Rhetorical and expressive means

Metaphor

Figure of speech, a type of comparison, compares two things which are not related but it suggests a similarity between them

Simile

Type of comparison – compares things related to each other, uses like, as

Personification

Assigning of human traits to animals, objects – they are doing something like a human

Anthropomorphism

Applying human behaviours, logic to animals, objects – they are acting human

Symbol

One object represents another object, either physical or abstract

Irony

Using one meaning to suggest opposite meaning, statements and situations contradicting the apparent reality

Satire

An artful ridicule of folly or vice as a means of exposing or correcting it

Hyperbole

Exaggerating original meaning

Synecdoche

Pars pro toto – a part represents a whole

Totum pro parte – a whole represents a part

Metonymy

Substituting one object or idea with another with which it has a close association

Allegory

A narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas

Generally operates on two levels:

Surface – the surface level plot and events that stand on their own;

The deeper ideas represented by the surface elements are the true focus of the text

Oxymoron

The use of contradictory meanings

Paradox

A statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense

Allusion

A reference, typically brief, to a person, place, thing, event, or other literary work with which the reader is presumably familiar

Analogy

A comparison of two seemingly different things pointing out how they are similar

Euphemism

Replacing words or phrases in order to “soften” them, be more polite

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the natural sound of a thing

Alliteration

A repetition of a beginning consonant sound in two or more following words

Assonance

A repetition of a (similar) vowel sound in words standing close to each other

Consonance

A repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text

Anaphora

A repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases, clauses, or verses

Epiphora

A repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive sentences, phrases, clauses, or verses

Zeugma

Applying a word, usually a verb or an adjective, to more than one noun, it can create semantic ambiguity