Figurative language - Language that compares – paints a picture.
None of these expressions are literal –
that is, not one means exactly what it says. The speakers are not really talking about dogs, cake, or bugs.
1. “I would like a dog last night!”
2. “Either spend that fifty dollars or put it in the bank. You can’t have your cake and eat it too”
3. “I told him to stop bugging me”
FIGURES OF SPEECH
- Are words or groups of words used to give particular emphasis to an idea or sentiment
1. Alliteration is a sound device in which the consonant sounds at the beginning of two or more
consecutive words are repeated. e.g. wild and wooly, threatening throngs
2. Allegory is the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truth or
generalizations about human experiences. e.g. He was a David in the midst of many Goliaths.
3. Anticlimax is the sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of
a sentence or passage used to get a satirical effect. e.g. “Among the great achievements of
Bento Mussolini’s regime were the revival of a strong national consciousness, the expansion
of the Italian Empire, and the running of the trains on time.”
4. Antithesis is the juxtaposition of two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted opposed
in meaning in such way as to give emphasis to contrasting ideas. e.g. “To err is human, to
forgive is divine”
5. Apostrophe is the device by which a writer address a person who is usually either absent or
deceased, an inanimate object, or an abstract idea. e.g “Hail divinest Melancholy, whose saintly
visage is too bright to hit the sense of human sight”
6. Assonance is a sound device in which vowel sounds within a word are repeated. e.g. “In the
garbage heap that she leaves.”
7. Climax is the arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences in the order of their importance, from
the least forcible rising in power until the most forcible. e.g. “It is an outrage to bind a Roman
citizen, it is a crime to scourge him, it is almost parricide to kill him, but to crucify him. What
shall I say this??”
8. Conceit is an elaborate, often extravagant simile or metaphor making an analogy between
totally dissimilar things. The term originally meant “concept” or “idea”. The use of conceits is
especially characteristics of 17 th-century English metaphysical poetry. e.g. In the poem “A
Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” by John Donne, the human soul is compared to a compass.
9. Consonance is a sound device in which consonant sounds in conjunction with dissimilar vowel
sounds are repeated. e.g. and fill them full of stars
10. Euphemism is the substitution of a delicate or inoffensive team or phrase for one that’s has
coarse, sordid, or otherwise unpleasant associations. e.g. benevolent assimilation for
“oppression”
11. Exclamation is a sudden outcry or interjection expressing violent emotion, such as fright, grief,
or hatred. e.g. “O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!”
12. Hyperbole is a form of inordinate exaggeration according to which a person or thing is depicted
as being better or worse, or larger or smaller, than is actually the case. e.g. Dr Johnson drank his
teas in oceans.
13. Irony is a dryly humorous or lightly sarcastic mode of speech in which words are used to convey
a meaning contrary to their literal sense. e.g. Jonathan Swift said that the poor people of
Ireland should rid themselves of poverty by selling their children to the rich to eat.
14. Metaphor is the use of a word or phrase denoting an idea or object in place of another word or
phrase to suggest a likeness between the two. e.g. “God’s word is a light to my feet and a lamp
to my path”
15. Metonymy is the use of a word or phrase for another to which it bears an important relation, as
the effect for the cause, the abstract for the concrete, and similar constructions. e.g. “He was an
avid reader of Chaucer.” (Chaucer took the place of “poems of Chaucer”)
16. Onomatopoeia is the imitation of natural sounds by words. e.g. the buzzing bee, the cackling
hen, the whizzing arrow
17. Oxymoron is a contradictory or incongruous term formed by words brought together. e.g.
speechless messages
18. Paradox is a statement or sentiment that appears contradictory to common sense yet is true.
e.g. mobilization for peace, a well-known secret agent
19. Parallelism is the repetition of the same grammatical form or structure. e.g. I love thee freely,
as men strive for Right, I love thee purely, as they run from Praise.
20. Personification is the representation or inanimate objects or abstract ideas as living beings or
having living characteristics. e.g. Necessity is the mother of invention
21. Repetition is the repeating of words and phrases more than once e.g Tomorrow, tomorrow and
tomorrow
22. Rhetorical question is the asking of questions not to gain information but to assert more
emphatically the obvious answers to what is asked. No answer is expected e.g. Did you help me
when I needed help? Did you once offer to intercede in my behalf? Did you do anything to
lessen my load?
23. Simile is a specific comparison by means of the words like or as between two kinds of ideas or
objects. e.g. Christianity shone like a beacon in the black night of pragnism.
24. Synecdoche shows the part representing the whole, the whole representing a part, the species
for the genus, or vice versa. It is a form of metonymy. e.g. 50 heads of cattle (head = the whole
animal)
QUIZ 1
a. Prose is a literary work that is spoken or written within the common flow of language in sentences
and paragraphs which give information, relate events, express ideas, or present opinions. It is literary
medium that corresponds closely to everyday speech patterns and is used to provide detailed
description of ideas, objects, or situations. Poetry is a literary work expressed in verse, measure, rhythm,
sound, and imaginative language and creates an emotional response to an experience, feeling, or fact.
b. Denotation is a dictionary meaning of the word while Connotation is the word beyond its dictionary
definition.
c. Fiction is a literary work of imaginative narration, either oral or written, fashioned to entertain and to
make the readers think and, more so, to feel. Non-Fiction is a literary work of "real life" narration or
exposition based on history and facts whose main thrust is intellectual appeal to convey facts, theories,
generalizations, or concepts about a particular topic.
Literature is language in use that provides insights and intellectual stimulation to the reader. As one
explores literature, he/she likewise discovers the beauty of language. Literature is a product of a
particular culture that concretizes man's array of values, emotions, actions and ideas. It is therefore a
creation of human experience that talks about people and their world. Literature is an art that reflects
works of imagination, aesthetics, and creative writing which are distinguished for the beauty of style or
expression as in fiction, poetry, essay, drama, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which
contains positive knowledge. These reason makes it important for us to study literature for literature
allows us to gain a better understanding of culture and appreciate them more. We learn through the
ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself. The SHE in literature is
known as the significant human experience in which the human experience in literature contains themes
about life and society that are relatable to readers. Themes related to the human experience encompass
any commentary on society or human nature, such as death, relationships, human rights, or conformity.
a. Literature is defined as the collected oral and written works of the society that depicts the people's
beliefs, values, mores, aspirations, as well as their struggles in life.
b. Figurative language is a language used for descriptive effect in order to convey ideas or emotions
which are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level.
QUIZ 2 (15/20)
Faith is the antiseptic of the soul
a.
Apostrophe
b.
Simile
c.
Allusion
d.
Metaphor
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
a.
Metaphor
b.
Simile
c.
Alliteration
d.
Hyperbole
With his cruel bow, he laid full low.
a.
Alliteration
b.
Oxymoron
c.
Consonance
d.
Irony
He was so hungry that he ate the whole elephant.
a.
Metaphor
b.
Simile
c.
Hyperbole
d.
Personification
Death, be not proud.
a.
Apostrophe
b.
Metaphor
c.
Simile
d.
Allusion
A sucker is born every minute.
a.
Allegory
b.
Apostrophe
c.
Conceit
d.
Hyperbole
He whom the gods favor dies in youth.
a.
Oxymoron
b.
Synecdoche
c.
Paradox
d.
Metonymy
Friends, though absent, are still present
a.
Antithesis
b.
Metonymy
c.
Hyperbole
d.
Synecdoche
The pot calls the kettle black
a.
Antithesis
b.
Synecdoche
c.
Metonymy
d.
Personification
Common sense is not so common.
a.
Paradox
b.
Oxymoron
c.
Irony
d.
Antithesis
Night’s candles are burnt out and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops.
a.
Climactic
b.
Euphemism
c.
Apostrophe
d.
Personification
He is a time bomb.
a.
Simile
b.
Personification
c.
Metaphor
d.
Oxymoron
Break, break, break.
a.
Synecdoche
b.
Repetition
c.
Parallelism
d.
Onomatopoeia
And early evening, like croaking of the frogs, evoking memories lost.
a.
Onomatopoeia
b.
Metonymy
c.
Oxymoron
d.
Irony
He got a score of 5 out of 100 items? My, he’s a genius!
a.
Antithesis
b.
Irony
c.
Hyperbole
d.
Metaphor
O love, release me from your spell!
a.
Metaphor
b.
Hyperbole
c.
Simile
d.
Apostrophe
The child is father of the man.
a.
Irony
b.
Paradox
c.
Oxymoron
d.
Antithesis
I die, I sleep, I faint.
a.
Anti-Climatic
b.
Climactic
c.
Oxymoron
d.
Paradox
Even in his plain dress, I find him not all displeasing.
a.
Paradox
b.
Apostrophe
c.
Metonymy
d.
Litotes
Ah! What is love? It is a pretty thing.
a.
apostrophe
b.
rhetorical question
c.
Consonance
d.
metonymy
