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| alliteration | the recurrence of initial consonant sounds. |
| alliteration | ex) Yes, I have read that little bundle of pernicious prose, but I have no comment to make upon it. ex) Ah, what a delicious day! |
| allusion | a short, informal reference to a famous person or event. |
| allusion | ex) You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first. 'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size. --Shakespeare ex) Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing |
| amplification | involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. |
| amplification | ex) This orchard, this lovely, shady orchard, is the main reason I bought this property. ex) The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,/ A refuge in times of trouble. --Psalm 9:9 (KJV) |
| analogy | compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. |
| analogy | ex) You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. --Samuel Johnson ex) Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson |
| anaphora | the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism |
| anaphora | ex) To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham |
| antiphrasis | one word irony, established by context. |
| antiphrasis | ex) "Come here, Tiny," he said to the fat man. |
| antithesis | establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. |
| antithesis | ex) To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Pope ex) Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise. ex) In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it. --Samuel Johnson |
| apostrophe | interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back. |
| apostrophe | ex) O value of wisdom that fadeth not away with time, virtue ever flourishing, that cleanseth its possessor from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty, descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest exalt the rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of the intellect . . . . --Richard de Bury |
| appositive | a noun or noun substitute placed next to another noun to be described or defined by it. |
| appositive | ex) Henry Jameson, the boss of the operation, always wore a red baseball cap. ex) Is your friend George going to run for office? ex) That evening we were all at the concert, a really elaborate and exciting affair. |
| assonance | similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants. |
| assonance | ex) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. --Matthew 5:16 (KJV) ex) It is in the box. |
| asyndeton | consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. |
| asyndeton | ex) On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame. ex) They spent the day wondering, searching, thinking, understanding. ex) In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. --Richard de Bury |
| climax | consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis. |
| climax | ex) The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concerto in the world. |
| epistrophe | forms the counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. |
| epistrophe | ex) Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. --Wilson ex) The cars do not sell because the engineering is inferior, the quality of materials is inferior, and the workmanship is inferior. |
| epithet | an adjective or adjective phrase appropriately qualifying a subject (noun) by naming a key or important characteristic of the subject |
| epithet | ex) laughing happiness ex) lifegiving water |
| eponym | substitutes for a particular attribute the name of a famous person recognized for that attribute. |
| eponym | ex) Is he smart? Why, the man is an Einstein. Has he suffered? This poor Job can tell you himself. ex) An earthworm is the Hercules of the soil. |
| exemplum | citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious |
| exemplum | ex) Let me give you an example. In the early 1920's in Germany, the government let the printing presses turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennige postage stamps, denominations up to 50 billion marks were being issued. |
| expletive | a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to it. |
| expletive | ex) But the lake was not, in fact, drained before April. ex) In short, the cobbler had neglected his soul. ex) He, without doubt, can be trusted with a cookie. |
| hyperbole | deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect. |
| hyperbole | ex) There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy. ex) This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love. |
| hypophora | consists of raising one or more questions and then proceeding to answer them, usually at some length. |
| hypophora | ex) What behavior, then, is uniquely human? My theory is this . . . . ex) But what are the implications of this theory? And how can it be applied to the present problem? |
| metaphor | compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. |
| metaphor | ex) The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter. --Joshua Reynolds ex) Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. --Luke 11:34 (RSV) |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes. |
| onomatopoeia | ex) buzz, clank, clash, screech, whirr ex) Someone yelled "Look out!" and I heard a loud screech followed by a grinding, wrenching crash. |
| oxymoron | a paradox reduced to two words |
| oxymoron | ex) eloquent silence ex) Senator Rosebud calls this a useless plan; if so, it is the most helpful useless plan we have ever enacted. ex) I do here make humbly bold to present them with a short account of themselves and their art.....--Jonathan Swift |
| parallelism | recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. |
| parallelism | ex) Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness. ex) Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book. ex) This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes. ex) He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly. |
| parenthesis | consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence |
| parenthesis | ex) But the new calculations--and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information--showed that man-powered flight was possible with this design. ex) But in whatever respect anyone else is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am just as bold myself. --2 Cor. 11:21b (NASB) |
| personification | metaphorically represents an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes--attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on. |
| personification | ex) The ship began to creak and protest as it struggled against the rising sea. ex) Wisdom cries aloud in the streets; in the markets she raises her voice . . . .--Psalm 1:20 (RSV; and cf. 1:21-33) |
| polysyndeton | the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton |
| polysyndeton | ex) They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked. ex) And to set forth the right standard, and to train according to it, and to help forward all students towards it according to their various capacities, this I conceive to be the business of a University. --John Henry Newman |
| rhetorical question | differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer, because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. |
| rhetorical question | ex) But how can we expect to enjoy the scenery when the scenery consists entirely of garish billboards? ex) Is justice then to be considered merely a word? Or is it whatever results from the bartering between attorneys? |
| simile | a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. |
| simile | ex) I see men, but they look like trees, walking. ex) James now felt like an old adding machine: he had been punched and poked so much that he had finally worn out. ex) The argument of this book utilizes pretzel-like logic. |
| understatement | deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact. |
| understatement | ex) The 1906 San Francisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat in the downtown area. ex) You know I would be a little disappointed if you were to be hit by a drunk driver at two a.m., so I hope you will be home early. |
| zeugma | includes several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage (or yoking together) of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech. Thus examples would include one subject with two (or more) verbs, a verb with two (or more) direct objects, two (or more) subjects with one verb, and so forth. The main benefit of the linking is that it shows relationships between ideas and actions more clearly. |
| zeugma | ex) Fred excelled at sports; Harvey at eating; Tom with girls. |
| metabasis | consists of a brief statement of what has been said and what will follow. It might be called a linking, running, or transitional summary, whose function is to keep the discussion ordered and clear in its progress |
| metabasis | ex) Such, then, would be my diagnosis of the present condition of art. I must now, by special request, say what I think will happen to art in the future. --Kenneth Clark ex) Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to. --George Orwell |
| hypotaxis | using subordination to show the relationship between clauses or phrases |
| hypotaxis | ex) They asked the question because they were curious. ex) While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. --John 9:5 ex) If a person observing an unusual or unfamiliar object concludes that it is probably a spaceship from another world, he can readily adduce that the object is reacting to his presence or actions when in reality there is absolutely no cause-effect relationship. --Philip Klass |
| ellipsis | The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding. |
| qualification | Reference in the audit report to a material limitation placed on the auditor's examination or to uncertainty regarding a specific item in the financial statements. Reservation in a proposed agreement making the agreement unenforceable unless a specified condition is met. |
| symbol | Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible. |
| pathos | A quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow. |
| Procatalepsis | anticipates an objection that might be raised by a reader and responds to it, thus permitting an argument to continue moving forward while taking into account opposing points. |
| Procatalepsis | But someone might say that this battle really had no effect on the outcome of the war. Such a statement could arise only from ignoring the effect the battle had on the career of General Mars, who later became a principal figure in the decisive final conflict. |
| Distinctio | the presentation of a specific meaning for a word in order to prevent ambiguity and confusion. Using it calls the reader's attention to the need for clarity much more deliberately than other methods of definition. |
| Distinctio | To make methanol for twenty-five cents a gallon is impossible; by impossible I mean currently beyond our technological capabilities. |
| Prozeugma | the linking word is presented once and then omitted from the subsequent sets of words or phrases linked together. |
| Prozeugma | The freshman excelled in calculus; the sophomore, in music; the senior, in drama. |
| Pun | plays with the multiple meanings of a word or words. One word may be used in a way that suggests several meanings, or two words that sound alike may be used, with their different meanings. |
| Pun | By introducing a camera, we are going to take a shot at the photography business. Let's hope it will be the picture of profitability. After all, digital cameras have no negatives. |
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