Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Hyperbole (/ h aɪ ˈ p ɜːr b əl i / ⓘ; adj. hyperbolic / ˌ h aɪ p ər ˈ b ɒ l ɪ k / ⓘ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech.In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth').
[4] An example of hyperbole is: "The bag weighed a ton." [5] Hyperbole makes the point that the bag was very heavy, though it probably does not weigh a ton. [6] Exaggerating is also a type of deception, [7] as well as a means of malingering – magnifying small injuries or discomforts as an excuse to avoid responsibilities. [8]
The sentence can be given as a grammatical puzzle [7] [8] [9] or an item on a test, [1] [2] for which one must find the proper punctuation to give it meaning. Hans Reichenbach used a similar sentence ("John where Jack had...") in his 1947 book Elements of Symbolic Logic as an exercise for the reader, to illustrate the different levels of language, namely object language and metalanguage.
Flanderization is a widespread phenomenon in serialized fiction. In its originating show of The Simpsons, it has been discussed both in the context of Ned Flanders and as relating to other characters; Lisa Simpson has been discussed as a classic example of the phenomenon, having, debatably, been even more Flanderized than Flanders himself. [9]
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously was composed by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 book Syntactic Structures as an example of a sentence that is grammatically well-formed, but semantically nonsensical. The sentence was originally used in his 1955 thesis The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory and in his 1956 paper "Three Models for the ...
The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress. That is one of the three components of prosody , along with rhythm and intonation . It includes phrasal stress (the default emphasis of certain words within phrases or clauses ), and contrastive stress (used to highlight an item, a word or part of a word ...
For example, the phrase, "John, my best friend" uses the scheme known as apposition. Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men").
A famous example for lexical ambiguity is the following sentence: "Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher.", meaning "When flies fly behind flies, then flies fly in pursuit of flies." [40] [circular reference] It takes advantage of some German nouns and corresponding verbs being homonymous. While not noticeable ...