Literary/Language Features/ Figurative Language Flashcards
What is a metaphor?
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something, to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.
Does not use the words “like” or “as”.
What is a simile?
A simile is a language feature that is used to compare two things.
They often use the words “like” or “as”.
What is imagery?
Imagery is a combination of what the writer gives us to see, hear and feel.
Sometimes uses a clear, descriptive image to add depth
What is a symbol?
A symbol is an object that is given weight. Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.
What is an allusion?
An allusion is an indirect reference.
Eg: “Without naming names” or “He was a real Romeo with the ladies”.
What is a rhyming couplet?
A rhyming couplet is usually found in a poem/verse at the end of it on the last two lines.
The purpose of it, is to re-establish tone, and sum up the main points/ideas of the poem/text.
It also creates a sense of finality or purpose at the end of the speech.
What is a paradox?
A paradox is a statement or concept that contains conflicting ideas that contradicts and provokes thought.
“This is the beginning of the end”
What is an alliteration?
An alliteration is the repetition of a particular sound.
“She sells sea shells by the see shore”
What is repetition?
Repetition is the use of a word/symbol again and again and emphasises the subject at hand.
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…”
“Hear no evil, see one evil, speak no evil”
What is conceit?
A conceit is an extended metaphor that relates very different things in a way that is unexpected and witty.
The way Juliet’s mother and the nurse describe Paris as a book.
What is personification?
Personification is the process of giving an animal, object or thing, human qualities.
It is a special type of metaphor where human qualities are attributed to non-human objects.
“She did not realise that the opportunity was knocking at her door”.
“The thunder grumbled like an old man”
What is a soliloquy?
A soliloquy is a speech made with the intention of having only the audience hear it. The other actors are meant to be ignorant of what is spoken. It is used to give the audience a true indication of how the character is thinking/feeling.
Shakespeare often uses soliloquies or asides to create dramatic irony.
What is dramatic irony?
Dramatic irony is where one or more characters in a play (film) are ignorant of another character’s actions or true intentions and only the actual character and the audience is aware of the reality. The irony comes from the fact that the person thinks one thing while the truth is something very different.
