Figurative Language Terms
Language of the Discipline
Words can be discussed in three ways:
Sound: the combination of tones and noises that make up a word
Connotation: what a word suggests beyond what it expresses. (The difference between childish and childlike, for example.)
Denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word
Figurative Language
Language that uses language that should not be taken literally. A way of saying something in an extraordinary way.
Metaphor: a comparison of two unlike things Thou art a pig.
Simile: a comparison of unlike things using like or as. Vines are like golden prisons.
Personification: giving human qualities to an animal, object, or a concept.
Apostrophe: addressing someone absent or dead as if that person were present and could reply
Synecdoche: a part is substituted for a whole or a whole is substituted for a part. fifty head of cattle for fifty cows, or the army for a soldier
Metonymy: substituting a word for another word closely related to it. “the crown” for “the monarchy”
Symbol: something that means more than what it is. red = stop, courage, anger
Allegory: a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface meaning. This narrative acts as an extended metaphor in which persons, abstract ideas, or events represent not only themselves on the literal level, but they also stand for something else on the symbolic level. An allegorical reading usually involves moral or spiritual concepts that may be more significant than the actual, literal events described in a narrative. Typically, an allegory involves the interaction of multiple symbols, which together create a moral, spiritual, or even political meaning.
Paradox: an apparent contradiction that is somehow true. Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a prison.
Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration for effect. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
Understatement (Meiosis): the opposite of exaggeration: "I was somewhat worried when the psychopath ran toward me with a chainsaw." (i.e., I was terrified). Litotes is a type of meiosis in which the writer uses a statement in the negative to create the effect: "You know, Einstein is not a bad mathematician." (i.e., Einstein is a good mathematician.)
Pun: a play on words which are identical or similar in sound but which have sharply diverse meanings. When Mercutio is dying he says to Romeo, “Ask for me tomorrow and you will find be a grave man.”
Sarcasm: a type of irony in which a person appears to be praising something while he is actually insulting the thing. Its purpose is to injure or hurt.
Synesthesia: describing on sense in terms of another a rainbow of flavor
Irony: a difference in knowledge, an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant
Verbal: saying one thing and meaning another (sarcasm)
Dramatic: audience or reader perceives something that the character does not
Situational: discrepancy between expectations and the actual result
Allusion: a reference to a person, event, place, work of art, or work of literature. May be Biblical, Classical, Mythological, Musical, Religious, Cultural, etc.
Tone: a speaker’s attitude toward the subject. The emotional coloring and emotional meaning for the words and phrases.
Juxtaposition: deliberately placing dissimilar things side by side for comparison
Speaker: distinct from the author of the poem or text.
Colloquialism: spoken or written communication that imitates informal speech
Idiom: a specialized vocabulary uses by a group of people; a phrase that has no literal meaning but is understood by a culture or group; jargon when pigs fly; kick the bucket
Imagery: A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature. It signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a poem, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor.
Malapropism: an incorrect use of a word, often for comic affect
Conceit: a far-fetched simile or metaphor in which the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things in a systematic manner
Sound / Musical Devices / Sound Imagery
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds. sweet smell of success
Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds within words. dark deep dread crept in
Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds within words. fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks
Onomatopoeia: words that sound like what they mean pop, clunk, bang
Rhyme: repetition of the accented vowel sounds and all succeeding sounds. skating/dating; emotion/demotion
Internal: rhyme within a line
End: rhymes at the end of lines
Approximate Rhyme/Slant Rhyme/Near Rhyme: rhymes created out of words that are near but not identical sounds
Poetic Forms (There are many more!)
Sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter
English Sonnet (Shakespearian)
Three four-line quatrains and one two-line couplet
Typically, the couplet reverses, alters, or challenges the meaning of the preceding quatrains, often with an ironic twist
The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan)
One eight-line octet and one six-line sestet
Typically, the octet proposes a dilemma that is solved in the sestet.
The rhyme scheme is ABBACDDC CDECDE
Spenserian Sonnet
a variant on the Shakespearian sonnet, with four quatrains with an interlocked rhyme scheme
ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
Ballad:
narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter.
Common traits of the ballad are that (a) the beginning is often abrupt, (b) the story is told through dialogue and action (c) the language is simple or "folksy," (d) the theme is often tragic--though comic ballads do exist, and (e) the ballad contains a refrain repeated several times.
Poetic Genres and Verse Forms
Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
Free Verse: based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet
Heroic Couplet: two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter
Epic: a long, serious narrative poem concerning a heroic figure or group of heroes, told in elevated language, tale represents the values of a culture or nation
Lyric: a short poem in stanzaic form, usually written to be set to music, highly emotional, often includes repetition
Ode: a formal lyric poem of exalted emotion celebrating someone or something
Elegy: a poetic lament for the dead or missing
Prose Poem: form of free verse that lacks the formal shape of poetry
Dramatic Monologue: a poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length
Syntax and Structure
Diction: the author’s choice of words
Anaphora: The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness
Anastrophe: inversion of the normal syntactic order of words “echoed the hills” for “the hills echoed”
Antithesis: Opposition or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
Caesura: a natural break or pause England-- how I long for thee!
Enjambment: a line of poetry in which the grammatical and logical sense run on, without pause, into the next line or lines
Chiasmus: A figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas In peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons.
Polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect here and there and everywhere
Asyndeton: the omission of a conjunction in a list chips, beans, peas, vinegar, salt, pepper
Parallelism: the repetition of words, phases, sentences that have the same grammatical structure The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Periodic Sentence: a sentence in which the main clause or its predicate is withheld until the end Despite the heavy winds and nearly impenetrable fog, the plane landed safely.
Loose Sentence: the main clause comes at the beginning I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America....
In media res: literally, in the middle; when a narrative starts after the chronological beginning of the story and then the speaker goes back to fill in the details; builds suspense and tension
Ellipsis: words that are left out because they are understood Our minds were clear and our hearts willing.
Fiction: Novels, Plays, Short Stories
Protagonist: the central character in a work of literature
Antagonist: the character, force, or collection of forces in fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and gives rise to conflict in the story Tybalt, Fortinbras, Mr. Ewell
Anti-hero: a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. Macbeth, Meursault
Archetype: a term used to describe universal symbols that evoke deep and sometimes unconscious response in a reader; characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences. The following are examples, but there are many more.
Recurring symbolic situations: descent into the underworld, call to the quest, damsel in distress who is saved from a monster and later marries her heroic, handsome, and rich savior
Recurring themes: pride, madness, blindness, forbidden love
Recurring characters: witches/crones, star-crossed lovers, mentor, mad scientist, underdog, femme fatale, oracle, stern father figure, nurturing mother figure, guilt-ridden figure in search of redemption
Symbolic colors: green = life; blue= water, tranquility; red=blood, death, anger
Recurring images: blood, water, rose, lion, snake, eagle, feast or banquet
Climax (Turning Point): the decisive moment in a work of literature; the moment that determines how the conflict will be resolved
Comedy: a piece of literature that ends well. Modern comedies tend to be amusing, while Shakespearian comedies simply had happy endings.
Tragedy: a serious drama in which the main characters, through some peculiarity of character, pass though a series of misfortunes ending to a final, devastating catastrophe
Deus ex machina: an unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonist or solve the conflict. The term refers to “God of the machine” and comes from Greek theatrical machinery.
Hamartia: originally applied to Greek tragedy, a hero’s fatal flaw that leads to his or her downfall
Hubris: a common hamartia; excessive pride that leads to tragedy
Motif: A conspicuous recurring element, such as a type of incident, a device, a reference, or verbal formula, which appears frequently in works of literature.
Dramatic Conventions
Aside: a device in which a character in a drama makes a short speech that the audience can hear but not by the other characters in the play
Catharsis: means “purgation;” the release of emotions of pity and fear by the audience at the end of a tragedy. Aristotle discusses the importance of catharsis. The audience faces the misfortunes of the hero and feels compassion. Simultaneously, the audience also confronts the failures of the protagonist, thus receiving a frightening reminder of human limitations and frailties.
Soliloquy: a dramatic form of discourse in which the character speaks to himself or herself and reveals his or her thoughts without addressing the audience; character is usually alone on stage
Stock Character: a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to the members of a given culture.