Rhetorical Tropes and Schemes

The same notes only different

Alliteration
! Repetition of the same sound beginning
several words in sequence. From the
Latin, "putting letters together"

Let us go forth to lead the land we love.
(J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural)
Veni, vidi, vici. (Julius Caesar)
"The soul selects her own society."
(Emily Dickinson)

Anacoluthon
! Lack of grammatical sequence; a change in the
grammatical construction within the same
sentence. From the Greek, "inconsistent."

Agreements entered into when one state of facts exists
-- are they to be maintained regardless of changing
conditions? (J. Diefenbaker)
"I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall--I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not."
(William Shakespeare, King Lear)

Anadiplosis
! The rhetorical repetition of one or several
words; specifically, repetition of a word
that ends one clause at the beginning of
the next. From the Greek "doubling back."
*Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or
state; servants of fame; and servants of business.
(Francis Bacon )
"Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."
(Henry James)

"I am Sam, Sam I am."
(Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham)


Anaphora
! The repetition of a word or phrase at
the beginning of successive phrases,
clauses or lines. From the Greek,
"carrying back."

*We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in
France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with
growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend
our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
(Churchill)
"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I
needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun."
(Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely)



Anastrophe
! Transposition of normal word order; most
often found in Latin in the case of
prepositions and the words they control.
Anastrophe is a form of hyperbaton. From the
Greek, "a turning back, a turning upside
down."
The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze
up blew.
(Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)
"Our lives upon, to use Our strongest hands" (from Antony
and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare)
Antistrophe
! Repetition of the same word or phrase at the
end of successive clauses. From Greek, "a
turning about, a turning back."
In 1931, ten years ago, Japan invaded Manchukuo -- without
warning. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia -- without warning. In
1938, Hitler occupied Austria -- without warning. In 1939, Hitler
invaded Czechoslovakia -- without warning. Later in 1939,
Hitler invaded Poland -- without warning. And now Japan has
attacked Malaya and Thailand -- and the United States --
without warning. (Franklin D. Roosevelt )
"Since the time when from our state concord disappeared,
liberty disappeared, good faith disappeared, friendship
disappeared, the common wealth disappeared." (from
Rhetorica ad Herennium)
Antithesis
! Opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a
balanced or parallel construction. Late Latin,
from Greek, to oppose + tithenai, to set.
Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the
pursuit of justice is no virtue. ( Barry Goldwater)
Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome
more. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
The vases of the classical period are but the reflection of
classical beauty; the vases of the archaic period are beauty
itself." (Sir John Beazley)
Aporia
! Expression of doubt (often feigned) by which
a speaker appears uncertain as to what he
should think, say, or do. From the Greek,
"without passage."

Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I
do? (Luke 16)
"I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
That love my friend."
(Antony in Shakepeare's Julius Caesar)


Apostrophe
! A sudden turn from the general audience to
address a specific group or person or
personified abstraction absent or present.
From the Greek, "turning away."

*For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. (Shakespeare,
Julius Caesar)
"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again . . .."
(Paul Simon, "The Sounds of Silence")

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art"
(John Keats)

Aposiopesis
! A form of ellipse by which a speaker comes to
an abrupt halt, seemingly overcome by passion
(fear, excitement, etc.) or modesty. From the
Greek, "maintaining silence."

"I won't sleep in the same bed with a woman who thinks I'm lazy! I'm
going right downstairs, unfold the couch, unroll the sleeping ba--uh,
goodnight."
(Homer Simpson in The Simpsons)

"Almira Gulch. Just because you own half the county doesn't mean that you
have the power to run the rest of us. For 23 years I've been dying to tell you
what I thought of you! And now . . . well, being a Christian woman, I can't
say it!"
(Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)


Archaism
! Use of an older or obsolete form. From
the Greek, "ancient, beginning."

Pipit sat upright in her chair
Some distance from where I was sitting; (T. S. Eliot, "A
Cooking Egg)
"Among the technological archaisms I've had to explain to the
Tuned In children--what a 'record' is, why they call it 'dialing' a
phone, the fact that, once, you couldn't rewind TV shows--is the
fact that, a long time ago, musicians used to make little movies of
their songs, and people would watch them on TV."
(James Poniewozik, "Wake Up and Smell the Cat Food in Your
Bank Account." Time magazine, May 2, 2007)

Assonance
! Repetition of the same sound in words close to
each other. From the Latin, "sound."

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
"The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying
in knots."
(Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm)

"Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light."
(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")



Asyndeton
! Lack of conjunctions between coordinate
phrases, clauses, or words. From the
Greek, "unconnected."

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure
the survival and the success of liberty. (J. F. Kennedy,
Inaugural)
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. ( Lincoln,
Gettysburg Address)
Brachylogy
! A general term for abbreviated or condensed
expression, of which asyndeton and zeugma are
types. Ellipse is often used synonymously. The
suppressed word or phrase can usually be
supplied easily from the surrounding context.
From the Greek, "short" + "speech"

"My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning)
when I was three, and, save for a pocket of warmth in the darkest past,
nothing of her subsists within the hollows and dells of memory . . .."
(Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1955)

The omission of "good" in "good morning."
Cacophony
! Harsh joining of sounds. From Greek, "harsh
sounding," "bad, evil," + phone "voice."
We want no parlay with you and your grisly gang who work
your wicked will. (W. Churchill)

And being no stranger to the art of war, I have him a
description
of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets,
powder,
swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks,
undermines,
countermines, bombardments, sea-fights
(from Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels --1726)

Catachresis
! A harsh metaphor involving the use of a word beyond its
strict sphere. From the Greek "misuse" or "abuse."
The inappropriate use of one word for another, or an
extreme, strained, or mixed metaphor, often used
deliberately.
I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear. (MacArthur, Farewell
Address)
"Attentive readers will have noticed a lamentable catachresis
yesterday, when the Wrap referred to some French gentlemen as
Galls, rather than Gauls."
(Sean Clarke, The Guardian, June 9, 2004)



Chiasmus
! Two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b)
but in inverted order (a-b-b-a); from shape of the Greek
letter chi (X). From the Greek, "mark with the letter X."

Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my
prayers always. (MacArthur)
"You forget what you want to remember, and you remember
what you want to forget."
(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006)

"In the end, the true test is not the speeches a president
delivers; its whether the president delivers on the speeches."
(Hillary Clinton, March 2008)

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
(William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i)


Climax
! Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an
order of ascending power. Often the last
emphatic word in one phrase or clause is
repeated as the first emphatic word of the next.
From the Greek, "ladder."

One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. (Tennyson,
Ulysses)
I came, I saw, I conquered."
(Julius Caesar)

"I am the way, the truth, and the life."
(St.John, The New Testament, Chapter 14, verse 4)

Euphemism
! Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive
expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh
or unpleasant. From the Greek, use of good words.
Mr. Prince: We'll see you when you get back from image
enhancement camp.
Martin Prince: Spare me your euphemisms! It's fat camp, for
Daddy's chubby little secret!
("Kamp Krusty," The Simpsons, 1992)

Dr. House: I'm busy.
Thirteen: We need you to . . .
Dr. House: Actually, as you can see, I'm not busy. It's just a
euphemism for "get the hell out of here."
("Dying Changes Everything," House, M.D.)


Hendiadys
! Use of two words connected by a
conjunction, instead of subordinating one
to the other, to express a single complex
idea. From the Greek, "one through two."

It sure is nice and cool today! (for "pleasantly cool")
I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my
supplications. (Psalms 116)
House and home or law and order
Hypallage
! Transferred epithet; grammatical agreement of a
word with another word which it does not
logically qualify. More common in poetry. From
the Greek, "interchange."

"Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers."
(T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land)

"happy morning" Mornings have no feelings, but the
people who are awake through them do.
"distracted driving" The driving is not distracted, but
the person doing it is.
Hyperbaton
! Separation of words which belong together, often
to emphasize the first of the separated words or
to create a certain image. From the Greek,
transposed.
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall."
(William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure II.i)

"Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved
the old man."
(Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart")

"Sorry I be but go you must."
(Yoda in Star Wars)

Hyperbole
! Exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.
From the Greek, "excess."


My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should got to praise
Thine eyes and on thine forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest. (Andrew Marvell, To His
Coy Mistress)
"I was helpless. I did not know what in the world to do. I was
quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my
eyes, they stuck out so far."
(Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi")

Hysteron Proteron
! Inversion of the natural sequence of events, often
meant to stress the event which, though later in
time, is considered the more important. From the
Greek, "latter first."

"I like the island Manhattan. Smoke on your pipe and put that
in." -- from the song "America," West Side Story lyric by
Stephen Sondheim (submitted per litteram by guest
rhetorician Anthony Scelba)
Put on your shoes and socks!
"Let us die, and charge into the thick of the fight." (Aeneid ii.
353)
Irony
! Expression of something which is contrary to the intended
meaning; the words say one thing but mean another. From
the Greek, "feigned ignorance."

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
(Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove,
1964)

"It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a
dirty word."
(William Zinsser)

Litotes
! Understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary
of the thing being affirmed. (Sometimes used
synonymously with meiosis.) From the Greek, "plainness,
simplicity."

A few unannounced quizzes are not inconceivable.
War is not healthy for children and other living things.
"The grave's a fine a private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace."
(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")

"We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city
freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all."
(Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation, January 20, 1989)

One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day. (meiosis)
Metaphor
! Implied comparison achieved through a figurative
use of words; the word is used not in its literal
sense, but in one analogous to it. From the Greek,
"carry over."

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage. (Shakespeare, Macbeth)
"Men's words are bullets, that their enemies take up and
make use of against them."
(George Savile, Maxims)

"A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are
but wind."
(Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors)

Metonymy
! Substitution of one word for another which it
suggests. From the Greek, "change of name."

He is a man of the cloth.
The pen is mightier than the sword.
By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread.
The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our
savings.

Onomatopoeia
! Use of words to imitate natural sounds;
accommodation of sound to sense. From the
Latin, "make names."

"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."
(slogan of Alka Seltzer, U.S.)

"He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel his
heart pounding and then he heard the clack on stone
and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small rock falling."
(Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Oxymoron
! Apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words
which seem to contradict one another. From the Greek,
"sharp-dull."

I must be cruel only to be kind. (Shakespeare, Hamlet)
"How is it possible to have a civil war?"
(George Carlin)

I hate intolerant people."
(Gloria Steinem)

"O brawling love! O loving hate! . . .
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

Paradox
! An assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but
that may yet have some truth in it. From the Greek,
"incredible, contrary to opinion or expectation."

What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young. (George
Bernard Shaw)
"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there
can be no more hurt, only more love."
(Mother Teresa)

"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
"Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984)

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales
again."
(C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he
dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Paraprosdokian
! Surprise or unexpected ending of a phrase or
series. From Greek, meaning "beyond" and
"expectation"
He was at his best when the going was good. (Alistair
Cooke on the Duke of Windsor)
"She got her good looks from her father, he's a plastic
surgeon." (Groucho Marx)
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of
a dog, it's too dark to read." (Groucho Marx)
"If I could say a few words, I would be a better public
speaker." (Homer Simpson)
Paronomasia
! Use of similar sounding words; often etymological word-
play. From the Greek, "word-shunting."

...culled cash, or cold cash, and then it turned into a gold cache. (E.L.
Doctorow, Billy Bathgate )
The dying Mercutio: Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a
grave man. (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
"I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it."
(Groucho Marx)

"Curl Up and Dye"
(beauty salon in London)

Personification
! Attribution of personality to an impersonal thing. 1755,
noun of action from personify. Sense of "embodiment of a
quality in a person" is attested from 1807.
England expects every man to do his duty. (Lord Nelson)
"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one
there."
(proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)

You're in good hands with Allstate.
(Allstate Insurance Company)

Pleonasm
! Use of superfluous or redundant words, often
enriching the thought. From the Greek,
"excessive, abundant."

No one, rich or poor, will be excepted.
Ears pierced while you wait!
I have seen no stranger sight since I was born.
"The most unkindest cut of all."
(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

Polysyndeton
! The repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate
words, phrases, or clauses. From the Greek, "bound
together."

"Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's
dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the
street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town
and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and
went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Bay and
she was all right only she was full of water. (Hemingway, After the
Storm)
"We lived and laughed and loved and left."
(James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 1939)

"Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and
sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and
books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their whiteness."
(Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969)

Praeteritio
! Pretended omission for rhetorical
effect.
That part of our history detailing the
military achievements which gave us
our several possessions ... is a theme
too familiar to my listeners for me to
dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it
by. (Thucydides, "Funeral Oration)

Prolepsis
! The anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the
action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause
before its antecedent. From the Greek, "preconception,
anticipation."

Consider the lilies of the field how they grow.
Michael Moore concludes his book Dude, Where's My
Country? (2003) with a dream he had one night that took him
several years into the future: a time when the world has run
out of oil and wars started by the U.S. have brought an end to
America as we know it. Moore is having a conversation with
his granddaughter, who wants to know how Americans could
have been so blind to the truth and so wasteful.
Simile
! An explicit comparison between two things using
'like' or 'as'. From Latin, "likeness" or
"comparison."

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease (Shakespeare, Sonnet
CXLVII)
Reason is to faith as the eye to the telescope. (D. Hume)
Let us go then, you and I,
While the evening is spread out against the sky,
Like a patient etherized upon a table... (T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock)
"Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and
sometimes you weep."
(Carl Sandburg)

Syllepsis
! Use of a word with two others, with each of which
it is understood differently. From the Greek, "a
taking."

We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang
separately. (Benjamin Franklin)
"You held your breath and the door for me."
(Alanis Morrissette, "Head Over Feet")

"She tracks sand in as well as ideas, and I have to
sweep up after her two or three times a day."
(E.B. White, "On a Florida Key")

Synchysis
Synchysis is an interlocked word order, in the form A-B-A-B;
which often display change and difference. This poetry form
was a favorite with Latin poets. They are often employed to
demonstrate such change within the event in which they are
situated; on occasion, there are synchyses within a poem which
were not intended but happened to be written in such a way.
A synchysis may be opposed to chiasmus, which is in the form
A-B-B-A.
A line of Latin verse in the form adjective A - adjective B - verb -
noun A - noun B, with the verb in the center (or a corresponding
chiastic line, again with the verb in the center), is known as a
golden line.
"Abraham George Lincoln Washington"
aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem, "a golden clasp
bound her purple cloak" (Virgil, Aeneid 4.139)
"I run and shoot, fast and accurate."
"Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear" --Alexander Pope,
"Epistle II. To a Lady" (1743)
Synecdoche
! Understanding one thing with another; the use of
a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A
form of metonymy.) From the Greek, "shared
understanding."

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6)
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
(T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)
The sputtering economy could make the difference if
you're trying to get a deal on a new set of wheels.
(Al Vaughters, WIVB.com, Nov. 21, 2008)

Synesis
! The agreement of words according to logic, and
not by the grammatical form; a kind of
anacoluthon. From the Greek, "understand, bring
together."
For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6)
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and
preached Christ unto them. (Acts 6)
"Most of the audience were standing, and the house was
in a buzz of conversation and expectation."
(Charles D. Warner, "Wagner's Parsifal")

Tautology
! Repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase,
or sentence. From the Greek, "redundant."
With malice toward none, with charity for all. (Lincoln,
Second Inaugural)
"The 'new public management' has brought new
ailments, particularly tautology. You often see such
phrases as 'first class organizations are those that
perform excellently.'"
(David Walker, "Mind Your Language." The Guardian,
Sep. 27, 2006)

Zeugma
! Two different words linked to a verb or an
adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one
of them. From the Greek, "a yoking, a bond."

Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn the
living record of your memory.

"He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the
lives of his men."
(Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried)

"You held your breath and the door for me."
(Alanis Morissette, "Head over Feet")