TNPSC General English – Figures of speech from the Poems:
TNPSC Group 4 General English consists of three parts. Part A: Grammer, Part B: Literature, and Part C: Authors and their Literary Works. In this section, we discuss the second Literature part. Actually, the Literature part is easy & students who are preparing for TNPSC Exams can easily score maximum marks in this part. So, we provide the TNPSC General English Study Material – Literature in an easy way for the TNPSC aspirants.
Look at the TNPSC General English Literature – Figures of the speech below and also find other Part B Authors and their Literary Works part questions and answers links given below. Complete TNPSC General English study material/ complete notes, question and answers PDF available below for free download.
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TNPSC General English Study Materials:
Figures of speech
Figures of speech are consist of the following – Alliteration, Allusion, Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Oxymoron, Onomatopoeia, Anaphora, Ellipsis, Rhyme Scheme, Repetition, Apostrophe are clearly updated below for TNPSC Exam preparations.
Alliteration:
- The repetition of an initial consonant sound. It depends on the sound and not on the repetition of letters.
- The sound of English alphabets except for vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
Ex: “Guinness is good for you” – It is alliterative as words Guinness and good gives similar consonant sound.
“Climate change is observed lightly in Tamil Nadu” – Non-alliterative as words Climate and Change give a different sound.
Allusion:
- A reference to a person, place, or event that happened – maybe real or fiction. The reference may be to any painting, script, character, etc.
Ex: “He is a real Romeo with ladies” – Here the reference is to the character “Romeo” in Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet.
Simile:
- Comparing two dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common. It is usually done with the phrase “like” or “as”.
Ex: “He is as tall as Eifel tower”
Metaphor:
- An implied comparison between two, unlike things that actually have something important in common.
Ex: “The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner.” (Cynthia Ozick, “Rosa”) – Here the streets are compared to the furnace and the sun to the executioner. Here too the comparison is done as alike simile but it is in a broader sense.
NOTE: Similes mostly uses the comparison words “like” and “as”. The other comparison can be attributed to metaphor.
Personification:
- A figure of speech in which a lifeless object or abstraction is provided with human qualities or abilities.
Ex: “The wind stood up and gave a shout.” – Here the wind (lifeless object) is compared to a human standing up and shouting.
Onomatopoeia:
- The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Ex: “Ding Dong! – The doorbell is ringing.”
Oxymoron:
- A figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear side by side.
Ex: “The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.” – Here insomnia (habitual sleeplessness) is compared with sleeping – Contradictory words.
Anaphora:
- The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Ex: “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, and I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat, and a gun.” (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940) – The word “needed” is repeated in the above verses.
Ellipsis:
- Ellipsis is the omission of one or more words, which must be supplied by the reader.
Ex: “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” (Plato) – Here the second sentence does not contain the word “talk”.
Rhyme Scheme:
- The arrangement of Rhymes in a poem. Rhyme here stands for the similarity of sounds.
Apostrophe:
- Breaking off the line to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.
Repetition:
- It is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to provide emphasis.
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