The Story Connection

WILD ABOUT WORDS

By Dianne de Las Casas

I am in love. Giddy, light-headed and intoxicated with… words! I love how words sound when they are spoken, chanted, scatted, or sung; how they dance rhythmically across the page in a good story; how they play with each other in a poem; or how they whisper quietly in a mother’s gentle lullaby. I love how words work together to form language and how they give us a way to say what’s on our minds or what’s in our hearts. I just love words.

Here are some of the ways words work and play in the English language.

Alliteration – The repetition of consonant sounds or letters in a series of successive words. Example: Sheila’s shimmering shells or Carl’s cool kite.

Antonyms – Words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. Example: low and high or short and tall

Double Entendre – A figure of speech similar to the pun, in which a spoken phrase can be understood in two different ways. The first, literal meaning is an innocent one, while the second meaning is often ironic and requires the hearer to have some additional knowledge. Example: What is a witch’s favorite subject? Spelling!

Homonym – A word that has the same pronunciation and spelling as another word, but a different meaning. Example: Bow (the kind you tie around a gift) and bow (the kind you give after a great performance)

Homophone – A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. Example: way and weigh

Idiom – An expression or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through conventional use. Example: “Go the extra mile” meaning to do something above and beyond what you are required.

Metaphor – A literary device in which a direct comparison is made between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. Generally, a metaphor casts a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Example: “Her hands were ice.”

Mondegreen – The mishearing of a phrase in such a way that it acquires a new meaning. Example: I led the pigeon to the flag (I pledge allegiance to the flag from “The Pledge of Allegiance”)

Onomatopoeia - A word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing. Example: Baa, Moo, Quack

Palindrome - A word, phrase, number or other sequence of units that can be read the same in either direction. Example: Racecar or Radar

Pun – A figure of speech which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. Example: Cemetery: A place where people are just dying to get in.

Rhyme - A repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds in two or more different words. Example: tall and small; boy and toy; cherry and strawberry

Scatting - Vocalizing either wordlessly or with nonsense words and syllables. Scatting is generally used by jazz singers who create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using only the voice. Example: “Bop, bop, diddly bop”

Simile - A simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. Frequently, similes are marked by use of the words “like” or “as.” Example: “She floated across the dance floor, like a butterfly in flight.”

Spoonerism – A play on words in which corresponding consonants or vowels are switched. It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, who often spoke this way. Example: The Prog Frince (The Frog Prince) or Slass Glipper (Glass Slipper)

Synonyms - Different words with similar or identical meanings and are interchangeable. Example: hop, leap, jump or beautiful, gorgeous, stunning

Tongue Twister - A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to say properly. Some tongue twisters are natural (cinnamon or spaghetti are often tongue twisters for young children) while others are deliberate and used for fun. Example: “She sold seashells by the sea shore.” (Try saying it three times fast without any mistakes!)

So think about what you say and write, and get wild about words. Your words have a powerful impact on the world.

Dianne de Las Casas

Author & Award-Winning Storyteller

The Story Connection

http://www.storyconnection.net