Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
Isocolon
Scheme of parallel structure which occurs when the parallel elements are similar in grammatical structure and length. (Number of words or syllables)
Parallelism
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses
Antithesis
Use of contrasting ideas, may be in words or ideas or both. Counter opposites.
Anastrophe
Inversion of the natural or usual word order. (Yoda)
Parenthesis
Insertion of a verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow. (Uses parenthesis)
Apposition
Placing side by side two coordinate elements, the second explains the first clause further.
Ellipsis
Deliberate omission of a word or words which are implied by context. (Uses …)
Asyndeton
Deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.
Brachylogia
Subcategory of Asyndeton used in Tudor period. Omits conjunctions between single words or phrases.
Polysyndeton
Deliberate use of many conjunctions.
Alliteration
Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.
Assonance
Repetition of similar vowel sounds.
Anaphora
Repetition of same word or group of words at beginning of successive clauses.
Epistrophe
Repetition of the same word or group if words at end of successive clauses.
Epanalepsis
Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.
Anadiplosis
Repetition of the last word of one clause at beginning of another clause.
Antimetabole
Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order.
Chiasmus
(Criss cross) reversal of grammatical structures in successive clauses or phrases.
Polyptoton
Repetition of words derived from same root.
Climax
Arrangement of words or phrases in increasing importance
Apostrophe
Figure of speech in which someone, some quality, or non-existent person is addressed as if there.
Antanaclasis
Repetition of a word in two different senses.
Anthimeria
Substitution of one part of speech for another
Enjambment/Emjambement
Incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs over from one line to the next without break
Hyperbole
Use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect
Irony
Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning
Litotes
Deliberate use of an understatement
Metaphor
Implied comparison between two things of unlike nature
Metonymy
Substitution of some attribute or suggestive word for what is actually meant
Onomatopoeia
Use of words whose sound echoes the sense.
Oxymoron
Yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory
Paradox
An apparently contradictory stamens that nevertheless contains a measure of truth.
Paronomasia
Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning.
Periphrasis
Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or a proper name for a quality associated with the name.
Personification
Investing abstractions or inanimate objects. Giving life to inanimate objects
Simile
Explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature. Uses like or as
Syllepsis/Zeugma
Use of a word understood differently in relation - to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs
Synecdoche
Figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole
Synesthesia
Word usage that stretches across senses. (Ex. Bitter wind, loud shirt)
