Question

which figure of speech is used in this text? soft language issued from their spittleless lips as they swished in slow circles round and round the field. —james joyce, a portrait of the artist as a young man assonance chiasmus

Explanation:

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. In the text, "soft", "language", "spittleless", "lips", "swished", "in", "slow", "circles" have similar vowel - sounds. Chiasmus is a rhetorical device with a reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses, which is not present here.

Answer:

A. assonance