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Rhetoric
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| parallelism | similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses |
| antithesis | juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses; ex: "Tonight you voted for action, NOT politics..." |
| chiasmus | a verbal pattern (type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first w/parts reversed (essentially antimetabole); ex: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." |
| asyndeton | writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses; ex: "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac." |
| polysyndeton | a rhetorical term for a sentence that employs many coordinating conjunctions; ex: "...and if I were young, and beautiful, and clever, and brilliant, and of a noble position, like you, I should care less." |
| expletive | a construction that begins with the word HERE, THERE, or IT and is followed by a form of the verb TO BE; ex: "IT IS easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted." "THERE ARE three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." |
| litotes | a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite; ex: "I am NOT UNAWARE..."; "Are you also aware, Mrs. Beuller, that Ferris DOES NOT HAVE..." |
| procatalepsis | a rhetorical strategy by which a speaker of writer anticipates and responds to an opponent's objections; ex: "No group in America has had as poor a start as the first Africans. You'll argue that other groups had to suffer indignities and even slavery..." |
| hypophora | a rhetorical term for a strategy in which a speaker raises a question and then immediately answers it; ex: "Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whiskey, bask on window sills and shelves. Who are they for? Friends." |
| catachresis | a rhetorical term for the inappropriate use of one word for another, or for an extreme, strained, or mixed metaphor, often used deliberately; ex: "...when the Wrap referred to some French gentlemen as Galls, rather than Gauls." |
| metonymy | a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty" or "The White House" for "the President")-based off RELATION |
| synecdoche | figure of speech in which a PART is used to represent the WHOLE (or vice versa); ex: "All hands on deck!"; "General Motors announced 4 major plant closings." |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech in which some absent/nonexistent person/thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding; ex: "Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me..." |
| zeugma | the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one (unlike syllepsis, doesn't fit grammatically/idiomatically); ex: "She arrived in a taxi and a flaming rage." |
| syllepsis | one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two/more other words, which it modifies or governs; ex: "She tracks sand in as well as ideas, and I have to SWEEP UP after her two or three times a day." |
| anastrophe | for the inversion of conventional word order; ex: "Sure I am of this..."; think YODA |
| appositive | a noun, noun prashe, or series of nouns placed next to another word/phrase to identify/rename it; ex: "...traditional gift, a good gnawable beef bone." |
| parenthesis | the insertion of some verbal unit that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence; ex: "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. (Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.)" |
| anaphora | the repetition of a word/phrase at the BEGINNING of successive clauses; ex: "I needed a drink, I needed, a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country." |
| epistrophe | repetition of word/phrase at the END of successive clauses; ex: "Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends. You don't look at any of my friends. And you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends." |
| anadiplosis | repetition of last word of one line to begin the next; ex: "The laughter had to be gross or it would turn to sobs, and to sob would be to realize, and to realize would be to despair." |
| antimetabole | a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first w/words in revers grammatical order (A-B-C, C-B-A); ex: "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us." |
| aporia | a figure of speech in which the speaker expresses real/simulated doubt/perplexity; ex: "two bald men searching for a comb." |
| apophasia (sis) | mention of something in disclaiming intention of mentioning it (or pretending to deny what is really affirmed); ex: "Reagan replied with a smile, 'I'm not goign to pick on an invalid.'" |
| anthimeria | use of one part of speech (or set of words) in place of another; ex: "I like to verb words." |
Created by:
KayT
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