Figures of speech deviate from the ordinary

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A figure of speech is a deviation from the ordinary mode of speaking for the purpose of greater effect

Figures deviate from the ordinary

From English Composition and Rhetoric by Alexander Bain:

I. There are two types of figures of speech

A. A figure,” says Quintilian, is a  form of speech differing from the ordinary mode of expression.
How strange! (figure)
instead of
That is very strange!
(ordinary)
B. A trope is the turning of a word from its proper signification to another, in order to give force.
The word trope is derived from the Greek word tropos, meaning turn.”
Now is the winter of our discontent. (trope)
instead of
This is the worst time ever.
(ordinary)
The word “winter” is used as a figure of speech, because it is turned from signifying a season of the year to expressing a condition of human feeling.


II. Figures are classed under a variety of names.

The most common are simile, metaphor, allegory, antithesis, contrast, metonymy, synecdoche, epigram, hyperbole, interrogation, exclamation, apostrophe, climax, irony.

III. Figures have reference to three operations of human understanding.

A. Similarity, or the feeling of agreement.
1. It means that when like objects come under our notice, we are impressed by the circumstance, as in
the resemblance of a child to its parent.
2. We are made to understand things better and to feel them more strongly by means of other similar things. We are enabled to know something of the Sahara Desert by being told that it resembles
a sea of sand.
3. The figures simile, metaphor, and allegory are modes of increasing the force of style.
 B. Retentiveness, or the feeling of acquisition.
1. It means the ability to retain successive impressions without confusion: memory.
2. Memory works when impressions occurring together become associated with each other, and when we are made to think of one, we are reminded of the accompaniments, as
sunlight with daylight
 We cannot think of the sun's rising without remembering daylight and the other circumstances that go with it.
3. Hence, things placed contiguously are associated mentally. One of the many consequences is that we often name a thing by some of its adjuncts, as when we say,
 the thronefor the sovereign

goldfor wealth
Such is the nature of the figure metonomy.
C. Discrimination, or the feeling of difference, contrast, relativity.
1. It means that the mind is affected by change.
2. The greater and more sudden the change, the more strongly it is affected.
3. The figures antithesis and contrast derive their force from this fact.

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