Figures of Speech-English
FIGURES OF SPEECH
.Anaphora
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. (Contrast with epiphora and epistrophe.)
"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."
(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940)
.Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
"We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice bucks. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books."
(Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. Macmillan, 2002)
Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
* "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."
(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006) * "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers; it’s whether the president delivers on the speeches."
(Hillary Clinton, March 2008) * "I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."
(David Foster Wallace) * "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."
(Ovid)
* Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
* Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're both being let go.
Lou: Let go? What does that mean?
Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired, Louie.
(In Good Company, 2004)
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.
* "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)
Litotes
A figure of speech consisting
.Anaphora
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses. (Contrast with epiphora and epistrophe.)
"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."
(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940)
.Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
"We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice bucks. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books."
(Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. Macmillan, 2002)
Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
* "You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."
(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006) * "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president delivers; it’s whether the president delivers on the speeches."
(Hillary Clinton, March 2008) * "I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."
(David Foster Wallace) * "I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."
(Ovid)
* Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
* Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're both being let go.
Lou: Let go? What does that mean?
Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired, Louie.
(In Good Company, 2004)
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.
* "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)
Litotes
A figure of speech consisting