IDENTIFYING LANGUAGE FEATURES

1. IDENTIFYING LANGUAGE FEATURES

2. Figures of SpeechSince ancient times, the figures of speech have served three main purposes: • to instruct and entertain people through the play of language, • to persuade people of the truth or value of the message that a figure conveys, and • to help people remember both the meaning of the message and its figurative expression.

4. Figures of SpeechUsing a particular device, or trick, with language in order to make it more interesting • To analyze and appreciate the craft of the writers • To comment on passages on the exam • To study literature

5. Figures of Speech • Images/resemblance • Sound • Contradictions • Others

6. Figures of Speech IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE • Simile • Metaphor • Personification

8. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Simile The use of simile is to describe something by comparing or establishing its similarity to something else, using ‘like’ or ‘as’. This device makes the description more emphatic. • This food tastes like garbage. • He’s as cool as a cucumber.

9. p r a c t i c e as _____as a cucumber as _____ as a lamb as _____ as a bat as _____ as a doornail to _____ like a fish to _____ like a bird to _____ like a horse to _____ like a chimney

11. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Simile • I could hear Armanda’s voice above the rest: her laughter was like that of an overtired child. Sprinkled across the water’s edge, the lanterns and candles looked like Chistmas light.

12. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Simile I could hear Armanda’s voice above the rest: her laughter was like that of an overtired child. Sprinkled across the water’s edge, the lanterns and candles looked like Christmas light. Her laughter was like that of an overtired child is a simile. Armanda is an old lady. Not a child, and the simile suggests that Armanda has had such a wonderful time that she felt like a little girl again.

13. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Simile I could hear Armanda’s voice above the rest: her laughter was like that of an overtired child. Sprinkled across the water’s edge, the lanterns and candles looked like Chistmas light. The lanterns and candles looked like Chistmas light is the second simile. This is effective because it suggests how bright and sparkling the lanterns were, and it adds to the party atmosphere as Christmas is a time of celebration.

16. Simile and Metaphor Simile Richard fought as fiercely as a loin. Metaphor Richard was a lion in the fight. Simile The waves broke on the shore with noise like a thunder. Metaphor The waves thundered on the shore.

17. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Metaphor Metaphor is a step further than simile. Instead of basing the comparison on the fact that two things are like each other, using metaphor is saying that the first is the second, because of the similarities between them. The meanings of metaphors, while sometimes simple, are best understood in context.

18. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Metaphor • The school was a prison for him. • The school shares certain characteristics with prisons. • It is probable that the person referred to as ‘him’ feels locked up in school, as prisoners do in prison. 

19. p r a c t i c e Do the following analysis with a friend. Write down your analysis in your notebook.

20. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Metaphor Analyze the metaphor in the following sentence. • Rice is nourished by water, earth and wind and transforms into gold.

21. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Metaphor • Rice is nourished by water, earth and wind and transforms into gold. Transforms into gold is a metaphor. Rice is a plant and becomes a food, and people do not eat gold. However, people value gold so the metaphor suggests that rice is valuable because without food we die.

24. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Personification Personification is the treating of an inanimate object as if it were animate and is probably the most beautiful and effective of all the figures of speech. Personification depends much on a vivid imagination and is adapted especially to poetical composition.

26. p r a c t i c e

27. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Personification It has two distinguishable forms: when personality is ascribed to the inanimate: "The mountains sing together, the hills rejoice and clap their hands." 2. when some quality of life is attributed to the inanimate: a raging storm, an angry sea, a whistling wind, etc.

28. p r a c t i c e Do the following analysis with a friend. Write down your analysis in your notebook.

29. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Personification Analyze the personification in the following text. • Rice demands the sweat of man. In return, the earth gives birth to grain that is valuable and precious for human life.

30. IMAGES/RESEMBLANCE Personification • Rice demands the sweat of man. In return, the earth gives birth to grain that is valuable and precious for human life. The earth gives birth is an example of personification as giving birth is a human (or animal) activity, and the earth cannot give birth. The writer wants to stress the life-giving qualities of the cultivated earth and the rice it produces.

31. Figures of Speech • Images/resemblance • Sound • Contradictions • Others

32. Figures of Speech SOUND • Onomatopoeia • Alliteration

34. SOUND Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is about the use of words that imitate the sound they denote. In this figure of speech, the sound of a word is imitative of the sound of the thing which the word represents. "Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng! An alarm clock clanged in the dark and silent room." (Richard Wright, Native Son, 1940)

36. p r a c t i c e Look at the following picture for one minute. Write what you remember, the word and the picture, in your notebook.

38. SOUND Onomatopoeia Analyze the onomatopoeia in the following text. • There was a loud clatter as dustbins were blown in the alleyway. Somewhere in the distance, a dog was howling.

39. SOUND Onomatopoeia There was a loud clatter as dustbins were blown in the alleyway. Somewhere in the distance, a dog was howling. ‘Clatter’ is an example of onomatopoeia. It seems to copy the loud and strident sounds of the metal hitting the ground, the sound made by the dog ‘howling’ is also onomatopoeia. It has two syllables and a long ow sound; these add to the effect that noise made by the dog is prolonged.

42. SOUND Alliteration Alliteration is a figure of speech in which words beginning with the same sounds are deliberately placed close together to achieve a particular effect. It is the repetition of an initial consonant sound. • She sells seashells down by the seashore. • "The soul selects her own society.“ • (Emily Dickinson)

44. SOUND Alliteration In clichés: sweet smell of success a dime a dozen bigger and better jump for joy the more the merrier

46. p r a c t i c e In your notebook, write a sentence with alliteration. Exchange your book with a friend, memorize your friend’s sentence with alliteration. Present it to class.

47. p r a c t i c e Do the following analysis with a friend. Write down your analysis in your notebook.

48. SOUND Alliteration Analyze the alliteration in the following text. • In the little girl’s pocket, wrapped in a crunched-up piece of pale paper, was a rotting apple, brown and bruised.

49. SOUND Alliteration In the little girl’s pocket, wrapped in a crunched-up piece of pale paper, was a rotting apple, brown and bruised. ‘Pale paper’ is an example of alliteration in the representation of the letter ‘p’. As this is a abruptly stopped sound (called plosive) it is appropriate that it should be used in alliteration as something rigid and crunchy is being described. The second example is ‘brown and bruised’. Again, hard sounds are used, and this is appropriate as something unpleasant and therefore harsh to the senses is being described.

50. Figures of Speech • Images/resemblance • Sound • Contradictions • Others