ÖABT

ENGLISH
LITERATURE

FIGURES OF SPEECH
DEFINITIONS AND QUIZ
 FIGURES OF SPEECH – I
1. Alliteration (ses tekrarı)
The repetition of an initial consonant
sound.
I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner
marching in front of me."
(George Orwell, "A Hanging,"1931)
2. Anaphora (yinelem)
The repetition of the same word or phrase
at the beginning of successive clauses or
verses. (opposite of epistrophe.)
"Sir Walter Raleigh. Good food. Good cheer.
Good times."
(slogan of the Sir Walter Raleigh Inn
Restaurant, Maryland)
3. Antithesis (tariz)
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in
balanced phrases.
"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing."
(Goethe)
4. Apostrophe (tevcih-i kelam)
Breaking off discourse to address some
absent person or thing, some abstract
quality, an inanimate object, or a
nonexistent character.
"Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own."
(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")
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5. Assonance (ünlü yinelemesi)
Identity or similarity in sound between
internal vowels in neighboring words.
"It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!"
(advertising slogan for Hoover vacuum
cleaners, 1950s)
6. Chiasmus (sözcük sırasının yer
değiştirmesi)
A verbal pattern in which the second half of
an expression is balanced against the first
but with the parts reversed.
"Your manuscript is both good and original;
but the part that is good is not original, and
the part that is original is not good."
(Samuel Johnson)
7. Euphemism (hüsnü tabir)
The substitution of an inoffensive term for
one considered offensively explicit.
Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about
what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're
both being let go.
Lou: Let go? What does that mean?
Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired,
Louie.
(In Good Company, 2004)
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 FIGURES OF SPEECH – I
8. Hyperbole (mübalağa)
An extravagant statement; the use of
exaggerated terms for the purpose of
emphasis or heightened effect.
I was helpless. I did not know what in the
world to do. I was quaking from head to foot,
and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they
stuck out so far."
(Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi")
9. Irony (hiciv)
The use of words to convey the opposite of
their literal meaning. A statement or
situation where the meaning is contradicted
by the appearance or presentation of the
idea.
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is
the War Room."
(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in
Dr. Strangelove, 1964)
10. Litotes
A figure of speech consisting of an
understatement in which an affirmative is
expressed by negating its opposite.
He’s not the brightest man in the world.
(Meaning he’s stupid.)
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11. Metaphor (istiare, mecaz)
An implied comparison between two unlike
things that actually have something
important in common.
"A man may break a word with you, sir, and
words are but wind."
(William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors)
12. Metonymy (ad aktarması)
A figure of speech in which one word or
phrase is substituted for another with which
it's closely associated; also, the rhetorical
strategy of describing something indirectly
by referring to things around it.
"Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament."
(The Guardian, January 1, 2009)
13. Onomatopoeia (yansıma)
The use of words that imitate the sounds
associated with the objects or actions they
refer to.
"Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, 'cock-a-diddle-dow!'"
(Ariel in William Shakespeare's The Tempest,
Act One, scene 2)
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 FIGURES OF SPEECH – I
14. Oxymoron (tezat) 18. Simile (benzetme)
A figure of speech in which incongruous or A stated comparison (usually formed with
contradictory terms appear side by side. "like" or "as") between two fundamentally
dissimilar things that have certain qualities
"A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."
in common.
(G.K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw,
1909)
"The living self has one purpose only: to come
into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes
15. Paradox (çelişki)
into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty,
A statement that appears to contradict or a tiger into lustre."
itself. (D.H. Lawrence, "Each Man Shall Be
Spontaneously Himself")
"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
"Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984) 19. Synecdoche (kapsamlama)
A figure of speech in which a part is used
to represent the whole (for example, ABCs
for alphabet) or the whole for a part
16. Personification (kişileştirme)
("England won the World Cup in 1994.")
A figure of speech in which an inanimate
object or abstraction is endowed with
"Rationalizing guilt is a common trait of white-
human qualities or abilities. collar criminals."
(Larry J. Siegel, Criminology, 2012)
"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered.
There was no one there."
(proverb18 quoted by Christopher Moltisanti,
The Sopranos) 20. Understatement (önemsiz gösterme)
A figure of speech in which a writer or
speaker deliberately makes a situation
17. Pun (cinas, kelime oyunu) seem less important or serious than it is.
A play on words, sometimes on different
"I have to have this operation. It isn't very
senses of the same word and sometimes
serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the
on the similar sense or sound of different
brain."
words. (Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye,
by J. D. Salinger)
"Grave men, near death, who see with
blinding sight"
(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that
good night")

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