SYNECDOCHE

To understand synecdoche, we need to first understand the concepts of metaphor and

metonymy.
Metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche are all examples of figurative language in which
one thing is used to help us understand another.
A metonymy, as you know, replaces something you want to characterize with something
else associated with it.
A synecdoche is a type of metonymy in which the associated thing is a part, a piece of
whatever you are characterizing.
“SYNECDOCHE” uses a part to represent the whole.
Example:
We need to know how many heads to expect.
When we say ‘We need to know how many heads to expect’ basically the thing you want
to say is ‘how many people or guest is to expect’ Because you are not expecting a
floating head to come. The Head represents the person the head is part of a person’s
body.

ALLITERATION
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the start of a series of words in
succession whose purpose is to provide an audible pulse that gives a piece of writing a
lulling, lyrical, and/or emotive effect.
This paragraph is an example of alliteration; This Blessed House’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
“SANJEEV DID NOT KNOW WHAT LOVE WAS, ONLY WHAT HE THOUGHT IT
WAS NOT. IT WAS NOT… RETURNING TO AN EMPTY CARPETED
CONDOMINIUM… TURNING AWAY POLITELY… WHEN OTHER MEN
EVENTUALLY PUT THEIR ARMS AROUND THE WAIST OF THEIR WIVES AND
GIRLFRIENDS…[OR] WORKING HIS WAY METHODICALLY THROUGH THE
MAJOR COMPOSERS THAT THE CATALOGUE RECOMMENDED.”
In this passage, you can see how the gentle pulse of repeated initial sound adds a sort of
ruminative character to Sanjeev’s wistful thoughts about what love is- and isn’t.
Alliteration here isn’t just an ornamental characteristic of the prose. It also does
something to you as a reader, making you sway, perhaps, as you read, making you feel
some of the feelings that the fictional Sanjeev is feeling by putting the language into your
body. Because alliteration is a type of repetition, but also because it’s playful and
musical, it has a mnemonic quality. Mnemonic quality helps you remember things: for
this reason, alliteration is often used in the corporate world: [Ted Talks, DoorDash,
Dunkin Donuts, and PayPal] these companies probably wouldn’t be as successful if they
were [Ted Speeches, PorchDash, Dunkin Pastries, and PayFriend] Repetition legitimizes-
these business names are easy to remember, but they also somehow ‘feel’ more
trustworthy than their non-alliterative alternatives.

ASSONANCE
The repetition of sound is very natural and therefore a very easy technique to use in your
writing. Alliteration and assonance are very similar literary devices, but there is one
important factor that makes them different. Assonance is all about vowel sounds and
alliteration is all about consonant sounds.
UNDERSTATEMENT
Is the description of something as having much less of a particular quality than it does,
That often involves representing something as less important, less valuable, or smaller
than it is. Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole.