Rhetorical Tropes and Schemes

1
Rhetorical Tropes and Schemes

• The same notes only different

2
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)

3
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)

4
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)

5
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)

6
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)

7
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)

8
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)

9
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
  heartsI am no orator, as Brutus isBut, as you
  know me all, a plain, blunt man,That love my
  friend."(Antony in Shakepeare's Julius Caesar)

10
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 friendI've come to talk
  with you again . . .."(Paul Simon, "The Sounds
  of Silence")
• "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou
  art"(John Keats)

11
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)

12
Archaism

• Use of an older or obsolete form. From the Greek,
  "ancient, beginning."
• Pipit sat upright in her chairSome 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)

13
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
  dayRage, rage, against the dying of the
  light."(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into
  that good night")

14
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)

15
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."

16
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)
  

17
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)

18
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)

19
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 willTo 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)

20
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.)

21
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

22
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, coveringEarth in forgetful
  snow, feedingA 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.

23
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)

24
Hyperbole

• Exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical
  effect. From the Greek, "excess."
• My vegetable love should growVaster than
  empires, and more slowAn hundred years should
  got to praiseThine eyes and on thine forehead
  gazeTwo 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")

25
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)

26
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 ambitiousAnd 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)

27
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)

28
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)

29
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.

30
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)

31
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)

32
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)

33
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)

34
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)

35
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)

36
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)

37
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)

38
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)

39
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.

40
Simile

• An explicit comparison between two things using
  'like' or 'as'. From Latin, "likeness" or
  "comparison."
• My love is as a fever, longing stillFor 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)

41
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")

42
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)

43
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
  clawsScuttling 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)

44
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")

45
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)

46
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")