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Conversation Skills > The elements of eloquence > Flashcards

The elements of eloquence Flashcards

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Conversation Starters flashcards
1
Q

What is alliteration?

A

we love to hear words that begin with the same letter,

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2
Q

whats an example of alliteration?

A

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast;

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3
Q

What is a Polyptoton

A

it involves the repeated use of one word as different parts of speech or in different grammatical forms,

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4
Q

Whats an example of polypton?

A

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.

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5
Q

What is antithesis?

A

first you mention one thing: then you mention another.

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6
Q

whats an example of antithesis?

A

The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.’

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7
Q

What is Merism?

A

Merism is when you don’t say what you’re talking about, and instead name all of its parts.

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8
Q

Whats an example of Merism?

A

Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them…

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9
Q

What is a Blazon?

A

When healthy people fall in love, they buy a bunch of flowers or an engagement ring and go and Do Something About It. When poets fall in love, they make a list of their loved one’s body parts and attach similes to them.

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10
Q

Whats an example of the blazon?

A

Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.

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11
Q

What is Synaesthesia

A

a rhetorical device whereby one sense is described in terms of another.

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12
Q

Whats an example of synaesthesia?

A

I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. […] The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like… victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…

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13
Q

What is an Aposiopesis

A

Series of dots to indicate silance.

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14
Q

Whats an example of aposiopesis?

A

No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall… I will do such things… What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth.

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15
Q

Whats is a hyperbaton?

A

“Hyperbaton is when you put words in an odd order. In english adjectives must be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose
“

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16
Q

Whats an example of Hyperbaton?

A

“green great dragon’.

Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage…”

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17
Q

What is Anadiplosis

A

the repetition of the last word of one clause as the first word of the next, that gives both lines their power,

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18
Q

Whats an example of anadiplosis?

A

The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story.

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19
Q

Whats a periodic sentence?

A

delaying the main verb with clause after clause.

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20
Q

Whats an example of a perodic sentence?

A

Every breath you take, Every move you make, Every bond you break, Every step you take, I’ll be watching you.

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21
Q

Whats hypotaxis?

A

Hypotaxis is a formal way of saying that a sentence contains subordinate clauses or phrases that merely build on and add to the main clause. In a complex sentence, there is one main clause, and one or more subordinate clauses. … Instead, they provide additional information that clarifies the main clause of the sentence.

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22
Q

What is a parataxis?

A

Normal english

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23
Q

Whats an example of parataxis?

A

the cat sat on the mat

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24
Q

What is a polysyndeton?

A

Using lots of conjunctions

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25
Q

Whats an example of polysyndeton?

A

And Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples saying ‘Take, eat, this is my body’

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26
Q

What is asyndeton?

A

Using no conjunctions

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27
Q

Whats an example of Asynedeton?

A

Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples

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28
Q

Whats an example of hypotaxis?

A

She is the fairy responsible for dreaming, assuming a shape

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29
Q

What is a diacope?

A

is a verbal sandwich: a word or phrase is repeated after a brief interruption.

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30
Q

Whats an example of a diacope?

A

“Bond. James Bond.’ ‘
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!’
– Shakespeare, Hamlet
“

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31
Q

What is a rhetorical question?

A

This is the purest form of the rhetorical question, where a couple of words have been switched around and a question mark slapped on the end.

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32
Q

Whats an example of a rhetorical question?

A

“How bright is the sun?’,

Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
“

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33
Q

What is a Hendiadys?

A

The principle of hendiadys is easy. You take an adjective and a noun, and then you change the adjective into another noun.

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34
Q

Whats an example of hendiadys?

A

instead of saying ‘I’m going to the noisy city’ you say ‘I’m going to the noise and the city’.

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35
Q

Whats an epistrophe?

A

When you end each sentence with the same word, that’s epistrophe. When each clause has the same words at the end, that’s epistrophe. When you finish each paragraph with the same word, that’s epistrophe. Even when it’s a whole phrase or a whole sentence that you repeat, it’s still, providing the repetition comes at the end, epistrophe.

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36
Q

Whats an example of epistrophe?

A

Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beating up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad and – I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready. And when our folk eat the stuff they raise and live in the houses they build – why, I’ll be there.

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37
Q

Whats a tricolon?

A

With a tricolon you can set up a pattern and then break it. ‘Lies, damned lies, and statistics’ is a simple example. The first two words establish the direction we’re going. The third twists things for humorous purposes.

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38
Q

Whats an example of tricolon?

A

Eat, drink and be merry. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Truth, justice and the American way.

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39
Q

Wahts an epizeuxis?

A

“repeating a word immediately in exactly the same sense.It’s like a nuclear bomb: immensely effective, but a bit weird if you use it every five minutes.
“

40
Q

whats an example of epizeuxis?

A

Never Never never. No No no

41
Q

Whats a syllepsis?

A

Syllepsis is when one word is used in two incongruous ways. In fact, it can be more than two.

42
Q

Whats an example of syllepsis?

A

“You may seek it with thimbles – and seek it with care; You may hunt it with forks and hope; You may threaten its life with a railway share; You may charm it with smiles and soap.

A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a rage.
“

43
Q

whats an isocolon?

A

Two clauses that are grammatically parallel, two sentences that are structurally the same.

44
Q

Whats an example of an isocolon?

A

“Roses are red. Violets are blue.

‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’,”

45
Q

Whats an enallage?

A

Enallage (e-NALL-aj-ee) is a deliberate grammatical mistake.

46
Q

Whats an example of an enallage?

A

“… the manager’s boy put his insolent black head in the doorway, and said in a tone of scathing contempt—‘Mistah Kurtz – he dead.’

Let us go then, you and I,
“

47
Q

What is does the form iambic sound like?

A

te-TUM

48
Q

What does the form trochee sound like?

A

TUM-ty

49
Q

What does the form of Anapaest sound like?

A

te-te-TUM

50
Q

What does the form of Dactyl sound like?

A

TUM-te-ty

51
Q

How many versifications in a pentameter?

A

five in a row

52
Q

how many versification in a tetrameter?

A

four in a row

53
Q

How many versifications in a trimeter?

A

three in a row

54
Q

What is a Zeugma?

A

Sometimes you have a series of clauses that all have the same verb. Tom likes whisky, Dick likes vodka, Harry likes crack cocaine. That’s three likes, but you only need one. Tom likes whisky, Dick vodka, Harry crack cocaine. The sentence still makes sense, because we understand that that first likes is still kind of hanging around in the next few clauses.

55
Q

Whats an example of Zeugma?

A

For contemplation he and valour formed, For softness she and sweet attractive grace; He for God only, she for God in him.

56
Q

Whats a pesudo-paradox?

A

Sets the sentence up as though it’s going to mention two separate things, and then doubles back on himself. The content is not paradoxical. The phrasing is.

57
Q

Whats an example of a pseudoparadox?

A

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. – Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892

58
Q

What is a pun paradox?

A

sentence which uses the multiple meaning of a words to express a contradiction

59
Q

Whats an example of a pun-paradox?

A

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. – Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892

60
Q

Whats a paradox?

A

combining opposites, impossibility

61
Q

Whats an example of a paradox?

A

“The Sound of Silence’,

“

62
Q

Whats a Chiamus?

A

the words of the first half are mirrored in the second.

63
Q

Whats an example of chiamus?

A

“Tea for two and two for tea Me for you and you for me.

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,In a Sieve they went to sea:”

64
Q

What is assonance?

A

Assonance is repeating a vowel sound: deep heat or blue moon.

65
Q

Whats an example of Assonance?

A

“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield

I met a traveller from an antique land”

66
Q

What is the fourteenth rule?

A

Numbers feel mysterious and significant. So all you need to do to sound mysterious and significant is to pick a number, any number.

67
Q

Whats an example of the fourteenth rule?

A

“It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.

Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die. Like one that hath been seven days drowned My body lay afloat;”

68
Q

What is Catachresis?

A

it’s essentially when a sentence is so startlingly wrong that it’s right.

69
Q

Whats an example of catachresis?

A

“Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice
Annihilating all that’s made To a green thought in a green shade.
“

70
Q

What is a Litotes?

A

Litotes is affirming something by denying its opposite.

71
Q

Whats an example of Litotes?

A

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corpse to the rampart we hurried.

72
Q

What is metonymy?

A

metonymy is when two things are connected because they are really physically connected.

73
Q

Whats an example of metonymy

A

Downing Street was left red-faced last night at news that the White House was planning to attack the British Crown with the support of Wall Street. Number 10 said it was ‘unacceptable’ though the Vatican refused to get involved. Meanwhile, the army’s top brass have been ordered to send in the Green Jackets, which will confuse the Americans as they were expecting the Redcoats.

74
Q

What is a synecdoche?

A

The extreme form of metonymy is synecdoche, where you become one of your body parts. You are your feet, your lips or your liver.

75
Q

Whats an example of synecdoche?

A

“All eyes were on the government as they tried to alleviate the famine with a charity theatre matinée. A spokesman said if they got enough bums on seats they could feed all the hungry mouths, but it would have to be all hands on deck as this was about getting feet on the ground. The government said they had their top brains working on it and that the gate from a full house could buy a hundred head of cattle.

What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

76
Q

What is a transferred epithets?

A

A transferred epithet is when an adjective is applied to the wrong noun.

77
Q

Whats an example of a transferred epithet?

A

“The man smoked a nervous cigarette’.

MrJaggers never laughed; but he wore great bright creaking boots; and, in poising himself on these boots, with his large head bent down and his eyebrows joined together, awaiting an answer he sometimes caused the boots to creak, as if they laughed in a dry and suspicious way.”

78
Q

What is a pleonasm?

A

Pleonasm is the use of unneeded words that are superfluous and unnecessary in a sentence that doesn’t require them. It’s repeating the same thing again twice, and it annoys and irritates people.

79
Q

Whats ane xample of pleonasm?

A

“tiny: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh myhelp.

It’s the lazy adjective noun. This is a world of personal friends, added bonuses and free gifts.

‘free, gratis and for nothing’,‘I saw it with my own two eyes’,

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat.”

80
Q

What is an epanalepsis?

A

beginning and ending with the same word.

81
Q

What is an example of epanalepsis?

A

“The king is dead; long live the king’
‘A lie begets a lie’
‘Nothing will come of nothing’.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!”

82
Q

What is personification?

A

similar to allegory giving human qualities to inanimate objects.

83
Q

Whats an example of personification?

A

similar to allegory giving human qualities to inanimate objects.

84
Q

What is hyperbole?

A

“the technical term for exaggeration. we do not use hyperbole enough.
“

85
Q

Whats an example of hyperbole?

A

Marry her! Impossible! You mean a part of her; he could not marry her all himself. It would be a case not of bigamy, but trigamy; the neighbourhood or the magistrates should interfere. There is enough of her to furnish wives for a whole parish. One man marry her! – it is monstrous. You might people a colony with her; or give an assembly with her; or perhaps take your morning walk round her, always provided there were frequent resting places, and you were in rude health. I once was rash enough to try walking round her before breakfast, but only got half-way, and gave it up exhausted. Or you might read the Riot Act and disperse her; in short, you might do anything with her but marry her.

86
Q

What is adynaton?

A

An adynaton (pronounced ad-in-ART-on) is impossible.Before an adynaton will work, pigs will fly, Hell will freeze over and the Devil will go skiing.

87
Q

Whats an example of adynaton?

A

“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, ‘I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky.”

88
Q

What is prolepsis?

A

Using a pronoun before saying what it refers to.

89
Q

Whats an example of prolepsis?

A 
"This Be The Verse
BY PHILIP LARKIN
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.   
    They may not mean to, but they do.   
They fill you with the faults they had
    And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.”

90
Q

What is congeries?

A

Congeries is Latin for a heap, and in rhetoric it applies to any piling up of adjectives or nouns in a list.

91
Q

Whats an example of congeries?

A

“The expense of spirit2 in a waste of shame Is lust in action: and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
“

92
Q

What is scesis onomaton?

A

No verbs

93
Q

Whats an example of scesis onomaton?

A

“Be near me when I fade away, To point the term of human strife, And on the low dark verge of life The twilight of eternal day.

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me!
“

94
Q

What is anaphora?

A

Anaphora (an-AFF-or-a) is starting each sentence with the same words.

95
Q

Whats an example of anaphora?

A

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 [North and Atlantic], We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, 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 [ofLondon], We shall fight in the hills [Somewhere up North]. We shall never surrender.1

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