Chapter 6  Use of Words

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Figure of Speech 4

Rhyme:

The term general rhyme refers to a variety of phonetic likenesses between words. It may be divided into  tail rhyme 尾韵  alliteration or head rhyme 头韵

assonance元音韵 and consonance 辅音韵

 A perfect tail rhyme is a case in which two words rhyme in such a way that their final stressed vowel, and all subsequent sounds, are identical. For instance, sight and light, right and might, and rose and dose.  https://literarydevices.net/rhyme/

William Shakespeare’s sonnet 18- Shall I Compare Thee to A Summer’s Day? and enjoy the charm of tail rhyme of sonnet. .(.. seconds  audio ) 

After you have read this sonnet, have you found the rules of rhyme for it?  Right! Ababcdcdefefgg  This is sonnet’s typical pattern of rhyme. Now you try. Can you recognize the tail rhyme for the following poem?

the following examples.

Mickey Mouse  - PayPal   Best Buy   Coca-Cola

- Time tries truth.

- Live and learn.

- Plenty is no plague. 多多益善

- Time and tide wait for no man.

Alliteration is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds, such as “Six silly swans went swimming in the sea.”It’s important to note that not every word in the sentence has to begin with the same letter in order to be considered alliteration.  In the above example, only 5 out of 8 words begin with an “s”. Next, let’s read a few lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea.”

Alliteration has a very vital role in poetry and prose. It creates a musical effect in the text that enhances the pleasure of reading a literary piece. In the marketing industry, as what we have already discussed, alliteration makes the brand names interesting and easier to remember. This literary device is helpful in attracting customers and enhancing sales.

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds in neighboring words.  Let’s read the following examples:

She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year.

She sells seashells by the sea shore. And the shells she sells are seashells I’m sure.

The underlined sounds are consonance. Let’s look at how Emily Dickinson created the intended effect in the poem As Imperceptibly as Grief by using consonance.

“A Quietness distilled

As Twilight long begun,

Or Nature spending with herself

Sequestered Afternoon—

Here, Emily Dickinson has relied on the consonant “n” to create the intended effect.

Consonance is commonly employed in a range of situations, from poetry to prose writing. The use of consonance provides the structure of poetry with a rhyming effect. A writer normally employs the tool of consonance for the purpose of reiterating the significance of an idea or theme.

Assonance元音韵

From the following examples

Body Shop，

Theearly bird catches the worm

That black lad was killed in the accident.

Can you see what is assonance?
Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words.

Assonance differs from rhyme in that rhyme usually involves both vowel and consonant sounds, but assonance just repeats the same vowels.

"fish and chips"

"bad man"

"A heart no bigger than an orange seed has ceased to beat."

Pun

A pun is a play on words that produces a humorous effect by using a word that suggests two or more meanings, or by exploiting similar sounding words that have different meanings.

Why is the river so rich? It has two banks.

Is life worth living? It depends on the liver.

Humorous effects created by puns depend upon the ambiguities the words entail. These ambiguities arise mostly in homophones and homonyms.

homophone谐音相关

Seven days without water makes one week.  week -- weak

They pray for you today and prey on you tomorrow. Pray-- prey

homonym多义词相关

What's the longest sentence in the world?

Prison for life.

It is easy to find “pun” is used in so many daily jokes as follows.

Apart from being witty and humorous, puns add profound meanings to texts; by playing with the words, the writers reveal their cleverness and the cleverness of their characters.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of words (such as hiss or murmur) that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

猫  meow       

狮子（lion） roar

麻雀（sparrow） chirp

鸭（duck） quack

夜莺（nightingale） warble

水流动声  splash

金属磕碰声  clank,clang

鞭炮爆炸声  pop

Generally, words are used to tell what is happening. Onomatopoeia, on the other hand, helps readers to hear the sounds of the words they reflect. Hence, the reader cannot help but enter the world created by these words. The beauty of onomatopoeic words lies in the fact that they are bound to have an effect on the readers’ senses.

Anaphora首语重复

Anaphora is a rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. By building toward a climax, anaphora can create a strong emotional effect. Consequently, this figure of speech is often found in polemical（辩论的） writings and passionate speech.

Let’s listen to part of the speech from I have a dream by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”

Anaphora is used to appeal to the emotions of the audience, in order to persuade, inspire, motivate, and encourage them. By using anaphora, the emotion of the audience will be ignited and brought to the climax.

 It makes reading and recitation of the poems attractive and appealing; thus, making them easier to learn by heart. Furthermore, it renders flow and beauty to a piece of writing.