Hi guys,
So, we're doing Little Red Riding Hood at the moment in Advanced (a little context I guess). Anyway, today I was thinking what is the significance of techniques like alliteration and sibilance?
I understand techniques are a huge part of English and each contributes to a certain idea the author is attempting to get across. I realise this, however I struggle to see the relationship between techniques such as these and a few others and a real reason why they're there. For instance rhyme contributes to a poem's rhythm, feel and mood, what does an alliteration do for anyone apart from saying "well that's something cool they've put it in there for no real reason?".
Thanks
Alliteration can also be used as a repetition of the particular sound, which is in some sense can be taken as a form of aural imagery.
For instance, certain sounds are more "harsh" or "hard", and hence repetition of such sounds may be used to convey a certain imagery.
Certain 's' can convey hehe suspicious/dodgyness or craftiness; or something completely different
"Slim suspicious Sam slipped silently away. Now that was sneaky".
Try to think what the sounds sound like. 's' can be a hissing sound. But to help you understand look for a key word in the sentence, typically that is a big giveaway, and the adjectives are there not just for description but to really emphasise the characteristics/attributes of the thing in question.
e.g. "She saw sea shells by the sea shore" is obvious because we think of the sea (highly confusing I know), particular in the "sh" sound, maybe of waves.
Heck English is a bit subjective, but you get the idea. Often techniques are designed to convey meaning and imagery (which itself is a technique) and ideas, whether real, fictional/imaginary/mythos or abstract, especially feelings (e.g. love, nostalgia etc.). The key word is expression. Now the author could be absolutely crazy and try to explain his feelings, using absolutely every word in the dictionary; but rather instead uses selective word choice (diction, again a technique), to convey particular things attached to particular objects, for instance, using absolute zero's example; and structures (another technique, but general)
So you have general techniques:
- Imagery - designed to represent something, think book of Revelation/Daniel kind of stuff (quite seriously if you want some good e.gs.), or simply something Gothic, or some political cartoon e.g. of Trump's big head. There are 5 types, aural (sounds like), olfactory (smell), tactile (touch), taste (cannot remember the adjective) and obviously visual. Typically imaginery, I mean imagery, is the way words paint a picture/impression. It can also be used in more personal pieces, to give authenticity to the writer's expression of past memories.
- Structure - typically the flow of ideas, maybe it designates a particular thing important to the author, or at least in the work itself. Structure is useful to understanding, why the heck the author made that choice, why the heck he didn't finish that line in the poem. Asking why it is structured this way, gives insight not just into the author's mind, if he has one, but also the very thing/reason behind or the meaning of the thing. It also may create warmth. For films, consider the mise-en-scene, the plot structure (especially heroes' story from year 8), and even the structuring of key scenes, or characterisation.
- Allusions - think "pop-culture reference", a lot of older texts such as Shakespeare have religious/historical allusions, the religious allusions tend to be towards "Christian" things, e.g. catholic references to Mary; references to the Garden, typically allude to Eden, or sometimes other cultural things, for instance Sckyneznecki (cannot spell his name to save myself) alludes to Polish things. Sometimes allusions are simply to "common knowledge", things that most humans would have common experience of, such as leaving home etc, travelling to school etc; although be careful to taking just any phrase in the text as an allusion for instance do you really have to stress every instance of "pass over" as alluding to the known Jewish festival. Context is key to understanding what the kind of things, the author would allude to (hence pop-culture), but sometimes, especially modern authors, like to be confusing, and allude to things, which may not be pop-culture any more. For example: Shakespeare is not going to allude to something like your favourite 80s band for instance.
- Diction/Emphasis: combined with structure, word choice is designed to convey a particular meaning, or "emotionally manipulate" in some cases the readers to sympathise or empathise with the reader's experiences. In films, the equivalent is the choice of lighting, and especially the music. Tone is a key thing to stress here, what tone does it have or similarly what kind of sound. Typically authors, unless they are absolute jerks, tend to repeat things that are important, or to draw attention at the least to it. Names of characters for instance, are sometimes, not always, deliberate (if the author was lazy he probably just Googled it)...
And yes I have deliberately written with all those unnecessary embellishments, heck it is English. Hopefully you can tell what my least favourite subject was, but ironically still interests me.
