Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of nearby words. For example, fame and fortune, publish or perish.
Assonance
The repetition of identical or similar stressed vowel sounds for a special effect. For example, ‘That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.’
Metaphors
Non-literal uses of language; in other words, figurative expressions refer to something that they do not literally denote in order to suggest similarity. For example, someone might be described as having ‘ruby lips’ or a ‘heart of gold’.
Onomatopoeia
The use of words whose sounds convey or suggest their meaning. Onomatopoeia words may mimic sounds in the real world such as the snap, crackle, pop when you pour milk on your rice bubbles. The patterning and the rhythm sound together with the rhymes of a line or poem may also be onomatopoeic.
Oxymoron
A phrase that combines two contradictory terms. For example, an adjective might disagree with the noun it modifies as in ‘deafening silence’ and ‘heavy lightness’.
Personification or Animation
A figure of speech that gives non-humans (such as animals, ideas, things) human qualities ( such as emotions, desires, expressions and powers of speech). For example, the wind howled, the guitar wept.
Pun
A type of word play that uses the different meanings of a word or brings together words that are similar in sound but have different meanings.
Rhyme
The recurring pattern of identical or similar sounds at the end of two or more different words. It is most often used in poetry. For example, Jack fell down and broke his crown.
Rhythm
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.
Simile
A figurative expression that involves a comparison between two things. In English, it is signalled by the words ‘like” or ‘as’. ‘Lips like rubies’.
Consonance
A harmony produced by the recurrent use of sounds in a sequence of words for pleasant effect. For example, ‘How a lush-kept plush-capped slow Will, mouthed to flesh-burst, Gush! – flush the man..
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Antithesis
A type of parallelism which involves the juxtaposition of phrases and clauses that are similarly structured to draw the reader’s attention more effectively to a contrast of ideas.
Listing
A number of connected items or names which can help to introduce more density and more abstractness into a piece of writing.
Parallelism
The use of similar sounds, words or grammatical constructions.
For example, ‘The sun rises; the sun sets’ uses two similarly structured clauses in order to express ideas that are equally important.
Conversion of Word Class
A way of forming new words by simply changing the function of a word. For example, the noun ‘Facebook’ is now being used as a verb.
Creative Word Formation
The processes by which new words are made, including compounding, shortening, affixation etc.
Irony
1. The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
2. The incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually happens.
Lexical Ambiguity
The ambiguity of an individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings.
