I’m going to make use of a figurative language instance right here: 1000 occasions in the present day my college students have talked about Taylor Swift’s new album. Has it been 1000 occasions? Nah, but it surely feels that method, and whereas the opinions on her album are blended, my emotions towards her lyrics definitely aren’t, for T-Swift is a grasp at incorporating figurative language in songs.
As an English trainer first and a sometimes-Swifty, I respect figurative language units which can be used to seize or create a picture, an thought, an expertise for an viewers as I do know several types of figurative language make an enormous distinction in how we really feel and perceive a author’s message.
Figurative Lang Which means (like, Actually, not Figuratively)
In accordance with Grammarly, figurative language definition is actually “a sort of communication that doesn’t use a phrase’s strict or reasonable that means . . . often so as to add artistic flourish to written or spoken language or clarify an advanced thought.” In different phrases, writers use figurative language in a sentence to speak extra successfully, transferring past the literal to the, get this, figurative.
There are lots of figurative language sorts and examples, and a reader can discover figurative language in poetry, quick tales, novels, non-fiction, and visible texts.
Let’s check out some figurative language examples in poetry, for instance, to assist our understanding of figurative language meanings.
Figurative Language Examples
Let’s see our figurative language definition literature in motion with Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the factor with feathers”—
What do you see within the poem? I spy with my little eye . . .
- Figurative Language Imagery: Image the chicken within the woods, within the storm, close by.
- Figurative Language Alliteration: Try the sound “sore” and “storm” so shut collectively.
- Figurative Language Exaggeration: See hyperbole as Dickinson elevates a chicken to its noble and highly effective standing within the poem.
- Figurative Language Symbolism: Take into consideration how the chicken is greater than a chicken, representing safety and energy.
- Figurative Language Personification: Word the chicken by no means asking “a crumb” from the narrator and having a powerful will.
- Figurative Language Repetition: Take into account the chicken singing in every of the three stanzas.
- Figurative Language Onomatopoeia: Respect the sound of . . . wait, there’s no figurative language onomatopoeia right here, which brings me to an necessary level–
Figurative language sorts aren’t utilized in all kinds of textual content, neither is every part you would possibly compile on a figurative language record with figurative language that means and examples for college students going to be present in each textual content.
Certainly, some authors desire and different authors keep away from totally different figurative language sorts. For us (and our college students) then, as readers, we need to have the ability to have a broad understanding of figurative language units (like allusion, symbolism, personification, motif, simile, metaphor) so we may give figurative language description as we analyze (and respect) texts.
Figurative Language in Widespread Tradition
Talking of texts, it’s simple to search out figurative language in poetry, which is a style predicated in some ways on obscure that means and figurative language, but it surely may be extra necessary to pick texts from fashionable tradition for college students to learn and analyze, for they’re extra prone to encounter a Taylor Swift tune of their private lives (and social media feeds) than an Emily Dickinson poem.
Let’s then have a look at some figurative language instance sentences from texts in fashionable tradition:
Figurative Language in Songs:
- Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”–Within the tune, Dylan compares being on one’s personal, with no course recognized, to a rolling stone, which is a simile. You may use this tune within the classroom to trace the event of Dylan’s concepts and the way this simile helps develop these concepts.
- The Beatles’ “Right here Comes the Solar”–On this tune we see figurative language personification and figurative language symbolism because the solar actually (and figuratively) brightens our days and comforts the listeners. You may use this tune within the classroom, asking college students to (attempt) to substitute in several symbols which may relay comparable concepts.
Figurative Language in Films:
- The Matrix–There are such a lot of figurative language sorts at work right here: the figurative language symbolism of the crimson and blue tablets, the figurative language metaphor of the Matrix itself as a system of management and oppression, the figurative language personification of laptop packages as folks, the allusions to a “rabbit gap” and the white rabbit, and many others. You may–ensuring its age acceptable–present college students clips of the movie and ask them to learn under its floor and tackle what’s occurring, actually, and what it means, figuratively.
- A Disney film, possibly any Disney film–On the lookout for figurative language personification? Look no additional than a speaking lion in The Lion King. On the lookout for figurative language symbolism? Look ahead to the rose in Magnificence and the Beast. On the lookout for figurative language imagery and figurative language exaggeration? Analyze the methods villains are illustrated, noting all of the methods their appearances–resembling hooks for palms, pointy faces, jarring colours–paint them as villainous figures with out them even saying a phrase.
Figurative Language in Memes:
- “That is fantastic” Canine Meme–Certainly, figurative language has infiltrated the Web and our social media feeds. Everyone knows the meme of the canine staring forward because the room burns round him. He claims within the face of the hearth, “That is fantastic.” Right here we see irony and figurative language exaggeration. You may ask college students after they would possibly publish or share this meme of their private communication to have them take into account the function figurative language performs in our day-to-day communication.
- Distracted Boyfriend Meme–Yup, it’s the one the place a younger man seems over his shoulder at one other girl whereas his girlfriend seems disapprovingly at him. The figurative language imagery right here makes it clear that totally different persons are pondering various things within the picture. Due to the concepts and emotions communicated from this imagery, folks layer phrases over the photographs to speak an thought. You may have college students mess around with this and generate their very own memes.
Forrest Gump (and I’m assuming you perceive this allusion and know who that is) as soon as shared a clever simile that’s stood the check of time (I’m assuming, too, you seen the figurative language alliteration there):
“Life is sort of a field of candies. You by no means know what you’re gonna get.”
Certainly, like life and a field of candies, you by no means know what figurative language you’re going to get in a poem, a tune, a brief story, {a magazine} article, or a movie–however being conscious of when communication slips between figurative and literal, actual and metaphorical, we will get probably the most out of the messages we counter in class, on-line, and in life.