Rhetorical Terms 9/30

Question 1

Simple Sentence

Answer 1

Grammar (phrases/clauses that make up sentence)
- single independent clause (i.e., a noun-verb unit)
- plus any modifying phrases

Too many successive simple sentences may make one’s writing feel simplistic or naive. good as well-placed, short+simple sentence (esp before/after series of long sentences)

Ex. [[Granted, the 3 percent figure is self-reported, and Politifact—the nonpartisan, Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website—suggests it could nudge higher depending on how you crunch the numbers. But it also rules that Sen. Jon Kyl “vastly overstated” the organization’s involvement in abortions.]] IN OTHER WORDS, HE LIED. (Leonard Pitts, Jr.)

Question 2

Compound Sentence

Answer 2

Grammar (phrases/clauses that make up sentence)
- two independent clauses
- plus any modifying phrases.

two independent clauses can be linked by:
- a conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
- a semicolon

Ex. Diego waited, but the train was late.

Question 3

Complex Sentence

Answer 3

Grammar (phrases/clauses that make up sentence)
- single independent clause
- at least one dependent clause
- any modifying phrases

Ex. I did not see Oskar and Amy because they arrived late to the party.

Question 4

Compound-Complex Sentence

Answer 4

Grammar (phrases/clauses that make up sentence)
- at least two independent clauses
- 1+ dependent clauses
- plus any modifying phrases.

Ex. Isis, walking to her car, stopped to look at the clouds; she had never seen such a bright blue until she gazed up.

Question 5

Effective Fragment

Answer 5

Grammar (phrases/clauses that make up sentence)

Word/phrase punctuated as a sentence that is grammatically incomplete bc does not have independent clause. Dependent clauses and phrases are fragments when punctuated as sentences.

Traditionally warned against but can be effective when used well.

Ex. I looked up at those twin kites. I thought about Hassan. Thought about Baba. Ali. Kabul.

Question 6

Natural Order

Answer 6

SYNTAX (the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and other elements in a sentence)
Traditionally arranged sentence whereby the subject or agent (the noun carrying out the action of the main verb) comes before the predicate.
Ex. Oranges grow in California.
Ex. The wind whistled through barren streets, rustling up dirt that pattered at apartment windows.

Question 7

Inverted Order

Answer 7

SYNTAX (the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and other elements in a sentence)
When the main verb comes before its subject or agent. Because inverted order reverses the natural order of subject-verb-object, the effect is one of momentary unscrambling.
Ex. In California grow oranges.
Ex. Through barren streets whistled the wind, rustling up dirt that pattered at apartment windows.

Question 7

Periodic Sentence

Answer 7

SYNTAX (the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and other elements in a sentence)

sentence’s main idea is not completed until the very end.
- writers front-load subordinate elements and postpone main clause.
- creates suspense, leaving readers waiting for the conclusion when the sentence’s parts fall into place

Here’s a straightforward example of a periodic sentence. The [[ text ]] is the main clause, which—you’ll notice in all the examples below—is completed only at the very end of the sentence.
- As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, [[he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect]]. (Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”)

Here are some more complex examples of periodic sentences.
- On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns—after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the two thousand Eurasian war criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces—at just this moment [[it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia]]. (Orwell, 1984)
- [[It was a long time later that Susan understood that that night]], when she had wept and Matthew had driven the misery out of her with his big solid body, [[was the last time]], ever in their married life, [[that they had been]]—to use their mutual language—[[with each other]]. (Doris Lessing, “To Room Nineteen”)

Question 7

Cumulative Sentence

Answer 7

SYNTAX (the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and other elements in a sentence)
When the main clause comes at the very beginning of a sentence, which then leads to various subordinate elements added on for description and detail. Cumulative sentences are often known as loose sentences because they are more free-flowing than periodic sentences.

Here’s a straightforward example of a cumulative sentence:
- We reached Berlin that morning, after a turbulent flight full of crying babies, chatty neighbors, and absolutely no sleep whatsoever.

Here are some more complex examples of cumulative sentences.
- I am with the Eskimos on the tundra who are running after the click-footed caribou, running sleepless and dazed for days, running spread out in scraggling lines across the glacier-ground hummocks and reindeer moss, in sight of the ocean, under the long-shadowed pale sun, running silent all night long. (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)
- The radiators put out lots of heat, too much, in fact, and old-fashioined sounds and smells came with it, exhalations of the matter that composes our own mortality. (Saul Bellow, More Die of Heartbreak)

Question 8

Balanced Sentence

Answer 8

SYNTAX (the arrangement of phrases, clauses, and other elements in a sentence)
When a sentence is comprised of two (or more) parts roughly equal in length, importance, and grammatical structure. (For more, see parallelism below.)
- Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun.

Question 9

Declarative

Answer 9

FUNCTION (the objective, aim, or purpose of the sentence)
Makes a statement.
- The king has a cold.

Question 10

Imperative

Answer 10

FUNCTION (the objective, aim, or purpose of the sentence)
Issues a command.
- Go fetch a doctor for the king.

Question 11

Interrogative

Answer 11

FUNCTION (the objective, aim, or purpose of the sentence)
Asks a question.
- When did he catch the cold?

Question 12

Exclamatory

Answer 12

FUNCTION (the objective, aim, or purpose of the sentence)
Emphasizes an emotion.
- The king is dead!

Question 13

Anaphora

Answer 13

Repetition
The repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
- I came, I saw, I conquered.
- We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. (Winston Churchill)

Question 14

Epistrophe

Answer 14

Repetition
The repetition of a word or group of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.
- It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can. (President Barack Obama)

Question 15

Symploce

Answer 15

Repetition
The combination of anaphora and epistrophe: beginning a series of lines, clauses, or sentences with the same word or phrase while simultaneously repeating a different word or phrase at the end of each element in this series.
- Against yourself you are calling him; against the laws you are calling him; against the democratic constitution you are calling him. (Aeschines)

Question 16

Anadiplosis

Answer 16

Repetition
The repetition of the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next.
- Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. (Yoda from Star Wars)

Question 17

Epanalepsis

Answer 17

Repetition
The repetition of an initial word or phrase in a sentence at the end of that very sentence.
- Once more unto the breach, my friends, once more. (Shakespeare, Henry V)
- They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again, he was all of these things because the town bowed down. (Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God)

Question 18

Diaphora

Answer 18

Repetition
Repetition of a common name so as to serve two logical functions: first, to designate an individual; then, to signify the qualities associated with that person’s name or title.
- Boys will be boys.
- The president is not the president when he compromises his morals and our trust so basely.

Question 19

Parallelism (parallel structure)

Answer 19

(rhetorical principle)
When similar elements (in a phrase/clause/sentence/paragraph) are grammatically / syntactically similar (they should be for the sake of coherence and emphasis)

Virginia Tufte explains, “Parallelism is saying like things in like ways. It is accomplished by repetition of words and syntactic structures in planned symmetrical arrangements” (218).

Examples:
- She likes to run, bike, and swim.
- She likes running, biking and swimming.
- Books enable me both to see the world and to imagine better ones.
- The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted down the street.

Question 20

Balance

Answer 20

Parallelism with Balance
When the parallel elements are similar in structure, as in the examples above. The effect is one of equilibrium and symmetry.
- Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (John F. Kennedy)
- And he took the pain of it, if not happily, like a martyr, at least willingly, like an heir. (Edward Lewis Wallant)

Question 21

Antithesis

Answer 21

Parallelism with Antithesis
When the parallel elements are similar in structure, but seek to contrast one thing from another.
- That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. (Neil Armstrong)
- Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. (John Milton, Paradise Lost)

Question 22

Chiasmus

Answer 22

Parallelism with Chiasmus
When there is a reversal, in words and/or structure, in the second of two parallel clauses. Named after the Greek letter chi, which is a criss-cross.
- Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. (John F. Kennedy)
- Fair is foul, and foul is fair. (Shakespeare, Macbeth)

Question 23

Ellipsis

Answer 23

Parallelism with Ellipsis
Because it establishes a pattern upon which the audience can rely, parallelism enables the speaker to leave sentence elements out for the sake of pacing or eloquence. Ellipsis refers to the acceptable removal of those sentence elements because they are understood.
- For love is stronger than hate, and peace than war. (Bradford Smith)
- The walls of the town, which is built on a hill, are high, the streets and lanes tortuous and broken, the roads winding. (Malcolm Lowry)

Question 24

Asyndeton

Answer 24

When a speaker omits a conjunction between related words, phrases or clauses.
- I came, I saw, I conquered. [omitted and]
- Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. [omitted and] (Orwell, 1984)

Question 25

Polysyndeton

Answer 25

When a speaker uses excessive conjunctions that could otherwise be omitted between related words, phrases, or clauses.
- And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:22-24)

Question 26

Paralipsis

Answer 26

Stating that one will pass over (or not mention) a topic and, in so doing, drawing all the more attention to it; produces an ironic effect.
- We will not speak of all Queequeg’s peculiarities here: how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare. (Melville, Moby Dick, “Breakfast” chapter)

Question 27

Accumulatio

Answer 27

1) Bringing together various points made throughout a speech in order to present them in a forceful, climactic way; or 2) the heaping-on of words, either of similar or contrasting meaning, to elaborate an idea, reinforce a point, or achieve an emotional effect.
- I’m a modern man, a man for the millennium, digital and smoke-free, a diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist, politically, anatomically, and ecologically incorrect. I’ve been uplinked and downloaded, I’ve been inputted and outsourced, I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading. I’m a high-tech lowlife, a state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker, and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond. (George Carlin)

Question 28

Register

Answer 28

We use the term register to refer to particular varieties or styles of speaking and writing, made up of particular vocabulary, diction, style, and grammar. Writers may make use of a single register in a piece (i.e., legal register in a court document; meteorological register in a weather report; etc.), or they may rely upon many at any given time (i.e., in a college application essay, which may require one to write formally and informally). Often, interesting things happen when registers collide or blend.

Question 29

Zeugma

Answer 29

A figure of speech in which one word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one other word, usually a noun, to create a blend of two logically and grammatically different ideas. In the first example below, holding one’s breath and holding the door are two very different things—the first figurative, the second literal—but notice how the same verb corresponds to each usage.
- You held your breath and the door for me. (Alanis Morissette, “Head Over Feet”)
- He lost his briefcase, then his job, then his mind.