Download Understanding Figurative Language: Types, Categories, and Examples and more Study notes History in PDF only on Docsity! CONNOTATIVE - other meaning given to a word. DENOTATIVE - literal meaning of a word FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - is a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in which word mean exactly what they say - Also known as the "ornaments of language," - does not mean exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap in order to comprehend the author's point. THREE MAIN CATEGORIES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 1. FIGURES OF THOUGHT - also called tropes. - A trope is the meaning a word has other than its literal meaning. - Examples are simile, metaphor, irony and personification. 2. FIGURES OF SPEECH - also called rhetorical figures or schemes. - Rhetorical figures depart not from the literal meaning of the words, but from the standard usage or order of the words. - Examples are: Apostrophe, Chiasmus. Antithesis and Rhetorical Question. 3. FIGURES OF SOUND - include the sound - Examples effect devices. are: Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance and Onomatopoeia. FIGURES OF SPEECH BASED ON ANALOGY ANALOGY - drawn to explain, describe, argue, and justify. Distinct units of thought in analogy: a. TENOR is the subject or idea you are trying to explain. b. VEHICLE is the means by which you explain it. TYPES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 1. SIMILE - A stated comparison (usually formed with "like", "than", or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar or unlike things that have certain qualities in common. EXAMPLES โ You are like the sun that brightens my day. โ IU's voice is like music that lingers to my ears. โ The world is like a stage, we are its players. 2. METAPHOR - An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. EXAMPLES โ You are my sunshine. โ IU's voice is music to my ears. โ RM is a walking encyclopedia. โ Her heart is a rock. โ All the world's stages. 3. ALLUSION - A reference to, or a representation of people, places, events, literary work, myths, works of art, either directly or by implication. - It is an implied or indirect reference. EXAMPLES โ Don't act like a Romeo in front of her. โ Hey! Guess who the new Einstein of our school is? โ I am serious over here, it is no Disneyland here. 4. PERSONIFICATION - An inanimate object, an animal or an idea is endowed with human qualities or abilities. EXAMPLES โ The earth hath swallowed all my hopes. โ The sun played hide and seek with the clouds. โ Opportunity knocked on the door. โ Traffic seemed to crawl. 5. REIFICATION - It is the treatment of something abstract as a material or concrete thing. - It is the apprehension of human phenomena as if they were things, that is, in non- human or possibly superhuman terms. EXAMPLES
