A-Z Rhetorical Terms (flipped) Flashcards
assigning to a proper name its literal or homophonic meaning; Punning; Using the same word in different senses
‘What a stunning Taser’
‘A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey’
[polyptoton]
adnominatio
repetition of the initial consonant/vowel in two or more words; focus on sound NOT letter {i.e. not knotty vs cigarette chase}; used for onomatopoeic effect
alliteration
a word, phrase, or statement containing a double meaning; lead to vagueness/confusion and used to shape basis of unintentional humor
‘Each of us saw her duck’
‘The passerby helped dog bite victim’
ambiguity
the use of devices (apostrophe, hyperbole, simile, synonymia) to embellish a sentence and increase its worth/understandability; add to structure to give more meaning; to be overly descriptive
amplificatio(n)
from Greek ‘to double back’ / ‘to reduplicate’; repetition of the last part of one sentence or line in the beginning of the next; across speakers, can signify conversational discourse
‘several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns’
anadiplosis
deliberate repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive sentences or lines; used to emphasize descriptive and emotional effects; ‘hammer home’ a point
anaphora
a kind of pun; repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning changes
‘Put out the light [candle], then put out the light [her life]’
antanaclasis
the transfer, ‘conversion’, or shift of one part of speech to another; typically the usage of a noun as a verb
‘Scarf up the tender eye’
‘Hashtag that post’
anthimeria
the repetition of words in an inverted or reverse order
‘Fair is foul and foul is fair.’
‘‘tis true ‘tis pity, and pity ‘tis ‘tis true’
antimetabole
means ‘opposite’; contrast of ideas through juxtaposition / parallelism; used for witty or satirical effect
‘Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit’
‘Speech is silver, but silence is gold’
antithesis
word-clipping; initial syllable of the word is omitted; common in poetic language for the sake of the metrical rhythm
‘(a)gainst’
‘Scuse me’
‘‘tis just’
[NOT middle (o’er) / last (oft[en]) syllable]
aphesis
breaking off abruptly in the middle of speaking, usually to portray overwhelming moments of emotion
aposiopesis
an emotive address to an absent person, or to an inanimate object or abstraction as if personified;
‘Is this a dagger? … Come, let me clutch thee!’
apostrophe
a list of words; series of descriptions or qualities, often as insults
‘sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker’
articulus
witty and sophisticated, often ironical, joke; polite or genteel mockery; particularly in a reply with a word or phrase picked up and thrown back on the original speaker
‘I would “never” collude’
‘You better not or you’ll “never” get out of prison’
asteismus
[SEE gradatio // opposite]
‘anti-climax’ ; presents arguments in a federating order of importance, descending from a heightened level or tone (best / most dramatic argument first)
bathos
figure of speech through the unusual or far-fetched mixture of metaphors; use of words outside their usual contexts; noun as verb
‘elf all my hairs in knots’
[overlap with anthimeria]
catachresis
‘about speech’; a phrase which uses more words than would appear to be strictly necessary; ‘speaking round’ a subject; ambiguous way of expressing things
‘He’s walked the way of nature, and to our purposes he lives no more’ :: he died
circumlocution
[SEE gradatio]
climax
juxtaposition of words with different levels of tone or style; habitual juxtaposition occurring more often than would be expected by chance
collocatio(n)
metaphorical figure of speech with a reliance on wit or ingenuity of idea for an effect; play on words likening together two vastly different objects (similes or metaphors)
‘This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage-bed and marriage-temple is…’
conceit
[SEE epanalepsis]
diacope
the intentionally incorrect grammatical use of tense, form, or person; shift in pronoun(s)
enallage
in logical argumentation, an abridged or incomplete syllogism; in which the writer or speaker omits (implies/does not clearly pronounce) a major or minor premise of their argumentative statement - HOWEVER, the omitted premise remains understandable
e.x. “Where there is smoke, there is fire” {{fire causes smoke}}
enthymeme
A figure of repetitive speech, in which the beginning of a clause or sentence is repeated at the end // can also be repetition of words with any intervening words
“The king is dead, long live the king!”
epanalepsis
A figure of repetitive speech where one or more words at the END of successive phrases/clauses/sentences are repeated {{opposite of anaphora}}
“government of the people, by the people, for the people”
“a fine woman, a fair woman, a sweet woman”
epistrophe
descriptive literary device describing a place/thing/person in such a way as to help make its characteristics more prominent than they actually are {{form of AMPLIFICATIO(N)}}
“nodding violet”
“sweetest flower”
epithet(on)
figure of repetitive speech where a word or phrase is repeated in immediate succession (no intervening words)
“words, words, words”
“howl, howl, howl, howl”
epizeuxis
[SEE circumlocution]
euphemism
division of an oration which marks the opening, or introduction; the beginning; designed to catch the attention of listeners
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”
“Ladies and Gentlemen”
exordium
‘climax’ ; presents arguments in an ascending order of importance, reserving the best / most dramatic for last (opposite of anti-climax//BATHOS)
gradatio
use of two nouns connected by “and” instead of adjective-plus-noun
“heaviness and guilt”
“nice and warm”
hendiadys
words are misplaced from their proper place in an utterance (typically for comic effect) ;
“The eye of man hath not heart, the ear of man hath not seen”
hypallage
the reversal, or inversion, in normal word order of the major elements of a sentence (particularly subject/verb/object)
“Pray can I not”
“Alone he walked on the road”
hyperbaton
overstatement or exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis
“He made my blood boil”
“It weighs a ton”
hyperbole
misrepresentation of the truth; words used appear to differ from, contradict, or mean the exact opposite of the sense required in context; sarcastic / dry mock OR ‘echoes’ of previous utterances
- could also be unintentional irony {i.e. dramatic irony, in which the audience knows more than the characters}
irony
clauses or sentences of equal length, and therefore parallel in syntax and rhythm
“Was ever woman in this humour woo’d?
Was ever woman in this humour won?”
isocolon
understatement (opposite of HYPERBOLE); typically significant of modesty or politeness
“Oh, it’s nothing”
“I’m fine”
litotes
figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated, but share some common characteristics ((simile without “like” or “as”))
“Her dance is a great poem”
“War is the mother of all battles”
metaphor
when the name of an entity is replaced by the name of one of its associated attributes or features
“The pen is mightier than the sword” {{written word and military force}}
metonymy
where two opposite ideas are joints to create an effect; commonly an adjective proceeded by a noun with contrasting meaning {condensed PARADOX}
"cruel kindness"
"living death"
"loving hate"
"cold fire"oxymoron
an apparently self-contradictory statement, including a latent truth; typically some philosophical point, or an evaluation being made of a character or situation
“I am nobody”
“I can resist anything but temptation”
paradox
described interspersed qualifications in a sentence or utterance; inserted into a phrase, as an after-thought; meant to give the impression of lack of premeditation (‘natural speech’)
parenthesis
involves parallelism of clauses or sentences side by side (similar to ISOCOLON); words in one phrase corresponding to words in another
“She’s not well married that lives married long, but she’s best married that dies married young”
parison
form of pun playing off the confusion between words having similar sounds but different meanings; {in shakespeare, word-play was a mark of wit/cleverness and therefore NOT meant to be passed off as mere comedic relief}
“Death hath not struct so far a deer today, though many dearer, in this bloody fray”
paronomasia
[SEE circumlocution]
periphrasis
‘perseverance’ from Latin; a phrase related regularly in a speech or monologue
“But Brutus says, he was ambitious
And Brutus is an honorable man” {{repeated 3 times in Mark Antony’s speech}}
perseverantia
in which an inanimate object or abstract quality is given human attributes
“Time flies”
“The wind whispered”
“The flowers danced”
personification
[SEE epanalepsis]
ploce
[SEE adnominatio]
polyptoton
several questions uttered one after the other; suggest anxiety or some kind go heightened emotional state (particularly when involving rhetorical questions)
quaesitio
a question that does not expect an answer; used just for effect, or to lay emphasis on some point being discussed
“Who knows?”
“Are you stupid?”
rhetorical question
whereby two concepts are imaginatively and descriptively compared (using “like” or “as”)
“Our soldiers are brave as lions”
“Her cheeks are like a rose”
simile
[SEE enthymeme]
sorites
form of dialogue suggesting a rapid repartee (witty banter or sharp rebuttal); ‘back and forth’ / alternate lines
“Is the fool sick?”
“Sick at the heart”
“Alack, let it blood”
stichomythia
a kind of pun where two meanings have to be understood; grammatical figure or omission where a verb has to be understood
“She has deceived her father, and may thee”
syllepsis
combination of ANAPHORA and EPISTROPHE; where a set of words at the beginning and also the end of a sentence are repeated;
“I had an Edward, till a Richard kill’d him;
I had a husband, till a Richard kill’d him”
symploce
[SEE metonymy]
synecdoche
the expression of the ‘same’ meaning by different words; pairs or strings of synonyms (means of AMPLIFICATIO(N))
“How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable”
synonymia
type of HYPALLAGE; figure of speech in which a modifier/adjective qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually describing "wonderful day" "sleepless night" "cruel bars" "ignorant sin"
transferred epithet
