The main figures of speech in English and Ukrainian

Transference - this deviation from literal common form are called figures of speech. The main aim of figurative phrases is to stir emotions and excite imagination. Proverbial Wisdom is full of figures of speech.

FIGURE OF SPEECH: A mode of expression in which words are used out of their literal meaning or out of their ordinary use in order to add beauty or emotional intensity or to transfer the poet's sense impressions by comparing or identifying one thing with another that has a meaning familiar to the reader. Some important figures of speech are: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole and symbol.

- Metaphor - the commonest of all figures of speech. We have the extension of meaning. It is the oldest figure. It is transference of name from one to another. It serves also to express attitude.

The neck of the bottle, the ray of hope, a shade of doubt, blood boils.

- Zoosemy - names of animals used metaphorically to describe qualities.Cruel person - tiger, crafty person - a fox, book reader - bookworm.

- Simile - is a comparison linking 2 objects with conjunction as - I wandered lonely as a cloud.

- Metonymy - is a device in which the name of 1 thing is changed for that for the name of another to which it is related. The simplest way of metaphor is synecdoche - it is giving a part for the whole or vice versa. All hands aboard.

PERSONIFICATION: A type of metaphor in which distinctive human characteristics, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are attributed to an animal, object or idea, as "The haughty lion surveyed his realm" or "My car was happy to be washed" or "'Fate frowned on his endeavors." Personification is commonly used in allegory.

HYPERBOLE is an exaggeration. W mean exaggerating of some qyalities for creating special effects, e.g., "I'd give my right arm for a piece of pizza." Not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing the truth of a statement.

Litotes – plain,simple. Litotes is opposite to hyperbole.

Euphemism – came from the tabooing the words. People create other names for tabooed or not very pleasant things. Water closet – White Castle, drunk – elevated.

SYMBOL: An image transferred by something that stands for or represents something else, like flag for country, or autumn for maturity. Symbols can transfer the ideas embodied in the image without stating them, as in Robert Frost's Acquainted With the Night, in which night is symbolic of death or depression, or Sara Teasdale's The Long Hill, in which the climb up the hill symbolizes life and the brambles are symbolic of life's adversities.

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