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The Metaphoric Table by Raymond Burke Introduction Glossary of terms used on the table Tropes Ironies Schemes Figures of Sound Using the Metaphoric Table
Introduction - Purpose of the table and definition of classifications used The problem with usual listings of literary terms or ‘figures of speech’ is that they are usually presented in alphabetical order scattered throughout an eclectic array of literary theories and facts or even random lists. Simplified versions are displayed on colourful classroom posters with arbitrary inclusions and exclusions. There are always the teachers’ favourites, simile and metaphor, but rarely devices as important as metonymy. Alliteration is universal in its simplicity and anacoluthon often rears its controversial head despite being more associated with rhetoric. One the other hand, litotes, a device used on a daily basis by millions, is not at all ubiquitous in the classroom. Consequently, when a particular device has been used by an author and students try to search for further information without any idea as to what the technique is actually called, they will find it extremely difficult to track down the precise term that describes the author’s use of the device without trudging through countless dictionaries of literary terms in the hope that they will eventually stumble across the correct entry. Indeed, the inclusion of certain terms and even the actual meanings can also vary from book to book. Whilst in conversation with some other students in Stirling University a few years ago, I accepted the challenge to produce a wallchart which would give a graphic representation of the relationships between various tropes we had just discussed in an English seminar. Therefore, the challenge was to find how each term related to the others and produce the results visually. Unfortunately, the more terms I investigated, the more related terms I discovered. As the project snowballed, I realised that the wallchart would have to be a little more complicated than I had anticipated. The most obvious format to present such a variety of terms was science’s periodic table. There are, indeed, periodic tables of everything from cats to Star Trek. There is even one that lists figures of speech, but merely mimics the design as opposed to explaining relationships between categories and terms. Therefore, rather than just presenting the usual jumble of terms in the aesthetic style of the periodic table, priority was given to relationships between the terms. The Metaphoric Table was the result. As the chart took shape, the controversy over actual definition of wider categories became apparent. Since classical times, figurative language has been divided between figures of thought or ‘tropes’, from the Greek for turn or convert, and figures of speech or ‘schemes’, from the Greek word for form. A trope being a device which does not intend the reader to take what has been said
2 literally and a scheme being a structural anomaly that foregrounds words or phrases for effect. Unfortunately, whilst some critics define a trope as being ‘any rhetorical or figurative device’1 others point out that a trope is more precisely a device that ‘changes the meaning of a word or words, rather than simply arranging them in a pattern.’2 M. H. Abrams highlights this difference but also points out that ‘the distinction is not a sharp one.’3 Tropes and schemes are often collectivised under the umbrella of figures of speech and, to confuse things further, metaphor can be used ‘in its broader sense as a general category for all figures of speech.’4 (It is from this somewhat overinclusive sense that the table has been named.) Consequently, one of the purposes of creating the Metaphorical Table was to clarify the distinction between tropes and schemes. The table therefore follows the Quintilian definition that differentiates between meaning and form. It could be argued that the distinction between the two is caused by ironical tropes. Indeed, Kenneth Burke classifies the four ‘master tropes’ as metonymy, metaphor, synecdoche and irony.5 However, the problem with this quartet is that the first three are examples of specific devices whereas there is more than one style of irony. A much more efficient method would be to regard the ironies as a group of discrete devices rather than being conflated within a single trope. For example, antiphrasis, uses substitution and could, if not for its ironic opposition, otherwise be regarded as a trope. Oxymoron, on the other hand, as a juxtaposition of two opposites is more akin to a scheme. Both could be seen as tropic if the measure is change in meaning, but antithesis is undoubtedly based on form and paradox is independent of either category. These devices have more in common with one another than they have with the standard classical categories. Consequently, if the ironies are removed from the general category of tropes and presented in a category of their own, the distinctions between all three groups are clarified. Scheme refers to form, trope still refers to a change in meaning and irony can refer to the presentation or implication of ambiguity or opposition. This radical approach to categorisation means that the ironies can be presented in the middle of the table linking the two major classes and bridging the gap between representation and order. The fourth category on the table, figures of sound, is presented for two reasons: firstly because of the popularity of some of the terms in education and secondly because of the close proximity in function of some of the terms to others already on the table. Figurative language is often explained as being anything non-literal. However, there is nothing non-literal about onomatopoeia or alliteration. They undoubtably foreground words but are simply clever uses of sound. The meaning in alliterative, siblant or assonant phrases does not change and onomatopoeia is independent of presentation. Regardless of this, many charts and textbooks list them together as figures of speech. The main purpose of the Metaphoric Table became to present an organised visual overview of the differences between tropes and schemes and how they relate to ironies and figures of sound. As much as possible, each figure is placed alongside, or in close proximity to, related figures. Consequently, analysis of literary devices becomes significantly easier. For instance, if looking for the name of a style of repetition used in a work, each closely related device can be examined to find the precise description. On the chart, tropes are presented in light blue boxes, ironies in green, schemes in yellow and figures of sound in red. The smaller coloured boxes within each entry contain a brief explanation of the function of each device and are shaded according to the general effect produced. Examples of each device in use are also provided in the white text boxes. 1 J. A. Cuddon, Literary Terms and Literary Theory, Penguin, 1998. p. 948 2 Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, UCP, 1969. p.101 3 M. H. Abrams, Glossary of Literary Terms, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988. p.64 4 Edward Quinn, Dictionary of Literary Terms, Collins, 2004 p. 199 5 Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives, UCP, 1969. p.503
3 Certain popular literary terms, palindrome, anagram etc. could not be justifiably included as they are merely games and tricks. Others, although not quite pertinent, ie. anacoluthon and apostrophe, have been included within the descriptions of related devices. A third group of devices were left out because they were derivatives of other entries. ie. Mezzo-zeugma and hypozeugma which are merely zeugmas with the shared word placed in the middle or end of the sentence.
Glossary Tropes When literary tropes are employed, the words are presented to intentionally deviate from their standard literal meaning. The levels of deviation can vary from simple comparison to subtle understatement to gross exaggeration. The simplest of the tropes is simile, an explicit comparison of two distinct things: ‘She was as pretty as a daffodil’ or ‘She had a face like a Halloween cake.’ It is important to note that more than simple description is being used; two discrete things are being compared by carrying some of the qualities across. It is commonly recognised by the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’ but other comparatives such as ‘than’ can also be employed: ‘He could blaspheme worse than a Yankee boatswain.’ (R.L. Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá) Next to simile we have metaphor. Whereas simile is a comparison, metaphor presents us with an actual transference of identity. No longer is the author’s muse simply described as being ‘like’ a daffodil, when metaphor is employed, she becomes a daffodil. Metaphor is thus a much stronger trope than simile since an idea is being transferred from one place to another rather than a simple comparison being made. Quintilian narrows the difference between the two tropes, describing metaphor as, ‘a shorter form of simile.’ (HORT 66) Whereas simile is always explicit, metaphor can be either explicit or implicit. This can be exemplified by using I.A. Richards’ analysis of metaphor where he splits the trope into tenor and vehicle. The tenor represents the subject of the metaphor and the vehicle the imaginative image that takes us somewhere else. In the example, ‘Tam was a total bombscare’, ‘Tam’ is the tenor, the thing that is being compared, and ‘bombscare’ is the vehicle, the idea used to manipulate the image of the person. Because both tenor and vehicle are used, this is explicit. However if tenor is omitted, an implied metaphor is produced. For example in: ‘The bombscare sat in the corner of the bar’, we have to work out for ourselves that the ‘bombscare’ is a person. When a simile or metaphor is so complex that it seems exceedingly far fetched or too much of a stretch of the imagination, it is defined as catachresis. It may, at first appear to be technically erroneous but is often used to produce a heightened emotional state. ‘The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses / nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.’ (e.e. cummings, somewhere I have never travelled). However, another simpler form of catachresis is much more commonplace, especially in journalism and broadcasting when unintentional mixed metaphors are produced: ‘The manager had a fresh pair of legs up his sleeve’, ‘Beating about the bush with the wrong end of the stick’. In metonymy, the vehicle in the expression is something closely associated rather than something distinct. In the example: ‘The White House questioned the veracity of the allegations’,
4 the White House is substituted for the person speaking for the American President. It is important that this is distinguished from personification: The White House is being given no human attributes; it is only being used to represent something human. Often confusingly categorised as part of metonymy, synecdoche, should in fact be understood as something quite distinct. Rather than using metonymic association, synecdoche is part of the tenor being substituted. A part is used to represent the whole or, more rarely, an entirety used to represent a constituent part. In ‘all hands on deck’, the ‘hands’ are sailors. In ‘a fleet of a hundred sail’ each sail represents a ship. Therefore, the connection can be seen as more tangible than the mere associative connection of metonymy. The difference can be best exemplified by looking at each trope’s description of a car. Synecdoche would use ‘nice wheels’ whereas metonymy would use ‘nice ride’. Consequently, synecdoche is placed directly beneath metonymy on the table. When, rather than the subject being presented as one of its own components, it is divided into into constituent parts or extremes which are then listed to represent the entirety, we are employing merism: ‘Friends, romans, countrymen’, ‘Part and parcel’, ‘In sickness and in health’. It is a useful tool in public speaking but is undeniably periphrasistic. This can perhaps best be exemplified in the fashionable phrase, ‘People of all faiths and none’. Why not just say ‘everyone’ or ‘all people’? The speaker is differentiating people in order to show they are being included. Above metonymy and alongside catachresis is metalepsis. This trope is used when the figurative illusion is distant or some effect is attributed to a remote cause. The imaginative leap is similar to catachresis but with metalepsis the logical sequence of tropic steps can be more easily followed. Marlowe’s ‘The face that launched a thousand ships’ uses a mix of synecdoche and metonymy. Another popular imaginative trope is personification. Human qualities are attributed to inanimate things like weather, machinery and nature: ‘The old tree groaned in the heavy wind’, ‘The brakes screeched.’ Personification can be used as an umbrella term for anything non-human that is given human characteristics; however, it should be noted that there are more precise terms for the personification of animals and abstractions. Anthropomorphism describes human characteristics being given to animals. Popular in children’s literature, cartoons and with pampered pets, its opposite is zoomorphism, when humans make a kind of Darwinian regression and begin to bark, growl and slither around. Likewise, hypostatisation is being used when abstractions like time, hope and fear are personified: ‘Guilt follows me everywhere’, ‘Happiness embraces me’. (Another term closely linked to hypostatisation and other personifications is apostrophe. It is often categorised as a trope in arbitrary lists of figures but would be better described as a term of rhetoric. It is used when a character or narrator turning in mid sentence to address an abstraction, deity or indeed anyone or thing that is not actually present. There is nonetheless a close link to hypostatisation and it has been included for clarity.) Hyperbole is the term for exaggeration. It can often be a kind of extreme comparison: ‘I’ve told you a million times…’, ‘Her bags weighed a ton’ and is therefore placed on the Metaphoric Table above simile. However hyperbole can also employ transference: ‘Till a’ the seas gang dry my dear and rocks melt wi’ the sun.’ (Burns, Red Red Rose) Often used in advertising: ‘It’s out of this world’ and everyday speech, ‘Those shoes are awesome!’ Meiosis is frequently described as an antonym of hyperbole and uses understatement for effect: ‘That was quite an evening’, when some unexpected excitement has occurred or, ‘A small donation of a million pounds’, to produce an air of false modesty. Perhaps the most famous
5 example of meiosis was produced by the heroic Captain Oates when he sacrificed himself in the Antarctic: ‘I am just going outside. I may be some time.’ Alongside meosis and closely related to metaphor is another popular trope of understatement, euphemism. This describes when upsetting or possibly tactless words and phrases are replaced with less offensive alternatives. When someone is described as being, ‘laid to rest’ rather than buried, ‘aesthetically challenged’ rather than ugly or alluding to the ‘birds and the bees’ rather than sex education. Dysphemism is the opposite of euphemism and refers to the use of contemptuous or insulting terms. For example: ‘The cabinet minister was given the chop’ would dysphemise the euphemism, ‘He wants to spend more time with his family.’ However, unlike euphemism, dysphemism can be employed to produce both positive and negative effects. Although tropic in its negative use, when used positively, it can become somewhat ironic: ‘We had a hell of a good time.’ When the understatement is intended to be belittling, scornful or even contemptuous, the literary term is tapinosis. For instance a journalist being referred to as a ‘hack’, a claims lawyer as an, ‘ambulance chaser’ or Napoleon as, ‘The Little Corporal’. There is thus an element of sarcasm evident in tapinosis that is not found in the other forms of understatement. Another name-changing device is antonomasia. This is the term when an epithet or a title is used for a real name or a popular name used for an idea. A sportsman could be given the epithet, ‘The Flying Scotsman’, a clever child could be described as a ‘Little Einstein’ or a football commentator may say, ‘This is when a team really needs a Lionel Messi’. Ironies Many tropes can be described as being ironic, particularly with regard to figures of transference and most of the ironies also have tropic elements. Consequently, it may be asked why the ironies shouldn’t simply be regarded as tropes. There is indeed a grey area when considering tropes such as meiosis and tapinosis or ironies such as litotes and antiphrasis. Meiosis is often used ironically, tapinosis almost universally. On the other side, the irony, antiphrasis, uses substitution. However, despites these similarities, ironies should be seen as quite distinct from tropes inasmuch as they present ambiguity and opposition rather than varying degrees of substitution. Moreover, ironies such as aidanoeta, paronomasia and paradox have no elements of substitution or comparison to cause any change in meaning. This difference can be exemplified by looking at the relationship between tapinosis and antiphrasis. Whereas in tapinosis, the substituted word or phrase is used to belittle, in antiphrasis, an opposite is used but not necessarily in a negative way: ‘She is seventy years young’. Paronomasia, or pun, does not use any kind of substitution. Universally used in comedy and often cringeworthy, the irony stems from the ambiguity created by using a word or phrase that has a similar sounding implied alternative with a different meaning: ‘I have some grave news’, ‘Becoming vegetarian was a missed steak’ or ‘I have no desire to revisit romantic times and places. The doctor says I may have a yearning disability.’ When the ambiguity is created by using homonyms and both alternative senses are included, the correct term is antanaclasis. Rather than using one word with a possible double meaning, the alternative meanings are presented together. The irony is therefore explicit: ‘We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.’ (Benjamin Franklin)
6 In aidanoeta, the actual ambiguity is so subtle that it can very easily be missed. Although something positive is being said idiomatically, the literal meaning can have an extremely negative purpose. For example, when a promoter says, ‘We have nothing but praise for your band’, he probably means you won’t be getting paid. In litotes, rather than substitution, the effect is produced by an implied comparison of the subject to an ironic negation of its opposite: ‘He wasn’t the best singer in the world’. It is usually categorised as a form of understatement but is also used positively: ‘That wasn’t the dullest film I’ve ever seen’. A paradox presents two phrases or an apparently hypocritical saying to create an incongruous truth. ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’ (George Orwell, Animal Farm), ‘Less is more’, ‘The only thing I know is that I know nothing’ (Socrates). Oxymoron is often described as a condensed paradox. Two opposite words are juxtaposed to create something which may seem wrong at first glance but is nonetheless understood: ‘Agree to disagree’, ‘Consistently inconsistent’, ‘Gunboat diplomacy’. False oxymora are often used cynically for comic effect: ‘Realty TV star’, ‘Happily married’, ‘Military intelligence’. Close to oxymoron is Antithesis. This device is dependent not only on the ironic contrast of the ideas presented, but also on the grammatical balance of phrases: ‘A small step for man but a giant leap for mankind’ (Neil Armstrong). Thus, antithesis neatly bridges the gap between ironies and schemes. Schemes Unlike tropes, schemes do not actually change the meaning of the words. They simply foreground certain words and phrases by repetition or use of unusual syntax. The aforementioned devices, antithesis and antanaclasis, whilst primarily achieving their effects through irony, also rely on structure and repetition respectively. The balanced phrasing of antithesis is also an example of bicolon. Bicolon simply means the use of balanced phrases regardless of irony or tropic allusion: ‘You pay your money. You take your choice.’ Similarly, tricolon means three consecutive phrases have repeated structures: ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Isocolon, sometimes referred to as parallelism, is a repetition of any number of structurally similar phrases or sentences. (Indeed, tricolon and bicolon should both be presented under the umbrella of isocolon. However, they are included separately on the table for clarity because of their prevalence throughout literature and rhetoric.) Closely related to antithesis is Chiasmus. However, in chiasmus the grammatical structure of the balanced phrases is mirrored: ‘By the day the frolic, and the dance by night’. (Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes) A specific and much more prevalent kind of chiasmus known as antimetabole is produced when the actual words are reflected: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’ (John F. Kennedy). All antimetabole is chiasmus but all chiasmus is not antimetabole. Whereas antanaclasis repeats homonyms to create irony, many schemes repeat words in their original senses to achieve effect. The immediate repetition of a word is known as epizeuxis. For instance, when Robert Burns chose to describe a ‘red, red rose’, it was not because he was struggling for other adjectives, but to underline and defamiliarise the redness. In Dorothy Parker’s Coda we see a triplet of phrases: ‘This lining, this living, this living/ Was never a project of mine.’ However the prize for sustained epizuexis must surley go to the character, Don Logan, in Jonathan Glazer’s 2000 film, Sexy Beast: ‘No. No no no no no no no no! No! No no no no no no no no no no no no no! No!’
7 When the word or phrase is used at the end of one sentence and immediately repeated to begin the next, the term is anadiplosis. Anadiplosis indeed. It can occasionally occur in examples of antimetabole (See chiasmus above), and is also popular in poetry, as can be exemplified by the second and third stanzas of Burns’ Red, Red Rose: … And I will love thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And rocks melt wi’ the sun’ … If the word, phrase or sentence is repeated but broken by intervening words, the term is diacope. For example: ‘The shame. The utter shame of it!’ or Hamlet’s famous, ‘To be or not to be’. A special kind of diacope, known as epanalepsis is created when the same word or phrase both starts and finishes a sentence, group of sentences or stanza: ‘Redundancies, he continued; there’s definitely going to be redundancies.’ (Kelman, Not Not While the Giro), ‘Punishment means nothing to them, you can see that. They enjoy their so-called punishment.’ (Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange). Tmesis, although a scheme of disruption rather than repetition, is often categorised under diacope. Both words derive from the Greek for splitting but it is more convenient to use diacope when repetition of the same word is separated by intervening words, and tmesis when the actual word is split. Consequently, tmesis is presented in its contemporary form, representing the insertion of a word (usually of an expletive) within another word or phrase: ‘Abso-bloody-lutely’, ‘Ri-fuckindiculous’, ‘Lah de friggin dah’, ‘That’s a-whole-nother story’. Tmesis is also being used when a compound word is simply broken into its elements: ‘Un Be Leivable’, ‘Fan Tastic.’ and from Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show, ‘Antici Pation’. When a word is repeated but using a different part of speech, the term is polyptoton: ‘With maiden pride the maid concealed’ (Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake). Anthimeria means one part of speech is being used in place of another. An adjective can be used as a noun: ‘Spread the happy’. A verb can be used as a noun: ‘The magician’s reveal’. When a noun is used as verb it it also known as verbing or verbification: ‘We can facebook one another’, or as a verbal threat of punishment, ‘I’ll bike you’, ‘I’ll Disneyland you’. Anthimeria, although a literary delight, can also be the cause of much inane administrative pretentiousness: ‘Do we have a solve for this?’ The chronological sequence of examples: ‘Inbox me’, ‘Text me’, ‘Mail me’ shows how, over time, verbified nouns can become part of the language as the awkwardness disappears. ‘To inbox’ is still strange, ‘To text’ has recently became acceptable and ‘Mail’ was verbified a long time ago. However, the modern obsession is best phrased in the cartoon strip, Calvin and Hobbes: ‘Verbing weirds language.’ Often confused with personification, hypallage also known as Transferred Epithet, transfers a modifier from one noun to another: ‘I had a thoughtful glass of merlot’, ‘She walked a weary road’. Unlike personification, neither the ‘glass’ nor ‘road’ are intended to have human qualities.
8 In hendiadys, a single idea is divided in two; a noun and adjective are split and reassembled with a conjunction: ‘We heard the furious sound’ becomes, ‘We heard the sound and fury’, ‘She glared with spiteful hatred’ becomes, ‘She glared with spite and hatred’ and ‘They ran in terrifying haste’ would be, ‘They ran in terror and haste’. Whereas hendiadys is still grammatically correct, a deliberate departure can be made from conventional usage to produce hyperbaton. Richard Lovelace’s, ‘Stone walls do not a prison make’ is a popular example in which the verb is moved to the end of the sentence. The character Yoda from the Star Wars movies appears to be fluent in his use of hyperbata: ‘The dark side of the force are they’, ‘Forever will it dominate your destiny’, ‘Consume you it will’ (Lucas, The Empire Strikes Back, 1980). Anacoluthon may be debatable as a figure. It is, nonetheless, a very useful dramatic tool for the writer and produces an emotional break in sequence: ‘How many times have I told you to…? Oh, never mind.’ Rather than having parts of sentences missing, it is possible to leave words out without confusing the sentence. This can be useful when avoiding repetition and is known as Ellipsis: ‘Frank went to Spain and his wife Germany’. (Ellipsis is also the term used for three full stops to show some text has been left out.) Zeugma also means sharing a verb, but produces a very different, often humorous, effect as concrete and abstract nouns are combined. In Mark Twain’s example, ‘dust’ is a concrete noun and ‘glory’ is abstract: ‘And covered themselves in dust and glory.’ (Tom Sawyer) It is important to avoid confusion between zuegma and syllepsis. They are frequently listed as being synonymous but are very different since zeugma uses incongruous nouns whilst syllepsis relates to a deliberate mismatch of verbs. To be more precise, syllepsis relates to the combination of phrasal and plain verbs. For instance, in the following example, to ‘fall off’ of something is a plain verb whereas to ‘fall out’ emotionally is phrasal: ‘They fell off of the bus and out with one another’. When the subject of a sentence is shared with two or more verbs, Diazeugma is the correct term: ‘I work all day, sweat my guts out, walk home for miles, buy you pretty things and come home to nothing.’ When each sentence in a sequence begins with the same word or phrase, the term is anaphora: ‘The more successful the villain - the more successful the picture’ (Alfred Hitchcock), ‘Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career…’ (Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting). If the sentences all end with the same word or phrase the term is epiphora: ‘To seek the truth is to foment terrorism/ to call war state violence is to foment terrorism / to question the news is to foment terrorism…’ (Tom Leonard, Blair’s Britain). (Epiphora is also widely know as epistrophe.) Symploce is a sequence of sentences that uses both anaphora and epiphora: ‘The yellow fog that rubs its back against the window panes/ The yellow smoke that rubs its nuzzle on the window panes’ (T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock). When a sequence of sentences are presented without the use of conjunctions or connectives, the author is employing parataxis: ‘George looked up at the clock. It was quarter past six. The door from the street opened. A street-car motorman came in.’ (Ernest Hemingway, The Killers) The opposite is hypotaxis where sentences and clauses are linked by subordination and coordination. This can be shown by adapting the Hemingway quote: ‘At quarter past six, as George looked at the clock, the door from the street opened and a motorman came in.’
9 Polysyndeton is the term when a single conjunction is repeatedly used to join a series of sentences or clauses: ‘The first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me and all that David Copperfield crap.’ (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye). On the other hand, the removal of conjunctions, articles and pronouns to speed things up is asyndeton: ‘First thing you’ll probably want to know. Where I was born. What my lousy childhood was like. How parents were occupied. Before they had me. David Copperfield crap.’ (Adapted from Salinger quote above.) There can be a confusing similarity between parataxis and asyndeton. However they can be differentiated when it is pointed out that asyndeton refers to the omission of smaller words and conjunctions whereas parataxis means they have been avoided. Consequently, asyndeton does not always need to be grammatically correct. Tautology means to repeat the same idea twice. ‘It is no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another’ (George Bush). It can often be used in error but is also a useful literary device. ‘Bloody hell. I’m sweatin’ here. Roastin’. Boilin’. Bakin’. Swelterin’. It’s like a sauna…’ (Sexy Beast, 2000). Such intentional synonymous repetition for effect is also known as Scesis Onomaton. Figures of Sound Figures of Sound are more akin to schemes than tropes. However, onomatopoeia and alliteration are teachers’ favourites and often appear in random lists and posters alongside metaphor, simile, hyperbole and personification. Alliteration is the repetition of stressed sounds, consonantal and vowel, usually at the beginnings of words: ‘The farthest fringes of life, a small leaf, a black feather, a single fibre of hair.’ Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451). Rhyme refers to stresses towards the ends of words and phrases. Masculine rhyme uses the last syllable, ‘Moon, bassoon, Cameroon’. Feminine rhyme uses the penultimate syllable: ‘Never, river, deliver’ Triple rhyme uses the antepenultimate syllable: ‘Tightening, frightening’. Onomatopoeia is more often than not regarded as merely as a figure that mimics the sound it represents: ‘Bang, crack, whizz’. However, in a wider sense, it can refer also to movement and visualisation: ‘Swoosh, slip, stagger’. Consonance in its strictest sense means a change of vowels within arranged consonantal sounds: ‘Tick tock’, ‘Blood bled’. However it can be used for any stressed consonant sounds in proximal words. In this sense, alliteration can also be a kind of consonance. Assonance means a repetition of vowel sounds in proximity: ‘In the mood for a tune’, ‘Danger awaits’. Siblance refers to repetition of siblant sounds: ‘Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently’ (D.H. Lawrence, Snake). In dissonance the writer is trying to create disharmory by making sounds clash: ‘The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel…’ (Walt Whitman, The Dalliance of the Eagles) Using the Metaphoric Table.
10 Hopefully this study and arrangement of literary devices will be of some use to students and teachers of literature. Even those who disagree with the separation of ironies from tropes can simply regard them as a sub-category and use the metaphoric table as a catalyst for creativity or a resource to direct further analysis. When studying a poem or literary work, examine the piece to see whether meaning or arrangement has been manipulated by the author, then see what kind of subcategory best fits the piece of text to focus on a group of devices until the correct one is found. However, it should be noted that none of these devices are exclusive and a piece of text may be using a number of different tropes, schemes, ironies or sound effects at once. When working with a class, the teacher should distribute various literary quotations amongst groups of students and ask them to find which terms the authors are using. Quotations will often be examples of more than one entry. For instance, the first two lines of Burns’ poem, Red, Red Rose, include examples of alliteration, simile and anaphora. In a writing workshop, choose a few random terms for each student. Perhaps one trope one scheme and one irony. Then ask them to construct a paragraph of prose or a poem which includes their own examples of the three terms in use. (However, more complicated terms like metalepsis and catachresis may be too demanding for some students. So be wary of which ones are to be tackled.) Another good, but somewhat longer, exercise is to ask the students to see how many examples they can find in the works of their favourite writers or bands. A blank table can then be created to display the results. Finally, the Metaphoric Table should be seen as a useful theory rather than a inflexible result. So, by all means, cut up the table with some scissors, change the order, add and subtract terms. I spent months doing this and it is an excellent exercise for students to have a few boxes printed on cards to try to put them in the correct order. Even placing metonymy, metaphor and simile will guarantee argument within a classroom. However, when the argument is over, the students, and teachers, will have a much clearer understanding of the meanings of each term. Raymond Burke March 2016 Thanks toRichard McLean Stephanie Black Johnny Rodger