Figurative Language versus Literal Language

Figurative Language versus Literal Language

Introduction

Literal language usually means actually what it says; on the other hand, figurative language communicates the meanings through metaphors, similes or hyperboles in order to explain something with the means of comparing two different things. This paper will outline those phrases that are used in literal and figurative language.

Discussion

Idiom

Idioms are phrases of two or more words of a provided language which is atypical to itself either grammatically or its individual meaning cannot be understood of its elements. The listener or readers may mistake in getting the real essence of the idiom as it does not mean what it says (Guerra-Ramos, 2011). “Out of the Blue” is a common idiom. It literal meaning might say something coming out of the anything blue, however, it means that something unexpected has happened.

Analogy

Analogy shows how two dissimilar things are alike, but in a more complex way. An analogy, rather than a figure of speech, is more of a logical argument. The presenter or writer of an analogy shows how two different things are similar by indicating towards their common characteristics. The goal of analogies are that if two things are parallel in few ways than they must be similar in other ways as well. For example, “heart works as a pump”. In this heart and pumps are two different things but their characteristic of thrusting liquid made them used as an analogy.

Metaphor

A symbol that compares two different objects without using the words “as” or “like” is called metaphor. It is a figure of speech which explains a subject by declaring that it is at the point of comparison is similar to another entirely unrelated object (Guerra-Ramos, 2011). Metaphors are often used in poems, plays and prose. One of the most famous metaphors is written ...