Rhetorical Figures (Forsyth, Lanham) Flashcards
Alliteration
Repeated use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words. “What which they beat to follow faster, as amorous of their strokes.” “It’s surprisingly simple to add alliteration.” From latin ad- (addition) litera (letter)
Aposiopesis
An unfinished.… Tidy your room, or else… When in Rome… Usually three reasons: - you can’t go on - you don’t want to go on - you want to leave the audience hanging From Greek aposiopao “to be silent after speaking, observe a deliberate silence”
Parataxis
Good plain English. It’s one sentence. Then another sentence. It’s subject verb object. The cat sat on the mat. Parataxis is the natural way of speaking English.
Hypotaxis
Using subordinate clause upon subordinate clause in a sentence. Sentences hidden inside sentences like Russian dolls, clauses hidden in clauses, prepositions referring this way and that, until the bemused reader needs a diagram just to find out where the main verb is. Strictly: the subordination of one clause to another.
Polysyndeton
Using lots of conjunctions. St. Mark was very fond of polysyndeton and Jesus was more of an asyndeton chap: “And Jesus took bread, ad blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take, eat, this is my body.” from Gk. poly- “many” and syndeton “bound together with”
Asyndeton
Using no conjunctions, omitting a conjunction between parts of a sentence. St. Mark was very fond of polysyndeton and Jesus was more of an asyndeton chap: “And Jesus took bread, ad blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take, eat, this is my body.” from Gk. a (not) and sundeton “bound together with”
Hyperbaton
Words in odd order, often ending a sentence with a verb to avoid ending with a preposition. Stone walls do not a prison make. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. from Gk. hyper, “over” and bainein, “to step”
Periodic sentence
A very big sentence that is not complete until the end. Can be made long by clauses, or by nouns; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve . . . (Shakespeare) from Gk. periodos “going around, course”
Anadiplosis
Making the last word of one sentence the first word of the next. (Yoda) Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering. from Gk. ana “again” and diploun “to double”
Polyptoton
The repeated use of one word as different parts of speech or in different grammatical forms. Please please me. Still counts if words have close etymological connection, ie do, done, sing, sung. Gazed a gazeless stare. from Gk. poly, “many” and ptotos, “falling” or ptosis, “[grammatical] case”
Antithesis
First you mention one thing, then you mention another thing that opposes or contrasts with it. Oscar Wilde: Bad women bother one. Good women bore one. Journalism is unreadable, literature is not read. from Gk. anti “against” and thesis “a setting” or tithenai “to set, place”
Diacope
Repeating a word or phrase with one or two intervening words. Bond. James Bond. Human, all too human. To be, or not to be? Extended diacope: A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! from Gk. diakopto, “to cut in two, cut through”
Merism
When you don’t way what you’re talking about, but name all its parts. Night and day. Ladies and gentlemen.
The Blazon
A merism too far. Making a list of a lover’s body parts and attaching similies to them. Your beauty is beyond compare With flaming locks of auburn hair With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Synaesthesia
Referring to a sense or sense object in terms of another sense. She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight. THE LITTLE SISTER BY RAYMOND CHANDLER
Rhetorical questions
A statement formulated as a question but is not meant to be answered. Are you blind? Does a bear shit in the woods?
Hendiadys
When you take an adjective and a noun, and change the adjective into another noun. Often hard to tell when it has really happened. A method of amplification that adds force. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Be a good fellow and close the door. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! from Gk. hen, “one” dia, “through” dis, “two” (“one by means of two”)
Epistrophe
Ending each sentence with the same word, phrase or sentence. When the moon hits your eye/ like a big piece of pie/ that’s amore. Most songs are epistrophes. The opposite of anaphora. from Gk. epi, “upon” and strophe, “turning” (“wheeling about”)
Tricolon
Composing a sentence in three equal parts. I came; I saw; I conquered. Sun, sea and sex. Nasty, brutish and short. from Gk. tri, “three” and kolon, “clause”
Epizeuxis
Repeating a word immediately in the same sense. Simple. Simple. Simple. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. from Gk. epi, “upon” and zeugnunai, “to yoke”
Syllepsis
Using one word in two incongruous ways. I’ve barely room enough to lay my hat and a few friends. (Dorothy Parker) Rend your heart, and not your garments. (Book of Job) from Gk. syn, “together” and lepsis, “taking”
Isocolon
Two (or more) sentences that are structurally the same. O for the classical balance! Woe to the modern mess! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! from Gk. isos, “equal” and kolon, “member”
Enallage
A deliberate grammatical mistake. Do not go gentle into that good night. (Dylan Thomas) Hope springs eternal in the human breast. (Alexander Pope) Gk. “change”
Divagation
A digression.
Versification
Turning a passage into poetry.
Iamb
One of the four basic feet of poetry. te-TUM
Trochee
One of the four basic feet of poetry. TUM-te
Anapest
One of the four basic feet of poetry. te-te-TUM
Dactyl
One of the four basic feet of poetry. TUM-te-ty
Pentameter
One of the three basic meters of poetry. Five in a row
Tetrameter
One of the three basic meters of poetry. Four in a row.
Trimeter
One of the three basic meters of poetry. Three is a row.
Zeugma
Omitting instances of a verb when it applies to more than one noun. The good end happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. (Wilde) But passion lends them power, time means, to meet. (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Bible) Gk. “a yoking”
Chiasmus
Repeating words, grammatical constructions, or concepts in reverse order. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Tea for two and two for tea, Me for you and you for me. Gk. “a diagonal arrangement” (“to mark with the letter chi”)
Palindrome
A word, phrase or sentence that is the same read forwards or backwards. Madam, I’m Adam.
Assonance
Repeating a vowel sound. Deep Heat. Blue Moon. The thin and flimsy cousin of alliteration.
Catachresis
Use of a word in an incorrect way. “I will speak daggers.” You can’t actually speak a dagger.… “Dance me to the end of love.” (Leonard Cohen) Gk. “misuse” from kata (“down) khrestai (“use”)
Litotes
Affirming something by denying its opposite. Understatement-by-negative. “I won’t be sorry” for “I’m glad.” from Gk litos, “plain, small, meagre”
Irony
Expressing meaning using language that normally expresses its opposite. An untruth both parties know is untrue.
Metonymy
Referring to a thing by naming one of its attributes. from meta, “change” and onoma, “name”
Metaphor
A word or phrase used to refer to something it does not literally denote, in order to bring out a similarity. A comparison which is implied by referring to one thing as another. from meta “beyond, over” and pherein “to carry”
Synecdoche
Referring to someone by referring to one of their body parts. An extreme form of metonymy. “And what shoulder and what art Could twist the sinews of your heart?” (Blake) “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?” Gk. “to take with something else”
Transferred epithet
An adjective applied to the wrong noun. “The man smoked a nervous cigarette.” Epithets are usually transferred between a human and their surroundings.
Pleonasm
Using more words than are needed to convey the meaning. “I will lift up mine eyes.” “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God.…” Gk. “superfluous,” “redundant”
Epanalepsis
Beginning and ending with the same word or, more broadly, repetition after intervening words. “The king is dead. Long live the king.” from Gk. ep, “in addition,” ana, “again,” and lepsis, “a taking”
Personification
Attributing human characteristics to something non-human.
Hyperbole
Exaggerated claims to statements (often not meant to be taken literally). from hyper, “over” and bollein, “to throw”
Adynaton
An impossibility (a hyperbole taken so far that it becomes an impossibility. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. MATTHEW 19, VERSE 24 from Gk. a, “without” and dynasthai, “to be able” (=”powerless”)
Prolepsis
Using a pronoun before saying what it refers to. “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.” “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.” Gk. “A preconception”
Congeries
A jumble, a disorderly collection. Piling up nouns or adjectives in a heap. The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself. (Shakespeare) Lat. “heap,” “pile”
Scesis Onomaton
A sentence consisting only of nouns or adjectives and without a main verb. Space: the final frontier. Like father, like son.
Anaphora
Starting each sentence with the same words. We shall fight on the beaches [of Britain], We shall fight on the landing grounds [of Britain], We shall fight in the fields [of Kent] and in the streets [of London], We shall fight in the hills [Somewhere up North]. We shall never surrender. The opposite of epistrophe. From Gk. ana “again” and phero “to bring or carry”
Peroration
The concluding part of a speech.
Accumulatio (Synathroesmus)
Accumulatio (ac eu mu LA ti o; L. “heaping up”) — Synathroesmus. Heaping up praise or accusation to emphasize or summarize points or inferences already made:
- He [the defendant] is the betrayer of his own self-respect, and the waylayer of the self-respect of others; covetous, intemperate, irascible, arrogant; disloyal to his parents, ungrateful to his friends. . . .*
- (Rhetorica ad Herennium, I.xl.5*
- See also: Congeries*
Acrologia
Acyrologia (a cy ro LO gi a; G. “incorrect in phraseology”)— Improprietas; Uncouthe.
Use of an inexact or illogical word; for Quintilian, impropriety. “O villain! thou wilt be condemn’d into everlasting redemption for this” (Much Ado about Nothing, IV, ii). The Goon Show was fond of joking with this figure: “Do you think he is going to capitulate?” “I don’t know —but stand back in case he does.”
See also Malapropism.
Adioneeta
Adianoeta (a di a no E ta; G. “unintelligible”).
An expression that has an obvious meaning and an unsuspected secret one beneath. So one says to a good friend who is also a poor novelist: “I will lose no time in reading your new book.” Or, as the Foundation says to the unsuccessful applicant: “For your work, we have nothing but praise.”
Allegory
Allegory (G. “speaking otherwise than one seems to speak”) — False Semblant; Inversio; Permutatio.
- Extending a metaphor through an entire speech or passage; the rhetorical meaning is narrower than the literary one, though con- gruent with it. The allegory is sometimes called “pure” when every main term in the passage has a double significance, “mixed” when one or more terms do not. Thus St. Augustine might elaborate on the saints as the Teeth of the Church.
Alloiosis
Alloiosis (al loi O sis; G. “difference, alteration”).
Pointing out “the differences between men, things, and deeds”
(Quintilian, IX.iii.92) by breaking down a subject into alternatives: In youth we seek either glory or money. Rutilius, whom Quintilian cites, gives the following example: “Living in a just state, where justice prospers under law, is not the same thing as being subject to tyrannical power, where a single man’s whim holds sway” (Halm, p. 13). If used on a narrow scale, this becomes Antithesis. On a large scale, Quintilian continues, it is no figure. It may also mean Hypallage (2), that is, Metonymy (VIII.vi.23).
Amplificatio
Amplificatio (am pli fi CA ri o; L. “enlargement”).
Rhetorical device used to expand a simple statement. Quintilian
(VIII.iv.3) subdivides amplificatio into incrementum, comparatio, rati- ocinatio, and congeries. Hoskyns isolated five means of amplification (comparison, division, accumulation, intimation, progression) and the following figures that amplify: Accumulatio; Correctio; Divisio; Exclamatio; Hyperbole; Interrogatio; Paralepsis; Sententia; Synoe- ciosis. Another theorist lists seventeen figures, a third sixty-four; logically, any figure except those specifically aimed at brevity should fit.
Anacoenosis
Anacoenosis (an a coe NO sis; G. “communication”) — Anachinosis; Epitrope; Impartener.
Asking the opinion of one’s readers or hearers. Smith (Mysterie of Rhétorique) adds that this figure is elegantly used with such as are (1) dead, (2) the judge, (3) absent, (4) inanimate. An example of this last:
Then ev’n of fellowship, o Moone, tell me
Is constant Love deem’d there but want of wit?
Are Beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be lov’d, and yet
Those Lovers scorne whom that Love doth possesse? Do they call Vertue there ungratefulnesse?
Anacoluthon
- *Anacoluthon** (an a co LU thon; G. “inconsistent, anomalous”).
1. Ending a sentence with a different grammatical structure from that with which it began. Both a vice and a device to demonstrate emotion and, Dupriez reminds us, an affair of conversation rather
than written utterance. As Satan is described in Paradise Lost: “If thou beest he — But, O, how fall’n! how changed!”
Analogy
Analogy (G. “equality of ratios, proportion”) —Proportio. Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.
Anamnesis
Anamnesis (an a MNE sis; G. “remembrance”) — Recordatio. Recalling ideas, events, or persons of the past
Anantapodoton
Anantapodoton (a nan ta PO do ton; G. “without apodosis; hypo- thetical proposition wanting the consequent clause”); alt. sp. Anapodoton.
A kind of Ellipsis in which the second member of a correlative expression is left unstated. “If you eat the bear, you have become a man; if the bear eats you, well then. . . . “
See also Anacoluthon.
Anantagoge
Anantagoge (an ta na GO ge; G. “leading or bringing up against, instead”) — Compensatio; Recompencer.
Ameliorating a fault or difficulty implicitly admitted by balancing an unfavorable aspect with a favorable one: “A mighty maze but not without a plan.”
Antirrhesis
Antirrhesis (an tir RHE sis; G. “refutation, counterstatement”). Rejecting an argument because of its insignificance, error, or wick- edness. Churchill was great at this: “I have been mocked and cen- sured as a scare-monger and even as a war-monger, by those whose complacency and inertia have brought us all nearer to war and war nearer to us all.” “Appeasement from weakness and fear is alike futile and fatal.” And, commenting on the neutral European states temporizing under the gaze of Hitler, “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.”
Antistrephon
Antistrephon (an TI stre phon; G. “turning to the opposite side”). An argument that turns one’s opponent’s arguments or proofs to
one’s own purpose:
He says when tipsy, he would thrash and kick her, Let’s make him tipsy, gentlemen, and try!
(Gilbert and Sullivan, Trial by Jur
Antonomasia
Antonomasia (an to no MA si a; G. “use of an epithet or patro- nymic, instead of a proper name, or the reverse”); alt. sp. Antinomasia — Nominatio; Pronominatio; Surnamer.
Descriptive phrase for proper name, as when Churchill crossed out a cabinet minister’s name and inserted “Some funkstick in the Air Ministry.” Or, proper name for quality associated with it: “Per- fect! Pollyana marries Milquetoast!” Quintilian points out the simi- larity to Synecdoche.
Apodioxis
Apodioxis (a po di OX is; G. “driving away”) — Rejectio. Rejecting an argument indignantly as impertinent or absurdly false.
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
(Matt. 16:23)
Apoplanesis
Apoplanesis (a po pla NE sis; G. “digression”) — Heterogenium. Evading the issue by digressing; irrelevant answer to distract at- tention from a difficult point: “I ask you of cheese, you answer me of chalk” (Fenner).
Aporia
Aporia (a po RI a; G. “difficulty, being at a loss”) —Addubitation; Diaporesis; Doubtfull; Dubitatio.
True or feigned doubt or deliberation about an issue.
Argumentum ex concessis
Argumentum ex concessis (con CES sis; L. “[points] granted, con- ceded”).
Reasoning that the conclusion of an argument is sound, on the basis of the truth of the premises of one’s opponent. He may have exaggerated the soundness of his premise for his purposes; you use the exaggeration for yours.
Asteismus, Urbanitas
Asteismus (as te IS mus; G. “wit”) — Civill Jest; Merry Scoffe; Urbanitas.
Facetious or mocking answer that plays on a word, as in this exchange from The Goon Show: “Did you put the cat out?” “No, it wasn’t on fire.” Or as in this anecdote about Isabella Stewart Gard- ner: “At last in exasperation, when asked to subscribe to the Char- itable Eye and Ear Infirmary, she replied that she did not know there was a charitable eye or ear in Boston”
Auxesis
- *Auxesis** (aux E sis; G. “increase, amplification”).
1. Use of a heightened word in place of an ordinary one: calling a corporation president a “titan of industry.” Opposite of Meiosis. 2. Avancer; Incrementum. Words or clauses placed in climactic order: “Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act” (Jefferson).
3. Dirimens copulatio; Progressio. Building a point around a series of comparisons.
4. A general term for Amplificatio or one of the subdivisions thereof.
Brachylogia
Brachylogia (bra chy LO gi a; G. “brevity in speech or writing”) — Asyndeton; Cutted Comma.
- Omission of conjunctions between single words: “Beguil’d, di- vorced, wronged, spited, slain!”
- Brevity of diction; abbreviated construction; word or words omitted. A modern theorist differentiated this use from Ellipsis in that the elements missing are more subtly, less artificially, omitted in ellipsis: “The corps goeth before, we follow after, we come to the grave, she is put into the fire, a lamentation is made” (Peacham).
Catachresis
Catachresis (ca ta CHRE sis; G. “misuse, misapplication”) — Abuse; Abusio.
- Implied metaphor, using words wrenched from common us- age, as when Hamlet says, “I will speak daggers to her.”
- A second definition seems slightly different but perhaps is not: an extravagant, unexpected, farfetched metaphor, as when a weep- ing woman’s eyes become Niagara Falls.
Chleuasmos
Chleuasmos (chleu AS mos; G. “mockery, irony”) — Epicertomesis. A sarcastic reply that mocks an opponent and leaves him no answer.
Don Juan (placidly) . . . Yes: a funeral was always a festivity in black, especially the funeral of a relative. At all events, family ties are rarely kept up here [in Helll. Your father is quite accustomed to this: he will not expect any devotion from you.
Ana. Wretch: I wore mourning for him all my life. Don Juan. Yes: it became you.
Chreia
Chreia (CHREI a; G. rhet. “pregnant sentence or maxim, often il- lustrated by an anecdote”); alt. sp. Chria.
- A scrap of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus defines a chreia as “a concise and praiseworthy reminiscence about some character.” A full modern definition: “a saying or action that is expressed con- cisely, attributed to a character, and regarded as useful for living”
Colon
Colon (G. “limb; clause”; pi. cola) — Circumductum; Member; Mem- brum orationis.
The second of the three elements in the classical theory of the Period, a theory of prose rhythm originated by the Peripatetics. More generally, an independent clause that yet depends on the re- mainder of the sentence for its meaning. Halfway between a Comma and a period in length.
Comma
Comma (G. “that which is cut off, e.g., short clause”; pi. commata) — Caesum; Dependens; Incisum.
- The first and shortest of the three elements — the other two are Colon and Period —in the classical theory of prose rhythm origi- nated by the Peripatetics. More generally, in Greek and Latin prose theory, a short phrase or dependent clause.
- Hypodiastole. A brief pause in speaking; the punctuation to mark such a pause in reading.
Period
Period — Ambitus; Comprehensio; Conclusion; Continuatio; Hir- mus; Periodic Sentence.
The third and longest element in the classical theory of the period. Quintilian (IX.iv.19ff.) distinguishes two styles: “There are then in the first place two kinds of style: the one is closely welded and woven to- gether, while the other is of a looser texture such as is found in dialogues and letters.” The first, or “compact,” is for him the one to which the Comma-Colon-Period theory of prose rhythm properly applies.
Consonance
Consonance.
Resemblance of stressed consonant-sounds where the associated vowels differ. So Churchill said that Asquith “reigns supine, sodden and supreme.”
Correctio
- *Correctio** (cor REC ti o; L. “making straight, setting right”).
1. Diorismus; Epanorthosis; Epidiorthosis; Epitimesis. Correction of a word or phrase used previously: “Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair” (Richard II, I, ii)
- Diorthosis; Praecedens correctio; Prodiorthosis. Preparing the way for saying something the speaker knows will be unpleasant to his auditors.
Cursus
Cursus (CUR sus).
“The cadence or cursus (clausula) is a special form of prose rhythm. It was invented by the Greek orators and was, originally, a kind of punctuation for oral delivery, marking the end of a clause or sentence”. There were three basic patterns or runs: cursus planus, cursus tardus, and cursus velox. In metrical terms, the planus, or even run, consisted of a dactyl and a trochee; the tardus, or slow run, of two dactyls; the velox, or quick run, of a dactyl and two trochees. The stressed equiv- alents may be represented by, respectively, “happily married,” “company policy,” and “liberal education.”
Decorum
Decorum (L. “propriety”) —To prepon.
As a rhetorical concept, the idea advanced in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and developed by Cicero, Quintilian and others, that style should suit subject, audience, speaker and occasion. No idea was more carefully worked out in rhetorical theory nor more universally ac- claimed; everyone writing about rhetoric touches on it in one way or another…. To know how to es- tablish the “decorum” of a particular occasion meant that you had, as a child or a foreigner might, learned to find your footing in that culture.
Dehortatio
Dehortatio (de hor TA ti o). Dissuasion; advice to the contrary.
