Rhetorical Terms

Loose Sentence

A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses Ex: "Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass if early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful venture."

Allegory

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities Ex. Animal Farm

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to b something closely associated with it Example- "We requested from the crown support for our petition."

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. Ex: "Jumbo Shrimp"

Litotes

A form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form Ex. Hawthorne- "the wearers of petticoats and farthingale...stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng..."

Analogy

A is to B as C is to D Example- Lincoln- "You don't change horses in the middle of a stream." He is referring to not changing presidents in the middle of a war.

Telegraphic Sentence

A sentence shorter than five words in length. Ex. I went quickly

Paradox

A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality makes sense Ex: "Death, be not proud, though, some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so, for those whom thou thinkest thou dost overthrow, die not poor death, nor canst thou kill me."

Apostrophe

Calling out to something that's not there Ex: "Hello darkness, my old friend."

Ellipsis

Deliberate omission of a word or of words which are readily implied Ex: "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."

Epistrophe

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora) Example- "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child."

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order Example- "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us."

Apophasis

Rhetorical figure in which one makes an assertion while pretending to deny it Ex: ""I don't want to say something bad about another doctor, especially one who is a useless drunk."

Ad Hominem

Switching the argument from a discussion of the issues to a discussion of the person/personality Example- George III is a "sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man."

Anastrophe

The inversion of logical order of parts of a sentence Ex: "Not in the legions of horrid hell came a devil more damned in ills to top Macbeth."

Horatory Sentence

a statement urging others to join in some action-similar to 1st person imperative-commanding oneself and one's associates to join in some action Ex. "Let us begin anew..." "Let both sides explore what problems unite us..."

Ad Populum

appealing to irrational fears and prejudices to prevent audiences from facing the issue Example- Bush- "Sadam Hussein will give his weapons of mass destruction to the terrorists."

Rhetorical Question

asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something Example- "Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation?"

Epanelepsis

device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. E.g. Voltaire: "Common sense is not so common."

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. Ex: "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times."

Analepsis

flashback Example- All the King's Men- throughout: Chapter one is written in 1939; starts story in 1936; then relates even in 1922

Asyndeton

omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses Ex. "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac."

Anadiplosis

repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause Example- Queen- "Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance is sub-standard. Sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist."

Chiasmus

reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses Example- Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys

Polysyndeton

sentence that uses a conjunction with no commas to separate the items in a series Ex: "We lived and laughed and loved and left."

Periodic Sentence

sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end Ex: "The proper place in the sentence for the word or group of words that the writer desires to make most prominent is usually the end."

Euphemism

substitution of an inoffensive term for one that is offensive Ex: "I just bought a wonderful pre-owned vehicle for my teenage daughter.

Antithesis

the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, emphasized by a parallel structure Example- "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness.

Anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses Example- "nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing that you can do..."

Parallel Structure

the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures Ex: "Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them."