FIGURES OF SPEECH

The MASTER TROPES include:

1. Metaphor (Seeing Something in Terms of Something Else): Using “my lover is a rose” to represent the beauty and pleasure of my lover;

2. Irony (Something Which is Extremely Inappropriate): Using “a bull in a China shop” to represent something extremely out of place; There are many types of Irony.

3. Metonymy (Association): Using “the crown” or “the throne” to represent the power of the monarchy;

4.Synecdoche (Hierarchal Whole vs. Part Relationship): Using “all hands on deck” or “seven head of cattle” to represent sailors, or cattle.

5. The MINOR TROPES include: Cliché, Hyperbole (Overstatement), Idiom, Imagery, Litotes (Understatement), Onomatopoiea (Sound Symbolism), Simile, Symbol, and Understatement.

NOTE: Tropes (Deep Structure) should not be confused with Schemes (Surface Structure). Schemes include Assonance, Alliteration, Eye Rhyme, Feminine Rhyme, Internal Rhyme, Masculine Rhyme, Scansion, Slant Rhyme, etc.

How important is the use of figures of speech in developing an argument?