Figures of Speech

Comparison

A = B

Literal Term = Figurative Term

Jessica = a rose

1. Simile (uses "like" or "as")

2. Metaphor

Metonomy =

a figure of speech in which something related to an object is used to represent the object itself.

a sailor = "an old salt"

Synecdoche =

a figure of speech in which a part of an object is used to represent the whole object.

Your uncle = "Baldie"

Apostrophe =

a figure of speech by which you talk to someone dead or to something that cannot talk back (like a table).

Personification =

Giving inanimate things qualities of a human being.

Four Levels of Metaphor

1. A first level metaphor expresses both the literal and the figurative term.

Julie = gem

2. A second level metaphor expresses only its literal term, not its figurative term.

"Here comes Jim clucking away"

3. A third level metaphor expresses only its figurative term, not its literal term.

"It falls in teardrops from the sky"

4. A fourth level metaphor expresses neither its literal term nor its figurative term.

"Here it comes chugging into its sty"

Spot in Canterbury Cathedral where Thomas a Beckett was murdered.

Return to patterns.