Stylistic devices and their functions

Stylistic Devices / Literary Terms

Alliteration (Alliteration, Stabreim)

Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of neighbouring words

Example: O wild west wind, …;

Full fathoms five thy father lies, ..

Effect: sound device, musical effect

Allusion (Anspielung)

A reference to a famous person or event; may be literary, historical, biblical, …

Example:

Effect: emphasis, to give credibility, to show off one´s education

Anaphora (Anapher)

The same word or expression is repeated at the beginning of 2 or more lines or sentences

Example: Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Effect: emphasis

Anticlimax

Often surprising descent from the important to the unimportant, normally in a series of statements

Example: He pawned his life, his watch and his word.

Effect: surprise, humour

Antithesis (Gegenüberstellung zweier Gedanken)

Contrasting statements are balanced against each other.

Example: To err is human, to forgive divine.

Effect: to create emphasis

Assonance (Gleichklang)

The repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds within stressed syllables or neighbouring words

Example: fate and lake

Effect: musical

Asyndeton (unverbundene Reihung von Satzgliedern)

Words are not linked by conjunctions; they are separated only by commas

Example: .. another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, … covering…

Effect: staccato-like

Chiasm (Überkreuzung)

The syntactic structure is criss-crossed; inversion in second phrase of order in first phrase

Example: to stop too fearful, and too faint to go

Effect: emphasis

Climax

Words are arranged according to the value of their importance; the most important word is the climax.

Example: We strive for the good, aim for the better, and seize the best.

Effect: to increase tension, emphasize importance

Enjambment (Zeilensprung)

A sentence runs across 2 lines

Example: I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high oér vales and hills

Effect: fluent, flowing

Epipher

Repetition of one or more words at the end of two or more lines or sentences

Example: Whirl your pointed pines,

Splash your great pines

Effect: emphasis (front and end positions are always emphasized)

Euphemism (Euphemismus)

A direct, unpleasant statement is replaced by an indirect, more pleasant one to avoid bluntness.

Example: to put an animal to sleep, instead of: to kill it because it is ill

Effect: to avoid bluntness, to be polite

Hyperbole / exaggeration (Übertreibung)

Example: Sue is extremely rich. She is rolling in money.

I haven´t seen you for ages!

Effect: used for exaggeration; to attract the reader´s attention; to emphasize statements

Inversion (Umstellung von SPO)

Example: away they fly; up go the windows, out run the people, …

Effect: to emphasize or dramatize an event

Irony

A meaning is expressed that is the opposite of the intended one.

Example: the noble Brutus

Effect: ridicule; often didactic

Litotes

Understatement, often ironical, expressing an affirmative by the negative of its contrary

Example: she is not stupid (= she is quite clever)

Effect: emphasis

Metaphor

A figure of speech that implies more of a comparison than a direct impression (Without “as” or “like”!!)

Example: You are the wind beneath my wings.

Effect: emphasis; appeals to our imagination; creates a vivid picture in the reader´s mind

Metonymy

A word is substituted by another with which it is associated.

Example: crown stands for monarchy

Effect: visual effect

Onomatopoeia (Lautmalerei)

Word whose sound tries to imitate its meaning

Example: hum, buzz, crash, swish, cuckoo

Effect: sound device, creates an especially vivid impression

Oxymoron (scheinbarer Widerspruch)

Two contradictory terms are used together in a phrase.

Example: sweet death; wise fool; cruel love

Effect: provokes thoughts; emphasis

Paradox

A statement which is obviously absurd or contradictory, but has a deeper meaning

Example: The King is dead! Long live the King!

So fair and foul a day I have not seen.

Effect: thought-provoking

Parallelism

Arrangement of phrases, sentences or paragraphs, so that structure and/or meaning are similar; a form of repetition

Example: Cannon to the right of them,

Cannon to the left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volleyed and thundered.

Effect: impresses the reader

Personification (Vermenschlichung)

Attributes a human quality to animals or inanimate things

Example: Justice is blind; dancing daffodils

Effect: to emphasize similarity

Portmanteau word (Kontamination)

Two words are used to form a new one.

Example: breakfast + lunch = brunch

Pun (Wortspiel)

A humorous play on words that sound similar, but have different meanings

Example: These sausages are unidentified frying objects.

Is life worth living? That depends on the liver.

Effect: humour, fun

Repetition (Wiederholung)

Words or phrases are repeated.

Example: water, water everywhere

Effect: to emphasize; can seem monotonous

Rhetorical question

Asked for rhetorical effect, not expecting an answer

Example: A simple child, … What should it know of death?

Effect: emphasis

Rhyme

Similarity or identity of vowels (several types: end-rhyme, cross-rhyme, embracing rhyme)

Example: In the drinking-well

Which the plumber built her

Aunt Eliza fell,

We must buy a filter.

Effect: musical

Simile (Vergleich mit „like“ oder „as“)

Example: He runs like the wind.

Effect: conveys a vivid picture to the mind by linking up unrelated objects

Syllepsis (Zeugma)

One word modifies or governs others although it fits with only one.

Example: He took leave and his hat.

Effect: comical

Synaesthesia

Words describing different sensations (e.g. colour, smell, vision)

Example: murmuring light; cold colour

Effect: poetic; provokes thoughts; strikes as unusual

Synecdoche

Uses a part of something to refer to the whole

Example: He was sent behind bars (= prison)

Effect: vivid impression

Tautology (synonyme Wortwiederholung)

Superfluous repetition of words that does not clarify a statement

Example: to divide into four quarters

Effect: for emphasis

Stylistic Devices – Functions

– arouse the reader’s interest / catch the r.’s attention: titles

– make the reader think: paradox (Don’t overuse!)“

– create vivid/graphic mental images: metaphors, personifications

– emphasize certain aspects: repetition, parallelism, alliteration

– amuse/entertain the reader: euphemism, similes, metaphors

– criticize/satirize: hyperbole

– evoke (funny) associations