Language Devices

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Language devices are devices that are employed to communicate through writing. They are devices which makes communication more meaningful. They add taste to normal language. There are many language devices that are employed in writing. In this paper I will analyze language devices that have been used on page 324 of the story Such A Long Journey written my Rohimton Mistry.
a)Alliteration
Alliteration is a sound device that occurs when words which have same initial letter, mainly consonants, are used in close proximity in a sentence. The following sentence shows alliteration:
“….brushes, boxes, and belongings...’ In this sentence, words with same initial letters have bee used, all starting the letter ‘b’.
In the sentence “…for the police sub-inspector in charge of crow control classified these objects as potential weapons….,” alliteration is created since letter “c” has been repeated in “charge”, “crow”, “control”, and “classified”.
Alliteration also appears in the sentence “The pavement artists under his little lean-to observed the ominous presence of lories ...
... and man and machines”. Here, alliteration is created by repetition of the letter ‘c’ in “the”, “pavement”, “under”, “little”, “lean-to”, “observed”, “presence”, “lorries”, and “machines”.
b) Assonance
Assonance is a sound device created when words with same vowel sound appear in close proximity in sentence but the consonants in the words are different. The following sentence uses assonance
“Theodolites and tripods and levels were set up to demarcate the requisite areas” where there is repetition of the ‘e’ vowel.
“More equipments was uploaded; the surveyors squinted through their instruments, pointing here and there; and Malcolm scouted around for an Iran restaurant that would supply tea for the team” where there is repetition of vowel ‘e’.
“Meantime, the morcha entered the lane with banners and placards” where there is repetition of vowel ‘e’.
c) Euphnonics
Euphonious elements are created when consonants like the nasals “m” “n” and liquids “l” and “r” are used in a sentence. In this page, euphony is created in the following sentences:
In the sentence “’Reluctantly, Malcolm gave orders for the workers to proceed,” there is use of liquid “r” in “reluctantly”, “orders”, “workers” and “proceed”. There is also use of nasals in “reluctantly” and “Malcolm”. This creased a euphonic sound to show how the author was feeling in accomplish this task. The author shows a sense of uncertainty since the action was carried out reluctantly.
There is euphonic sound in this sentence also “Slogans and cheers began drifting down over the din of city noises, then the marchers came into view, and crowds gather to watch.” Here, the liquid r’s are used in “cheers”, “drifting”, “marchers”, “crowds”, and gather “gather” with nasals n’s and m’s in “slogans”, “and”, “began”, “down”, “din”, “noises”, “came”, and “and”. Euphonic sound is also created in combination with assonance “watch”. The euphonic sound created here show the nostalgia of the author about the events that happened.
d) Cacophonic elements
Cacophony is created when there is a heavy concentration of plosive constants like b, hard c, d, hard g, j, k, qu, t, and w, existing together with aspirates like ‘h’ sound, fricative ‘f’ and ‘v’, and sibilants ‘s’ and ‘z’. The following sentence in the page contain cacophonic elements
“Wondering which was Gustad’s flat, he proceeded to display the court order repealing the landlord’s injunction, gluing it over the municipal notice, in tatters now, that he had affixed to the pillar several months ago.” In this sentence, the author combines aspirates “he”, sibilants “several”, “was”, and “tatters” and plosive consonants in “wondering”, “which”, “was”, “proceed”, “the”, and others. The author creates a cacophonic atmosphere that show that uncertainty of the authors but clearing illustrating how the author was led by emotions to act.
In the sentence “It was discovered that the neem fell within the municipalities latest land acquisition, obstructing the project,” cacophony has been created through combination of fravicatives “fell” with sibilants “was” and plosive consonants “within”, “the”, and others creating feeling of negativity of about eh action. This creates a feeling of achievement that the tree was cut but at the same times a negative feeling that it was on the wrong place.
f) Personification
Personification refers to the aspect of giving lifeless things life. It refers to the way in which authors treats inanimate things as living thing but assign to them characteristics of a living thing. This is mainly used to give more life, relevance, and meaning to the work of the author.
For example, in the sentence, “There he sat, cross-legged, unable to summon up even a trace of the resources that had fuelled his wanderings in the old days,” the author personifies resource. To summon is to command a person to appear become someone. Therefore, in this sentence, the author shows the painter tried to summon resources. “Resource” is a word used to refer to inanimate things and therefore its application in this case shows that it has been personified. In this case, the author uses personification to indicate the mood of the moment. It is used to show how the painter was confused by the unfolding events. Personificatoin has been used here to make abstraction clearer and make it real to the reader.
g) Metonym
Metonym is an attribute, feature or a unique association where something is usually substituted for thing itself. Metonym is used to make comment about something that it has been substituted for.
In the sentence “The pavement artists under his little lean-to observed the ominous presence of lories and man and machines,” the author uses pavement artist to refer to a person. Instead of using the real name of the person, the author uses the occupation of the person to describe him.
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