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Figure of Speech Understatement

This document defines and provides examples of several literary devices: 1) Litotes/understatement uses negative statements to express a positive. Examples include "They do not seem the happiest couple around." 2) Apostrophe addresses imaginary characters. Examples from Shakespeare and Jane Taylor are given. 3) Metonymy replaces the name of something with something closely associated. Examples include "England" referring to the government and "the pen" referring to written words. 4) Allusion briefly references people, places or ideas expecting the reader to understand the significance, like references to Romeo and Pandora's Box. 5) Alliteration features words beginning with the same consonant close together, like "furrow followed

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341 views

Figure of Speech Understatement

This document defines and provides examples of several literary devices: 1) Litotes/understatement uses negative statements to express a positive. Examples include "They do not seem the happiest couple around." 2) Apostrophe addresses imaginary characters. Examples from Shakespeare and Jane Taylor are given. 3) Metonymy replaces the name of something with something closely associated. Examples include "England" referring to the government and "the pen" referring to written words. 4) Allusion briefly references people, places or ideas expecting the reader to understand the significance, like references to Romeo and Pandora's Box. 5) Alliteration features words beginning with the same consonant close together, like "furrow followed

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여자마비
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1.

Litotes/Understatement
It is derived from a Greek word meaning
simple, is a figure of speech which employs
an understatement by using double negatives
or, in other words, positive statement is
expressed by negating its opposite
expressions.

Examples:
They do not seem the happiest couple around.
The ice cream was not too bad.
New York is not an ordinary city.
2. Apostrophe
It is a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation O. A writer or
a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an
imaginary character in his speech.

Examples:

William Shakespeare makes use of an apostrophe in his play Macbeth:


Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Jane Taylor uses apostrophe in the well-known nursery rhyme The Star:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Look at how Mary Shelly uses apostrophe in her novel Frankenstein:
Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me; if ye really pity me,
crush sensation and memory; let me become as nought; but if not, depart, depart,
and leave me in darkness.
3. Metonymy
It is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a
thing with the name of something else with which it
is closely associated. We can come across examples
of metonymy both from literature and in everyday
life.
Examples:
England decides to keep check on immigration.
(England refers to the government.)
The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen refers to
written words and sword to military force.)
The Oval Office was busy in work. (The Oval
Office is a metonymy as it stands for people at work
in the office.)
4. Allusion
It is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea
of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not
describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a
passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess
enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in
a text.
Examples:
Dont act like a Romeo in front of her. Romeo is a reference
to Shakespeares Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet, in Romeo
and Juliet.
The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandoras box of crimes. This
is an allusion to one of Greek Mythologys origin myth,
Pandoras box.
This place is like a Garden of Eden. This is a biblical allusion
to the garden of God in the Book of Genesis.
5. Alliteration
It is derived from Latins 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.
Examples:
The furrow followed free;
His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling
faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the
descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Up the aisle, the moans and screams merged with the
sickening smell of woolen black clothes worn in summer
weather and green leaves wilting over yellow flowers.

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