Reading Comprehension

Figures of Speech:

The figures of speech or the literary devices are tools used to enhance the literariness of a text. Texts can be fiction (literary) or non-fiction. The non-fiction text includes no references and no metaphors, it states the pieces of information in a clear straight to the point manner. The point of such text is to be informative, like the academic/ Scientific/Historical text, etc. The literary text includes the element of literariness. This includes devices that displace words out of their original context and to give them a new meaning in a new environment.

The figures of speech are linguistic devices that are used in language for a very precise objective, which is to give literariness to the text. A work of fiction or a literary work, is characterized with subjectivity (unlike non-fiction which is objective) and thus allows the speaker to show more of their personal thoughts and feelings. 

The figures of speech usually used in the English language are the following:

• Simile: is a comparison that includes the tool of comparison. Example: She is beautiful like a flower.
• Metaphors: Comparison that does not include the tool of comparison: She is a flower. 
• Personification: It is the fact of giving a human attribute to an object or something not human. Example: The anger of the sea. 
• Apostrophe: The act of speaking to an absent person, or someone who is not in front of the speaker; A person addressing their dead father saying: Oh Father, if you were here, I would be a happier person. 
• Analogy: Two opposing situations: after last summer which was full of joy, this summer was depressing. 
• Paradox: two words that oppose each other; black and white. 
• Pun: an expression that has two meanings, one of them is literal, and the second is metaphorical. 
• Hyperbole: an exaggeration in speech: example: I haven't seen you for ages. 
• Irony: A sarcastic line that expresses anger and laughter at the same time. The laughter is not always explicit, it can be implicit mockery or dark humour. 
• Reference (Allusion): The fact of referring to an object, a place, or a historical event to show part of suhc life and the point of comparison is what is common between the object being referred to and the actual situation which is narrated or exposed in the figure of speech.