figures of speech

A figure of speech is a use of a word that diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. A figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetoric or a locution.
Not all theories of meaning have a concept of "literal language" (see literal and figurative language). Under theories that do not, figure of speech is not an entirely coherent concept.
Rhetoric originated as the study of the ways in which a source text can be transformed to suit the goals of the person reusing the material. For this goal, classical rhetoric detected four fundamental operations] that can be used to transform a sentence or a larger portion of a text. They are: expansion, abridgement, switching, transferring.
The four fundamental operations
The four fundamental operations, or categories of change, governing the formation of all figures of speech are:[
• expansion/superabundance/addition (adiectio)
• abridgement/lack/omission/subtraction (detractio)
• switching/interchange/substitution/transmutation (immutatio)
• transferring/transposition (transmutatio)
These four operations were detected by classical rhetoric, and still serve to encompass the various figures of speech. Originally these were called, in Latin, the four operations of quadripartita ratio. The ancient surviving text mentioning them, although not recognizing them as the four fundating principles, is the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of author unknown, where they are called ἔνδεια, πλεονασμός, μετάθεσις and ἐναλλαγή. Quintillian then mentioned them in Institutio Oratoria.[ Philo of Alexandria also listed them as addition (πρόσθεσις), subtraction (ἀφαίρεσις), transposition (μετάθεσις), and transmutation (ἀλλοίωσις).[4]
[edit] Examples
The saying "I got your back" almost never has the literal meaning of receipt or possession of another's spine. It is a figure of speech that means the speaker intends to protect the listener, actually or symbolically. It originates from war, in which one soldier informs another that the first will train his weapon toward an area from which an enemy might shoot the second in the back.
Here are other examples of figures of speech:
• "It's raining cats and dogs" means it's raining intensely.
• "I'll give you a piece of my mind" means the speaker will state a frank opinion.
• "Break a leg" is a saying from theater meaning "Good luck."
• "Butterflies in your stomach" figuratively describes nervousness.
In each of these examples of figures of speech, there is a literal meaning of the words, which a listener would normally reject as absurd or inappropriate. The listener would select the figurative meaning of the utterance, assisted by the context.
Absence of the proper context may defeat the figurative meaning. If someone not in a theater troupe tells someone else to break a leg, the listener must decide whether the speaker intends to adapt the figure of speech from theater to the present context; if not, the literal meaning would be provocative. If there is no cause for nervousness, complaining about butterflies in one's stomach might make a listener consider briefly whether to interpret the words literally.
Cadence and grammar is sometimes non-standard when uttering a figure of speech. Some figures of speech, such as "cats and dogs" in the above example, are uttered breezily as though they were a single word. If animals were literally falling from the sky, each noun would receive greater emphasis. In the first example in this section, the use of "got" instead of the more standard "have" or "have got" is a clue that the utterance is a figure of speech.