Homer Simpson on Language Charleston County ….ppt

Homer Simpson on Language Figures of Speech from His Point of View Rhetorical Questions Mother Simpson: [singing] ’How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?’ Homer: ’Seven.’ Lisa: ‘No, dad, its a rhetorical question.’ Homer:’ OK, eight.’ Lisa: ‘Dad, do you even know what rhetorical means?’ Homer: ‘Do I know what rhetorical means?’ Rhetorical Question: n. a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply Homeric Rhetorical Question Books are useless! I only ever read one book, To Kill A Mockingbird, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin . . . but what good does that do me? (Homer) Verbal Irony “’Owww, look at me, Marge, Im making people happy! Im the magical man, from Happy Land, who lives in a gumdrop house on Lolly Pop Lane! . . . By the way I was being sarcastic’” (Homer). Verbal Irony: a literary technique in which the writer or speaker says one thing but really means the opposite. More often than not, it is accompanied by sarcasm. Personification “’The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gambler, and its time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!’” (Homer). Personification: a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human (e.g., the hands of a clock or an angry sky). (Nordquist, Homer Simpson’s) Oxymoron “Though sometimes misjudged as a complete moron, Homer is actually a deft manipulator of the oxymoron” (Nordquist). “’Oh Bart, dont worry, people die all the time. In fact, you could wake up dead tomorrow’ (Homer). Oxymoron: a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or opposing ideas, typically an adjective and a noun, in order to create meaning and draw attention to a particular idea (e.g., living death, deafening silence, or cruel love). (Nordquist, Homer Simpson’s) Paradox vs. Oxymoron Paradox: a figure of spee