Transcript figurative language

FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
The art to show writing
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
• Def: expressive language using figures of
speech (a way of saying one thing and
meaning another); in other words, language
that cannot be taken literally (or should not
be taken literally only); expressive language
written to create feeling or special effect
• Not Literal: using or containing a non-literal
sense of a word or words
Idiom
• Definition:
An expression that means something different from
what it says. It is not meant to be taken seriously.
Idioms are culturally based.
• Examples:
(From the Phantom Tollbooth)
“Why, my cabinet members can do all sorts of things.
The duke here can make mountains out molehills.
The minister splits hairs. The count makes hay
while the sun shines. The earl leaves no stone
unturned….”
Similes
• Definition: A comparison between two
seemingly unrelated things, using connecting
words such as like, as, or seems in the
comparison.
• Examples: The snowplow reared up like a
stallion.
Moan like an autumn wind high in the
lonesome treetops…cry like a race car slipping
away from a motorcycle cop, bang-bang!
Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances.
Metaphor
• Definition:
A comparison of two different things
without using words such as “like” or “as”;
it just comes right out and says it.
*Examples:
-Peace is a sunrise.
-Your room is a pigsty.
-Life is a movie in the making.
Hyperbole
• Definition: Obvious exaggeration used to emphasize
a point or add excitement and humor to a story.
• Examples: His hands were so dirty the soap up and
ran away.
I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
He began sweating bullets.
Imagery
• Definition: Words or phrases that appeal to the
senses and conjure up mental images. Imagery helps
readers imagine the sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
and feelings associated with a character’s/author’s
experience. Imagery appears extensively in settings,
character descriptions, and nature poetry.
• Examples: (The Night Before Christmas)
– The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
- He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
Oxymoron
• Definition: A two-or three-word phrase
that contains opposite words or ideas.
• Examples: wise fool, working vacation, act
normally, definite maybe, plastic glasses,
found missing, small crowd
– “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
(Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet)
– Yet from those flames no light, but
rather darkness visible. (J. Milton’s Paradise
Lost )
Paradox
Definition: An extended oxymoron. A paradox pits
contradictory ideas against one another so that a
statement appears to be untrue.
Examples: -Good men must not obey the laws too
well. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
-The wisest mind has something yet to learn. (George
Santayana)
-I must be cruel only to be kind. (Shakespeare)
-What a pity that youth must be wasted on the
young. (George Bernard Shaw)
Personification
• Definition: Giving human qualities or actions to
something that is not human. Animals, inanimate
objects, and ideas can all be personified, and
appear frequently in poetry and prose;
• Representational: relating to or representing
form in art by means of human or animal figures
• Examples: -The leaves gossiped among
themselves.
– A sad and lonely house wept chipped paint onto the
sidewalk.
– The rain spanked the sidewalk.
Symbol
• Definition: Something concrete that stands for
something abstract, such as a person, place, thing, or
action. It could stand for an idea, belief, feeling, or
attitude.
• Allegory: a work in which character & events are to be
understood as representing other things and
symbollically express a deeper, often spiritual, moral,
or political meaning
• Examples: Canada - maple leaf; United States - Uncle
Sam; peace - dove; love -red rose; poison - a skull &
crossbones.
Colloquialisms
• Definition: A common word or phrase
that is used when people talk to one
another. Colloquialisms are usually not
used in formal speech or in most
assigned writing; slang words.
• Examples: -How’s it going dude?
– What’z up?, What’s happenin?
– Poor baby, My bad
Denotation &
Connotation
• Definition:
– -denotation: The dictionary definition of a word. “America”
denotes the country south of Canada and north of Mexico.
– connotation: The thoughts, feeling, and images
associated with a word. “America” connotes freedom,
individualism, and opportunity.
Examples: -prince (denotes) son of a king, (connotes) noble
and admirable.
-fox (denotes) a wolf-like animal, (connotes) clever and
sneaky.
-sunshine (denotes) light from the sun, (connotes) warmth
and happiness.
Pun
• Definition: a phrase that uses words in a
way that gives them a funny effect;
homophone errors (words sound same,
different meaning); a play on words.
– Example: The to hairs jumped into the big blue
“C”
– Example: I halve a spelling chequer, it came
with my pea see
Alliteration
• Definition: the repeating of
beginning consonant sounds; the
repetition of the same consonant at
the beginning
– Example: Creamy crunchy chunky cereal
– Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers
Onomatopoiea
• Definition: a formation of words in
imitation of natural sounds
– Example: The cat “purred” and
“meowed”
– Example: “Pow”, “Buzz”, “Crunch”