Rhetorical devices Flashcards
Simile
an explicit comparison between two things which are basically quite different using words such as like or as.
Example:
She walks like an angel.
I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Metaphor
a comparison between two things which are basically quite different without using like or as.
- While a simile only says that one thing is like another, a metaphor says that one thing is another. (adj. metaphorical)
Example
All the world’s a stage / And all the
men and women merely players …
(Shakespeare)
Personification
a kind of metaphor in which animals, plants, inanimate objects or abstract ideas are represented as if they were human beings and possessed human qualities.
Example:
Justice is blind. Necessity is the
mother of invention (Not macht
erfinderisch).
Synecdoche
a kind of metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify the whole.
Example: Lend me your ears (= give me your attention)
Symbol
something concrete (like a person, object, image, word or event) that stands for something abstract or invisible.
Examples: The Cross is the symbol of Christianity. The dove symbolizes
peace/is symbolic of peace
Alliteration
the repetition of the same consonant sound in neighbouring words, usually at the beginning of words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Assonance
the repetition of internal vowel sounds in neighbouring words that do not end the same.
Example
sweet dreams / fertile - birth
Consonance
the repetition of consonant sounds at the end of neighbouring words which have different vowel sounds.
strength - earth – birth / home –
same
Onomatopoeia
the use of words which imitate the sound they refer to. (adj. onomatopoeic)
Example:
the stuttering (stottern) rifles’ rapid
rattle / The cuckoo whizzed past
the buzzing bees.
Rhyme
the use of words which end with the same sounds,
usually at the end of lines.
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright / In the
forests of the night.
Parallelism
the deliberate repetition of similar or identical words, phrases or constructions in neighbouring lines, sentences or paragraphs
Example:
Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon behind
them
Inversion
a change of the ususal word order (subject-verb-object).
Example: In a vision once I saw. away they fly; up go the windows, out run the people,
Chiasmus
a reversal in the order of words so that the second half of a sentence balances the first half in inverted word order.
Example:
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love. (Shakespeare)
Climax
a figure of speech in which a series of words or expressions rises step by step, beginning with the least
important and ending with the most important (= climactic order). The term may also be used to refer only to the last item in the series)
Example: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed (schlucken), and some few to be chewed (kauen) and digested (verdauen).
Anticlimax
the sudden fall from an idea of importance or dignity (Würde) to something unimportant or ridiculous in comparison, especially at the end of a series.
Example: The bomb completely destroyed the cathedral, several dozen houses
and my dustbin.
Enumeration
the listing of words or phrases. It can stress a certain aspect e.g. by giving a number of similar or synonymous adjectives to describe something.
Example: Today many workers find their labor mechanical, boring,
imprisoning, repetitive, dreary and heartbreaking.
Allusion
a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event or idea in history or literature. Allusions require common reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and the reader. (v. to allude to sth., n. an allusion to sth.)
Example: The old man and the computer (allusion to The Old man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway)
Ambiguity
the deliberate use of a word or phrase that has two or more relevant meanings.
Ambiguity is the basis for a lot of wordplay. (adj. ambiguous)
Euphemism
hiding the real nature of something unpleasant by using a mild or indirect term for it. (adj. euphemistic)
Example: “He has passed away.” instead of “He has died.”
“the underprivileged” instead of “the poor”
Hyperbole
also: overstatement: deliberate (absichtlich) exaggeration. Its purpose is to emphasize something or to produce a humorous effect.
Example: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
Understatement
the opposite of hyperbole; the deliberate presentation of something as being much less important, valuable etc. than it really is.
Example: “These figures are a bit disappointing” instead of “… are disastrous”; “He was quite upset”
instead of “He went into a terrible rage”.
Irony
saying the opposite of what you actually mean. Do not use “ironic” in the vague sense of “funny/humorous”.
Sarcasm
is a strong form of verbal irony used to hurt someone through mockery (Spott, Hohn) or disapproval (Ablehnung). (adj. sarcastic
Example: “You are absolutely the best class I’ve ever had.” Actual meaning: “the worst class”
Paradox
a statement that seems to be self-contradictory (widersprüchlich) or opposed to common sense. On closer examination it mostly reveals some truth. (adj. paradoxical [—–]
Example: It is awfully hard work doing nothing. (Oscar Wilde);
Oxymoron
a condensed (komprimiert) form of paradox in which two contradictory words (mostly adjective and noun) are used together.
Example: wise fool / bittersweet
“O hateful love! O loving hate!”
(Romeo and Juliet)
Pun
a play on words that have the same (or a similar) sound but different meanings. There are a lot of puns in English because of its many homophones, i.e. words with the same sound as another. Homophones lose their ambiguity as soon as they are written.
A word with the same form as another but with a different meaning is called homonym
Example: At the drunkard’s funeral, four of his friends carried the bier. (bier Totenbahre vs. beer Bier)
“Is life worth living?” – “It depends
on the liver” (liver = sb. who lives
vs. liver Leber)
Rhetorical question
a question to which the answer is obvious and therefore not expected. In reality rhetorical questions are a kind of statement.
Example: Don’t we all love peace and hate war?
Shouldn’t we try to be friendlier
towards each other?
