FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
RUBY
WHAT IS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE?
• In a work of fiction, the author may use literary devices, including figurative language to
create a special effect or feeling.
• Figurative language is phrasing that goes beyond the literal meaning of words to get a
message or point across.
• Figurative language is non-literal: the meaning of the actual words often produces an
exaggeration, understatement, comparison, contradiction, or image that creates a strong
reaction from the reader.
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE?
• The chief function of figurative language is to communicate the writer’s message as
clearly as possible.
• That might be by putting a foreign concept into familiar terms that a reader or listener can
easily grasp, or it might be by creating imagery that’s vivid and visceral.
• Some types of figurative language also have other uses unrelated to their role in creating
imagery. For example, writers use alliteration, consonance and assonance alongside
rhyme to give words rhythm and musicality.
COMMON TYPES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
SIMILE
• Simile: A simile is a comparison of two unlike things in which a comparison word is
used. (such as like or as)
• Example: He’s as angry as a hornet.
METAPHOR
• Metaphor: is a comparison of two unlike things in which no comparison word is used.
• Example1: When my three-year-old brother wakes up in the morning, he is a bear.
• Example 2 Jaques: All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts
• This is an example of metaphor. Jaques compares life to the world of theatre, directly and
without the use of a simile’s connecting words “like” or “as.”
HYPERBOLE（夸张）
• Hyperbole equals exaggeration.
• Example: I am so hungry that I could eat a horse!
ANTITHESIS( 对立；对照）
• An antithesis is the placement of opposite ideas near one another using parallel phrasing.
• Example: “Give me Liberty or give me Death!” (attributed to Patrick Henry)
PERSONIFICATION （拟人）
• Personification presents an object, animal, or idea with human qualities.
• Example: The shoes called my name, so I had to buy them!
• She sweeps with many-colored brooms, And leaves the shreds behind; Oh, housewife in
the evening west, Come back, and dust the pond!
• It is probably obvious by now that Dickinson is not talking about a literal person. Instead,
she is ascribing the properties of the housewife to a non-living thing—the sunset. Her
imagery has strong cleansing associations.
PARADOX
• A paradox is a seeming contradiction that actually reveals a truth.
• Example: Freedom is confining.
• Life is painful.
• More haste, less speed.
ONOMATOPOEIA （拟声）
• Onomatopoeia is the spelling of words to sound like the actual sound those words
represent.
• Example: When the word fizz is pronounced aloud, the sound created is an actual fizz.
• Bang. Pop
• boom
METONYMY( 转喻 , ）
• Metonymy involves the use of one closelyrelated word or concept to represent another.
It may also use a part to represent a whole.
• Example #1: Loyalty to the crown refers to allegiance to a royal government, not to an
actual headpiece.
Example #2: Counting heads actually refers to tallying the number of entire bodies
present, rather than just the abovetheshoulders body parts.
• Example #3: Using the white house for the US president
PUN
• A pun is a play on words. It exploits the different meanings of a word or its homonyms,
usually to humorous effect.
• A well-worn example of a pun is: “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”
IRONY
• Irony presents the opposite of what is expected. There are three types of irony.
• 1. In verbal irony ， the speaker presents language that means the opposite of what he
intends(frequently regarded as sarcasm).
• Example: As I tripped over my own two feet and fell on my face in the dirt, my friend
looked at me and said, “ Nice work!”
IRONY
• Dramatic irony results when the reader possesses knowledge that the characters do not
hold themselves.
• Example: A character in a novel discusses her desire to locate a father she has never met,
the
• reader knows that the man she is talking to is actually her biological father.
IRONY
• Situational irony occurs when the outcome is the opposite of the expected outcome.
•
Example: A man chooses to drive to from Raleigh, North Carolina to Disney world in
Orlando, Florida (rather than flying on an airplane) in order to save money until his next
paycheck; however, his car overheats in South Carolina, and the cost to repair the car is
twice as much as the airfare.
PRACTICE
• Using the figurative language organizer, record examples of figurative as you discover
them in the novel. Be sure to list the literary device the author uses and the page number
on which you find each example.
hyperbole page To whom or what it refers Meaning
