break a leg" is a saying from theatre meaning "Good luck." "Butterflies in your stomach" figuratively describes nervousness.
Categories of figures of speech
Schemes are figures of speech that change the ordinary or expected pattern of words.
Tropes change the general meaning of words.
Schemes
- Climax
In rhetoric, a climax is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance. It is sometimes used with anadiplosis, which uses the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.
Examples:
"There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love." "...Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour." William Shakespeare "...the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Martin Luther King
Schemes
- Parallelism
Parallelism means giving two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern.
Examples
“Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered).” a comment reportedly written by Julius Caesar "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Churchill "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos
Schemes
- Polyptoton
Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated.
Examples
"The Greeks are Fierce to their strong , and skillful skill , and to their to their fierceness William Shakespeare strength , valiant;" "With eager feeding food William Shakespeare "Thou art of Philip Sidney doth choke the blood , joy not to make things feeder bleed ." ." Sir
Schemes
- Anadiplosis
Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence.
Examples
"For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas and hath not left his peer." John Milton "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Yoda "The frog was a prince / The prince was a brick / The brick was an egg / The egg was a bird" Genesis
Schemes
- Antimetabole
In rhetoric, antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order. It is similar to chiasmus although chiasmus does not use repetition of the same words or phrases.
Examples
"Eat to live, not live to eat" Attributed to Socrates "Live to fly, fly to live" Iron Maiden "Ask not what do for your country can do for your country ." John F. Kennedy you ; ask what you can
Schemes
- Isocolon
Isocolon is a figure of speech in which parallelism is reinforced by members that are of the same length.
Examples
"Let each man search his conscience and search his speeches." Winston Churchill "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse." Charles V "Many will enter. Few will win" Nabisco
Tropes
- Antanaclasis
In rhetoric, antanaclasis is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time.
Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.
Examples
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all separately." Benjamin Franklin hang "If you aren't fired (up) with enthusiasm, you will be with enthusiasm." Vince Lombardi "The long cigarette that's long advertisement for Pall Mall cigarettes fired on flavor." from an ,
Tropes
- Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that indirectly compares two different things by employing the words "like", "as", or "than".
Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things directly. A mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike.” Similes have been widely used in literature for their expressiveness as a figure of speech: Curley was flopping like a fish on a line.
He was as brave as a lion in the fight.
She swims like a dolphin.
Conclusion
Figures of speech are ways of using words and phrases to add interest and 'color' to what you are saying or writing. They vary in different countries and regions. Sometimes a figure of speech doesn’t translate literal, so we need to pay attention in our translation.
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of _speech