| A | B |
|---|
| alliteration | repetition of initial or medical consonants in two or more adjacent words. "A sable, silent, solemn forest stood." |
| anadiplosis | repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "The crime was common, common be the paid" |
| anastrophe | inversion of the natural or usual word order. Its purpose is to secure emphasis. "Puffed up asses Arcangeli and Bottini unquestionable are." I got, so far as the immediate moment was concerned, away." (Henry James) |
| apposition | placing side by side two co-ordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explantation or modification of the first. "So, we would have gone together, the Orthodox and I." "John Morgan, the president of the Sons of the Republic, could not be reached by phone." |
| antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. |
| asyndeton | deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses. "I came, I saw, I conquered." |
| polysyndeton | deliberate use of many conjunctions |
| chiasmus | "the criss-cross," the reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses. "Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys." |
| climax | arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance. "Let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country, and his God." |
| diction | refers to the choice of words, their arrangement, their force; the means and manner of expressing ideas |
| non sequitur | it does not follow |
| ellipsis | deliberate omission of a word or of words, which are readily implied by the context. "And he to England shall along with you." (Hamlet) |
| either/or fallacy | assuming there are only two choices when there are actually are more. "Either he ate the hamburger, or he ate the fries." (He could have eaten the asparagus) |
| false analogy | an analogy never proves anything definitively |
| paradox | an apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth |
| ipse dixit | "he himself has spoken" |
| post hoc, ergo propter hoc | after this, therefore because of this |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole. Vessel for ship, silver for money, steel for sword, bread for food, sail for ship...All hands were summoned to the quarter deck |
| syntax | study of structure of grammatical sentences in a language |
| metonymy | substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is acually meant. Crown for royalty, wealth for rich people,...I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." |
| ad hominem | "to the man" after realizing that a person's argument cannot be refuted, the person himself is attacked. "My opponent's argument are very impressive, but remember, this is the man who deserted his faithful wife and family after he won his first political victory. |
| red herring | tactic derived from hunting and the practice of dragging a herring across the trace in order to lead the hounds astray from their pursuit of the prey. "So what if the general did lose this battle - think of all his glorious battles of the past." Also known as changing the topic. |
| praeterito | saying your not going to mention something, but mentioning it in the process. "And of course I would never stoop so low as to mention his bad breath and his nasty personality since it's not relevant..." |
| personification | (prosopoeia) investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities. The ground thirsts for rain. |
| irony | use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word. "For Brutus is an honourable man, so are they all honourable men." |
| hyperbole | the use of an exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect |
| oxymoron | the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory. Sweet pain, cruel kindness, thunderous silence... |
