FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE simile metonymy synecdoche epithet periphrasis irony - st. copy

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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – TROPES (PART 2) I. SIMILE - A figure in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, eg. So are you to my thoughts as food to life /Shakespeare/ My love’s like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June O, my love’s like a melody That ‘s sweetly played in tune. /Robert Burns/ Fair as star I wandered as lonely as cloud.

Like a bridge over troubled water/ I will lay me down. She swims like a dolphin. He drinks like a fish. She kicks like a mule When he got the tools out, he was as precise and thorough as a surgeon. She walks as gracefully and elegantly as a cat. He was as brave as a lion in the fight.

EPIC SIMILE (HOMERIC SIMILE) - is a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that is many lines in length. The word "Homeric" is based on the Greek author, Homer, who composed the two famous Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Many authors continue to use this type of simile in their writings. The typical Homeric simile makes a comparison to some kind of event, in the form "like a ____ when it ______." The object of the comparison is usually something familiar to the audience, such as an animal or the weather. The Iliad, for instance, contains many such similes comparing fighting warriors to lions attacking wild boars or other prey.

As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning. So one generation of men will grow while another dies

II. METONYMY – a trope in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated the press 1

the crown skirt Mozart the bottle the pen is mighter than the sword to read Shakespeare The crown Metonymy can take three forms: 1) the substitution of the name of the container for the thing contained: He drank the whole bottle. 2) article/dress for a person: white collars, blue collars, skirts 3) creator for his work: She likes Jane Austen. III. SYNECDOCHE – a trope in which a part is used to represent the whole. It is using the name of part of an object to talk about the whole thing, e. g. hands for workmen black tie – formal wear for men strings – for stringed instruments in an orchestra wheels – to mean a car Let's count noses; there were many new faces at the meeting. Give us our daily bread. Mouths to feed Gray hair should be respected. One of his hands was assassinated. Twenty sails came to the harbour. All hands on deck! METONYMY VS. SYNECDOCHE: It is a synecdoche if A is a part of B. It is a metonymy if A is commonly associated with B but is not a part of it. IV. EPITHET – usually an adjective or phrase expressing some quality or attribute which is characteristic of a person or a thing. HOMERIC EPITHET – is an adjective (usually a compound adjective) repeatedly used for the same thing or person – like those which Homer used in his epic poems, e. g.: Wine-dark sea, rosy-fingered dawn, swift-footed Achilles, cloud-gathering Zeus, white-armed Hera, godlike Paris, bright-eyed Athena, broad heavens 2

V. PERIPHRASIS - a unit of poetic speech that both names and describes. Here the name of a person is substituted with a descriptive phrase. It is commonly known as circumlocution, e. g.: His studio is probably full of the mute evidence of his failure. Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness Her olfactory system was suffering from a temporary inconvenience From the snowy leg ….the inverted silk she drew When I am with you, my toes tingle and my knees are weak. The world is a better place altogether and I find myself giving my fortune to beggars, and I am a beggar before you, craving a smile, a whim. In the course of the past several days, it has come to my attention that some certain members of the soonto-be-graduating class have been behaving in what can only be described as an unseemly manner." EUPHEMISM - the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant. Doing it Acting like rabbits Making love to Big Curvy Fluffy Thick-boned Full-figured Pass away Lost their lives Mature Senior Been around the block Misspeak Bend the truth Peer-homework-help Comparing answers The big C ANTONOMASIA a) using a proper name in place of an ordinary word, eg.: 3

a Hoover, a Xerox, a Croesus, a Napoleon, a Casanova, a Hitler, a Judas b) using a descriptive phrase instead of a proper name, eg.: the Bard His Holiness The Iron Lady The King The King of Pop The Little Corporal VI. IRONY - The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. A Judas Iscariot never betray his friends. You can always depend on the words of a liar.

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