RHETORICAL DEVICES Flashcards
Anaphora
When the same word or phrases is repeated at the beginning of the successive lines, clauses, or sentences.
EX: I have a dream
Antithesis
Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure
EX: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind
Apostrophe
when a character in a literary work speaks to an object, an idea, or someone who doesn’t exist as if it is a living person. This is done to produce dramatic effect and to show the importance of the object or idea.
EX: Car, please get me to work today.
Allusion
when an author or poet makes an indirect reference to some idea, figure, other text, place, or event that originates from outside the text.
EX: “We got a new Einstein in school today.”
Chiasmus
Structure of an order of term that are inverse
EX: We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us
Euphemism
is a word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic.
EX: Making love instead of sex
Litotes
A statement that say less than what it means
EX: The ice cream is not too bad
Metonymy
figure of speech in which the name of an object or concept is replaced with a word closely related to or suggested by the original
EX: “The power of the crown was mortally weakened” as “crown” to mean “king”
Malapropism
the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one. Humor sake and dumb
EX: she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile
Oxymoron
a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings
EX: same difference
Synecdoche
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa
EX: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears
epistrophe
is when a certain phrase or word is repeated at the end of sentences or clauses that follow each other
ex: I wrote as a child, I sang as a child, etc.
parallelism
is a grammatical technique involving the use of the same or similar grammatical structures and clauses within sentence structures..
EX: “John can swim, hunt, and jump.”
polysyndeton
Using commas as much as possible to slow it down
EX: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers.”
zeugma
a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses
ex: John and his license expired last week
