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Stylistic Devices (Rhetorical Devices,
Figures of Speech)
Stylistic devices
make your speeches, essays etc. more interesting
and lively and help you to get and keep your
reader?s / listener?s
attention.
Stylistic Devices
Alliteration
:
repetition of initial consonant
sound
The initial consonant
sound is usually repeated in two neighbouring
words (sometimes also in words that are not
next to each other). Alliteration draws
attention to the phrase and is often used for
emphasis.
Examples:
?
?
?
for the greater
good of ...
(1)
safety and security
(1)
share a continent but not a country
(2)
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
means that only the sound must be the same, not
the
consonants themselves.
Examples:
?
?
?
killer command
fantastic philosophy
A neat knot need not be re-knotted.
If neighbouring words start
with the same consonant but have a different
initial sound, the words
are not
alliterated.
Examples:
?
?
a Canadian child
honoured and humbled (the ?h? in
honoured is silent)
Allusion
:
indirect reference to a person, event or piece of
literature
Allusion is used to explain or clarify
a complex problem. Note that allusion works best
if you keep it short and
refer to
something the reader / audience is familiar with,
e.g.:
?
?
?
?
?
famous people
history
(Greek)
mythology
literature
the bible
If the audience is familiar with the
event or person, they will also know background
and context. Thus, just a few
words are
enou
gh to create a certain picture (or
scene) in the readers? minds. The advantages are
as follows:
?
We don?t need lengthy explanations to
clarify the problem.
1
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?
?
The reader becomes active by reflecting
on the analogy.
The message
will stick in the reader's mind.
Examples:
the Scrooge
Syndrome (allusion on the rich, grieve and mean
Ebeneezer Scrooge from
Charles Dicken?s
“Christmas Carol”)
?
The software
included a Trojan Horse. (allusion on the Trojan
horse from Greek mythology)
?
Plan ahead. It
was not raining when Noah built the Ark. (Richard
Cushing) (allusion on the
biblical Ark
of Noah)
?
Many allusions on historic events,
mythology or the bible have become famous idioms.
Examples:
to meet one?s
Waterloo (allusion on Napoleons defeat in the
Battle of Waterloo)
?
to wash one?s
hands of it. (allusion on Pontius Pilatus, who
sentenced Jesus to death, but
washed
his hands afterwards to demonstrate that he was
not to blame for it.)
?
to be as old as
Methusalem (allusion on Joseph?s grandfather, who
was 969 years old
according to the Old
Testament)
?
to guard sth with Argus?s eyes
(allusion on the giant Argus from Greek mythology,
who
watched over Zeus? lover Io.)
?
Anaphora
:
successive clauses or sentences start
with the same word(s)
The same word or phrase is used to
begin successive clauses or sentences. Thus, the
reader's / listener's attention is
drawn directly to the message of the
sentence.
Example:
Every
child must be taught these principles. Every
citizen must uphold them. And every
immigrant, by embracing these ideals,
makes our country more, not less, American.
(2)
?
If we had no
winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we
did not sometimes taste of
adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome. (Anne
Bradstreet)
?
The beginning of wisdom is silence. The
second step is listening. (unknown)
?
A man without
ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love
is dead. A man with
ambition and love
for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.
(Pearl Bailey)
?
Anaphora is often used in conjunction
with parallelism or climax.
Antithesis
:
contrasting relationship between two
ideas
Antithesis
emphasises the contrast between two ideas. The
structure of the phrases / clauses is usually
similar in
order to draw the reader's /
listener's attention directly to the contrast.
Examples:
/en/cram-
up/writing/style
2
?
?
?
That's one
small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
(Neil Armstrong)
To err is
human; to forgive, divine. (Pope)
It is easier for a father to have
children than for children to have a real father.
(Pope)
Hyperbole
:
deliberate exaggeration
Used sparingly, hyperbole
effectively draws the attention to a message that
you want to emphasise.
Example:
?
?
I was so hungry, I could eat an
elephant.
I have told you a
thousand times.
Hypophora
:
question raised and answered by the author /
speaker
The
author
/
speaker
raises a
question
and
also gives
an
answer
to
the
question. Hypophora
is
used
to
get
the
audience's
attention
and
make
them
curious.
Often
the
question
is
raised
at
the
beginning
of
a
paragraph
and
answered
in
the
course
of
that
paragraph.
Hypophora
can
also
be
used,
however,
to
introduce
a
new
area
of
discussion.
Example:
Why is it better to love than be loved?
It is surer. (Sarah Guitry)
?
How many
countries have actually hit […] the targets set at
Rio, or in Kyoto in 1998, for
cutting
greenhouse-gas emissions? Precious few.
(6)
?
see also:
→ Rhetorical Question
Litotes
:
form of
understatement
Litotes is a form of understatement
which uses the denied opposite of a word to weaken
or soften a message.
Examples:
That's not bad. (instead of: That's
good/great.)
?
Boats aren't easy to find in the dark.
(4)
(instead of: Boats are
hard/difficult to find in the
dark.)
?
see
also:
→ Understatement
Metaphor
:
figurative expression
Metaphor compares two
different things in a figurative sense. Unlike in
a simile (A is like B.), “like” is not used in
metaphor (A is B.).
Example:
?
Truths are
first clouds, then rain, then harvest and food.
(Henry Ward Beecher)
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3
?
Through much of
the last century, America's faith in freedom and
democracy was a rock in a
raging sea.
Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in
many nations.
(2)
see also:
→
Simile
,
→
Metonymy
,
→
Allusion
Metonymy
:
figurative expression, closely associated with the
subject
转喻
Metonomy (unlike metaphor) uses
figurative expressions that are closely associated
with the subject in terms of
place,
time
or
background.
The
figurative
expression
is
not
a
physical
part
of
the
subject,
however
(see
synecdoche).
Examples:
?
?
?
?
?
The White House
declared
… (White House = US government
/ President)
The land
belongs to the crown. (crown = king / queen /
royal family / monarchy)
Empty pockets never held anyone back.
Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.
(Norman Vincent Peale)
(empty pockets = poverty; empty heads =
ignorance / dullness / density; empty hearts =
unkindness / coldness)
the spit-and-polish command post
(
meaning:
shiny clean)
(3)
see also:
→
Metaphor
,
→
Synecdoche
Narration Technique see:
Points of view
:
first or third person
narration
First-
person narrator
The narrator tells the
story from his / her point of view (I). It is a
limited point of view as the reader will only
know
what
the
narrator
knows.
The
advantage
of
the
first
person
narration
is
that
the
narrator
shares
his
/
her
personal experiences and
secrets with the reader so that the reader feels
part of the story.
Example:
?
Charlotte
Bronte: Jane Eyre
Third-
person narrator
The
narrator
is
not
part
of
the
plot
and
tells
the
story
in
the
third
person
(he,
she).
Usually
the
narrator
is
all-
knowing
(omniscient
narrator):
he
/
she
can
switch
from
one
scene
to
another,
but
also
focus
on
a
single
character from time to time.
Example:
?
Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
The third-person narrator
can also be a personal narrator (point of view of
one character) who tells the story in the
third person (he, she), but only from
the central character's point of view. This point
of view is rarely used.
Example:
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