What Does Figurative Language Mean?
When learning a second language, it can be difficult to understand some of their culturally-dependent words and phrases. Most of these words and phrases are known as figurative language, and mastering these in another language is a true showing of fluency.
Figurative language is one of the hardest things to learn in any language because often what you hear is not what the speaker means. Let’s dive into what exactly figurative language is and how you can best use the different types to your communicative advantage.
What is Figurative Language?
Figurative language is all those words and phrases that aren’t exactly the most obvious meanings. They are little words such as onomatopeia, similes, and personification that enhance a message. Most of the time they are used to add clarity to a complicated message or enrich a more descriptive image through text.
This type of language uses words beyond their original or literal meanings. They are meant to provoke a response from the audience’s emotions and input more creativity into the original text. It also requires some critical thinking from the audience to be able to effectively understand how the author is trying to use these words beyond words.
Figurative language is most commonly found in creative writing such as prose, stories, or poetry. However, you can occasionally find them in everyday speech as well. Specifically, when listening to little kids speak, they need to use creative ways to express their needs and interests such as mimicking the sound of a dog, or pointing to an object and calling it something related.
What does Figurative Language Mean?
Figurative language means language that is used in a creative way to convey meaning outside of their literal dictionary definition. There are lots of different types of figurative language that you can use. Each one is used to help enhance or go beyond the literal meanings of the words. This type of language can be seen in all dialects and spoken or written languages. It can even be found in many versions of sign language.
What is the Meaning of Figurative?
The key part of understanding this language use is to understand the meaning of figurative. Figurative means a departure from the literal use of words, or using words metaphorically. Therefore, when thinking about or trying to understand figurative language, you need to take the figurative meaning of the word.
What does Figuratively Mean?
Figuratively is the adverb of figurative. You use language figuratively when you are trying to convey something more than the actual meaning of the word. Figuratively using language is the opposite of literally using language.
For example, after you complete a long run, if you aren’t in the best fitness shape, you may feel like you are dying. However, you are not actually dying. You may say to someone you feel like you are dying, but this is a figurative use of language, not literal or realistic.
What are Types of Figurative Language?
There are 11 common types of figurative language. Find out more about each one below.
Idiom
Idioms are phrases that are meant to exemplify or exaggerate the situation at hand. The words that make up these phrases cannot be changed in the slightest without changing the entire meaning of the phrase and becoming unintelligible to a native listener.
Hyperbole
Hyperboles are all about exaggeration. It is meant to be more humorous than the actual situation that is playing out by making it into something that could never happen in real life. Hyperboles are used by everyone almost every day from being so hungry you could eat a horse, to being told a million times that you are not able to buy spray paint in America until you are 18.
Oxymorons
Oxymorons are another humorous version of figurative language. These phrases or words are made up of opposite concepts. Most of the time they are used to emphasize a deeper meaning of a certain word by using the opposite concept to describe it.
Synecdoche
This figurative language device is used to represent the whole of a concept by referring to its parts or the other way around. For example, using “wheels” to mean “car” or “law” to mean “sheriff”.
Symbolism
This is the figurative language device that you can find high school English students moaning about every day. Symbolism is when an author uses one object to represent something else. For example, a dove is commonly used to represent peace, or the color white to represent purity. These figurative language uses are usually dependent on the understanding of the culture that this language comes from.
Onomatopoeia
The sound of something translated into the spoken or written word. Kids do these all the time by mimicking the sounds of animals or cars as they play with toys.
Personification
This figurative language device goes hand in hand with onomatopeia. Authors use personification to give human-like features to non-human objects or concepts. It is commonly used in writing to help give more descriptions of things.
Imagery
Imagery is one of the most ambiguous uses of figurative language. It simply is the use of detailed words and phrases to describe a scene or image. It evokes a response in the reader’s senses and helps them completely and vividly envision the scene the author is conveying.
Metaphor
A metaphor is used to help an author describe an object or person through comparison. By imposing the well-known qualities of something else onto the target object, the reader can more accurately understand what the author is trying to say.
Simile
A simile is very similar to a metaphor, but is more well-known for its comparative nature. You can easily spot a simile through the word “like” or “as” between two objects or qualities.
Allusion
Allusions are figurative language devices that help to connect different texts and literature together. It encourages the reader to do some outside research as well as create connections between different stories and plots.
What Are Examples of Figurative Language?
To help you better understand figurative language and how it is used, here are some figurative language examples:
- This computer is going to cost an arm and a leg
- I’m so hungry I could eat a horse
- The silence in the room was deafening
- I heard the car screech to a stop in front of my house
- The wind howled outside my window
