Lecture Preparation for Figures of SpeechI. Sound Effecta. onomatopoeiaDef. the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. "Buzz," for example, when spoken is intended to resemble the sound of a flying insect. Other examples include these: slam, pow, screech, whirr, crush, sizzle, crunch, wring, wrench, gouge, grind, mangle, bang, blam, pow, zap, fizz, urp, roar, growl, blip, click, whimper, and, of course, snap, crackle, and pop. Note that the connection between sound and pronunciation is sometimes rather a product of imagination ("slam" and "wring" are not very good imitations). And note also that written language retains an aural quality, so that even unspoken your writing has a sound to it.b. alliterationDef. repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence1. "Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it beour cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future."2. "And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had forit and for us. All for which America stands is safe today because bravemen and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front."c. assonanceDef. repetition of the same sound in words close to each otherA bird is subject to decay and dereliction until all the energy is released.Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered , weak and weary,…..I could felt and smelt the river emptied itself into the gorge.There is an element of word magic here: entomology and limnology sound more important than merely insect biology and fresh water biology.A deep green streamI arise from the dream of thee.fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks.'The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.''We love to spoon 'neath the moon in June.'On either side the river lieLong fields of barley and of ryed. consonanceDef.John swelled and ruffled his plumageII. Comparisona. simileDef. the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent1. A is like B.The check fluttered to the floor like a bird with a broken wing. Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit we cannot flower and grow without it.2.As …. as,as blind as a bat, as cool as a cucumber, as busy as bee, as firm as a rock,3.as ifMy handwriting looks as if a swarm of ants, escaping from an inkbottle, had walked over a sheet of paper without wiping their logs.… and the fattest man I have ever seen i n my life dozing in a straight-backed chair. It was as if a sack of grain was supported by a matchbox.4. A is to B is what X to YThe pen is to a writer is what the gun to a fighter.What salt is to food, that wit and humor are to conversation and literature?5.thanA fool can no more see his own folly than he can see his ears.We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.6.andA word and a stone let go cannot be recalled.Words and feather are tossed by the wind.Truth and roses have thorns about them.7.verbs （treat, regard, consider, serve, respect, …).. as）I compare genius to a lightning flash.Samuel Johnson regarded dictionaries as a watch.He treats his daughter as the eye of the apple.8.resemble…. It should fall with a gentle rustle, resembling that of a mouse, between shutter and glass.b. metaphorDef. implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it.e.g.1.to beOut, out, brief candle, life is but a walking shadow.Money is bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience and truth may be drowned.2.n of nI fall upon the thorns of life.3.verbs or adjectivesI a nticipated my case would snowballed into one of the most famous trials inU>S> history.Her hostility melted.Those people would ape anything that is new and foreign.I have got a Sahara thirst on tonight.By this hour the volcanic fire of his nature had burnt down,The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriotsand tyrants. It is the natural manure.It is the same with Negro in Africa. That shoe….. The white man’s system …. Ahs pinched and rubbed and squeezed his soul until it has almost destroyed him.Do you like talking to people who smile at you coldly and give you sharp replies? Or do you prefer people who greet you warmly and are sweet with you? What kind of strong things do you values: strong relationships, strong government, strong tastes? What kind of soft things do you appreciate: soft pillows, soft colors, soft voices? Deep people intrigue us and provoke admiration, while deep grief is sometimes too much to bear. Bright light may be blinding, but bright music sets us into a cheerful mood, and bright children with bright eyes are a delight to every parent. Connoisseurs may have a penchant for dry wine, but people with a dry sense of humor often put off their collocutors…….Extended metaphorGoing back to Hemingway’s work after several years is like going to a brook where you had often fished and finding the woods as deep and cool as they used to be. The trees are bigger, perhaps, but they are the same trees; the water comes down over the black stones as clear as always, with the same dull, steady roar where it plunges into the pool; and when the first trout takes hold of your line you can feel your heart beating against your fishing jacket. But something has changed, for this you have a sense that this time there are shadows in the pool that you had not noticed, and you have a sense that the woods are haunted.c. personificationDef. attribution of personality to an impersonal thing1. The long drawn booming of the wind in the wood and the s obbing and moaning in the maples and oaks near the house, had made Lettie restless.2. The long flames sang their drumming chorus in voices of the heaviest bass.The brook hurried along s inging, only here and there lingering to whisper to the secret bushes, then setting off afresh with a new snatch of song.The stones of the large house were burdened with ivy and honeysuckle, and the great lilac bush that had once guarded the porch now almost blocked the way.The white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer’s morning;A horse meditating in the shade of one of the hickories lazily swished his tail.d. metonymyDef. is another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely associated with (but not an actual part of) the subject with which it is to be comparedThe baby was brought up on the bottle."A dish" for an entree."The press" for the news media."Wall Street" for the American financial industry."Hollywood" for the American film industry."Washington" for the American federal government."The Crown" for the British monarchy."The pen is mightier than the sword"; pen is a metonym for rhetoricalpersuasion and sword is a metonym for violent coercion.The students read Emerson, Torean, and Huxley.The kettle is boiling.He is not the man who lets his heart lead his head.The pen is mightier than the sword.Gray hair should be respected.He is too fond of bottle.I have never read Faulkner.sleepless nightThe burglar was in Sally's mind all day longShe pushed the burglar to one side of her mind.e. synecdocheDef. a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa)A part of something is used for the whole"hands" to refer to workers,"head" for cattle,"threads" for clothing,"wheels" for car,"mouths to feed" for hungry people,"white hair" for the elderly,"The Press" for news mediaThe whole is used for a part"the police" for a handful of officers,"body" for the trunk of the body,the "smiling year" for spring,"the Pentagon" for the top-ranking generals in the Pentagon buildingThe species is used for the genus"cutthroat" for assassin,"kleenex" for facial tissue,"coke" for soda,"castle" for home,"bread" for foodThe genus is used for the species"creature" for person,"milk" for cow's milk"willow" for cricket bat,"copper" for penny,"boards" for stage,"ivories" for piano keys,"plastic" for credit card,"the hardwood" for a gym floorIII. structurea. parallelDef. recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.Any sentence elements can be paralleled, any number of times (though, of course, excess quickly becomes ridiculous).parallel subjects with parallel modifiers attached to them:∙Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness.parallel verbs and adverbs:∙I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door.∙Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book.Or parallel verbs and direct objects:∙He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit.Or just the objects:∙This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes.Or parallel prepositional phrases:∙He found it difficult to vote for an ideal truth but against his own self interest.∙The pilot walked down the aisle, through the door, and into the cockpit, singing "Up, Up, and Away."parallel participial, infinitive, and gerund phrases:∙He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly.∙To think accurately and to write precisely are interrelated goals.∙She liked sneaking up to Ted and putting the ice cream down his back, because he was so cool about it.Here are some other examples of parallelism:∙I shall never envy the honors which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardor to virtue, andconfidence to truth. --Samuel Johnson∙They had great skill in optics, and had instructed him to see faults in others, and beauties in himself, that could be discovered by nobody else. . . .--Alexander Pope∙For the end of a theoretical science is truth, but the end of a practical science is performance. --Aristotleb. antithesisDef. opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater*Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar*The vases of the classical period are but the reflection of classical beauty; the vases of the archaic period are beauty itself." Sir John Beazley"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.""I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."c. climaxDef. arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. Often the last emphatic word in one phrase or clause is repeated as the first emphatic word of the next..Let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country, and his God."Why should white people be running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands of the white man? Why?d. anticlimaxDef. sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of a sentence or passage, generally for satirical effectAmong the great achievements of Benito Mussolini's regime were the revival of a strong national consciousness, the expansion of the Italian Empire, and the running of the trains on time.IV. meaninga. zeugmaDef. includes several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage (or yoking together) of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech. Thus examples of zeugmatic usage would include one subject with two (or more) verbs, a verb with two (or more) direct objects, two (or more) subjects with one verb, and so forth. The main benefit of the linking is that it shows relationships between ideas and actions more clearlyShe was dressed in a maiden’s cap, a pinafore, and a bright smile.Glass, china and reputation are easily cracked and never well mended.I used to organize my father’s tools, my mother’s kitchen utensils , and my sister’s boyfriends.∙She lowered her standards by raising her glass,Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.You held your breath and the door for me.I took her hand and then an aspirin in the morning,The Russian grandees came to Elizabeth's court dropping pearls and vermin.Are you getting fit or having one?You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fitShe was a thief, you got to believe: she stole my heart and my cat.∙Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey,Dost sometimes Counsel take - and sometimes Tea.∙"Loud lightning and thunder shook the temple walls."∙"The sky—and my hopes—is falling."∙"Our son's diaper—and your excuses—is stinking."∙She] went straight home in a flood of tears, and a sedan chair. - Charles Dickens∙∙My teeth and ambitions are bared; be prepared! - Scar, from The Lion King with lyrics by Tim Rice∙The levees were broken and so were the promises. - Anderson Cooper, Dispatches from the Edge∙By the time we left the bar, I'd bought her story, as well as her three drinks.The kleptomaniac illusionist stole the show and my wallet.∙He drowned his sorrows and his cat, but the relief was only temporary; it was only a matter of time before it took a more sophisticated victim to quell hisdisturbances.∙It certainly wouldn't break anyone's heart or bank to give some time to charity.∙The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored.∙The bored suicide decided to kill time and himself.∙She opened the door and her heart to the orphan.The addict kicked the habit and then the bucket.∙to wage war and peaceHe lost his coat and his temper.b. hyperboleDef. exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effectc. understatementd. ironye. oxymoronDef. apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another.open secretlarger halfclearly confusedact naturallyalone togetherHell's Angelsfound missingliquid gascivil engineerdeafening silenceseriously funnyliving deadMicrosoft Worksmilitary intelligencejumbo shrimpAdvanced BASICtragic comedyunbiased opinionvirtual realitydefinite maybeoriginal copiespretty uglysame differenceplastic glassesalmost exactlyconstant variableeven oddsminor crisisextinct lifegenuine imitationexact estimateonly choicefreezer burnfree loveworking holidayrolling stopf. transferred epithetDef. an adjective modifying a noun which it does not normally modify, but which makes figurative senseOur teacher writes that instead of drowning the students’ compositions in critical red ink,The indefatigable bell now sounded for the fourth time: the classes were marshaled and marched into another room to breakfast:All that sleepless nightShe has expensive tastes for clothes.He behaved with a guilty caution and rather enjoyed stealing a march on Doctor Ed.Painful wordsEarly gravesSmiling wordsElectronic conversationsHe crashed down on a protesting chair.Gray peace pervaded the wilderness-ringed Argentina Bay in New Found land, A deafening roll of a thunderOn the idle hill of summer"The plowman homeward plods his weary way, / And leaves the world to darkness and to me" (Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard") —Weary way is a hypallage: it is the plowman, not the way, that is weary."restless night" — The night was not restless, but the person who was awake through it was."happy morning" — Mornings have no feelings, but the people who are awake through them do."female prison" — Prisons do not have genders, but the people who are inside them do.。