Rhetorical Devices Pt 3 Flashcards
Euphemism
a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable.
Ex. He went to his final resting place.
Euphony
a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony.
Ex.
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferred
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one
From silken Samarcand to cedar’d Lebanon. -John Keats
Exemplum
citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious:
Ex. Let me give you an example. In the early 1920’s in Germany, the government let the printing presses turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennige postage stamps, denominations up to 50 billion marks were being issued.
Exergasia
is a single point made over and over in different ways, as in “nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch.”
Hyperbole
the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect. In formal writing the hyperbole must be clearly intended as an exaggeration, and should be carefully restricted.
Ex. This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love.
Hypophora
consists of raising one or more questions and then proceeding to answer them, usually at some length. A common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use that paragraph to answer it.
Ex. What behavior, then, is uniquely human? My theory is this . . . . –H. J. Campbell
Inversion
The placement of a sentence element out of its normal position for emphasis or drama.
Ex. “Never have I seen such a mess” rather than “I have never seen such a mess.”
Jargon
The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders.
Ex. As an example, the words RAM, bit, byte, CPU, and hexadecimal are jargon terms related to computing.
Metabasis
consists of a brief statement of what has been said and what will follow. It might be called a linking, running, or transitional summary, whose function is to keep the discussion ordered and clear in its progress.
Ex. Such, then, would be my diagnosis of the present condition of art. I must now, by special request, say what I think will happen to art in the future. –Kenneth Clark
Metanoia
(correctio) qualifies a statement by recalling it (or part of it) and expressing it in a better, milder, or stronger way. A negative is often used to do the recalling:
Ex. Fido was the friendliest of all St. Bernards, nay of all dogs.
Metaphor
compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another.
Ex. Thus a mind that is free from passion is a very citadel; man has no stronger fortress in which to seek shelter and defy every assault. Failure to perceive this is ignorance; but to perceive it, and still not to seek its refuge, is misfortune indeed. –Marcus Aurelius
Metonymy
is another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which the thing chosen for the metaphorical image is closely associated with (but not an actual part of) the subject with which it is to be compared.
Ex. The orders came directly from the White House.
Onomatopoeia
is the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. “Buzz,” for example, when spoken is intended to resemble the sound of a flying insect.
Ex. No one talks in these factories. Everyone is too busy. The only sounds are the snip, snip of scissors and the hum of sewing machines.
Oxymoron
is a paradox reduced to two words, usually in an adjective-noun (“eloquent silence”) or adverb-adjective (“inertly strong”) relationship, and is used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit:
Ex. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, / With loads of learned lumber in his head . . . .–Alexander Pope
Parallelism
is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.
Ex. Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness.
