Figures of Speech: Types, Examples and Functions

Figures of Speech: Phonological and Syntactic Types

Phonological and Morphological Figures

• Alliteration: Repetition of sounds; used to suggest images related to the senses (repeated throughout).
• Paronomasia: Use of very similar-sounding words with different meanings (e.g., "diode" and "two").
• Pun: Grouping or rearranging syllables of words to create another meaning and cause ambiguity or misunderstanding (example: "marivi" interpreted as "mar" + "vi").
• Poliptoton: Repetition of a lexeme with different inflections (e.g., "lose, losing, lost").
• Derivation: Repetition of a lexeme with derivational morphemes (example: "Walker Road").

Syntactic and Structural Figures

• Ellipsis: Omission of elements that are nevertheless understood (e.g., "the bodies are other flowers like daggers...").
• Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions (e.g., "go, run, fly...") to create a fast or dynamic effect.
• Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions (e.g., "running and jumping and flying...") to slow the rhythm or add emphasis.
• Epiphora: Repetition of one or more elements at the end of successive lines (e.g., "Spain, Spain").
• Anaphora: Repetition of one or more elements at the beginning of verses or sentences to persuade or emphasize (e.g., "a dark caress, a caress slow...").
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of an element at the end of one verse and at the beginning of the next (e.g., "the cry of the jungle, jungle...").
• Epanadiplosis: Repetition of an element at the beginning and end of the same line (e.g., "k te kiero verde green").

Other Structural and Rhetorical Figures

• Correlation: Presentation of elements that correspond later, one by one, in another verse or line.
• Parallelism: Repetition of similar structures (e.g., "live at peace with the others and at war with my heart").
• Hyperbaton: Alteration of normal word order to create emphasis or a particular rhythm.
• Apostrophe: Exclamatory address to someone absent, imaginary, or abstract (e.g., "Hear me...").
• Rhetorical question: A question for which an answer is not expected; used to emphasize a point.
• Oxymoron: Opposition between two words of opposite meaning to express contradiction (e.g., "deafening silence").
• Paradox: Union of two apparently incompatible ideas (e.g., "freedom in imprisonment").
• Comparison: Explicit comparison between two elements to highlight similarities or differences.
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration used to create striking images or to produce a memorable or humorous effect.
• Personification: Attribution of human qualities to non-human beings or objects (e.g., "the cockroaches protested").