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An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Synchysis: words that are intentionally scattered to create perplexment. Synecdoche: referring to a part by its whole or vice versa. Synonymia: use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence. Tautology: redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice. Tmesis: insertions of content within a compound word.
Literal language is the usage of words exactly according to their direct, straightforward, or conventionally accepted meanings: their denotation. Figurative (or non-literal) language is the usage of words in a way that deviates from their conventionally accepted definitions in order to convey a more complex meaning or a heightened effect. [1]
Owing to its origin in ancient Greece and Rome, English rhetorical theory frequently employs Greek and Latin words as terms of art. This page explains commonly used rhetorical terms in alphabetical order. The brief definitions here are intended to serve as a quick reference rather than an in-depth discussion. For more information, click the terms.
So in "whale's road", "road" is the base-word, and "whale's" is the determinant. This is the same structure as in the modern English term "skyscraper"; the base-word here would be "scraper", and the determinant "sky". In some languages, kennings can recurse, with one element of the kenning being replaced by another kenning.
A common definition of metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows how two things, which are not alike in most ways, are similar in another important way. In this context, metaphors contribute to the creation of multiple meanings within polysemic complexes across different languages. [ 33 ]
In linguistics, the conduit metaphor is a dominant class of figurative expressions used when discussing communication itself (metalanguage).It operates whenever people speak or write as if they "insert" their mental contents (feelings, meanings, thoughts, concepts, etc.) into "containers" (words, phrases, sentences, etc.) whose contents are then "extracted" by listeners and readers.
First attested in English in 1382, the word allegory comes from Latin allegoria, the latinisation of the Greek ἀλληγορία (allegoría), "veiled language, figurative", [4] literally "speaking about something else", [5] which in turn comes from ἄλλος (allos), "another, different" [6] and ἀγορεύω (agoreuo), "to harangue, to ...