1. Metaphor
- "An exam is a prison sentence."
- This metaphor shows that an exam can make one feel the same dark, sad, ominous feelings that a prison sentence evokes.
2. Paronomasia
- "I finished my trigonometry exam without a secant to lose."
- I really couldn't think of any ways to play with the word exam, or words that sounds like it, but I did enjoy googling "puns about exams" and that is how I found the quotation above. Secant sounds like "second," and "without a second to lose" is a common phrase that means that time was running out, but really a secant is 1/cosine of a triangle, which is part of trigonometry.
3. Anthimeria
- "I've got a date with Mr. Exam."
- I changed the word exam from a noun to a proper noun. If it's a Friday and you finally finish studying for an exam in the afternoon but you need to go to the testing center to take it that night, you could make fun of your situation by saying this.
4. Hyperbole
- "That exam had a million multiple choice questions and a thousand free response!"
- Strong emotions often cause people to exaggerate, even to blowing things way out of proportion. If someone finished a long and challenging exam, they might be heard to say this even though it is not likely that their exam was actually that lengthy.
5. Oxymoron
- "Hey that's an awfully good grade for that MCOM grammar exam!"
- "awfully" and "good" are placed right next to each other but they are opposites. This is an oxymoron because both of those opposite words are used to describe the same thing, the "grade."
Schemes about exams:
1. Parallelism
- "Your exam will include matching, free response, and multiple choice questions."
- The parallel parts are "matching," "free response," and "multiple choice." Even though each part increases in syllable length, the parts are parallel because they are each equal parts of the list.
2. Anastrophe
- "Exams, you will take three."
- Normally, when addressing a person, he or she (the word "you") will be the subject of the sentence and the first word. By putting the exams first, the focus of the sentence is on them.
3. Ellipsis
- "My husband doesn't have any exams this week, but I three!"
- Obviously I have three exams this week, but of the implied phrase "have three exams," only "three" is included in the statement.
4. Alliteration
- "I have been examining the examples in Excel, but I'm not exactly excited for the exam."
- Lots of ex- words up in here!
I like your example of a metaphor, although I find it kind of funny- I work in a prison, and a lot of the inmates that I do intellectual testing with, I'm sure, would be much more comfortable in their prison cell than taking an exam!
ReplyDeleteVery clean examples! They were very clear and created a very distinct image or thought in my mind. I am becoming more fascinated with the power of these schemes and tropes. I especially like the oxymoron (because I typically say it a lot). Although powerful, I realize more fully now that at times when it is used it takes away from what I truly want the message to be. Each use has a powerful way of changing the meaning.
ReplyDeleteYou explained very clearly how each trope/scheme was created and why, something I found difficult to do in my post. Thanks for the great example!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could have messed with the idea of examining and exams for your paronomasia. They don't mean the same thing, but sound similar.
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