Term
| "I'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion. I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it's time for us to submerge our differences..." |
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Definition
Anaphora
Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. |
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Term
| "Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am." |
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Definition
Antithesis
Contrast of ideas created through parellel construction of opposite words, phrases, or clauses. |
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Term
| "...that's trickery, that's treachery, window dressing." |
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Definition
Asyndenton
Deliberate omission of conjuctions in a series of related clauses. |
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Term
| "So, what I'm trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we're faced with a government conspiracy." |
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Definition
Juxtaposition
Putting normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases together to create a novel (new/interesting) effect. |
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Term
| "--we don't intend to let them pussyfoot and dillydally and compromise any longer." |
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Definition
Loaded Terms
Words that inspire deeply positive (purr words) or deeply negative (weasel words)
reactions. |
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Term
| "These odds aren't as great as those odds." |
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Definition
Epanalepsis
Repetition of the first word of a clause at the end of the same clause. |
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Term
| "All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man." |
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Definition
Epistrophe
Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses. |
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Term
| "Three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a dime in return--I mean without a dime in return." |
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Definition
Farce
Extreme exaggeration of something that in reality may be quite logical to prove a point. |
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Term
| "And what a good president we have." |
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Definition
Sarcasm
A form of verbal irony generally intended as a witty insult. |
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Term
| "I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate." |
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Definition
Paradox
A statement of seemingly contrasting ideas, but seems to make sense upon further inspection. |
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Term
| What kind of logic is that?" |
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Definition
Rhetorical Question
Question intentionally posed to generate thought, but not intended to be answered. |
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Term
| "Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last, then filibustering on top of that." |
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Definition
Parallelism (Syntax)
Intentional balancing clauses within a sentence to create equality of development between ideas (a.k.a. balanced sentence) |
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Term
| "It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet." |
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Definition
Rhetorical Fragment
Intentional use of a sentence fragment to emphasize an idea. |
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Term
| "Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean that we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression." |
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Definition
Parallelism (Repetition)
Intentional repetition of the same grammatical structure, which may also include a repeated word or phrase, in the same structural position at least 3 times in nearby sentences or segments of a sentence. |
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Term
| "...a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a Nationalist." |
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Definition
Polysyndenton
Deliberate use of many conjuctions for special emphasis. |
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Term
| "If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other." |
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Definition
Analogy
Using a familar object or idea to compare to a less familar idea to help the listener/reader understand, OR using a well-accepted favorable idea to compare with a less-favorable one to gain audience approval or vice versa. |
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Term
| "You're going to catch hell just like I am." |
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Definition
Colloquialism/Dialect
Conversational/familar language particular to a particular region or dialect. |
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Term
| "It's either a ballot or a bullet...In 1964, it's the ballot or the bullet." |
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Definition
Slogan
A repeated phrase or idea that identifies the audience with an essential concept of a speech/campaign. |
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Term
| "Uncle Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood of the black man in this country." |
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Definition
Symbol
An image, object, or character that stands for something intangible beyond its literal meaning. |
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Term
| "...you're taking it to the criminal who's responsible; it's like running from the wolf to the fox." |
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Definition
Simile
Comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as" |
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Term
| "They all work political chicanery and make you look like a chump before the eyes of the world." |
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Definition
Hyperbole
Deliberate representation of something as much less than it really is. |
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Term
| "...lodging in the motels of the highway and the hotels of the cities." |
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Definition
Assonance
Intentional repetition of 3 or more vowel sounds among nearby words. |
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Term
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Definition
Name Calling
Directly or indirectly labeling those against you in a negative way.
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Term
| "And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextrieably bound to our freedom." |
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Definition
Opponent's POV
Acknowledge and refute opponent's arguments. |
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