Chapter 2 notecards

The Language of Composition

In Rhetoric, a trope is an expression that deviates from the natural and literal through a change in meaning, often with pleasing effect, and the device or technique that makes such change possible. Simile and Metaphor are tropes.

 A scheme is a term in rhetoric for both an expression

that deviates from the usual and natural through a change in sound, syntax, or general arrangement, and the device and technique that makes such a change possible. Alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia are all schemes.

Tropes and Schemes

Anaphora is one of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. It is one of the most obvious of the devices used in the poetry of Walt Whitman, as these opening lines from one of his poems show:As I ebbed with the ocean of life,As I wended the shores I know, As I walked where the ripples continually wash you Paumonok.

 Other examples are MLK’s “I have a dream” speech and the

Beatitudes in the New Testament.  

Anaphora

The repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order.

 “Ask not what your country can do for you, but

what you can do for your country.” JFK “One should not live to eat, but should eat to

live.”

Antimetabole

--a figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in “Man proposes, God disposes.” Antithesis is a balancing of one term against another. The second line of the following couplet by Pope is an example:The hungry judges soon the sentence signAnd wretches hang that jury-men may dine.

 True antithetical structure demands not only that there be

an opposition of ideas, but the opposition in different parts be manifested through similar grammatical structure—the noun “wretches” being opposed to the noun “jury-men” and the verb “hang” by the verb “dine” in the preceding example.

Antithesis

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons and contrasts.

 e.g. On the wall was a picture of an eagle and a

sparrow, each of which was a side of her personality. Both are birds. One is a strong raptor and one is a small, weak songster.

Juxtaposition

The substitution of the name of an object closely associated with a word for the word itself. We commonly speak of the monarch as “the crown,” an object closely associated with royalty thus being made to stand for it. So, too, in the book of Genesis we read, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” in which sweat represents that with which it is closely associated, hard labor.

 Metonymy is also the use of a part of something for the

whole. e.g. hands for people, heads for people, threads for

clothes

Metonymy

A figure of speech that endows animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form; the representing of imaginary creatures or things as having human characteristics, personalities, intelligence, and emotions; also an impersonation in drama of one character or person, real or fictitious, by another person.

 e.g. The sad sky wept bitter tears.     

Personification

A question asked for rhetorical effect and not requiring a reply or intended to induce a reply. The principle supporting the use of the rhetorical questions is that, because its answer is obvious and usually the one possible, a deeper impression will be made by raising the question than by the speaker’s making a direct statement. The rhetorical question generally generates a strongly negative answer.

Rhetorical Question

A term used in several ways, all involving a sort of “yoking:” 1. as a synonym for syllepsis: when an object-taking word

(preposition or transitive verb) has two or more objects on different levels, such as concrete and abstract, as in Goldsmith’s sentence, “I had fancied you were gone down to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country.”

2. when two different words that sound exactly alike are yoked together, as in, “He bolted the door and his dinner.”

3. a grammatical irregularity that arises when a conjunction yokes together forms that cannot all be reconciled with other material in the sentence, as in “Either you or he was responsible,” wherein the “you” cannot be reconciled with the verb “was.”

ZEUGMA

A condensed form of expression in which elements customarily joined by conjunctions are presented in series without conjunctions. The most famous example is probably “Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered). Almost equally well known to Americans is Lincoln’s “…government of the people, by the people, for the people…” Normally, as in both these examples, the omitted conjunction is of the coordinating sort. Asyndeton affects subordinating conjunctions only in such cases as the substitution of “a man I know” for “a man whom I know.”

ASYNDETON

A sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning and then builds on it.

e.g. But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course—both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war. –JFK

CUMULATIVE SENTENCE

A call to action. –a sentence that exhorts and advises.

e.g. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. –JFK

HORTATIVE SENTENCE

A sentence used to command, enjoin , implore, or entreat.

e.g. My fellow citizens of the world, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. –JFK

IMPERATIVE SENTENCE

The placing of a sentence element out of its normal position. Probably the most offensive common use of inversion is the placing of the adjective after the noun in such expression “house beautiful” or “lady fair.” Of the several varieties of inversion, the most common are noun-adjective, object-verb, and adverb-auxiliary. The last sort is made possible by the peculiar structure of the verb forms in the Germanic languages, whereby a fairly neutral clause such as “I have never seen such a mess” gains a measure of emphasis in the inverted form “Never have I seen such mess.” Once in a while, as in “Jerk though he may be,” even conjunctions can be dramatically relocated.

The device is often happily used in poetry, where the writer of prose might say: “I saw a vision of a damsel with a dulcimer,” Coleridge writes:

A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision I saw

INVERSION

…A sentence not grammatically complete before its end; the opposite of a loose sentence. The periodic sentence is effective when it is used to arouse interest and curiosity, to hold an idea in suspense before its final revelation. Periodicity is accomplished by the use of parallel phrases or clauses at the opening, by the use of dependent clauses preceding the independent clause, and by the use of such correlatives as neither…nor, not only…but also, both…and. The first stanza of Longfellow’s “Snowflakes” is a maximally periodic sentence, beginning with a succession of adverbial phrases and not grammatically complete until the very last word, which is the subject:Out of the bosom of the air

Out of the cloud-folds of her garment shakenOver the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,Silent, and soft, and slow,Descends the snow.

PERIODIC SENTENCE

…is a reference to a familiar person, place, thing or event. It requires prior knowledge for understanding. Allusions are often taken from literature, history, mythology, or the Bible. The author expects the reader to understand the reference without further explanation and it is meant to create an effect from the associations already existing in the mind of the reader. Understanding the allusions is usually essential to under-standing the work.

e.g. “It rained for three days, we were almost ready to build

an Ark and start collecting animals.”“ Roger has feet that would put ET to shame.”

ALLUSION

…is the order and relationships of words in a sentence. Patterns of arrangements are governed by rules. In prose, clauses follow seven basic sentence patterns.

i.e. 1. Subject +Intransitive Verb 2. Subject +Transitive Verb +Direct Object 3. Subject +Transitive Verb +Indirect Object +Direct Object 4. Subject +Transitive Verb +Direct Object +Object

Complement(Noun) 5. Subject +Transitive Verb +Direct Object +Object

Complement(Adjec) 6. Subject +Linking Verb +Subject Complement (Predicate Nom) 7. Subject +Linking Verb +Subject Complement (Predicate Adj) In poetry syntax frequently varies from these patterns and seems to be

one of the major characteristics that distinguishes poetry from prose. Unusual syntax is used in poetry to accommodate meter and rhyme.

e.g. “Whose woods these are I think I know.”

SYNTAX

…is the use of words in written or oral discourse. It includes vocabulary (word choice) and syntax (structure/word order). Particular forms of diction can become an author’s signature. Apart from standard, grammatically correct diction, the student needs to understand the meaning of the following:

1. archaic – old-fashioned and no longer natural e.g. “I believe thee not”2. colloquialism – expressions usually accepted in informal situations and certain locations. e.g.“fixin to” is a southern colloquialism3. jargon – technical diction, specialized language used by a specific group or profession. E.g. computer language- interface, download4. slang – informal language used by a group for a short time, changes Frequently and from group to group.5. profanity – shows disrespect for something regarded as sacred6. vulgarity - generally considered crude or offensive

DICTION

-a figure of speech that says that one thing is another in order to explain by comparison

- Metaphor may be elaborate as in allegory or as simple as calling someone with bad table manners a “pig.”

Metaphors may appear as:

Verbs- “Her talent is blossoming.”

Adjectives- “The novice is green.”

An adage- “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Some metaphors go unnoticed in everyday language. These are words and phrases that are used idiomatically.

e.g. a ‘branch” of the government; the family “tree”

An object may be a metaphor, the Statue of Liberty or the Scales of Justice.

A mixed metaphor is one in which the combination of qualities suggested is illogical or ridiculous usually as a result of trying to apply two metaphors to one thing.

The word metaphor comes from Greek metaphora meaning to transfer.

METAPHOR

 --repeating similar grammatical structures (words, phrases, or sentences) to

give writing rhythm. The sequence should suggest some correspondence between/among them, coordinate ideas should have coordinate presentation. Parallelism is important to poetry.

 e.g. I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads. My gorgeous palace for a hermitage My happy apparel for an almsman’s gown My figured goblet for a dish of wood. The antithesis is when the ideas expressed are opposite.  E.g. I was neither elated by fame nor depressed by obscurity. Although non-parallelism is sometimes used to great effect by accomplished

writers, student writers should avoid it as it makes the writing awkward. (I like fishing and to swim.)

PARALLELISM

--a self contradicting combination of words or smaller verbal units. The word “oxymoron” is an oxymoron. It means sharp-dull.

 e.g. bittersweet; jumbo shrimp     

OXYMORON 

--a statement or expression so surprisingly self-contradictory that it provokes us into seeking another sense or context in which it would be true.

 e.g. “The Child is father to the man.” (Wordsworth) “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”(Paul) “less is more”The term may also be applied to a person or

situation characterized by striking contradiction. e.g. a wealthy person who dresses like a bum.

PARADOX

 -A phrase that uses words that sound the same

in a way that gives them a funny effect. “I have come to believe that opposing gravity is not something to be taken lightly.”

 An expression may be contrived by using

ambiguity of sound or meaning. (possibility of more than one meaning)

  “I am standing in the light of the son/sun”

PUN

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sound in consecutive or neighboring words, usually at the beginning of the lines

e.g. “He clasps the crag with crooked hands,” Tennyson.

  Assonance is the repetition of the same or similar

vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables. e.g “Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores.” –Keats. Here it creates a flow that mimics water.

ALLITERATION/ASSONANCE