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Like wildflower seeds tossed on fertile ground, the figures of speech, sometimes called the “flowers of rhetoric” (flores rhetoricae), have multiplied into a garden of enormous variety over time. As the right frame of this web resource illustrates, the number of figures of speech can seem quite imposing. And indeed, the number, names, and groupings of figures have been the most variable aspect of rhetoric over its history.
The figures first acquired their names from the Greeks and Romans who catalogued them. Although attempts have been made to anglicize or update the figures’ names, this sometimes proves to confuse things, even though the Greek and Latin terms are odd to modern ears. Pronunciation guides and etymologies have been provided to clarify the Greek terms, in particular. And because there are so many synonyms or close synonyms among the figures, each entry contains equivalent and comparative terms from Greek, Latin, and English.
Over time these figures have been organized in a variety of different ways in order to make sense of them and to learn their various qualities —much as a scientist might classify the flora of a forest, grouping like species into families. The simplest (and oldest) arrangement for the figures divides them into two broad categories, “schemes” and “tropes”—useful starting points.
As rich and interesting as the figures are, they do not constitute the whole of rhetoric, as some have mistakenly surmised. Such a view is a vast reduction of the discipline of rhetoric, which has just as much to do with the discovery of things to say (Invention), their arrangement (Arrangement), commital to memory (Memory), and presentation (Delivery–using the rhetorical appeals) as it has to do with the figures of speech, which are typically categorized under the third of these canons of rhetoric, Style. Though this text distinguishes between different elements of rhetoric, in reality they are all intertwined.
For example, the most identifiable tropes include metaphor and simile. These are simply comparisons: “Life is a journey”; “Watching TV is like taking a visual anaesthetic.” But “comparison” itself is a topic of invention, a commonplace to which one may turn to generate ideas about something: “Let us compare life to a journey. We set out at birth, travel through various regions, and arrive at the bleak destination of death…” The difference between a figure and a topic of invention, then, may sometimes simply be a matter of degree, or it may be a matter of whether one views the strategy as one of expression of an idea (an issue of style) or the composition or discovery of an idea or argument (an issue of invention). The point is, we should recognize the close proximity of the figures and the topics of invention.
Before we dive into the diverse rhetorical devises, watch this video on Basic Rhetorical Devices for a quick overview:
Schemes and Tropes
There are many, many rhetorical devices. Some you may recognize from studying literary devices in English courses through the years and others may seem quite foreign (literally–as they are Greek!). You’ll notice that different devices are featured in different places–the key is to be on the lookout for how a speaker uses language to emphasize (or de-emphasize) points.
The main two categories of rhetorical devices are schemes and tropes, which both have to do with using language in an unusual or “figured” way.
- A trope is an artful deviation from the ordinary or principal signification of a word.
- A scheme is an artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
“I work like a slave” [trope: simile]”I don’t know if I’m working my job or my job, me” [schemes: antimetabole, ellipsis, personification]
Notice how each figure of speech uses language in an artful way to make a point. Tropes focus on how a particular word is used, whereas schemes play with the way words are arranged.
Tropes
Remember, a Trope is an artful deviation from the ordinary or principal signification of a word.
Kinds of Tropes
- Reference to One Thing as Another
- Wordplay and puns
- Substitutions
- Overstatement/Understatement
- Semantic Inversions
Reference to One Thing as Another
Metaphor:
Reference to one thing as another, implying a comparison.
No man is an island —John Donne
For ever since that time you went away
I’ve been a rabbit burrowed in the wood —Maurice Sceve
Life is a beach.
Who captains the ship of state?
Simile:
Explicit comparison of one thing to another.
My love is like a red, red rose —Robert Burns
Her hair was like gravy, running brown off her head and clumping up on her shoulders.
The day we passed together for a while
Seemed a bright fire on a winter’s night —Maurice Sceve
You are like a hurricane: there’s calm in your eye, but I’m getting blown away —Neil Young
The air-lifted rhinoceros hit the ground like a garbage bag filled with split pea soup.
Synecdoche (si-nek’-do-kee):
A whole is represented by naming one of its parts.
The rustler bragged he’d absconded with five hundred head of longhorns.
Both “head” and “longhorns” are parts of cattle that represent them as wholes
Listen, you’ve got to come take a look at my new set of wheels.
One refers to a vehicle in terms of some of its parts, “wheels”
“He shall think differently,” the musketeer threatened, “when he feels the point of my steel.”
A sword, the species, is represented by referring to its genus, “steel”
Metonymy (me-ton’-y-my):
Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes.
The pen is mightier than the sword
The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of military action
We await word from the crown.
I’m told he’s gone so far as to giver her a diamond ring
The IRS is auditing me? Great. All I need is a couple of suits arriving at my door.
Personification:
Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities.
O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
—Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello 3.3.165-67
The insatiable hunger for imagination preys upon human life
—Samuel Johnson
Wordplay and Puns
Antanaclasis (an’-ta-na-cla’-sis):
Repetition of a word in two different senses.
Your argument is sound…all sound. —Benjamin Franklin
The meaning of “sound” first appears to be “solid” or “reasonable”; in its repetition, it means something very different, “all air” or “empty”
In thy youth learn some craft that in thy age thou mayest get thy living without craft.
The meaning of “craft” first means “vocation”; in its repetition, it means “fraud” or “cunning.”
While we live, let us live.
In the following example, antanaclasis occurs with an entire phrase whose meaning alters upon repetition:
“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.” —Vince Lombardi
Paronomasia:
Using words that sound alike but that differ in meaning (punning).
A jesting friar punned upon the name of the famous humanist Erasmus, “Errans mus” [erring mouse]. —Puttenham
A pun is its own reword.
Syllepsis:
Using a word differently in relation to two or more words that it modifies or governs (sometimes called zeugma).
In the following example, “rend” governs both objects, but the first rending is figurative; the second, literal:
Rend your heart, and not your garments. Joel 2:13
You held your breath and the door for me
—Alanis Morissette
“Fix the problem, not the blame.” —Dave Weinbaum
The verb “fix” governs both “problem” and “blame.” In its first instance, “fix” means “solve,” but this verb shifts its meaning when applied to its second object, where the understood “fix” = “assign.”
Onomatopoeia (on-o-mat-o-pee’-a):
Using or inventing a word whose sound imitates that which it names.
The buzzing of innumerable bees
The “zz” and “mm” sounds in these words imitate the actual sounds of bees.
Substitutions
Anthimeria:
Substitution of one part of speech for another.
I’ve been Republicaned all I care to be this election year.
Noun used as verb.
Did you see the way those blockers defenced on that last play?
Noun used as verb.
Feel bad? Strike up some music and have a good sing.
Verb used as noun.
Periphrasis:
Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name.
In the TV show “Dinosaurs” the infant dino called his father, “Not-the-Mama.”
He’s no Fabio to look at; but then, he’s no Woody Allen, either.
Said of Aristotle: “The prince of Peripatetics” —Angel Day
Overstatement/Understatement
Hyperbole (hy-per’-bo-lee):
Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis or effect. Hyperbole is often accomplished via comparisons, similes, and metaphors.
Auxesis:
Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force. Reference to something with a name disproportionately greater than its nature (a kind of hyberbole).
Said of a scratch: Look at this gaping wound!
After missing breakfast: I’m dying of hunger!
Litotes: (li-to’-tees):
Understatement used deliberately, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite. Can be used for expressing modesty or downplaying one’s accomplishments in order to gain the audience’s favor.
It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Running a marathon in under two hours is no big deal.
Meiosis:
Reference to something with a name disproportionately lesser than its nature (a kind of litotes).
—Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Semantic Inversions
Rhetorical Question:
Asking a question for a purpose other than obtaining the information requested. Rhetorical questions can be used as an ethical appeal to endear the speaker to the audience.
“Why are you so stupid?” is likely to be a statement regarding one’s opinion of the person addressed rather than a genuine request to know.
When someone responds to a tragic event by saying, “Why me, God?!” it is more likely to be an accusation or an expression of feeling than a realistic request for information.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” says the persona of Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet.
Irony:
Using language in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite of what the terms used denote (often by exaggeration). Irony is often used for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest.
O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.
Oxymoron:
Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox.
…Yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe.
—Milton, Paradise Lost 1.62-64
The Sounds of Silence
Festina lente (make haste slowly).
Paradox:
An apparently contradictory statement that contains a measure of truth.
Schemes
Remember, a Scheme is an artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
Kinds of Schemes
- Structures of Balance
- Change in Word Order
- Omission
- Repetition
Structures of Balance
Parallelism:
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
She tried to make her pastry fluffy, sweet, and delicate.
parallelism of phrases:
Singing a song or writing a poem is joyous.
parallelism of clauses:
Perch are inexpensive; cod are cheap; trout are abundant; but salmon are best.
- Isocolon: A series of similarly structured elements having the same length.
- Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)
- Tricolon: Three parallel elements of the same length occurring together.
- Veni, vidi, vici. —Julius Caesar (The English is not a tricolon because the translations are not all the same length.
Antithesis:
Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas (often in parallel structure).
“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
Climax:
Generally, the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure. More specifically, climax is the repetition of the last word of one clause or sentence at the beginning of the next, through several clauses or sentences.
Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.
The following passage from the Bible shows that version of climax that is synonymous with anadiplosis:
But we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confouns not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. —St. Paul
Change in Word Order
Anastrophe (an-as’-tro-phee):
Inversion of natural word order for the sake of emphasis.
The verb before the subject-noun (normal syntax follows the order subject-noun, verb):
Glistens the dew upon the morning grass. (Normally: The dew glistens upon the morning grass)
Adjective following the noun it modifies (normal syntax is adjective, noun):
She looked at the sky dark and menacing. (Normally: She looked at the dark and menacing sky)
The object preceding its verb (normal syntax is verb followed by its object):
Troubles, everybody’s got. (Normally: Everybody’s got troubles)
Preposition following the object of the preposition (normal syntax is preposition, object [“upon our lives”]):
It only stands / Our lives upon, to use Our strongest hands
—Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra 2.1.50-51
Parenthesis:
Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical flow.
The garrulous Polonius from Hamlet can’t help but interrupt himself as he speaks to King Claudius about Prince Hamlet’s behavior toward his daughter, adding a parenthesis to his own parenthesis:
But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing—
As I perceiv’d it (I must tell you that)
Before my daughter told me—what might you,
Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think…?
—Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.131-35
Apposition (AKA appositive):
Addition of an adjacent, coordinate, explanatory element.
Omission
Ellipsis:
Omission of a word or words readily implied by context.
“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”
Asyndeton:
Omission of conjunctions between a series of clauses, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect.
Veni, vidi, vici (Caesar: “I came; I saw; I conquered”)
He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac. – On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Brachylogia:
Omission of conjunctions between a series of words with the effect of a broken, hurried delivery.
Phillip! Rise! Eat! Leave!
Love, hate, jealousy, frenzy, fury drew him from pity —Angel Day
Polysyndeton (pol-y-syn’-do-ton):
Opposite of asyndeton, a superabundance of conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or the rhythm.
—Ernest Hemingway, “After the Storm.”
Repetition
Alliteration:
Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.
Assonance:
Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.
Polyptoton:
Repetition of words derived from the same root.
—John of Gaunt in Shakespeare’s Richard II 2.1.37
Antanaclasis:
Repetition of a word in two different senses.
Your argument is sound…all sound. —Benjamin Franklin
The meaning of “sound” first appears to be “solid” or “reasonable”; in its repetition, it means something very different, “all air” or “empty”
In thy youth learn some craft that in thy age thou mayest get thy living without craft.
The meaning of “craft” first means “vocation”; in its repetition, it means “fraud” or “cunning.”
While we live, let us live.
In the following example, antanaclasis occurs with an entire phrase whose meaning alters upon repetition:
“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.” —Vince Lombardi
Anaphora:
Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
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,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as [a] moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .]
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leas’d out — I die pronouncing it —
Like to a tenement or pelting farm.
—John of Gaunt in Shakespeare’s Richard II (2.1.40-51; 57-60)
Epistrophe:
Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.” —Emerson
Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you. [. . .]
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres’ blessing so is on you.
— Shakespeare, The Tempest (4.1.108-109; 116-17)
We are born to sorrow, pass our time in sorrow, end our days in sorrow.
Epanalepsis:
Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. More strictly, repetition at the end of a line, phrase or clause of the word or words that occurred at the beginning of the same line, phrase, or clause.
“In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. ” —Paul Harvey
“Believe not all you can hear, tell not all you believe.” —Native American proverb
“A lie begets a lie.” —English proverb
“To each the boulders that have fallen to each.”
—Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”
Anadiplosis:
Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.
—Shakespeare, Richard II 5.1.66-68
The following shows anadiplosis of a phrase:
…a man could stand and see the whole wide reach
Of blue Atlantic. But he stayed ashore.
He stayed ashore and plowed, and drilled his rows…
— Charles Bruce, “Biography”
Climax:
Repetition of the scheme anadiplosis at least three times, with the elements arranged in an order of increasing importance.
Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.
The following passage from the Bible shows that version of climax that is synonymous with anadiplosis:
But we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confounds not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. —St. Paul
Antimetabole:
Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. (Sometimes mistaken as chiasmus)
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
Chiasmus:
Repetition of ideas or grammatical structures in reverse order in successive phrases or clauses (not to be mistaken with antimetabole).
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
Attributions
“Schemes and Tropes” from the Silva Rhetoricae licensed under CC BY 3.0.
