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Figurative Language And The Language

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“He ate and drank the precious words, His spirit grew robust” (Dickens, 1587). This is a beautiful, visual representation of one finding pleasure from what they are reading. Thus, there are different types of linguistic phenomena, one of which is figurative language. It is a person’s way to saturate the mind with profound thoughts centered around its meaning. It has an interesting background, covers a wide array of literary devices, is applied within different types of writing, and people employ these devices within their daily language.
Figurative language is a constructive way to communicate ideas using expressions, unlike its opposite idea which is literal interpretations. “Figurative language, in comparison, uses exaggerations or …show more content…

There are a few different literary devices found within figurative language. The most common types of writing including literature and poetry this is where most figurative languages are found. “At the end of the 19th century, the American rhetorician John F. Genung described this literary device as an “intentional deviation from the plain and ordinary mode of speaking, for the sake of greater effect” (Oxford, 2017). However, by the late 20th century the American critic Joseph T. Shipley changed the meaning of figurative language when he perceived that, “Figures are as old as language. They lie buried in many words of current use. They are the backbone of slang. They occur constantly in both prose and poetry” (Oxford, 2017). Then another change of perspective happened around the year 1970 when “figurative language” started to consist of “figures of speech”. This resulted in a transformation from the linguistic deviation it once was. Therefore, “Many types of figurative language are used in English writing, which includes similes, metaphors, idioms, hyperbole, personification, irony, and more” (Comstock). Hyperboles change the concept expressed and are not meant to be taken literally while they still create humor. Metaphors involve applying the description to a phrase in reality that is not applicable while still using the words like or as. Personification that is used within figurative language increases the readers ' understanding of what the writer wants to

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