Pun- Examples and Definition of Pun or Paronomasia.

Pun or Paronomasia:

The pun or paronomasia is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. It is occurs when a single word conveys two meanings. Pun is also called paronomasia.

Puns are used to create humor and sometimes require a large vocabulary to understand. Puns have long been used by comedy writers, such as William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and George Carlin. The Roman playwright Plautus is famous for his tendency to make up and change the meaning of words to create puns in Latin.

Examples of Pun:

“Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man”

(Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet)

Here ‘grave man’ may mean a dead man or a man of grave disposition. There is another variety of pun where two words of same sounds but different spellings are used to suggest two different meanings. For example: “Would that its tone could reach the rich”. Here reach means arrive at and rich means the wealthy.

Personification- Definition and Examples of Personification

Personification:

Personification is a figure of speech in which lifeless objects or ideas are given human qualities or abilities. In other words, whenever sensations, emotions, desires, physical gestures and speech are stated in context of non-living things, personification is said to have taken place. By this technique, lifeless things are given life. The concept of personification is commonly used in poetry, where things are often described as having feelings. It is also widely used in fiction and children’s literature, though fiction is not likely to stay focused on the personified object for long.

Example of Personification:

“And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips

Bidding adieu;”

--Keats

Here “Joy” has been imagined as a living person.

Paradox, Definition of Paradox, Example of Paradox

Paradox

Paradox is a self-contradictory statement that hides a rational meaning. Example: " Sweet are the uses of adversity."  The surface meaning of this line appears contradictory as, generally, adversity is bitter. But as we go deeper we find the truth that adversity carries within itself the sweetness of advantages.

Metaphor Example & Definition of Metaphor

Metaphor:

Metaphor is an implicit comparison between two different things. It is a compressed form of simile. Liza is a rose is an example of metaphor as there is an implied comparison between the colour, softness, fragrance, etc. of the rose and those of Liza. It becomes a simile if the comparison is made explicit: Liza is like a rose.

Machinery | Definition of Machinery | Example of Machinery

Machinery

The supernatural agents used in an epic or a mock-epic. For example, the whole battalion of the sylphs and nymphs under Ariel's command in The Rape of the Lock is called the machinery of it.

Litotes | Examples of Litotes | Litotes Definition

Litotes

Litotes is a figure in which the negative statement suggests a very strong affirmative. For example, " He is not a bad student" means he is a good student.

Irony | Examples of Irony

Irony

Irony is a statement or a situation which actually means the opposite of its surface meaning. An often quoted example of irony is " Brutus is an honourable man" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Antony says this in his oration over dead body of Caesar. This appreciation of Brutus really means that Brutus who killed Caesar is an ignoble man. The first sentence of Pride and Prejudice is another example of irony

" It is truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

After reading the novel one, however, finds that it is not the rich man who needs a wife but, quite opposite to it, it is the lady who needs a rich husband.