Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
rhetoric
speech or writing that is effective and persuasive
polysyndeton
literary device that used multiple repetitions of THE SAME CONJUNCTION: commonly using “and”
asyndeton
skipping one or more conjunctions which are usually in a phrase
“He crossed the street without looking, without listening, etc.”
understatement
when an author presents a situation or thing as less important or serious in reality
parallelism
(same thing as parallel structure) when phrases or sentences have similar or same grammatical structure - “Almost everything is true; almost nothing is true.”
“Almost everything is true; almost nothing is true.”
anaphora
type of parallelism when the same word is repeated at the beginning of sentences
“If you want to hide from the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not run from the thorns.”
hyperbole
exaggeration
metaphor
comparison without like or as
allusion
a reference to something else
assonance
the repetition of specific sounds in words
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes”
Notice above that a lot of the words start with the “f” sound.
alliteration
words combined together that begin with the same sound and placed close together
“A pair of star cross’d lovers take their life”
pair, lovers, their; make the same ending sound
oxymoron
two contradictory words placed together
paradox
two seemingly distant things put together to make a point (contradicts itself)
“I went to war, I was a coward”
If you go to war, you are most likely not a coward, but in this case, they were.
juxtaposition
the placement of two or more things to bring out their differences
repetition
the use of the same word over and over throughout a piece
