Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
Accumulation
To make something bigger or “to have more of”. Usually used to express gradual increase, as in the perceived weight of an argument or concept.
Adjunction
Contains information that may be highly relevant to the listener but is not linguistically necessary for the sentence to be understandable. For example, a man could say that he ate lunch in the park. The sentence “I ate lunch” would be able to stand alone, which means that the phrase “in the park” is an adjunction. Therefore, the adjunction always also makes a sentence more complex; it adds onto the simple base of the sentence in order to convey further information about questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Adnomination
Adnomination refers to the repetition of root words, where (for example) “some” is the root word shared by both “someone” and “somewhere”. So, if a man were to wonder to there is someone, somewhere, who would have any interest in what he is talking about, this would be an adnomination. Adnomination could happen as a result of sloppy writing or speech; or, it could also be done on purpose in order to enhance the rhetorical effect of what is being said. Whether adnomination is aesthetically good or bad thus depends to a large extent on context.
Allegory
An allegory is a poetic device through which a series of concrete images are connected in such a way that they elucidate a relatively more abstract set of philosophical, political, or aesthetic meanings. For example, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is not “about” literal prisoner chained inside a cave; it is about the nature of human perception and consciousness. The allegory is useful not only for expressing an idea in a clear and vivid way but also for evoking a visceral reaction from the listener.
Alliteration
Alliteration primarily emerged as a concept within poetry, since poetry is the literary discipline that is most deeply concerned with the sounds of words. Alliteration happens when a person uses words that start with the same sounds in a repeated way. For example, a man could say that he saw a dark dog the other day: the words dark, dog, and day would form a sequence of alliteration. Alliteration is perhaps used by marketers today in order to catch the listener’s attention. It is important, however, to not overdo it, or else alliteration has a tendency to just sound tacky.
Allusion
In a literary context, an allusion is usually a passage in a work of art that makes reference to another work of art or some object within popular culture. The allusion is meant to evoke a specific reaction the audience. For example, the composer Mahler was known for using a relatively “lowbrow” allusion here and there in his symphonies as a means of destabilizing the difference between high culture and low culture.
Ambiguity
Ambiguity occurs when the structure and/or content of a statement makes its meaning unclear, leaving it open to multiple possible interpretations. Ambiguity could occur either because a person is a poor communicator and does not actually know how to speak or write in a direct way; or, ambiguity could be done on purpose as a means of having a specific aesthetic and semiotic effect on the listener.
Analogy
Analogy primarily refers to a comparison made on the basis of the structural relationships between the terms that are involved in the comparison. For example, a computer scientist may make an analogy between a machine and the human brain in order to clarify the nature of artificial intelligence. The analogy would imply that the two objects function in similar ways, with the implication that understanding one will help one understand the other.
Anaphora
Anaphora has two different and almost opposite meanings depending on whether one is using it within the context of linguistics or rhetoric. In linguistics, it usually refers to the replacement of a part of a sentence with a pro-word form in order to minimize clumsy repetition. In contrast, in rhetoric, the term refers to using the same phrase over and over again in successive sentences in order to build a powerful effect for the listener.
Anecdote
A person shares an anecdote when he talks about someone or something he saw or heard about; the anecdote usually arises within the context of a specific conversation, and the speaker shares it because it is relevant to the conversation. The anecdote is meant to have a positive effect on the listener, whether by simply making him laugh or causing him the experience some kind of enlightenment.
Antanaclasis
Antanaclasis draws on the fact that several English words have contain multiple different meanings. For example, the written word “wind” could refer both to a gust of air and to cause a living creature to have difficulty breathing. Alternatively pronounced, it could also refer to (for example) winding a spring. An antanaclasis would occur if the speaker were to make use of several of these meanings within the same passage of text.
Anticlimax
A climax would be the high point of action, energy, and emotion within a narrative work; therefore, an anticlimax refers to a scene that one would imagine to have these features, but which is instead just dull and relatively nondescript. Anticlimax usually implies that a narrative arc was developed somewhat poorly, or that the action peaked too quickly or too early. The word does not generally have a positive connotation.
Antiphrasis
An antiphrasis is a way of making people smile of laugh as a result of leading them to expect one thing but then suggesting something else. For example, if one were to speak of a basketball player who is “an impressive eight feet short”, this would be an antiphrasis; and it would also be funny, firstly because no one uses the term short in this way, and secondly because virtually no one is eight feet tall.
Antithesis
An antithesis is, literally, the opposite of the thesis; so, if the thesis were to be the protagonist of a story, then the antithesis would be the antagonist. Likewise, if the thesis were to be democracy, then the antithesis would be tyranny. The term has its roots in the tradition of thought known as dialectics, where the thesis and antithesis creatively interact with each other in order to produce higher forms of meaning.
Aphorism
An aphorism is often widely recognized within a given society or culture; as such, an aphorism sometimes edges toward cliche, and writers should be careful when using one. On the other hand, the aphorism is also closely related to the proverb; and when it was first invented, it would not have been at risk of being a cliche. It is thus important to pay attention to context of use.
Assonance
Assonance is one of several techniques of adding musicality to the flow of sounds within a given passage of text. Moreover, assonance is an especially useful one because when it is done right, it can give the illusion of rhyme. Such an illusion is quite effective not only in poetry but also prose, insofar as actually rhymes in the latter may seem a little too forced, whereas assonance is more implicit and subtle.
Boilerplate
If text is boilerplate, this means that the text can be used by various people without significant alteration. The term often refers, for example, to the text of syndicated newspaper columns, or standard passages that can be found within most contracts. The term comes from the original practice of printing such passages using sheet steel as a result of the need for greater durability (since the text would be printed repeatedly). Some companies re-use certain policies or sections of their Terms and Conditions to share when necessary.
Cataphora
The cataphora reverses the normal pattern of the pronoun referring back to a noun by first using the pronoun and then introducing the noun. The effect is that the reader is put into a state of suspense, because he does not initially know who or what the sentence is talking about. This gives the writer the opportunity to surprise the reader by associating the initial characterization with an unexpected noun.
