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
