1. By: Asst. Prof. Kailas Pote
Figure of Speech
By: Asst. Prof. Kailas Pote

2. Definition
A figure of speech is a phrase or word having different meanings than its literal meanings. It conveys meaning by identifying or comparing one thing to another, which has connotation or meaning familiar to the audience. That is why it is helpful in creating vivid rhetorical effect.
Literal Meaning/Denotative meaning/surface meaning
Implied meaning/ Connotative/ Deeper meaning

3. Types of Figure of Speech
Simile
It is a type of comparison between things or objects by using “as” or “like.”
Metaphor
Metaphor is comparing two unlike objects or things, which may have some common qualities.
Paradox
The term paradox is from the Greek word paradox on, which means “contrary to expectations, existing belief, or perceived opinion.”
It is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly, but which may include a latent truth. It is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas. A paradox is often used to make a reader think over an idea in innovative way.

4. Types of Figure of Speech
Personification
It occurs when a writer gives human traits to non-human or inanimate objects. It is similar to metaphors and similes that also use comparison between two objects.

5. Types of Figure of Speech
Understatement and Hyperbole
These two figures of speech are opposite to each other. Hyperbole uses extreme exaggeration. It exaggerates to lay emphasis on a certain quality or feature. It stirs up emotions among the readers, these emotions could be about happiness, romance, inspiration, laughter or sadness.
Example

6. Alliteration
Alliteration is derived from Latin’s “Latira”. It means “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.

7. Meter
Meter and Foot A meter contains a sequence of several feet, where each foot has a number of syllables such as stressed/unstressed. Hence, a meter has an overall rhythmic pattern in a line of verse, which a foot cannot describe.

8. Iamb (x /)
This is the most commonly used rhythm. It consists of two syllables, the first of which is not stressed, while the second syllable is stressed. Such as:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Trochee (/ x)
A trochee is a type of poetic foot commonly used in English poetry. It has two syllables, the first of which is strongly stressed, while the second syllable is unstressed, as given below:
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers”

9. Spondee (/ /)
Spondee is a poetic foot that has two syllables, which are consecutively stressed. For example:
“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”
Dactyl (/ x x)
Dactyl is made up of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed, and the remaining two syllables are not stressed, such as in the word “marvelous.” For example:
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,”

10. Anapest (x x /)
Anapests are total opposites of dactyls. They have three syllables; where the first two syllables are not stressed, and the last syllable is stressed. For example:
” ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,”

11. Repetition
Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. There are several types of repetition commonly used in both prose and poetry.
As a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase, or a full sentence, or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text. Repetition is not distinguished solely as a figure of speech, but more as a rhetorical device.

12. Types of Meter Iambic meter (unstressed/stressed)
Trochaic meter (stressed/unstressed)
Spondaic meter, (stressed/stressed)
Anapestic meter (unstressed/unstressed/ stressed)
Dactylic meter (stressed/unstressed/unstressed)

13. A pun is a play on words that produces a humorous effect by using a word that suggests two or more meanings, or by exploiting similar sounding words that have different meanings. Example:
“It is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.”

14. Thank You.