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Figures of speech – understanding them

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Figures of speech – definition

‘Figures of speech’ is a term used to describe the devices employed to add colour, decoration, and imaginative expression to linguistic use.

They distinguish figurative or imaginative language from its use in a literal manner.

Common figures of speech include the following:

alliteration, assonance, cliché, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, paradox, simile, synecdoche

These are also known as ‘rhetorical devices’.

Examples

Literal – He ran quickly down the street.

Simile – He ran like a hare down the street.

Metaphor – He hared down the street.

Use

Many people use these devices quite unconsciously as part of everyday communication.

For instance, a statement such as ‘His plan was given the thumbs down’ uses a figurative term, not a description of people waggling their thumbs. [It dates back to a Roman emperor’s decision on a gladiator’s fate.]

If we say ‘I’ve told him a thousand times!’ this is not literally true. We are using a figure of speech [hyperbole, or exaggeration] to make a point.

NB! Don’t try too hard to use figures of speech. They’ll come naturally.

Figures of speech or rhetorical devices are present in all cultures. It seems that it is in the very nature of linguistic discourse for speakers to act creatively. Indeed, it is that creativity in language use which ultimately divides language use in humans and animals.

A child begins to be creative by using various figures of speech at the very beginning of the acquisition process. Words such as ‘bang’, ‘smack’, ‘moo’, and ‘baa’ are all onomatopoeic figures of speech common to a child’s early vocabulary.

It is useful to contemplate a continuum of which the two opposites are literal and non-literal in terms of linguistic expression. We could envisage a statement of fact towards one extreme and a metaphor towards the other.

The statement of fact might be This is a wooden door.

An example of a metaphor might be The sunshine of your smile.

These two utterances comprise five words each, yet the metaphor says much more than the factual statement. Not only does it say more but it speaks of vast and abstract elements such as love, the sun, gesture, happiness, human warmth, pleasure and possibly more.

Figures of speech are often used to express abstract emotional or philosophical concepts. The figure of speech attaches the abstract concept to a material object and thus is instrumental in creating powerful and dynamic communication.

Original figures of speech are valued in both speech and in writing. We respect the ability to generate these. Politicians for instance often use figures of speech, and are variously successful with this practice.

Churchill’s image of ‘the iron curtain’ has stayed with us for over fifty years, although the phenomenon it described no longer exists. ‘The cold war’ superseded it, during which it was the threat of someone ‘pressing the button’ which was on everyone’s mind.

The ‘rhetorical question’ is a figure of speech favoured by politician and lay person alike. It is a powerful device because, although it has the appearance of being a question, it often acts as a form of persuasion or criticism.

‘Is our country in danger of becoming a hot-bed of sleaze?’ we might hear a politician ask. ‘Are we going to stand by and let these atrocities continue?’ Listening to our car radio we might mentally frame an answer to this kind of question – or at least we might be drawn into contemplating the issue.

At a more domestic level we might be asked ‘What time do you call this?’ or ‘How many times have I told you …?’ These are questions which actively discourage any answer. They are a form of rebuke which is an established ritual. As competent language users, we know them and participate in the ritual – by not answering, or responding to the ‘real’ (unstated) criticism.

Another figure of speech which spans the social spectrum is the cliché. These are often derided, and the word itself has become a pejorative term. However, the cliché is very much ‘alive and kicking’, especially in the context of football. ‘Over the moon’ about a result and ‘gutted’ to hear the news, are just two such figures of speech heard almost daily over the popular media.

The cliché proves its function by its prolific use. Perhaps it is its over-use, or its application in inappropriate contexts which may cause distaste.

Figures of speech are also known as images. This indicates their function well. The outcome of using them is that the listener or the reader receives a multi-dimensional communication. Lewis Carroll coined the term ‘portmanteau’ for words which are packed with layers of meaning. Although Carroll’s usage is slightly different from that of figures of speech, it does illustrate that we have a strong drive as language users to convey meaning colourfully and economically.

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Form – how to understand it

August 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Form – definition

Form is a term which refers to the recognisable shape of a text or a speech act.

This shape may be either physical or abstract.

Examples

Spoken		Written
Conversation		Menu
Sermon		Letter
Announcement		Novel
Anecdote		Article
Joke		Poster

Use

The term ‘form’ is used in linguistics and in literary criticism as a technical term.

It is used when considering the shape, the construction, or the type of speech or writing.

An awareness of form can help to produce more efficient communication.

Keeping the ‘shape’ of writing in mind helps to clarify the type of end product required.

NB! An appreciation of form is developed via practice and experience.

Form is an important part of stylistic analysis – together with audience and function.

When studying a text we first try to identify its form. What type of writing is it? (Is it a letter, an advertisement, a timetable, or a novel?)

Then we might ask ‘To whom is it addressed?’ [audience] and ‘What is it doing?’ [function].

When thinking of linguistic or literary form, it’s sometimes useful to think in terms of material shape. For instance, a table is usually a rectangular horizontal surface supported by legs at each corner. That is the form of a table.

Similarly, a piece of writing which begins with a postal address and the words ‘Dear Sir’, then ends with ‘Yours sincerely’ – is likely to be a letter. This is the form taken by most letters.

It is possible for one form to contain another or several other forms. For example, a novel may contain a letter or a poem. A sermon may contain an anecdote.

Most poems have a form, but this varies a great deal. The sonnet is in part defined by its form which is the number of lines and the rhyme scheme.

Form in speech may be signaled by recognizable phrases, tone of voice, or choice of vocabulary.

For instance, ‘The train now standing in platform ten…’ would be recognised by most people as the start of a railway announcement.

Similarly, ‘O Lord, we beseech thee to …’ would easily be identified as the start of a prayer.

If someone says ‘My grandfather always told me that …’ we know that they are probably going to offer moral advice – a piece of homespun wisdom.

Beware! The term ‘formal’ has widened in its application to mean ‘serious’ — just as ‘informal’ has also extended its meaning to encompass notions of friendliness.

For instance, the greeting ‘Hi there!’ might be described by most people as informal. However, because it is part of a recognised verbal ritual, in linguistic terms [strictly speaking] it is ‘formal’ because it has a fixed shape.

The two terms, ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ therefore need to be used accurately when applied to linguistic or literary analysis.

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Full stops – how to use them

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Full stops – definition

Full stops are punctuation marks indicating a strong pause.

Full stops are used most commonly at the end of complete sentences – like this one.

Examples

This is a short sentence. This is another.
It happened suddenly in 1996.
There are two reasons for this (in my opinion).

Use

The full stop is the strongest mark of punctuation. It is sometimes called the ‘period’.

The stop is also used following many abbreviations.

NB! A full stop is not necessary if the sentence ends with a question or an exclamation mark. Got that?

Full stops are commonly placed after abbreviations:

ibid. – No. 1 – ff. – e.g. – etc.

The stop is normally placed inside quotation marks but outside brackets:

“What joy we had that particular day.”

Profits declined (despite increased sales).

However, if the quotation is part of another statement, the full stop goes outside the quote marks:

Mrs Higginbottam whispered “They’re coming”.

If the parenthesis is a complete sentence, the full stop stays inside the brackets:

There was an earthquake in Osaka. (Another had occurred in Tokyo the year previously.)

No full stop is required if a sentence ends with a question mark or an exclamation, or a title or abbreviation which contains its own punctuation:

Is this question really necessary?
What a mess!
He is the editor of Which?
She gave her address as ‘The Manor, Wilts.’

Full stops are not required after titles, headings, or sub-headings:

The Turn of the Screw
Industrial Policy Report
Introduction

The stop is not necessary following common titles which are shortened forms of a word (technically, ‘contractions’):

Dr – [Doctor]
Mr – [Mister]
St – [Street]
Mme – [Madame]

Full stops are not necessary after the capital letters used as abbreviations for titles of organisations and countries:

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation
UNO – United Nations Organisation
USA – United States of America

They are not used where the initials of a standard work of reference are used as an abbreviated title:

OED – Oxford English Dictionary
DNB – Dictionary of National Biography
PMLA – Papers of the Modern Languages Association

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Function – how to understand it

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Function – definition

Function is the term used to express the purpose of a text or of a speech act.

This function can be determined by the writer or by the reader.

Examples

Texts or spoken pieces might fall into one of the following broad categories:

WRITING

persuasion an advertisement

information a train timetable

entertainment a short story

instruction how to build a wardrobe

SPEECH

persuasion a sermon

information a radio weather forcast

entertainment a joke

instruction how to get from A to B

Use

The term ‘function’ is used as a technical term in linguistics and in literary criticism.

An awareness of function helps to produce efficient writing and speaking.

An awareness of function also results in efficient reading and listening.

NB! Function is one of the three important features of communication. The other two are audience and form.

The four general functions possess certain stylistic features or attributes:

Instruction the imperative mode and direct address
[Stir the mixture]

Persuasion emotive vocabulary
[beautiful, duty, militant, heart]

Information factual data
[time, locations, measurements]

Entertainment often breaks rules of grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Awareness of these in the production of speech or writing leads to effective communication and an appropriate style.

For instance, if we buy a product such as a chicken casserole from a supermarket we may be more interested in what’s in it than how to cook it. We may be interested in both these elements, but we certainly wouldn’t want them mixed together.

Food manufacturers for this reason present the list of ingredients [information] separately from how to prepare the dish [instructions]. This simple example shows the concept of function working efficiently.

If we receive a phone call from a close relative who comes to visit more often than we would like, we immediately try to ascertain the purpose [function] of the call. Is it –

an attempt to fix up the next visit? [persuade]
to tell us the possible dates? [inform]
to explain how their vegetables should be cooked? [instruct]
to tell us that the cat has learned to swim? [entertain]

In this example, the person who phones to arrange the visit may have every interest in obscuring the function of the call. As a recipient however, we are very interested in finding out what it is. Such is the crucial nature of function.

The National Curriculum for the teaching of English in Schools now states the importance of making children aware of the function of all the varied pieces they read and write.

Examining boards for A level English will only accept written work which has an authentic function. That is, it should be as close as possible to an example which could be used in real life.

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Grammar – how to understand it

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Grammar – definition

The term ‘grammar’ refers to the structure of language.

This can be applied to a whole language or to any smaller unit of that language.

Grammatical study is often a systematic account of the rules of sentence structure, syntax, and semantics.

Examples

The study of grammar in any language focuses on:

tense concerning time sequence

person reference to people or things

syntax how parts relate to each other

A grammatical study of the following brief statement focuses on the same issues:

The cats drank the milk

The cats Subject – third person plural

drank Verb – past tense

the milk Object – third person singular

Notice that the statement follows normal English syntax (word-order)

Subject — Verb — Object

Use

An awareness of grammar or the structure of language can result in more efficient writing and speaking.

An understanding of the mechanics or workings of language is far more useful and more easily acquired than memorising technical terms.

You can understand the mechanics of language by studying utterances and their:

audience — form — function

The study of grammar in any language focuses on:

tense John ran up the stairs
[past tense of the verb]

person Joanna approached him
[third person singular]

syntax The dog bit the man
[subject – verb – object]

NB! Most people are not conscious of grammatical rules — but they use them quite naturally when speaking.

It is useful to be able to distinguish between the more grammatical items in a statement and those which have a mainly lexical function.

The grammatical items are the working parts of the statement, whilst the lexical items carry content or meaning.

There is no absolute distinction between grammatical and lexical items. However, it is possible to think of a continuum, with lexis at one end and grammar at the other.

For instance, the items in in the following statement can be seen as lexical, grammatical, and a combination of both:

‘Dorothy likes to come to our house every Tuesday and have tea with us.’

lexical Dorothy, house, Tuesday, tea

grammatical to, and, with

The terms ‘our’, ‘every’, and ‘have’ are between these two categories because they perform both a lexical and a grammatical function.

The study of English grammar study has developed over hundreds of years. The objective has generally been to find a set of rules which accurately and comprehensively define, describe, and explain the workings of the language.

In the past, grammar study was very prescriptive. Rules were laid down as to how English must be used. Many of these prescriptive rules were based on the rules of the Latin language which historically had strong religious and cultural ties with English.

Latin was regarded as the perfect language and as such was used as a model for English. However, it was a blueprint which didn’t fit, and the struggle to make it fit has left us with such prescriptive rules as ‘Never end a sentence with a preposition’.

In the past, the study of grammar was thought to be a series of rules and regulations:

Rules for writing good English
Learning to analyse sentences grammatically

The most significant development this century has been the move towards a descriptive and functional approach to understanding of the workings of English. That is to say, the emphasis currently is on observing how the language is actually operating in practice. Changes are charted and variations noted, with a neutral attitude.

A language is best seen as a living organism which is constantly in the process of evolution. The nature of its changes reflect and affect its users. As Latin has been a dead language for hundreds of years, its imposition on English is at best interesting and at worst ludicrous.

Every language has a basic structure. This is composed of its essential grammatical features, which are its working parts. It also has more superficial features such as its vocabulary, which changes and develops in accordance with cultural and social phenomena.

A good example of this can be seen in the recently acquired technological terms associated with the advent of the computer. The terms ‘hard disk’, ‘floppy drive’, ‘Web site’, ‘Internet’, ‘mouse’, and ‘downloading’ simply didn’t exist thirty years ago. Indeed, the World Wide Web – for many people the centre of the Internet – was only invented as recently as 1993.

Noam Chomsky perhaps made the most significant impact on the study of grammar by his Innateness Theory, which is now universally accepted as basically valid.

The Innateness theory of grammar is based on the notion that humans are genetically programmed to acquire language. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a function which equips us for speech, just as other genetic features equip us for walking or breathing.

The prerequisite for language acquisition is what Chomsky calls comprehensible imput – which is hearing people around us use language.

Thousands of different languages exist, and the developing child acquires the language of its own culture. The vocabulary and content has to be learnt, but the fundamental grammatical workings are innate.

Evidence of this LAD at work can be observed in the so-called mistakes which young children make. These are utterances such as ‘I comed home’ or ‘I wented over there’ or ‘those two sheeps’ and ‘those three mouses’.

What is happening here should be celebrated as evidence of the child’s capacity for grammatical analysis. That is, the rule has been learned but over-applied.

The expression ‘I comed’ is evidence that the child has internalised the rule for forming the past tense, which is – add ‘—ed’.

‘Sheeps’ and ‘mouses’ show that the rule for forming a plural has been learnt — add ‘—s’.

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Graphology – how to understand it

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Graphology – definition

Graphology is the study of the system of symbols which communicates language in written form.

In its more popular sense, it is the study of handwriting.

Examples

This is an example of a pictographic symbol.

Use

In the English language, writing starts on the left and moves to the right. It begins at the top of the page and moves downwards.

This might seem rather obvious, but writing in some other languages is arranged differently. Hebrew moves from right to left in rows, and Japanese from top to bottom in columns.

NB! Graffiti is a type of graphology, but if you confuse the two you’ll end up in trouble.

Graphology in context. ‘Grapheme’ is the term for the smallest unit of written communication. A letter of the alphabet or a punctuation mark is a grapheme. A scientific, mathematical, or any other kind of symbol is also a grapheme.

English is an ideographic language. This means that the writing system is based on a set of symbols. These have no intrinsic connection with what they are expressing.

Chinese on the other hand is known as a logographic or pictographic language. This is because the characters of that language were historically pictorial representations of the object being expressed.

Over the centuries these pictures have been stylised to the extent that they no longer resemble houses, people or trees. They now seem, to the uninitiated, just as arbitrary in their function as the English alphabet.

In linguistic study, graphology is a level of analysis along with phonology, vocabulary, grammar and semantics. It includes the study of layout, the use of logos and any other feature of graphical communication.

Children learn to form individual letters and later to produce joined-up writing. Some students find it difficult to make the transition from upper case printing to continuous script. This can be a significant impediment to their studies.

However, with literacy and maturity, we develop our own style of hand-writing. There is commonly a variation in the way we form our letters which is subject to context.

For instance, we may form a flamboyant ‘s’ at the end of a word, but a conservative version of that same grapheme if it occurs in an initial or medial position.

It is important to be able to distinguish between upper and lower case letters in order to punctuate. This is not possible with printing. Continuous script can also be produced much more rapidly.

Continuous script is easier to read than printing, because the eye is led by the connecting strokes between the characters. This is the same principle as the use of sefifed fonts in the layout of continuous writing.

Approaches to teaching hand-writing have changed over the years. It is interesting to note that each generation seems to have its own style of handwriting. Our parents and their contemporaries seem to produce the same script style, while their parents’ generation also have their own similarly distinct style.

Perhaps parallel with the phenomenon of speech style, handwriting styles are easier to categorise from a distance. Our children may see our contemporaries’ handwriting as belonging to an identifiable style, whilst we ourselves consider each person’s handwriting to be idiosyncratic.

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Homonyms – how to understand them

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Homonyms – definition

Homonyms are words which are spelled the same, but which have different meanings.

Examples

bear – an animal
bear – to carry

bore – to drill a hole
bore – a tedious person

down – at a lower part
down – bird’s feathers

draft – preliminary sketch
draft – a money order

Use

The apparent similarities in these words sometimes causes confusion — particularly to non-native speakers.

Such words may or may not have the same etymological origins.

NB! Homonyms are a rich source of puns in English.

Strictly speaking, homonyms may be broken down into two different categories – homophones and homographs.

Homophones are words which are pronounced in the same way, but which have different spellings:

threw flung

through from end to end

bow incline from the waist

bough large tree-branch

Homographs are words which have the same spelling, but which are pronounced differently:

lead a heavy metal

lead to walk in front

wind air movement

wind to coil

One reason for these similarities is that spelling is only a rough approximation to pronunciation.

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Hyphens – how to use them correctly

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Hyphens – definition

Hyphens are short horizontal marks – (shorter than the dash).

Hyphens are used to show a link between words.

Examples

mother-in-law
re-enter
matter-of-fact
author-critic
president-elect
co-operation

Use

Hyphens are used to join words when forming compounds.

They are also used after prefixes – especially where it is necessary to avoid an awkward or confusing sequence of letters (as in re-enter).

Notice the difference between a compound word and the same terms used separately:

a fifteenth-century manuscript
in the fifteenth century

NB! The hyphen is not the same thing as the longer dash ( — ) but this distinction is rarely made in the UK.

Hyphens should be used where it is necessary to avoid ambiguity:

two-year-old cats
two year-old cats

They should also be used to distinguish terms which are spelled identically, but which have different meanings:

reformation – change for the better
re-formation – to form again

recover – to regain control
re-cover – to cover again

resign – to stand down
re-sign – to sign again

Hyphens are used when new terms are formed from compounds, but they are dropped when the compound is accepted into common usage. (This process is usually more rapid in the USA than in Europe.)

bath-tub -> bathtub
book-shelf -> bookshelf
club-house -> clubhouse

This phenomenon is currently visible in computer technology, where all three forms of a term may co-exist:

Word processor
Word-processor
Wordprocessor

Remember that the hyphen is not the same thing as the longer dash. A distinction between the two is commonly made in the US, but not in the UK.

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Idioms – how to understand them

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Idioms – definition

Idioms are fixed phrases which are only meaningful as a whole.

All languages contain idiomatic phrases.

Native speakers learn them and remember them as a complete item, rather than a collection of separate words.

Examples

IDIOM MEANING

a red herring a false trail

raining cats and dogs raining very hard

fly in the ointment spoiling the effect

Use

Idioms often break semantic conventions and grammatical logic – as in I’ll eat my hat [I’ll be amazed if …].

The object of the verb ‘to eat’ is conventionally something edible, but as part of this idiom it is something definitely inedible.

Non-native speakers find the idiomatic side of any language difficult to grasp.

Native speakers of a language acquire idioms from a very early stage in their linguistic development.

NB! You’re getting this advice straight from the horse’s mouth.

Idioms are generally impossible to translate between languages, although some families of languages use idioms based on identical ideas.

In French, for example, the idiomatic phrase ‘mon vieux’ is parallel in its meaning with the English ‘old chap’.

Idioms very often contain a metaphor, but not always. For example, ‘How do you do’ is an idiomatic greeting but it is not a metaphor.

Idioms are not always used or recognised by the whole of the language community. Sub-groups of speakers employ idioms peculiar to themselves.

Teenagers, occupational groups, leisure groups, and gender groups all employ idioms or special phrases. These will mean something within the context of the group and its communication.

Medicine I went to the GP for a check-up

Sport He was caught leg-before-wicket

Gender She was at her sister’s hen-party

Idiom also determines the way that certain combinations of words make meaningful statements, but not others.

For instance, we are ‘in a quandry’ but ‘at a loss’; we are ‘out of sorts’ but ‘in low spirits’; whereas the expressions ‘at a quandry’ or ‘in sorts’ would have no meaning in English.

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Irony – how to understand it

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Irony – definition

Irony is saying (or writing) one thing, whilst meaning the opposite.

The true meaning may be conveyed by vocabulary – or even by tone.

Examples

“So you’ve lost the keys. That’s clever!”

“You’re standing on my foot – thankyou!”

Use

Irony is a means of making a critical comment by casting a topic into a new light or reversing a perspective on it.

It is often used to make witty observations.

People using irony are distancing themselves from the subject in question.

NB! Irony should not be confused with sarcasm, which is a direct remark meant to wound or offend.

There are various types of irony. They have in common the adoption of a distance from the subject for satirical or critical effect.

A speaker might take up an opponent’s argument and then exaggerate it to reveal its weaknesses. This is Socratic irony.

Writers or speakers might pretend to hold opinions which are the exact opposite of what they truly believe. [The reader or listener must be alert and skillful to avoid being drawn into a trap.]

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience at a play know something of which the characters on stage are ignorant [the lover hidden in the next room].

Irony is often classed as a form of humour, along with sarcasm and satire. These do not necessarily evoke laughter, but rather a wry shrug or assent to the idea that the received world picture has been disturbed.

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English Language

free study notes showing example pages from our software program

free pages from our English Language software program

Figures of speech – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Form – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Full stops – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Function – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Grammar – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Graphology – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Homonyms – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Hyphens – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Idioms – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Irony – definition

Examples

Use

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