The Elements of Eloquence, Forsyth 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”
