Rhetorical Devices and Examples

"Why should white people be running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands of the white man? Why? "

Anaphora occurs when the speaker repeats the same words at the start of successive sentences or clauses. It generally serves two purposes:

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

Antithesis is the use of contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence. It is the juxtaposition of two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences contrasted or opposed in meaning in such a way as to give emphasis to their contrasting ideas and give the effect of balance.

"Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest of scientists, seemed not to have mastered the physics of hair combing."

Apposition is the placing side by side of two coordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first. The second element, which can be a noun or noun phrase, is called an appositive.

"I came, I saw, I conquered."

Asyndeton means leaving out a conjunction where it might have been expected to appear.

"In peace sons bury their fathers, but in war fathers bury their sons."

Chiasmus occurs when words or other elements are repeated with their order reversed. Chiasmus amounts to an ABBA pattern. A chiasmus need not repeat the same words in order. It can instead just consist of a structural reversal.

"A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!"

Epistrophe occurs when the speaker repeats the same words at the end of successive sentences or clauses.

"The gentleman asks, When were the colonies emancipated? I desire to know when were they made slaves?"

Hypophora occurs when the speaker asks a question and then answers it.

"We fight our way in, and try to buy our way out. We are alert, curious, hopeful, and we take more drugs designed to make us unaware than any other people. We are self- reliant and at the same time completely dependent. We are aggressive, and defenseless. Americans overindulge their children; the children in turn are overly dependent on their parents."

Juxtaposition is defined as combining together two or more communicative elements so as to suppress the connections between them and emphasize the differences, thereby provoking some surprise or puzzlement at their close placement. It is often combined with other devices.

"That sword was not useless to the warrior now."

Litotes "occurs when a speaker avoids making an affirmative claim directly and instead denies its opposite"

"I'm not saying I'm responsible for this country's longest run of uninterrupted peace in 35 years! I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a Phoenix metaphor been more personified! I'm not saying Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea, because I haven't come across anyone man enough to go toe to toe with me on my best day!"

Paralipsis generally occurs when the speaker describes what she will not say and so says it, or at least a bit of it.

"We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic."

Parallelism is the deliberate similarity of structure in a pair or series of words, phrases, or sentences. It is one of the most basic and fundamental forms used in rhetoric.

"A German daily is the slowest and saddest and dreariest of the inventions of man."

Polysyndeton is the repeated use of conjunctions.

"But there are only three hundred of us,' you object. Three hundred, yes, but men, but armed, but Spartans, but at Thermoplyae: I have never seen three hundred so numerous"

Prolepsis occurs when a speaker anticipates an objection and then comments on it.