Syllabus Flashcards
Anadiplosis
The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
Ex: “Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business.” (Francis Bacon)
Parallelism
A set of similarly structured words, phrases, or clauses that appears in a sentence or paragraph.
Ex 1: The dog ran, stumbled, and fell.
Ex 2: “After two years I remember the rest of that day, and that night and the next day…” (Fitzgerald 17).
Anaphora
The repetition of a group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
Ex: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence…” (Winston Churchill)
Anthimeria
The substitution of one part of speech for another. It is the use of a word that is normally one part of speech in a situation that requires it to be understood as a different part of speech. In English, and this is one of its greatest virtues, almost any noun can be verbed.
Ex 1: “To scarf,” for example, was the verb implied in Hamlet’s speech, where he says, ‘My sea-gown scarf’d about me.’
Ex 2: The thunder would not peace at my bidding.
Ex 3: You jesus’d that.
Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning or in the middle of two or more adjacent words.
Ex: “To make a man to meet the moral need/ A man to match the mountains and the sea” (Edwin Markham)
Metonymy
An entity referred to by one of its attributes or associations. The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.
Ex 1: “The press” for the news media.
Ex 2: Suit for business executive.
Ex 3: The track for horse racing.
Chiasmus
Inverted relationship between two elements in two parallel phrases. A rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form.
Ex 1: Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.
Ex 2: “To stop too fearful and too faint to go.”
Isocolon
Parallel elements that are similar in structure and in length. Isocolon is a figure of speech in which a sentence is composed by two or more parts (cola) perfectly equivalent in structure, length and rhythm: it is called bicolon, tricolon, or tetracolon depending on whether they are two, three, or four. A figure of speech or sentence having a parallel structure formed by the use of two or more clauses, or cola, of similar length.
Ex 1: “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Ex 2: “… to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous …”
Anastrophe
Inversion or reversal of the usual order of words.
Ex: Echoed the hills.
Inversion from: The hills echoed
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas, often in parallel structure. Antithesis, literal meaning opposite, is a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect.
Ex 1: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Barry Goldwater)
Ex 2: “…found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress–and as drunk as a monkey” (Fitzgerald 81).
Ex 3: “Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man but a giant step for mankind.”
The use of contrasting ideas, “a small step” and “a giant step”, in the sentence above emphasizes the significance of one of the biggest landmarks of human history.
Zeugma
A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning. A figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).
Ex: He governs his will and his kingdom.
Synecdoche
A part of something used to refer to the whole.
Ex 1: “The hired hands are not doing their jobs.”
Workers are referred to by their hands only.
Ex 2: They were up against fifty sails.
Ships are referred to by their sails.
Metaphor
An implied comparison that does not use the word like or as.
Ex 1: “No man is an island” (Donne).
Ex 2: She was a cloud, floating above the rest of the insignificant beings without a second thought.
Simile
A type of comparison that uses the word like or as.
Ex: “There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away” (Fitzgerald 2).
Epistrophe
The repetition of a group of words at the end of successive clauses.
Ex 1: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us” (Emerson).
Ex 2: BRUTUS:
“Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended….”
(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)
Again Shakespeare is at his best in using this stylistic device. The repeated phrases at the end of sentences are: “for him have I offended.” It appears thrice in this excerpt. This shows the importance of the phrase.
