Difference between Paraphrasis and Periphrasis

Para means beside whereas peri means around. In paraphrasing, ambiguous statements are restated in order to enhance the meanings, while periphrasis is a measured roundabout way of expressing something.

 

Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.

For example, when we say, “The sky weeps” we are giving the sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. Thus, we can say that the sky has been personified in the given sentence.

Taken from Act I, Scene II of “Romeo and Juliet”,

“When well-appareled April on the heel

Of limping winter treads.”

There are two personification examples here. April cannot put on a dress, and winter does not limp and it does not have a heel on which a month can walk. Shakespeare personifies the month of April and the winter season by giving them two distinct human qualities.

 

Pun is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings.

Oscar Wilde employs puns in his play “Importance of being Earnest”. Jack Earnest tells Aunt Augusta in Act III:

“On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest”

Similarly, in Act III we see Jack puns his family name again:

“I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn’t I? Well, it is Ernest after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest.”

Here Jack discovers his father name which makes him truly earnest.

 

Plot is a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence. The structure of a novel depends on the organization of events in the plot of the story.

A plot is one of the most important parts of a story and has many different purposes. Firstly, the plot focuses attention on the important characters and their roles in the story. It motivates the characters to affect the story and connects the events in an orderly manner. It creates a desire for the reader to go on reading by absorbing them in the middle of the story, wanting to know what happens next. The plot leads to the climax, but by gradually releases the story in order to maintain the reader’s interest. During the plot of a book, a reader gets emotional and connects with the book, not allowing himself to put the book down. Eventually, the plot reveals the entire story and gives the reader a sense of completion that he has finished the story and reached a conclusion.

Romantic fiction plot examples in the 1800 include the book “ Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. The plot of the story begins when Lizzie’s sister, Jane, falls in love with Darcy’s friend named Mr. Bingley. Lizzie develops and interest in for Mr. Wickham, who accuses Darcy of destroying him financially. When Lizzie goes to meet her friend, she runs into Mr. Darcy, who proposes and Lizzie rejects. She then writes him a letter telling him why she dislikes him. He writes back, clearing up all misunderstandings and accusations. Jane runs away with Mr. Wickham and Lizzie realizes that Mr. Darcy is not as bad a man as she thought him to be.

 

Prolepsis is a literary device in which the plot goes ahead of time i.e. a scene that interrupts and takes the narrative forward in time from the current time in a story.

“So the two brothers and their murder’d man

Rode past fair Florence,”

Isabella by John Keats

These lines show a future event as if it has already happened. “Lorenzo” is called “their murdered man” takes the character to the time of future when the two brothers of his beloved “Isabella” will assassinate him.

 

Polysyndeton is a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect.

The term polysyndeton comes from a Greek word meaning “bound together”. It makes use of coordinating conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “but” and “nor” (mostly and and or) which are used to join successive words, phrases or clauses in such a way that these conjunctions are even used where they might have been omitted.

For example, in the sentence “We have ships and men and money and stores,” the coordinating conjunction “and” is used in quick succession to join words occurring together. In a normal situation, the coordinating conjunction “and” is used to join the last two words of the list and the rest of the words in the list are separated or joined by a comma.

 

 

Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter.

This method adds balance and rhythm to sentences giving ideas a smoother flow and thus can be persuasive because of the repetition it employs. For example, “Alice ran into the room, into the garden, and into our hearts.” We see the repetition of a phrase that not only gives the sentence a balance but rhythm and flow as well. This repetition can also occur in similar structured clauses e.g. “Whenever you need me, wherever you need me, I will be there for you.”

 

Protagonist

Every story has a protagonist, the main character, who creates the action of the plot and engages readers, arousing their empathy and interest. The protagonist is often a hero or heroine of the story, as the whole plot moves around him or her.

 

Point of view is the way the author allows you to “see” and “hear” what’s going on. Skillful authors can fix their readers’ attention on exactly the detail, opinion, or emotion the author wants to emphasize by manipulating the point of view of the story.

Point of view comes in three varieties, which the English scholars have handily numbered for your convenience.

 

While reading a fiction or non-fiction book, readers see and experience the events and feelings about the characters through a certain point of view, which is called a perspective.

A perspective is a literary tool, which serves a lens through which readers observe other characters, events and happenings. A writer may narrate the story from his perspective, or from character’s perspective. Its purpose is to make the voice of a writer distinctive from other writers.

 

Quasi-identity. Another рrоblеm arises if we inspect certain widespread саsеs of 'active identification' usuаllу treated as tropes; when we look at the matter mоrе closely, they turn out to bе а special kind of syntagmatic phenomena. Sоmеоf quasi-idеntitiеs manifest special expressive force, chiefly when the usual topic - comment positions change places: the metaphoric (metonymical) nаmеарреаrs in the text first, the direct, straightforward denomination following it. Sее what happens, for instance, with а metaphorical characteristics preceding the deciphering noun.

 

 

Rhythm is a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form.

Rhythm in writing acts as beat does in music. The use of rhythm in poetry arises from the need that some words are to be produced more strongly than others. They might be stressed for longer period of time.

Rhyme is a repetition of similar sounding words occurring at the end of lines in poems or songs.

 

A rhyme is a tool utilizing repeating patterns that brings rhythm or musicality in poems which differentiate them from prose which is plain.

Rising action in a plot is a series of relevant incidents that create suspense, interest and tension in a narrative. In literary works, a rising action includes all decisions, characters’ flaws and background circumstances that together create turns and twists leading to a climax. We find it in novels, plays and short stories. Rising action is one of the elements of plot, begins immediately after its exposition.

The rising action in Stephenie Meyer’s novel, Twilight, occurs as Cullen family plays vampire baseball game where Bella is looking as a spectator. During the play, some rogue vampires like James, Laurent and Victoria approach them. James feels the smell of Bella, and action rises. James chases Bella while Cullen family strives to defend her. This heightened action ultimately creates a huge climax that consequently brings many things to a head, leading to the end.

Resolution means the unfolding or solution of a complicated issue in a story. Technically, resolution is also known as a “denouement.” Most of the instances of resolution are presented in the final parts or chapters of a story. It mostly follows the climax.

In certain mystery novels, climax and resolution may occur simultaneously. However, in other forms of literature, resolution takes place at the end of the story. Considering that it ends a story, resolution is an integral part of the conflict of the story.

The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“They’re a rotten crowd,” I shouted across the lawn. “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together … “

Concluding the story “The Great Gatsby,” Nick makes his mind to return to Minnesota as an escape from the rich people. He knows that the rich people are engaged in morally worthless activities. That is why he is convinced that people in Gatsby’s circle are unfaithful.

Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer. There are several types of repetitions commonly used in both prose and poetry.

Repetition often uses word associations to express the ideas and emotions in an indirect manner. The beauty of reading a piece with repetition in it is the balance where we, as readers, have to decipher such associations and understand the underlying meanings.

“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,

And no one can talk to a horse of course

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

These lines are among the repetition examples from the theme song of Mr. Ed, a 1960s TV program. This is an example of a diacope type of rhetorical repetition. There is repetition but it is broken up with several other words.

Round Character

The round characters are well-developed and complex figures in a story. They are more realistic, and demonstrate more depth in their personalities. They can make surprising or puzzling decisions, and attract readers’ attention. There are many factors that may affect them, and round characters react to such factors realistically.

Reader is a person who reads a book.

 

In poetry, a stanza is a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme.

Stanzas in poetry are similar to paragraphs in prose.

Stanza divides a poem in such a way that does not harm its balance but rather it adds to the beauty to the symmetry of a poem. Moreover, it allows poets to shift their moods and present different subject matters in their poems.

Read the following tercets from Wyatt’s poem Second Satire with a rhyming scheme a b a:

 

“My mother’s maids, when they did sew and spin,

They sang sometimes a song of the field mouse,

That for because their livelihood was but so thin.

 

Would needs go seek her townish sister’s house.

Would needs She thought herself endured to much pain:

The stormy blasts her cave so sore did souse…”

 

Spenserian stanza is a verse form that consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a ninth line of six iambic feet (an alexandrine). Its scheme is a b a b b c b c c. Invented by Edmund Spenser for his poem The Faerie Queene (1590–1609).

 

Sonnet is a poetic form that has fourteen lines. It originated in Italy in the thirteenth century, and though it has generally kept some of the original rules, such as the number of lines and having a specific rhyme scheme and meter, the conventions of sonnets have changed over the centuries to some degree.

Shakespearean Sonnet

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,

And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

(Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, 1594)

 

 

Simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as”. Therefore, it is a direct comparison.

Written by Joseph Conrad,

“I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage.”

The lines have been taken from Lord Jim. The helplessness of the soul is being compared with a bird in a cage beating itself against the merciless wires of the cage, to be free.

 

Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption.

A writer may point a satire toward a person, a country or even the entire world. Usually, a satire is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its stupidity and shortcomings. In addition, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their characters by overcoming their weaknesses.

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels is one of the finest satirical works in English Literature. Swift relentlessly satirizes politics, religion, and Western Culture. Criticizing party politics in England, Swift writes,

“that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.”

During Swift’s times, two rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, dominated the English political scene. Similarly, “The Kingdom of Lilliput” is dominated by two parties distinguished by the size of the heels of their boots. By the trivial disputes between the two Lilliputian parties”, Swift satirizes the minor disputes of the two English parties of his period.

 

 

Subplot is a secondary plot, or a strand of the main plot that runs parallel to it and supports it. It is usually found in plays, novels, short stories, television shows and movies. It is also known as a minor story or as “B” or “C” story. Its purpose is to add complexity and depth to the story, and thereby increases tension – a state of high interest and suspense about events in a story. Not only does it show various aspects of the characters, connecting the readers with them, but also it is a story within a story – a sort of a subplot.

In his popular novel, “ The Great Gatsby”, F. Scott Fitzgerald has shown his main character Jay Gatsby becoming an overnight success despite having no family inheritance. It becomes clear that Gatsby has earned good fortune through bootlegging (through illegally preparation and selling of liquor). He, on the other hand, wastes his wealth on useless and extravagant parties to seek enjoyment with friends, including a beautiful married woman Daisy Buchanan, whose company he enjoys very much. However, when her husband Tom learns Gatsby is doing illegal activities, he shows his suspicion in an intense argument by accusing Gatsby, illegally selling alcohol through their drug stores. This subplot about prohibition adds intensity to the main plot.

Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part.

 They resemble each other but are not the same. Synecdoche refers to a thing by the name of one of its parts. For example, calling a car “a wheel” is a synecdoche. A part of a car i.e. “a wheel” stands for the whole car. In a metonymy, on the other hand, the word we use to describe another thing is closely linked to that particular thing, but is not a part of it. For example, “Crown” which means power or authority is a metonymy.

Subject is a topic which acts as a foundation for a literary work while a theme is an opinion expressed on the subject. For example, a writer may choose a subject of war for his story and the theme of a story may be writer’s personal opinion that war is a curse for humanity. Usually, it is up to the readers to explore a theme of a literary work by analyzing characters, plot and other literary devices.

The theme of war has been explored in literature since ancient times. The literary woks utilizing this theme may either glorify or criticize the idea of war. Most recent literary works portray war as a curse for humanity due to the suffering it inflicts. Some famous examples are:

Iliad and Odyssey by Homer

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Arms and the Man by Bernard Shaw

A Band of Brothers: Stories from Vietnam by Walter McDonald

 

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.

 

 

In literature, style comprises many literary devices that an author employs to create a distinct feel for a work. These devices include, but are not limited to, point of view, symbolism, tone, imagery, diction, voice, syntax, and the method of narration.

Style is a fundamental aspect of fiction, as it is naturally part of every work of prose written. Some types of writing are required to have a certain style, such as academic or journalistic writing. However, every work of creative writing takes on its own style.

Static Character

A static character remains the same throughout the whole story. Even the events in a story or novel do not change character’s outlook, perceptions, habits, personality, or motivations.

Stock Character

A stock character is a flat character that is instantly recognizable by readers. Like a flat character, the stock character does not undergo any development throughout the story.

 

Setting is an environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place. It may provide particular information about placement and timing, such as New York, America, in the year 1820. Setting could be simply descriptive like a lonely cottage on a mountain. Social conditions, historical time, geographical locations, weather, immediate surroundings, and timing are all different aspects of setting. It has its three major components; social environment, place and time. Moreover, setting could be an actual region, or a city made larger than life, as James Joyce characterizes Dublin in Ulysses, or it could be a work of imagination of the author as Vladimir Nabokov creates imaginative place, space-time continuum in Ada.

 

Symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. All communication (and data processing) is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to convey other ideas and beliefs.

 

Second-person point of view, in which the author uses you and your, is rare; authors seldom speak directly to the reader. When you encounter this point of view, pay attention. Why? The author has made a daring choice, probably with a specific purpose in mind. Most times, second-person point of view draws the reader into the story, almost making the reader a participant in the action.

Here’s an example: Jay McInerney’s best-selling Bright Lights, Big City was written in second person to make the experiences and tribulations of the unnamed main character more personal and intimate for the reader.

Story is an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.

 

Suspense is a literary device that authors use to keep their readers’ interest alive throughout the work. It is a feeling of anticipation that something risky or dangerous is about to happen. The purpose of using this type of anxiety in literature is to make readers more concerned about the characters, and to form sympathetic association with them. Therefore, authors create scenarios that could force readers to understand, and to want to read on to see what their beloved characters face the next.

“Twilight” (by Stephenie Meyer)

Twilight falls under the categories of suspense, romance, and horror. Bella falls in love with a mysterious and handsome boy, Edward Cullen. She learns that Edward is a vampire who, unlike other vampires, does not drink human blood, but that of animal. It is an exquisite fantasy and suspense story in which readers discover these two star-crossed lovers. Edward has a difficult time controlling the blood lust Bella arouses in him, because, after all, he is a vampire.

At any time, Edward’s blood hunger could drive him to kill Bella. This leaves him in a constant state of anxiety over the danger. While a sadistic vampire, James, draws towards Bella, hunting her down, Edward and his other family members defend her. Looking for protection, Bella leaves for Phoenix, Arizona, but James tricks her, and tries to murder her. Though Edward saves her, Bella is wounded.

 

Surprise is an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing.

 

 

Semantics is primarily the linguistic, and also philosophical, study of meaning—in language, programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. It focuses on the relationship between signifiers—like words, phrases, signs, and symbols—and what they stand for, their denotation.

In linguistics, semantics is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse (termed texts, or narratives). The study of semantics is also closely linked to the subjects of representation, reference and denotation. The basic study of semantics is oriented to the examination of the meaning of signs, and the study of relations between different linguistic units and compounds: homonymy, synonymy, antonymy, hypernymy, hyponymy, meronymy, metonymy, holonymy, paronyms.

Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.

Major and minor themes are two types of themes that appear in literary works. A major theme is an idea that a writer repeats in his work, making it the most significant idea in a literary work. A minor theme, on the other hand, refers to an idea that appears in a work briefly and gives way to another minor theme.

It is important not to confuse a theme of a literary work with its subject.

Tautology is a repetitive use of phrases or words which have similar meanings. In simple words, it is expressing the same thing, an idea or saying two or more times. The word tautology is derived from the Greek word “tauto” (the same) and “logos” (a word or an idea).

Examples:

”Your acting is completely devoid of emotion.”

 

Devoid is defined as “completely empty”. Thus, completely devoid is an example of Tautology.

 

“Repeat that again” and “reiterate again”

To repeat or reiterate something is to do or say something again.

 

“Shout It Out Loud!” – Kiss

When a person shouts, it is always loud.

 

“This is like deja vu all over again” (Yogi Berra)

 

The emphatic function of tautology reveals itself as in the example given below:

“To Carthage then I came

Burning burningburningburning.”

 (T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland)

In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read," whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits some kind of informative message. This set of symbols is considered in terms of the informative message's content, rather than in terms of its physical form or the medium in which it is represented.

 

Third-person point of view is that of an outsider looking at the action. The writer may choose third-person omniscient, in which the thoughts of every character are open to the reader, or third-person limited, in which the reader enters only one character’s mind, either throughout the entire work or in a specific section. Third-person limited differs from first-person because the author’s voice, not the character’s voice, is what you hear in the descriptive passages.

In Virginia Woolf’s wonderful novel Mrs. Dalloway, you’re in one character’s mind at a time. You know the title character’s thoughts about Peter, the great love of her youth, for example, and then a few pages later, you hear Peter’s thoughts about Mrs. Dalloway. Fascinating! When you’re reading a third-person selection, either limited or omniscient, you’re watching the story unfold as an outsider. Remember that most writers choose this point of view.

The literary device verse denotes a single line of poetry. The term can also be used to refer to a stanza or other parts of poetry.

Generally, the device is stated to encompass three possible meanings, namely a line of metrical writing, a stanza, or, a piece written in meter. It is important to note here that the term “verse” is often incorrectly used for referring to “poetry” in order to differentiate it from prose.

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

The above quoted stanza from William Wordsworth poem presents to the reader various examples of a verse. It can be noted here, that the use of the tool of verse adds a scenic element to the structure of poetry.

There are generally two types of verse namely free verse and blank verse.

The use of the literary term “verse” in a piece of writing has a pleasing effect on the reader’s mind. It is usually employed in poetry writing. The poets make use of the tool of verse in order to provide their poetry with a structure. It serves as an avenue through which writers project their ideas in the form of a composition having rhyme, rhythm and deeper meanings. The device provides the writer with a framework for poetry writing.

Zeugma, from Greek “yoking” or “bonding”, is a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas.

For instance, in a sentence “John lost his coat and his temper”, the verb “lost” applies to both noun “coat” and “temper”. Losing a coat and losing temper are logically and grammatically different ideas that are brought together in the above-mentioned sentence. Zeugma, when used skillfully, produces a unique artistic effect making the literary works more interesting and effective as it serves to adorn expressions, and to add emphasis to ideas in impressive style.

 

Local colour

Texture

Stream of consciousness

Parenthetic elements

Scanning

Italics

Synonymous replacement