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Definition
Repeating the same word or group of words at the beginning of clauses & sentences following each other.
Example:
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
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Definition
Putting words (or ideas) next to each other that are constrasting.
Examples:
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." —Abraham Lincoln
"It can't be wrong if it feels so right" —Debbie Boone
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Definition
Repeating words in reverse grammatical order from one clause to the next.
Examples:
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. —John F. Kennedy
You can take the gorilla out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the gorilla.
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. —Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! —Isaiah 5:20
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Term
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Definition
Omitting joining words between clauses. Often this produces a hurried rhythm or forceful effect.
Examples:
Veni, vidi, vici (Caesar: "I came; I saw; I conquered") |
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Term
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Definition
2 Possibilities:
1. Repeating ideas in inverted order.
2. Repeating structures in inverted order.
(Remember - antimetabole is inverting words, not structures)
Examples:
But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strong loves.
—Shakespeare, Othello 3.3
The idea of affection occurs in "dotes" and "strongly loves"; the idea of doubting in "doubts" and "suspects". These two ideas occur in the quotation in an A B B A order, thus repeated and inverted
It is boring to eat; to sleep is fulfilling
The pattern is present participle-infinitive; infinitive-present participle |
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Term
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Definition
| "Talking around" something. Often done as a euphemism to hint at something without saying it directly. (Usually by using a descriptive phrase instead of a name.) |
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Term
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Definition
Omitting a word or short phrase which is still easy to understand in the context that it is take out of.
Examples
"The average person thinks he isn't." –Father Larry Lorenzoni
The term "average" is omitted but understood after "isn't."
John forgives Mary and Mary, John.
Note that the comma signals what has been elided, "forgives" |
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Term
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Definition
Abbreviated reasoning -- leaving out some steps that would be required for a strictly logical statement. (Either the major or minor premise isn't stated directly.) Several of these together make a sorites.
Example:
We cannot trust this man, for he has perjured himself in the past.
In this enthymeme, the major premise of the complete syllogism is missing:
Those who perjure themselves cannot be trusted. (Major premise - omitted)
This man has perjured himself in the past. (Minor premise - stated)
This man is not to be trusted. (Conclusion - stated)
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Term
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Definition
Ending a series of things with the same word or words.
Example:
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us." —Emerson |
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Definition
Inverting the normal word order, or adding something to an already complete sentence (which then draws attention to the added thing).
Example:
Adriana asks regarding men in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors:
Why should their liberty than ours be more? |
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Term
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Definition
Putting similarly structured things one after the other. (A kind of parallelism)
Examples:
Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)
Note: This example also demonstrates asyndeton, tricolon, and (in the Latin), alliteration and homoioptoton. |
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Definition
Punning.
Example:
A pun is its own reword. |
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Definition
A type of sentence where you don't really get the meaning until the very end. It's easier to do in Greek and Latin, but works OK in English too.
Example:
Note the long delay prior to the occurrence of the sentence's main verb ("sing"):
Of man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse... |
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Term
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Definition
Using lots of conjunctions between things. Often this slows down the tempo or rhythm of the victim text.
Example:
I said, "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 Key and she was all right only she was full of water.
—Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm." |
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Term
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Definition
Several enthymemes that build on each other.
Example:
We cannot trust this man, for he has perjured himself in the past. Since the witness cannot be trusted, we must disregard his present testimony. Without his damning testimony, the accusations against my client are nothing. Since the accusations against my client amount to nothing, let him be dismissed. |
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