Semantic FeaturesStylistic meaning

Two Types of Meaning

It is important to remember that when we refer to stylistic meaning there are two types of meaning we refer to:

Connotations: affective meaning a word takes by association that may arise out of experience and speaker belief.

Denotation: The referential meaning that is associated with the word. Commonly found in the dictionary.

Figurative language

Expressive use of language that employs words and phrases in a non-literal way to gain clarity and vividness

Most of the following terms you will know or have studied over the past year. But to refresh your minds and dictionaries lets take a look:

Metaphor

The reference to something by using language that is associated with something else.

Life is a journey, purposes are destinations, means are routes, difficulties are obstacles, counsellors are guides, achievements are landmarks, choices are crossroads..

A lifetime is a day, death is sleep; a lifetime is a year, death is winter..

Life is a struggle, dying is losing a contest against an adversary..

Life is a precious possession, death is a loss..

Time is a thief..

Simile Often people get metaphors and

similes mixed up. Although they are similar and are used as a type of figurative speech, a simile is explicit in its comparison to another item. Uses like a, as a.

The classic: Life is like a box of chocolates.

Her hair is like golden rays of sunshine. His eyes are as blue as the ocean.

Personification This is when human qualities are attributed to an inanimate object. A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is

endowed with human qualities or abilities. Inanimate= not tangible Examples:

My computer hates me.

Art is a jealous mistress.

Opportunity knocked on the door.

Trees were dancing with the wind.

The radio stopped singing and continued to stare at me.

The picture in that magazine shouted for attention.

Hyperbole

EXAGGERATION! It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally. Similar to metaphors and similes, hyperbole often ridiculous in nature.

“I’ve told you a million times”“It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing jackets”“She is so dumb, she thinks Taco Bell is a Mexicanphone company”“I had a ton of homework.”“If I can’t buy that new game, I will die.”“He is as skinny as a toothpick.”

Irony

Using word to express a meaning that is opposite of their literal meaning. Ie when looking out the window at a rainy day and saying: Great day for the beach!!

http://youtu.be/Ez2ZyrXyv6I

Oxymoron A figure of speech that combines two

contradictory words. act naturally, random order, original

copy, conspicuous absence, found missing, alone together, old news, peace force, even odds, awfully good, student teacher, deafening silence, definite possibility, definite maybe, terribly pleased, ill health, turn up missing

PUN Play on words. the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to

emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

My rechargeable batteries are revolting.He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends.When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.To some - marriage is a word ... to others - a sentence.I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me

Activity Complete Question 15, 16 of your text book

p.159-60 Read the examples of literature given to you in

class. Create a table in which you identify and analyse a semantic feature present in the text.

Semantic Feature

Text Quote Effect

simile Dispatches “…..Like figures in a game of living statues’ p.131

Allows us to explicitly associate the visual and emotional experience when flares feel down around the battle field.