Rhetorical Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of phrases.

“The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers.”

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Reference to another artistic work, person, place, or idea well known to the audience in order to use its message or characteristics to illustrate the author’s message. For example, English speakers frequently allude to Shakespeare or the Bible.

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

Question 3

Anaphora

Answer 3

A form of parallelism; refers to the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses in a sentence. Such insistent repetition leds emphasis and builds momentum.

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

Question 4

Antecedent

Answer 4

A thing that existed before or logically precedes another

Question 5

Antithesis

Answer 5

A pair of opposing terms in direct juxtaposition. This figure of speech often plays a part in the topics of contradiction and contraries; often occurs within the scheme of parallelism, which works to emphasize the opposition of the terms.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Question 6

Argument ad Hominem

Answer 6

The fallacy of making a personal attack on your interlocutor instead of answering his or her argument. Though it fails to address the interlocutor’s logic or evidence, it can often still be persuasive because it affects the other person’s ethos and hence his or her credibility.

“We shouldn’t take Senator McDowell’s foreign-policy proposals seriously. She couldn’t even keep her hotel company from going out of business.”

Question 7

Argument ad populum

Answer 7

Either an appeal to something “everybody knows,” or the use of charged words that play on emotional or historical associations that will resonate with the audience without necessarily being grounded in fact. Though it does not necessarily hold water, it is often still persuasive, since it can involve a powerful appeal to pathos.

“Everybody knows that free trade policies are the only way to bring about economic growth.”

Question 8

Assonance

Answer 8

Repetition of vowel sounds.

Question 9

Cause and Effect

Answer 9

Likely to be necessary for making an inductive argument for a particular action based on the outcome of similar actions, because it must be shown in each example that the action was what probably caused the outcome.

In order to argue for a particular free-market policy based on examples of positive outcomes in various countries, we would have to show that it was at least highly probable that the policy in question had caused the increases in the example countries’ prosperity.

Question 10

Chiasmus

Answer 10

The inversion of grammatical structure in successive clauses.

“Love without end, and without measure Grace.”

Question 11

Antimetabole

Answer 11

The repetition of the same words in inverse grammatical order in successive clauses.

“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”

Question 12

Contradiction

Answer 12

This syllogism depends on two pairs of contradictory terms: teaching and not teaching, being a professor and not being a professor. If one term in such a pair is true, the other—by definition—must be false.

Question 13

Contraries

Answer 13

Two terms that are opposites or that cannot both be true. In such a case, proving that one of the terms is true is enough to disprove the other. When a traffic-light is green, for example, it cannot be red: establishing that fact rules out the possibility of the other.

Often an argument that uses the topic of contraries will align two pairs of contrary terms and use one to make a claim about the other:

“Daylight is the proper home of honest deeds; it is the night that harbors evil.”

The two contraries here are “day” and “night,” “honest deeds” and “evil.” If a link can be established between the first two terms of the pair—“day” and “honest deeds”—we find it easy to imagine that those terms’ contraries will also coincide.

Question 14

Definition

Answer 14

A key step in making any kind of appeal to logos. If you are attempting to use one situation as an example to make an inference about another situation, you will need to show that the two situations are analogous, and one key step to doing so is to prove that specific terms mean the same thing in both cases.

Question 15

Difference

Answer 15

Useful to counter an inductive argument by showing that the examples given are not analogous to the case in question, or that the terms used in the example do not match the definition given for them in the argument itself.

In countering the argument that a free-market policy is good for the prosperity of a country, we might seek to find differences between the example countries and the one for which the policy was being advocated, or differences between the policy proposed and the policies in the examples given.

Question 16

Division

Answer 16

Enumerates the constituent parts of an idea, entity, or argument, and articulates the logical relationship of those parts to each other.

“I want to talk to you today about three places where we begin to build the Great Society: in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms.

Our society will never be great until our cities are great. Today the frontier of imagination and innovation is inside those cities and not beyond their borders. It will be the task of your generation to make the American city a place where future generations will come not only to live, but to live the good life.

A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside. We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution.

A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There your children’s lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination.”

Question 17

Either/or Fallacy

Answer 17

Involves insisting on a binary opposition of terms when, in fact, there are multiple options.

“Either you’re in favor of these new rent-control policies or you’re supporting the very worst kind of gentrification.”

Question 18

Elision (or Ellipsis)

Answer 18

The omission of words that can be inferred from context.

“As [it is] with rivers so [it is] with nations.”

Question 19

Equivocation

Answer 19

In inductive reasoning; to change terms halfway through. This is most likely to happen when a word means two things, or when two concepts are similar but have a key difference:

“The new study shows that sleep is essential to good health. Therefore, you must take naps in order to be healthy.”

Question 20

Faulty Generalization

Answer 20

A problem in moving from a particular example to a larger claim. To have bearing on a case, each rhetorical example must be analogous to that case, and the conclusion must suit the representativeness of the examples.

“I couldn’t seem to get good grades in my statistics course. I must just be bad at math.”

Question 21

Hyperbaton

Answer 21

A change from the ordinary or natural word order. The Greek etymon means “stepping over”: we may imagine the reader “jumping” from word to word to make sense of the sentence.

“Crises there will continue to be.”

Question 22

Leading or complex question

Answer 22

Involves some tacit, contestable assumption. In order to answer the question as it was asked, the other person will have to admit the truth of the question’s premise:

“When did you stop cheating on your exams?”

Question 23

Metaphor

Answer 23

The use of a word or phrase to symbolically represent another word or concept in order to highlight the similarities between them. Vivid images and apt analogies help capture an audience’s attention and imagination, but they can also make subtle suggestions.

“I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.”

Question 24

Metonymy

Answer 24

The trope of referring to a person, place, or thing by the name of one of its attributes or other things associated with it. Like the metaphor, this trope works by a logic of substitution.

“The men of the Niagara Movement…pausing from the earning of their daily bread, turn toward the nation.”

Question 25

Oxymoron

Answer 25

A single term that contradicts itself, like “bittersweet” or “cruel kindness.”

Question 26

Paradox

Answer 26

A statement or phrase that seems to contradict itself.

“His words at Gettysburg were sacred, yet strange with a color of the familiar.”

Question 27

Parallelism

Answer 27

A pairing (or grouping of several) related words, phrases, or sentences with the same or similar grammatical structure.

“We can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground.”

Question 28

Personification

Answer 28

Personification refers to some place, idea, or thing as if it were a person capable of thought, emotion, or action.

“A shocked and stricken world stands helpless before the fact of death.”

Question 29

Polyptoton

Answer 29

This kind of repetition uses two or more different forms of the same root word.

“He found himself an orphan in an orphaned world.”

Question 30

Sibilance

Answer 30

The word “sibilant” comes from a Latin root meaning “hissing.” Sibilance refers to the repetition of sibilant consonant sounds, like “s,” “sh,” “z,” and “j.”

“They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.”

Question 31

Similarity

Answer 31

Necessary for making an inductive argument because it must be shown that the examples given are analogous to each other and to the situation in question.

In order to argue inductively that a particular country should adopt free-market policy based on examples of successful policies in other countries, we would have to show that the economic situations of those other countries were similar enough to be used as analogous cases.

Question 32

Slippery Slope

Answer 32

This fallacy suggests that one single action or event must inevitably lead to a whole sequence of related events. This kind of argument may have some truth in it. Without establishing a direct causal link, however, it is impossible to say what will happen for certain.

“If we legalize marijuana, it won’t be long before there are shops selling heroin on every corner!”

Question 33

Statistics

Answer 33

A way of presenting a very large number of cases in the aggregate, as one example.

In making a case for or against free-market policies, we might cite GDP growth, standard of living, and other metrics for prosperity.

Question 34

Straw Man

Answer 34

Like the argument ad hominem, this form of argument is a diversion: it is the tactic of misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to counter.

“A: Do you really think Mr. Anderson is qualified for this engineering position? His degree is in sociology!

B: How can you say that sociology isn’t important? The humanities and social sciences teach critical-thinking skills that our society badly needs!”

Question 35

Testimony

Answer 35

Useful way to present an example in an inductive argument.

In making a case for or against free-market policies, we might quote the testimony of a defector from a communist regime, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or of a vocal critic of the treatment of workers in a capitalist society, like Dolores Huerta.