Literary devices
Literary devices are the tools deployed by writers and poets to beautify the lines of expressions in their work. As such, it has become obvious that for one to master or understand literature, he or she must get acquainted with these techniques.
- Litotes:
This is an expression that attempts to show the magnitude of an event, situation or a thing by denying its opposite. A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. Example:
- A million dollars is no small chunk of change.
- He’s not a very generous man.
- She is not very beautiful.
- He is not the friendliest person I’ve met.
- Don’t be too wicked.
- It won’t be an easy trip
- He is not unaware of his wife’s foolishness.
- The taste is not bad,
- Kingsley is not that intelligent
- Alliteration:
The repetition of an initial consonant sound. That is, when the first letters of a group words in a sentence or line of poetry starts with the same consonant letter.
Example:
- She sells seashells by the seashore. (‘s’ alliterates).
- All peters with petered out desires.
- Anaphora:
This is when the same word or group of words are repeated at the beginning of sentences that are close to each other or lines of poetry that follow each other. It is also the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Example:
- Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong day.
- I will take you down the isle
I will be yours forever
I will hold you forever
We will live together like never before
- Antithesis:
This is the parallel opposition of ideas in a given sentence. The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or when two opposite ideas are placed side by side in a sentence.
Example:
- As Abraham Lincoln said, “Folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
- Think of what you will do for your country, and not what your country will do for you.
- Man proposes, God disposes.” – Source unknown.
- “Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.” – Goethe.
- “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong.
- “To err is human; to forgive divine.” – Alexander Pope.
- “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” – William Shakespeare.
- “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:14.
- Apostrophe:
This is when someone that is absent is being addressed as if he or she is present or when one speaks to an inanimate object as if it can hear and understand. Directly addressing a non-existent person or an inanimate object as though it were a living being.
Example:
- Oh, you stupid car, you never work when I need you to,” Bert sighed.
- Ah this sun you are shining too much, I wonder who sent you.
- Assonance:
This is identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighbouring words or when there is the use of words that have the same vowel sound in their middle.
Example:
- How now, brown cow? (‘O’ assonates)
- All peters petered out desires (“e” assonates)
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Chiasmus:
It is a figure of speech in which words or phrases are repeated in reverse order. A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed. That is, it is a figurative expression in the second part of a sentence compliments the first half by being in a reverse order
Example:
- The famous chef said people should live to eat, not eat to live.
- He knowingly led and we followed blindly
- Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like a hare afraid
- ‘Bad men live that they may eat and drink,
- Whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.’
- Socrates (fifth century B.C.)
- Euphemism:
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit. Simply put, it is the use of mild word or phrase to express something bad or unpleasant in other to make is less serious. It is used to express a mild, indirect, or vague term to substitute for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term. It is the opposite of dysphemism.
Example:
- “We’re teaching our toddler how to go potty,” Bob said.
- Going to the other side for death,
- Do it or come together in reference to a sexual act.
- Passed away for die.
- On the streets for homeless.
- Adult entertainment for pornography.
- Comfort woman for prostitute
- Between jobs for unemployed.
- Hyperbole:
This is an overstatement made for the sake of emphasis. An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect. It is often meant to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression Example: I have a ton of things to do when I get home.
- The bag weighed a ton.
- I was so hungry; I could eat a horse!
- She’s older than the hills.
- I could sleep for a year; I was so tired.
- He’s filthy rich. He’s got tons of money.
- I’ve told you a million times to help with the housework.
- Irony:
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. Also, a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. This can simply be referred to as the opposite of what is meant. It is also a contradiction of expectation between what is said and what is really meant. There are three types of irony: verbal, dramatic and situational.
- Verbal irony:
It is a contrast between what is said and what is meant
- Dramatic irony:
It occurs when the audience or the reader knows more than the character about events. In other words, what the character thinks is true is incongruous with what the audience knows.
- Situational irony:
This refers to the contrast between the actual result of a situation and what was intended or expected to happen.
Example:
- “Oh, I love spending big bucks,” said my dad, a notorious penny pincher.
- His argument was as clear as mud.
- The two identical twins were arguing. One of them told the other: “You’re ugly”
- The thieves robbed the police station.
- Zeugma:
This is a Greek word that means “bond.” It is a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, joins different parts of a sentence. It is a construction where a single word is used with two other parts of a sentence but must be understood differently in relation to each. That is to say the Zeugma, which is also referred to as syllepsis, is a figurative situation in which a word connects to expressions in a sentence, but relates differently to the expressions
Example,
- He took his hat and his leave.
- She broke his car and his heart.
- Metaphor:
Metaphor, from its Greek root means ‘transfer’. It is an implied comparison between two dissimilar things that have something in common.
Note: in metaphor there is ‘what is compared’, ‘the source of comparison’, and the attribute of comparison or what is transferred’. From the statement, “you are a lion”, the lion is the source of comparison, you are what is compared or object of comparison, and the fierceness of the lion is the attribute of comparison or what is being transferred.
Example:
- All the world’s a stage,
- And all the men and women merely players;
- They have their exits and their entrances;
- (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)
- Metonymy:
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is substituted for another with which it’s closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it. It simply refers to using what is closely related or associated to something to refer to that.
Example:
- (For the power of a king.)
- The White House. (Referring to the American administration.)
- (To refer an entire plate of food.)
- The Pentagon. (For the Department of Defense and the offices of the U.S. Armed Forces.)
- (For the written word.)
- Sword – (For military force.)
- (For US Cinema.)
- (For help.)
“That stuffed suit with the briefcase is a poor excuse for a salesman,” the manager said angrily.
- Onomatopoeia:
The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. It occurs when a word or phrase used imitate to sound of what they express.
Example:
- The clap of thunder went bang and scared my poor dog.
- The pite pata of the heavy rain shattered the vegetables in the farm
- Oxymoron:
A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. The plural is oxymorons or oxymora.
Example:
An oxymoron can be made of an adjective and a noun:
- Dark light
- Deafening silence
- Living dead
- Open secret
- Virtual reality
Oxymoron can also be a combination of a noun and a verb.
- The silence whistles
- Paradox:
A statement that appears to contradict itself.
Example:
- “This is the beginning of the end,” said Eeyore, always the pessimist.
- Personification:
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
Example:
- That kitchen knife will take a bite out of your hand if you don’t handle it safely.
- Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room.
“Ah, William, we’re weary of weather,”
Said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
“Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?”
They arranged themselves at the window
And counted the steps of the sun,
And they both took root in the carpet
Where the topaz tortoises run.
William Blake
(1757-1827)
- Pun:
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words. According to myenglishpages.com, “A pun, also called paronomasia, involves a word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. Puns are constructions used in jokes and idioms whose usage and meaning are entirely local to a particular language and its culture. To be understood, puns require a large vocabulary.”
Example:
- Jessie looked up from her breakfast and said, “A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat.”
- “Atheism is a non-prophet institution”
The word “prophet” is put in place of its homophone “profit”, altering the common phrase “non-profit institution”.
- “Question: Why do we still have troops in Germany?
- Answer: To keep the Russians in Czech” – Joke.
This joke relies on the aural ambiguity of the homophones “check” and “Czech”
- “You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass.” – Douglas Adams
The phrase uses the homophonic qualities of “tune a” and “tuna”, as well as the homographic pun on “bass”, in which ambiguity is reached through the identical spellings but different pronunciation of “bass”: (a string instrument), and (a kind of fish).
- Simile:
A stated comparison (usually formed with “like” or “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
Example:
- Roberto was white as a sheet after he walked out of the horror movie.
- Synecdoche:
A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole to represent the part.
Example:
- Tina is learning her ABC’s in preschool.
- Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing –
A hundred head of cattle (using the part head to refer to the whole animal)
- The whole of a thing is used to represent part of it –
The world treated him badly (using the world to refer to part of the world)
- A specific class of thing is used to refer to a larger, more general class –
A bug (used to refer to any kind of insect or arachnid, even if it is not a true bug)
- A general class of thing is used to refer to a smaller, more specific class –
The good book (referring to the Bible or the Qur’an)
- A material is used to refer to an object composed of that material –
Glasses or steel (referring to spectacles or sword)
- A container is used to refer to its contents –
A barrel (referring to a barrel of oil)
- Understatement:
A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
Example:
- “You could say Babe Ruth was a decent ballplayer,” the reporter said with a wink.
- “It stings a bit” – a soldier describing the pain he feels after he has just lost his leg.
- “It has rained a little more than the average” – describing a flooded area.
- “It was an interesting experience.” – describing a difficult unbearable experience.
- “The grave’s a fine and private place,
- But none, I think, do there embrace.”
(Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”)
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REFERENCES
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