- "Literal language uses words exactly according to their conventionally accepted meanings or denotation." - "Figurative (or non-literal) language uses words in a way that deviates from their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complicated meaning or heightened effect."
The use of literary devices such as imagery, metaphor, simile, personification, etc. in a text and their impact on its meaning and style.
Simile: A comparison between two things using "like" or "as.".
Metaphor: A comparison between two things without using "like" or "as.".
Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human things.
Hyperbole: Exaggeration for emphasis.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several words in a row.
Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like what they mean.
Irony: A twist in the meaning of words that are used in a way that they are not intended.
Symbolism: The use of objects or images to represent or stand for ideas or concepts.
Imagery: Vivid descriptions that appeal to the senses.
Foreshadowing: Hints about what may happen later in the story.
Flashback: A scene that interrupts the present story to show what happened in the past.
Allegory: A story that has a deeper meaning beyond the surface level.
Tone: The author's attitude toward the subject they are writing about.
Mood: The emotions that the author tries to evoke in the reader.
Diction: The use of words and phrases to create a particular style and tone.
Syntax: The way in which words and clauses are ordered and connected to form sentences.
Point of view: The perspective from which the story is told.
Theme: The underlying message or idea that the author is trying to convey.
Satire: The use of humor, irony, or sarcasm to criticize society or individuals.
Paradox: A seemingly contradictory statement that actually reveals a truth.
Allegory: Allegory is a type of figurative language that involves conveying a deeper meaning through symbolic representation. It involves using events or characters to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Alliteration: Alliteration is a literary device where a series of words in a line have the same sound.
Allusion: Allusion is a reference to another literary work, cultural figure or historical event within a text.
Anaphora: Anaphora is the repetition of a word, phrase or idea at the beginning of several sentences or lines.
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words that are close to one another.
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words that are close to one another.
Metaphor: A metaphor is used to describe an object or concept by directly comparing it to another object or concept.
Simile: A simile is a comparison of one object or concept with another, using the words 'like' or 'as.'.
Personification: Personification is when an object or animal is given human-like qualities.
Hyperbole: Hyperbole is an exaggeration used to emphasize a point, for example, 'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse'.
Irony: Irony is when the opposite of what is expected to happen, happens.
Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like the sound they are describing.
Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a figure of speech where two contradictory terms are used together, for example, 'jumbo shrimp'.
Paradox: A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself but may still be true.
Symbolism: Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or concepts.
Imagery: Imagery is the use of words to create a sensory experience for readers, describing sights, sounds, smells, etc.
Epiphora: Epiphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several sentences or lines.
Pathetic Fallacy: Pathetic fallacy is when the environment is used to reflect a character's emotions, for example, a storm raging during a tense argument between characters.
Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is when an author drops hints about a future event.
Imagery: Imagery is the use of descriptive language to create vivid mental pictures in the reader's mind.
Rhyme: Rhyme is the repetition of the same sounds at the end of words, such as 'cat' and 'hat.'.
Meter: Meter is the regular pattern of rhythm in poetry, created by stressed and unstressed syllables.
- "Literal and figurative language is a distinction within some fields of language analysis, in particular stylistics, rhetoric, and semantics."
- "Literal usage confers meaning to words, in the sense of the meaning they have by themselves, outside any figure of speech." - "It maintains a consistent meaning regardless of the context, with the intended meaning corresponding exactly to the meaning of the individual words."
- "Figurative use of language is the use of words or phrases that implies a non-literal meaning which does make sense or that could [also] be true." - "Figurative language is often created by presenting words in such a way that they are equated, compared, or associated with normally unrelated meanings."
- "Aristotle and later the Roman Quintilian were among the early analysts of rhetoric who expounded on the differences between literal and figurative language."
- "A comprehensive scholarly examination of metaphor in antiquity, and the way its early emergence was fostered by Homer's epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, is provided by William Bedell Stanford, Greek Metaphor."
- "In 1769, Frances Brooke's novel The History of Emily Montague was used in the earliest Oxford English Dictionary citation for the figurative sense of literally; the sentence from the novel used was, 'He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies.'"
- "Within literary analysis, such terms are still used; but within the fields of cognition and linguistics, the basis for identifying such a distinction is no longer used." Please note that since the paragraph provided does not contain direct quotes, the responses are paraphrased based on the information presented.