The term 'rhetoric' comes from the Greek word 'rhetor' meaning public speaking and it is necessary for oratory.
To Aristotle " Rhetoric is that faculty by which we understand what will serve our turn, concerning any subject to win belief in the hearer."
Locke mentions rhetoric as the 'art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force.'
Rhetoric is the particular form of speaking or writing that adds some extra quality to the art and magnifies the value of speaking or writing attracting the attention of the readers or listeners more effectively. We can express our thoughts or ideas plainly or elegantly. For normal conversation, we can use natural literal language. To make our speech or writing more memorable and beautiful, we must use figures of speech. Rhetoric can be used in both prose and poetry.
Types of Figures of Speech:
There are 7 types of figures of speech
A. Figures Based on Similarity
1. Simile 2. Metaphor 3. Allegory 4. Parable 5. Fable
B. Figures Based on Association
1. Metonymy 2. Synecdoche 3. Hypallage (Transferred Epithet) 4. Allusion
C. Figures Based on Contrast
1. Antithesis 2. Epigram 3. Oxymoron 4. Climax 5. Anti-Climax 6. Paradox
D. Figures Based on Imagination
1. Personification 2. Apostrophe 3. Pathetic Fallacy 4. Personal Metaphor 5. Vision 6. Hyperbole
E. Figures Based on Indirectness
1. Innuendo 2. Irony 3. Periphrasis 4. Euphemism
F. Figures Based on Sound
1. Pun 2. Onomatopoeia 3. Alliteration 4. Assonance
G. Figures Based on Construction
1. Interrogation 2. Exclamation 3. Chiasmus 4. Zeugma 5. Hendiadys 6. Litotes 7. Hyperbaton 8. Asyndeton 9. Polysyndeton 10. Epanaphora 11. Palilogia 12. Prolepsis 13. Syllepsis 14. Tautology 15. Pleonasm 16. Ellipsis 17. Anaphora 18. Epiphora 19. Epanastrophe 20. Epanadiplosis 21. Epanodos 22. Epanalepsis 23. Epanorthosis 24. Palilogy 25. Catachresis 26. Anacoluthon 27. Aposiopesis 28. Synesis 29. Paralipsis 30. Enallage 31. Ornamental Epithet
DEFINITION AND EXAMPLE OF FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures Based on Similarity
SIMILE
An explicit comparison is made between two unallied things or ideas in Simile.
The word simile comes from the Latin word 'similis' meaning like or likeness. In similes comparisons are made explicitly between two things different in kind by the word such, as, like, so, etc.
Features of Simile given below:
1. One thing is liked to another
2. The things are different in nature
3. The likeliness between them is clearly expressed
4. The words like, so, such, as, etc used to denote comparison or similarity
Examples:
"Like a patient etherized upon a table" (T.S Eliot)
"The Assyriancame down like a wolf on the fold." (Byron)
"To follow knowledge like a sinking star." ( Tennyson)
"O my love's like the melody" (Burns)
METAPHOR
An implied comparison is made between two different things or ideas in Metaphor.
In Metaphor, an implicit comparison exists in a statement of identity between two different objects.
Features of Metaphor given below:
1. One thing is compared to another.
2. Another thing may present or absent
3. The comparison is implied not clearly stated.
Examples:
"I will drink life to the lees." (Tennyson)
"When I was green in judgement, cold in blood." (Shakespeare)
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." (Gray)
"I have measured out my life with coffee-spoons." (T.S Eliot)
ALLEGORY
A detailed comparison is made between two unallied things with a moral conclusion.
An Allegory is a fictitious narrative based on a comparison between a set of facts with another having likeliness in features. So an allegory is a detailed description of one thing under the image of another thing. Allegorical characters represent abstract concepts.
Features of Allegory given below:
1. A comparison is found.
2. Two unallied subjects are compared.
3. The comparison is sustained by numerous details.
4. The comparison builds a story with the theme, characters, setting, etc.
5. A strong moral lesson is hidden in the comparison.
Examples:
Bunyan's "The Pilgrims Progress"
Spenser's "The Faerie Queene"
Swift's "A Tale of a Tub"
Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel"
PARABLE
A Parable is a short allegorical story with a moral conclusion.
In Parable, a short implicit narrative with a detailed analogy between external analogy and inner sense is expressed by the narrator.
Features of Parable given below:
1. It is a short story or narrative.
2. It is an allegorical story implying an analogy.
3. This story intends for giving moral education.
Examples:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Parable of the Sower
Holy Bible
FABLE
A Fable is a short story with a moral conclusion regarding irrational animals.
Fable contains a fictitious narrative short story about irrational animals and their habits.
Features of Fable given below:
1. It is a fictitious story.
2. The story is about irrational animals.
3. There is a moral for mankind.
Examples:
Aesop's Fables
Pope's The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale
George Orwell's Animal Farm
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Figures Based on Association
Metonymy
The name of one thing is substituted for that of another when these two things are loosely associated.
The word metonymy originates from the two Greek words 'meta' meaning 'change' and 'onama' meaning 'name'.
"The metonymy is the substation of the thing named for the thing meant." Nesfield.
A loose relation exists between the thing named and the thing meant.
Features of Metonymy given below:
1. One thing is named but another thing is meant.
2. A relation exists between the two things.
3. The relation is rather loose or separable.
Types of Metonymy:
1. The symbol or sign for the thing symbolized.
2. The instrument or organ for the agent.
3. The container for the thing contained.
4. The effect of the cause.
5. The cause for the effect.
6. Name of passion for the name of object.
7. The maker for his work.
8. The place for its production.
9. The act for the object inspiring it.
Examples:
"I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music." Shakespeare.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
"England hath need of thee." Wordsworth.
"Along the striped shapes and ..." Milton.
Synecdoche
One thing is substituted for another that is intimately associated with it.
"The synecdoche usually consists in changing one noun for another of the kindred meaning." Nesfield.
The relation, that the thing named bears to the thing meant is usually more more intimate in a synecdoche.
Features of Synecdoche given below:
1. One thing is named and another thing is meant.
2. A relation exists between the two things.
3. The relation is very intimate.
Types of Synecdoche:
1. A part for the whole.
2. The whole for the part.
3. The species for the genus.
4. The genus for the species.
5. The concrete for the abstract.
6. The abstract for the concrete.
7. The material for the thing made.
8. An exemplary for the class.
Examples of Synecdoche:
"Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest." Gray
"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff." Shakespeare.
"The full harvest of the Golden year." Pope.
"Those hearts were woven of human joys and cares." Brooke.
Hypallage or Transferred Epithet
An epithet is transferred from the proper subject to an accompanying thing.
Hypallage comes from the Greek word 'hypallage' meaning 'interchange'.
In Transferred Epithet, an Epithet or adjective is transferred from the subject to which it properly belongs to another associated with it in the mind of speaker or author.
Features of Hypallage given below:
1. An epithet is transferred.
2. The epithet is transferred from its proper subject to another associated thing.
3. The proper subject and the accompanying thing are associated in the mind of the speaker or author.
4. The epithet belongs to one object but shifted to another object to which it can not belong.
Examples of Hypallage:
"To scorn delight and live laborious days." Milton
"The ploughman homeward plods his weary way." Gray
"To find ourselves dishonuorable Graves." Shakespeare
"But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling." Goldsmith
Allusion
A word or expression used recalls to one mind some notable character, memorable event, legend, writing, or saying of the past.
The word allusion comes from the Latin word 'allusio' meaning 'to play with' or 'to refer to'.
In Allusion, a word or expression brings to the mind of a hearer or reader some great character, remarkable incident of the past, a legend or the saying or writing of some great man.
Features of Allusion given below:
1. An expression or word is used.
2. The expression recalls yo one's mind some events.
3. There is a valid context of the expression.
4. Allusion is used to make the thing memorable.
Examples of Allusion:
"And that one talent which is death to hide." Milton
"That day he overcame the Nervii." Shakespeare
"Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene." Keats
"It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, and see the great Achilles." Tennyson
