Figures Of Speech Essay

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THE USE OF FIGURES OF SPEECH/ FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Figures of Speech in Literature and Poetry are typically used techniques which diverge from the standard use and meaning of words “in order to achieve some special meaning or effect” (Abrams & Harpham, 2009, p.118). In that way, figures of speech attempt to go beyond the ordinary use of language portraying an opposition to its literal meaning. The language that uses figures of speech is known as ‘figurative language' which possesses specific features differing from non-figurative or literal meaning and language. According to the Glossary of Literary Terms (2009) “Figurative language has often been divided into two classes: (1) Figures of thought, or tropes (meaning “turns,” “conversions”), in which words or phrases are used in a way that affects a conspicuous change in what we take to be their standard meaning. The standard meaning, as opposed to its meaning in the figurative use, is called the literal meaning. (2) Figures of speech, or “rhetorical figures,” or schemes (from the Greek word for “form”), in which the departure from standard usage is not primarily in the meaning of the words, but in the order or syntactical pattern of the words” (pp. 118-119) Even though tropes and schemes serve the same purpose of “dressing up” mundane language, they…show more content…
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