Literary Devices

Question 1

Repetition of conjunctions within a sentence

Example:

He was hungry and tired and saddened and depressed with nobody to care for him.

Answer 1

Polysyndeton

Effect:

• Causes the reader to slow down and draws attentions to adjectives
• Intensifies the occurrences of within the story by the fast-pace description.

Question 2

Omission of conjunctions within a sentence e.g The man bought apples, oranges, bananas, Kool-Aid, chocolate, jellies and onions.

Answer 2

Asyndeton

Effect:

This increases the pace of the story and creates a flowing pace as the reader becomes more interested.

Question 3

The repetition of words with a similar ending. She swiftly, slyly, suavely, silently tip-toed across the room.

Answer 3

Homeoteluton

Effect:

The slightly rhythmic language device reflects the manner in which a character is carrying out an action.

Question 4

Mixture of two senses e.g The smell was oozing rapidly from the bus.

Answer 4

Synaesthasia

Effect:

Intensifies the experience that the character is feeling. Adds an overwhelming feeling to the happening.

Question 5

A figure of speech in which a negative statement is used to affirm a positive sentiment. For example, when asked how someone is doing, that person might respond, “I’m not bad.” In fact, this means that the person is doing fine or even quite well.

Examples:

• I’m not as young as I used to be.
• He’s not the friendliest person.
• It wasn’t a terrible trip.
• She’s not unkind.
• They aren’t unhappy with the presentation.
• Not too shabby!
• The two concepts are not unlike each other.
• She’s no spring chicken.
• It’s not exactly a walk in the park.

Answer 5

Litotes

Effect:

• Demonstrates an insecurity the character feels and allows the reader to gain more of an understanding about who the reader is.
• To display restraint or display modesty in describing something amazing rather than boasting of how incredible it is.
• Litotes may also be used to downplay enthusiasm or as a witty way of making the reader understand the opposite sentiment to the plainer one being expressed.

Question 6

Repetition of words at the beginning of a sentence or clause. E.g Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo.

Answer 6

Anaphora

Effect:

This draws attention to a specific word and in this case, it demonstrates the longing for Romeo.

Question 7

The repetition of a word at the beginning and end of a sentence.

Examples:

Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo.

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”

Answer 7

Epanadiplosis

Effect:

• Draws attention to a specific word
• Cyclic structure within a sentence clearly demonstrates what the author wants the reader to focus on.

Question 8

The word that is used to end a sentence/clause is used in the beginning of the next sentence/clause.

Examples:

I see happiness, happiness in totality.

Seconds become minutes, minutes become hours.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

“Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern and then you go on into some action.”

Answer 8

Anadiplosis

Effect:

• Due to the changing position of the key word from the last part of one sentence to the first part of the following sentence, there is a shift in emphasis and thus the role of that key word changes from one usage to the next.
• Authors may also use anadiplosis examples to use a term and then specify its multiple meanings, or clarify the one key meaning.
• Can be a good way to show a chain of events from one term to the next,

Question 9

The same attributes to describe two things.

Examples:

• John’s milk and passport expired last week.
• The farmers in the valley grew potatoes, peanuts, and bored.
• They left the room with tear-filled eyes and hearts.
• He lost his briefcase, then his job, then his mind.

Answer 9

Zeugma

Effects:

The basic function of zeugma is surprise.

Emphasised a theme that runs throughout the characters life and may foreshadow future events.

Take the 2nd example: the potatoes and peanuts lead us to expect that the third word will be another crop. But the word “bored” violates this expectation and surprises the reader. Our brains try to fit the new word into the old pattern, and it results in the humorous image of boredom growing out of the earth like a crop!

Even when the surprise doesn’t result in humor, it still makes the phrase stand out. In the second example, above, the image of “tear-filled hearts” is an unusual figure of speech produced by the zeugma.

Question 10

The repetition of a certain word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines of writing or speech. It can be used in novels and short stories, but it’s most commonly seen in poetry, essays, and formal speeches.

Example:

‘Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.’

Answer 10

Anaphora

Effect:

Has the effect of engaging your audience in a particular emotional experience. It works by allowing your reader or listener to participate in the process.

Question 11

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. ‘I heard your uncle passed away.’

Answer 11

Euphemism

Effect:

They replace the plain English phrase to make the idea more palatable or friendly.

Question 12

Use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression. To drag out otherwise simple phrases; to stall.

‘The way you acted this past hour was inappropriate and rude.’ ‘

In my humble opinion, I think….’,

Answer 12

Periphrasis

Effect:

To show that a certain character has a roundabout manner of speaking (usually signaling over-politeness, obsequiousness, equivocation, and the like).

Question 13

A statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner. A barking dog never bites

Answer 13

Aphorism

Effect:

• An aphorism can really stick in the mind. Because they’re so short, aphorisms are easy to remember, and they often employ striking metaphors that give them even more staying power.
• A really good aphorism is also applicable to all sorts of different situations, which further adds to their memorable quality.

Question 14

when a certain phrase or word is repeated at the end of sentences or clauses that follow each other. This repetition creates a rhythm while emphasizing the repeated phrase.

Examples:

Last week, he was just fine. Yesterday, he was just fine. And today, he was just fine.

I’m tired of this job. I’m over this job. I’m done with this job!

Answer 14

Epistrophe

Effect:

• Epistrophe is important in both everyday conversation and more formal speeches. Epistrophe is a simple but effective way of emphasizing a certain idea and is used often by speechmakers for this reason.
• It emphasizes certain ideas, arousing emotion in listeners and readers more than a simple sentence would otherwise.
• Because epistrophe also adds rhythm to a passage, it creates a more enjoyable and memorable phrase.

Question 15

The use of contrasting concepts, words, or sentences within parallel grammatical structures (a pair of statements or images in which the one reverses the other). This combination of a balanced structure with opposite ideas serves to highlight the contrast between them.

Examples:

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind.

Answer 15

Antithesis

Effects:

• By contrasting one thing against its opposite, a writer or speaker can emphasize the key attributes of whatever they’re talking about.
• Antithesis can also be used to express curious contradictions or paradoxes.
• Paradoxically, an antithesis can also be used to show how two seeming opposites might in fact be similar.

Question 16

A figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated.

Examples:

The big house - prison

The pen is mightier than the sword.

The kitchen is coming along nicely.

Hollywood is obsessed with this new diet.

Answer 16

Metonymy

Effects:

Because associative and referential thinking are so natural and automatic to us, metonymies can be found and understood frequently in everyday language, literature, and pop culture.

• Metonymies allow for brevity by replacing lists with an associated category.
• They summarize complicated processes or programs with shortened phrases.
• Finally, they emphasize the most important and defining characteristics of a subject such as a “Margherita” for a “Margherita pizza.”

Question 17

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that refers to a part of something is substituted to stand in for the whole, or vice versa. For example, the phrase “all hands on deck” is a demand for all of the crew to help, yet the word “hands”—just a part of the crew—stands in for the whole crew.

Examples:

• Boots on the ground—refers to soldiers
• New wheels—refers to a new car
• Ask for her hand—refers to asking a woman to marry
• Suits—can refer to businesspeople
• When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral.The Department of Education announced new plans for the education reform

Answer 17

Synecdoche

Effects:

• Along with metonymy, metaphor, and irony, synecdoche displays and creates new connections in the way that humans understand concepts.
• By exploring the usage of synecdoche in literature, we are able to better understand the human mind.

Question 18

The repetition of a root word in a variety of ways, such as the words “enjoy” and “enjoyable,” and the present and past forms of the word “read” in the opening sentence. It is a unique form of wordplay that provides the sentence with repetition in sound and rhythm.

Examples:

You’re so full of trickery! Playing tricks on me!

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

Answer 18

Polyptoton

Effects:

Polyptoton has a wide variety of uses in literature from rhythm, beauty, and musicality, to fun, silliness, and play.

Question 19

Nouns or noun phrases that follow or come before a noun, and give more information about it.

Examples:

• “I’m going to see my dentist, Dr. Parkins.”
• The puppy, a golden retriever, is my newest pet.
• A two-year-old rambunctious puppy, Brady ripped up a pillow while I was away for a moment in the kitchen.
• But the moment passed and was followed by an urge, a need, a passionate yearning to share the warmth with the one person left for him to love.
• Usain Bolt_, the fastest man in the world,_ is competing in the Brazil Olympics_._

Answer 19

Appositive

Effects:

• Appositives provide sentences with variety and more information
• They serve to elaborate and provide interesting detail to otherwise simple noun phrases

Question 20

A mixture of harsh and discordant noises. As a literary device, it refers to the usage of several unharmonious or dissonant sounds in a line or passage. These unharmonious and dissonant sounds include the explosive consonants k, t, g, d, p, and b, and the hissing sounds ch, sh, and s.

Examples:

• He grunted and in a gruff voice said, “Give me that trash and I’ll throw it out!” - “grunted,” “gruff,” and “give” have harsh g sounds and “that,” “trash,” and “throw it out” all have hard t sounds.
• He is a rotten, dirty, terrible, trudging, stupid dude! - the sound of the sentence mirrors its harsh tone and meaning with hard t sounds in “dirty,” “terrible,” and trudging,” hard d sounds in “dirty,” “trudging,” and “dude,” and the hard st sound in “stupid.”

Answer 20

Cacophony

Effects:

Cacophony is used to create harsh-sounding sentences and tones which often mirror their subject matter: noisy, energetic, chaotic, or unwanted characters and things.

Question 21

Refers to the quality of being pleasant to listen to. It generally comes about through a harmonious combination of sounds and words. An author can create this in many different ways, such as using pleasant vowel and consonants, or by employing other literary devices, such as rhythm, rhyme, consonance, and assonance to create an overall harmonious sound to a work of literature.

Examples:

• Due to the fact that euphony is meant to please the ear, many lullabies are examples of euphony in order to lull a baby to sleep
• Twinkle, twinkle little star….In this case, the euphony comes from consonants such as l, r, w, n, and h, but also from the mellifluous rhyme scheme of AABB and the regular trochaic rhythm.

Answer 21

Euphony

Effects:

• Most works of poetry and literary prose contain some examples of euphony in that authors pay attention to creating harmonious sounds in their writing.
• Writers generally choose pleasant-sounding words to describe beautiful settings and joyful emotions.
• Writers also choose the naturally harmonious techniques of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration to create an overall pleasant sound to their works of literature.

Question 22

A figure of speech in which the speaker both asks a question and immediately answers it. Therefore, it is not the same as a rhetorical question—which does not necessarily have an answer—as the speaker frames this type of question in order to answer it. It is often a way of reasoning aloud.

Examples:

So what does middle-class economics require in our time? First, middle-class economics means helping working families feel more secure in a world of constant change.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

Answer 22

Hypophora

Effects: Authors and orators may use hypophora for a few different uses in their works.

• One of the primary reasons is show the direction of their thinking.
• An author may also pose a question that he or she assumes the reader is wondering about and answer it immediately to preempt the reader’s doubts.
• An author or orator also may use hypophora examples to guide the narrative in a new direction, and thus ask questions as a sort of transition. For example, orators especially may present several issues and make a transition to their proposed solutions by asking something like, “How can we tackle these problems?”
• Alternately, a writer may choose to present questions that the reader has not yet thought of, guiding the reader’s thoughts in unexpected directions.

Question 23

The usage of repeating words and forms to give pattern and rhythm to a passage in literature. Often either juxtaposes contrasting images or ideas so as to show their stark difference, or joins similar concepts to show their connection. Authors often create this through the use of other literary devices, such as anaphora, epistrophe, antithesis, and asyndeton. This term encompasses all these possibilities of repetition and contrast.

Examples:

• “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” —Dalai Lama
• “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” —Dale Carnegie
• “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” —Winston Churchill

Answer 23

Parallelism

Effects:

• Parallelism has been an important literary device for cultures of oral storytelling from around the world. Many different poetic traditions have examples of parallelism.
• Some languages from around the world use parallelism as the primary aesthetic construction for poetry.

Question 24

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated within a sentence, but the word or phrase means something different each time it appears.

Examples:

• Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men. Put out the light, and then put out the light - Othello (the first “light” refers to the candle, while the second refers to Desdemona’s life).
• And there’s bars on the corners and bars on my heart

Answer 24

Antanaclasis

Effects:

• To spark an ironic play on words or make a joke.
• To make a slogan, catchphrase, or line more memorable.
• To create a rhythm through repetition that sticks in the listener’s head, much like in a song’s chorus.
• To use the pithiness and wit of antanaclasis to convince others of an argument, especially as a concluding line (as in Ben Franklin’s “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately).
• To contrast and emphasize the two different meanings of the repeated word in a way that can emphasize either comedy or tragedy.

Question 25

The attribution of human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors to animals or other non-human things (including objects, plants, and supernatural beings). It is related to, but distinct from personification, in which things are described figuratively (rather than literally) as having human characteristics.

Examples:

The satirical novel, Animal Farm, is all about animals behaving like humans—both for better and for worse.

Answer 25

Anthropomorphism

Effects:

• It helps create vivid, imaginative characters that readers can relate to because they are more human. (It’s not always easy to relate to inanimate objects, for example.)
• It suggests that certain human characteristics are universal—shared by all creatures.
• It allows writers to imagine and tell different stories than they would be able to tell about humans.
• It can be used to add a symbolic dimension to a character, and thereby make a story more allegorical - In Animal Farm, for example, the pigs represent the ruling class because pigs are associated with greed.

Question 26

A figure of speech in which a phrase is repeated, but with the order of words reversed.

Examples:

• John F. Kennedy’s words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,”
• Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
• In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
• When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
• It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.
• You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.

Answer 26

Antimetabole

Effects:

Writers use antimetabole in a wide array of contexts:

• to produce powerful arguments,
• to compare two related things or concepts,
• to present paradoxes,
• or to generate a comedic effect.

Question 27

A rhetorical device in which a speaker expresses uncertainty or doubt—often pretended uncertainty or doubt—about something, usually as a way of proving a point.

Example:

• In Act III, Scene I of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock employs this in the speech he makes to Salarino in the form of pretended doubt (he and Salarino both know that Jews have hands, eat food, bleed, and so on). Through this series of rhetorical questions, Shylock proves that Jews are just as human as Christians, and argues that he is justified in his desire for revenge because it is a natural human reaction to humiliation and mistreatment.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem which begins, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Answer 27

Aphoria

Effects:

• Writers use aporia to show or describe uncertainty.
• A writer can use aporia to indicate genuine uncertainty and to lead readers through the speaker’s own thought process.
• A writer might also use a character’s expression of uncertainty as an opportunity for another character to answer a question or resolve a doubt.
• Writers can use aporia in both the forms of real and pretended doubt to voice and then answer questions that the reader might have, either to develop exposition or to construct an argument.
• writers often use aporia to question assumptions that the reader might have about a key idea or theme.

Question 28

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated in immediate succession, with no intervening words. In the play Hamlet, when Hamlet responds to a question about what he’s reading by saying “Words, words, words,” that’s an example of this.

Answer 28

Epizeuxis

Effects:

• To make clear a point: Epizeuxis allows a writer to quickly zero in on and share their point in a way that everyone hearing it will understand, as Tony Blair did with his “Education, education, education” line.
• To rally an audience: Chants are often examples of epizeuxis. For instance, if you’re at a baseball game in Boston and hear, “Let’s go Red Sox, Let’s go Red Sox,” that’s epizeuxis. Speakers sometimes use epizeuxis to rally a crowd into joining them in a chant. Donald Trump’s “Lock her up” chant involved just this sort of epizeuxis.
• To really insist on the meaning of a word: People use powerful words all the time. A person might step in dog poop and say, “the horror!” But is that really deserving of the word “horror?” Through such usage, words lose some of their value. The insistent repetition of a word can function to reinstate that lost meaning. When Kurtz says, “The horror, the horror,” the repetition makes clear that he is speaking of the real meaning of the word, of true horror.
• To communicate despair or weariness: The repetition of epizeuxis can, in certain contexts, communicate despair or terrible world weariness. In these cases, the repetition of the words seems to imply that there is nothing else to say or worth saying.
• For humor: While epizeuxis is used mostly to emphasize ideas, points, or feelings of dread, it can also be used for humorous purposes. More specifically, by repeating something silly over and over again, it becomes more and more silly. For instance, think of Run Burgundy from Anchorman and his love of “scotchy, scotch, scotch,” or Monty Python’s.