Compare: grey hair (attribute) and golden hair (epithet)
She was a faded white rabbit of a woman. (A. Cronin)
During the past few weeks she had become most sharply conscious of the smiling interest of Hauptwanger. His straight lithe body – his quick, aggressive manner – his assertive, seeking eyes. (Th. Dreiser)
Hyperboleis a stylistic device in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration. It is one of the most common expressive means used by all writers. They resort to it when they want to intensify the quantitative aspect of the described objects. Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech.
I was scared to death when he entered the room. (J.D. Salinger)
Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old. (F.S. Fitzgerald)
Four loudspeakers attached to the flagpole emitted a shattering roar of what Benjamin could hardly call music, as if it were played by a collection of brass bands, a few hundred fire engines, a thousand blacksmiths’ hammers and the amplified reproduction of a force-twelve wind. (A. Saxton)
But when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are not overrated, but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement.
She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J. Reed)
The little woman, for she was of pocket size, crossed her hands solemnly on her middle. (J. Galsworthy)
She was a sparrow of a woman. (Ph. Larkin)
Oxymoronis a phrase that combines 2 words that seem to be the opposite of each other.
A neon sign reads “Welcome to Reno – the biggest little town in the world.” (A. Miller)
Their bitter-sweet union did not last long. (A. Cronin)
She was a damned nice woman, too. (E. Hemingway)
He behaved pretty lousily to Jan. (D. Cusack)
Ironyis a stylistic device by which the words and phrases are used to express a meaning opposite to their direct meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word or phrase reverses the direction of evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood by the reader as a negative qualification.
She turned with the sweet smite of an alligator. (J. Steinbeck)
“I have nothing to add except my thanks for your politeness,” said Miss Murdstone. “Bah! Stuff and nonsense!” said my aunt. “Don’t talk to me!”
“How exquisitely polite,” exclaimed Miss Nurdstone. “Overpowering, really!” (Ch. Dickens)
Several months ago a magazine named ‘Playboy’ which concentrates editorially on girls, books, girls, art, girls, music, fashion, girls and girls, published an article about old-time science-fiction. (“Morning Star”)
Pun is based on the interaction of 2 well-known meanings of a words or phrase.
– Did you hit a woman with a child?
– No, Sir, I hit her with a brick.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to 2 adjacent words in one context, the semantic relations being on the one hand literal, on the other, transferred.
She let him carry umbrella and her impossible character.
Examples
Metaphor
1. The clock had struck, time was bleeding away.
2. There had been rain in the night and now all the trees were curtseying to a fresh wind.
3. Another night, the heat of my room sent me out into the streets.
4. The laugh in her eyes died out and was replaced by something else.
5. The slash of sun on the wall above him slowly knifes down, cuts across his chest, becomes a coin on the floor and vanishes.
6. The music came to him across the now bright, now dull, slowly burning cigarette of each man’s life, telling him its ancient secret of all men intangible, unfathomable defying long-winded description.
Personification
1. All the time the big Pacific Ocean suffered sharp pains down below and tossed about to prove it.
2. The moon held a finger to her lips.
Metonymy
1. It was a representative gathering – science, politics, business
2. He drank one more glass (of whisky)
3. She bought some china.
4. We have two Renoirs.
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