Here are three questions from a book on Good English, printed a little time ago.
Let me make it clear from the outset I'm not going to answer my own post here, other than to provide the answers the book gives after a suitable period, assuming there is any interest.
Perhaps some members here might be persuaded to offer their answers? I'm sure a delightful and civilised discussion will ensue.
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State which figure of speech each of the following exemplifies, and write out the meaning of each sentence in plain literal language:-
1) As a dog doesn't understand good English we naturally talk bad to him.
2) Some German words are so long they have a perspective
3) Paris is not a city, but a Bedlam.
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1/ My Dog is deaf.
2/ Scheiße
3/ Paris is a city.
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Sorry? What are we being asked to do?
I can understand the German words thingy. They are so long that the end disappears from view - but so what?
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State which figure of speech each of the following exemplifies...
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Easy, just look up figures of speech in Wikipedia. Er, no - look at the list:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech#Categories_of_figures_of_speech
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 19 Jan 11 at 21:02
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That's fantastic! I shall definitely be endeavoring to employ the most otiose pleonasm as soon as it becomes apparent to my limited intellect the nature of its incarnation.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 19 Jan 11 at 21:05
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It'd be better with examples, for us mere mortals.
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Examples are the more fun for making up yourself, are examples. Which may be an untidy epanalepsis.
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1) Proverb
Speak to inferiors in language they understand
2) Hyperbole
Some German words are very long
3 Simile
Paris is extremely busy and noisyl
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You better put us of our misery - was I anywhere close? Can we have some clause analysis next :-)
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1) Ellipsis
"As a dog doesn't understand good English we naturally use bad English to him."
2) Hyperbole
"Some German words are so long they seem to disappear into the distance."
3) Metaphor
"Paris is not a normal city, it's so crazy and noisy."
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I had hoped a thread called 'just for pedants' would be right up my street.
But I don't understand a word of this one.
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It's prize giving time. Of the two contestants who read and obeyed the rubric, one scored two out of three, and the other one out of three. Sort of.
The answers in the book are:
1) Antithesis.This is a mild epigram which is literal enough as it stands.
2) Hyperbole. Some German words are extremely long.
3) Metaphor. The people of Paris go mad.
On this basis, I think the first prize (a copy of Shakespeare signed by the headmaster) goes to ChrisPeugeot, and the second prize (a copy of A Child's Bible signed by the gym mistress) goes to CGNorwich.
And if there's any argy-bargy about the results it will be settled by a manly display of fisticuffs behind the Chapel at 4pm.
Thank you for your time. The forum may have a half holiday.
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I think they deserve a kicking from BBD for being girly swots.
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Thank you ever so much sir. I will ask the gym mistress to my study for a few muffins.
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Just may be.
But I stand by my first observation, they all exhibit rather heavy-handed humour.
1) "talk bad to him" is already lapsing into the kind of simple doggy language we pretend to think dogs understand. (want walkies, then?)
2) is Victorian humour, like the word "tandem" appled to a two-person bicycle. (Tandem meaning "at length" in Latin)
3) "a Bedlam" is inventing a noun as a particular kind of city, and applying it to Paris, whereas the original Bedlam was the reverse, a particular place (Bethlehem lunatic asylum) becoming a general description of chaos.
Each is having a bit of a dig at someone - dog owners, Germans, Parisians.
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May I refer the honourable gentleman to G H Thornton, MA, who so memorably wrote:
You may be learned in all the uses of restrictive and illative and copulative clauses, and yet be unable to compose a single sentence with lucidity and ease.
ie - you're probably right, Cliff.
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Thank you, sir. Where shall I put your apple?
Being an honourable pupil and a complete and utter creep, I must own up to having an unfair advantage. In my former life I was an English teacher.
The "correct" answer to No 1 I find interesting, if odd, and one of the things about spotting figures of speech is that some of them are pretty slippery things that can kind of morph into one another, or one can be disguised as another.
As an ex-first-XV second-row I'm up for the fisticuffs.
Last edited by: ChrisPeugeot on Thu 20 Jan 11 at 10:10
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Is there any difference between hyperbole and exaggeration?
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Yes - it is harder to say Hyperbole correctly. Hyper Bowl isn't it???
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Think you need a smiley there Esp, unless you're just wanting to provoke the know-it-alls........
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That's right. Say it loud and clear!
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One is just an exaggerated form of the other, I think, as I'm sure you've been told millions of times.
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...Yes - it is harder to say Hyperbole correctly. Hyper Bowl isn't it???...
This site literally speaks for itself:
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/hyperbole
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Just for the pedants - Cliff Pope
