ABOUTREADCHAT ARTICLES ABOUTREADCHAT ARTICLES CLASSIFICATION OF FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech can be further classified into seven categories. These categories are made up of different figures of speech according to their types which are:
Figure of similarity
a) Simile, it is one of the most used figure of speech. It involves comparison between two persons or things that have features that can be said not to be similar or comparable. Simile is usually introduced by words such as “Like” and “As”
Examples
• “The girl talks like a patriot”
• “The boy is as brave as a Lion”
• “The little boy swims like a Fish”
b) Metaphor; the figures of speech is a comparism which is only implied not made directly between two or more different persons or objects.
Examples are:
• He is a Lion in the battle field
• She is a Parrot
C) Allegory; Here a person or thing is described thoroughly to enable the reader to understand the other, following the comparison using abstract dieses or principles to describe a person.
Example
• Mary is evil
• God is love
d) Fable: this is where animals are used to symbolism human. Fable teaches morals.
2) Figures of contrast
a) Antithesis; here two ideas are used against each other and following contrast to one appears very shirking than the other.
Examples
• God made the country man made the town
• United we stand , divided we fall
b) Parallel: this involves prolonged comparison that brings to focus the different between two persons or things.
Examples ;
• “so shine a good deed in a naughty world”
• How far that little candle throws it basins.
Epigram; refers to a brief witty stormy that seems contradictory but on a closer work does not.
Examples
• “Clever men are good but they are not the best”.
• “To look is much less easy than to overlook”
d) Oxymoron: this places two opposite words side by side to make a sharp contrast.
Example
• It was a bitter sweet experience
• She was faultily faultless
e) Paradox; it is an expression that seems absurd at first sight and yet prove to be true on a second thought e.g
• The child is father of the man
• More haste, less speed.
f) Climax; it shows upward movement in expression, ascension from low to high through successive movement.
Examples;
• Some are born great, some archive greatness and on some greatness is thrust
• “I came, I saw and I conquered”
g) Anti-climax or Bathos; here there is downward successive descend from higher levels to lesser heights And the intensity weakens e.g
• He lost his wife, his child, his household properties and his dog at once.
CLASSIFICATION OF FIGURES OF SPEECH CONTINUED
3) Figures of Association or Connection
a) Metonym; This involves a change of name by which a person is known. It is a representation of something with an object association with or related to it.
Example
• He pulpit should be careful (the clergy)
• The change of throne is not an easy task (kingship)
b) Synecdoche, it involves a change in name in which part of some represents a whole. example; the name in him soon assented itself (manliness)
c) Allusion; it makes reference to a well-known event person.
d) A prodigal son in the Bible.
e) The good Samaritan
4) Figures of imagination;
a) Personification; this refers to the attribution of life to inanimate things in order to make them human.
Example
• The sun smiles at me
• The pen danced furiously on the paper.
Personal metaphor or pathetic fallacy: This figure of speech treats lifeless objects of nature as living beings. Personal metaphor like ordinary metaphor can be restated as simile.
Examples.
• “An angry sea”{person metaphor}
• “The smiling corn” (personal metaphor)
• “The sea was rough as an angry man” (restating personal metaphor as simile)
Apostrophe; this is the figure if speech which addressed someone who is not present or is dead or speak to were present.
Examples:
• Oh death why did you do this to me
• My goodness you are beautiful.
Hyperbole; This exaggeration for Examples; she is so hungry she can eat a whole horse.
• She greets him a thousand times
Assignment
Students to list the two categories of figures of speech.
Explain them each with the relevant literary terms. Give two examples each.
CLASSIFICATION OF FIGURES OF SPEECH CONTINUED
Objectives: by the end of the lessons the students should be able to list and mention the figures of speech classified with their relevant examples.We continue from where we stopped:
5) Figures of indirectness;
a) Innuendo; it is also known as insinuation
Example;
“A word is enough for the wise”
“I never consult a doctor, for I hope to die without them”
b) Irony; this is saying the exact opposite deliberately of what one intend tosay.
Examples
• His hands are so long that they cannot even touch his eyes
• I wish I had your type of teeth (opposite)
c) Sarcasm; it is a form of verbal irony that insults a person without an insincere praise. It employs contempt bitterness and sheer ridicule in expressing the irony without concealing anything.
Examples;
• Keep your wrist watch
d) Euphemism; this figure of speech expresses an unpleasant truth in such a manner that will be offensive but agreeable.
Examples
• “he fell in a long sleep” (this means death)
• I am not a poor man
e) Litotes; there an understated is used ironically to express emphasis, unlike overstatement in hyperbole that is also used for the sake of emphasis.
Example
• “I am a citizen of no mean country” meaning very important nation)
• “I shan’t be sorry when it’s over” (meaning I shall be very glad)
f) Periphrasis (circumlocution) it is known as beating about the bush or not hitting the nail on the head.
Example
6) Figure of sound;
a) Pun; this is also called paronomasia. This is play on words having the same sound. Used with different meaning to create fun.
• The pastor preyed on the lady until she became a prey.
• “Lady, a mender of soles that I am, I can well mend your troubled soul” the passes for a man of letters without the knowledge of a single letter”
b) Onomatopoeia or Echoism; this figure of speech entails words which are deliberately used in such a way that the sounds naturally echo their meaning. Thus, the word represents the sounds.
Examples.
• “ and murmuring innumerable bees• And I heard home it was an accident
• The driver zoomed off immediately.
c) Alliteration; this is used to describe the repetition of consonant sounds in a poetic lined. Example
• “Father Francis from France fried five fresh fishes for five famous friends from Finland”
• The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew.
d) Rhythm; this refers to the musical flow of sound in poetry. It is often used by poets to enable the reader feel what they have experienced.
e) Rhyme: This occurs when there is similarity of sounds in the final syllables of poetic lunes.
Evaluation
The students to explain
i. Periphrasis
ii. List the two classifications of figures of speech treated.Assignment
Students to give examples of
1) Onomatopoeia
2) Write a short poem with rhyme.
CLASSIFICATION OF FIGURES OF SPEECH CONTINUED7) Figures of construction:
• Interrogation; this is also known as rhetorical question. It is an expression which requires no answer since the answer is already implied.
Examples
• Does it stink like a rotten meat?
• Does God sees?
• Exclamation; this is a sudden passionate address used interjectionally expressing surprise, pain
• Oh my God!
• What!
• Chiasmus; this is the opposite arrangement of words that occur in pairs of parallel phrases.
Examples
• Rose is red, red is rose
• When the going gets tough, the tough get going
• To be or not to be
• Failure is an orphan, orphan is failure
• Hendiadys; is an expression of two words connected by a conjunction “and “.
Example
• “To look with eyes and eny” (instead of with envious eyes”
• The coffee is nice and hot
• You are smart and beautiful
• Syllepsis; this entails usage of a word in visa- visa a pair of given words with different meaning in each time.
Examples
• “Neither you nor him know”
f) Inversion; this figure of speech is also regarded as hyperbaton were the order of words is reversed in order to achieve effect or emphasis or meter.
Example
• ”Here, to this house I come”
• “Out of something strong cometh honey”
• “present gather”
g) Zeugma; here two or more parts of a sentence are joined with a single common verb or noun.
Examples;
• “The bread was baking and so was I”
• “stab the man and the bag”
h) Tautology; this is the expression of same idea repeatedly in different ways.
Examples
• The two both of your come have
• He took away all the whole money.
Assignment
The students to
1) State two categories of figures of speech
2) Mention the types of figures of speech under each category.
Draw a chart; listing the seven classification or categories of the figures of speech.
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