the top 20 figures of speech
TRANSCRIPT
The Top 20 Figures of speech
2
The Top 20 Figures of speech
1. Alliteration Repetition of an initial consonant sound.
2. Anaphora Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
3. Antithesis The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
4. Apostrophe Breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.
5. Assonance Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
6. Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
7. Euphemism The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
8. Hyperbole An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
9. Irony The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.
10. Litotes A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
1
11. Metaphor An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
12. Metonymy A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also, the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.
13. Onomatopoeia The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
14. Oxymoron A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.
15. Paradox A statement that appears to contradict itself.
16. Personification A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
17. Pun A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
18. Simile A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.
19. Synechdoche A figure of speech is which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it.
20. Understatement A figure of speech in which a writer or a speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.
2
1.Alliteration
Definition:
The repetition of an initial consonant sound. Adjective: alliterative. See also:
Assonance Consonance Homoioteleuton Reduplicative Rhyme
Etymology:
From the Latin, "putting letters together"
Examples and Observations:
"You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife."(advertising slogan for Country Life butter)
"The soul selects her own society."(Emily Dickinson)
"Forget the most obvious problem with collegiate calorie counting, that studying Kierkegaard or Conrad after a dinner of seitan and soy chips would render even robust stomachs seasick, sometimes outright ill. And I won’t harp on the clear link between vigorous salad consumption and sulkiness."(Marisha Pessl, "Seize the Weight," The New York Times, Oct. 6, 2006)
"In a somer seson, whan soft was the sonne . . ."(William Langland, Piers Plowman, 14th century)
"The sibilant sermons of the snake as she discoursed upon the disposition of my sinner's soul seemed ceaseless."(Gregory Kirschling, The Gargoyle, 2008)
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."(Henry David Thoreau, Walden)
3
"The daily diary of the American dream."(slogan of The Wall Street Journal)
"Pompey Pipped at the Post as Pippo Pounces"(sports headline, Daily Express, Nov. 28, 2008)
"Alliteration, or front rhyme, has been traditionally more acceptable in prose than end-rhyme but both do the same thing--capitalize on chance. . . . This powerful glue can connect elements without logical relationship."(Richard Lanham, Analyzing Prose, Continuum, 2003)
"A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow."(Vladimir Nabokov, Conclusive Evidence)
"Guinness is good for you."(advertising slogan)
"Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross."(Clement Freud)
"My style is public negotiations for parity, rather than private negotiations for position."(Jesse Jackson)
Pronunciation: ah-lit-err-RAY-shunAlso Known As: head rhyme, initial rhyme, front rhyme
Figures of Sound
Assonance Onomatopoeia Homoioteleuton
Common Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Using Similes & Metaphors Rhetorical Strategies of Repetition
The Lighter Side of Language
Lighter Side of Language Store Name Puns Using Sentence Fragments Effectively
2.Anaphora (rhetoric)
4
Definition:
A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses. For the grammatical term, see anaphora (grammar). Adjective: anaphoric. Compare with epiphora. See also:
Bryson's Anaphora Giovanni's Anaphora "I Have a Dream"
Etymology:
From the Greek, "carrying back"
Examples:
"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)
"I don't like you sucking around, bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I don't like your jerk-off name. I don't like your jerk-off face. I don't like your jerk-off behavior, and I don't like you, jerk-off."(Policeman in The Big Lebowski)
"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."(Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940)
"It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too."(Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Hope," July 27, 2004)
"I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid
5
to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes."(Kinky Friedman, When the Cat's Away)
Pronunciation: ah-NAF-oh-rahAlso Known As: epanaphora, iteratio, relatio, repetitio, report
Rhetorical Devices of Repetition
Commoratio Diacope Would You Repeat That, Please?
Common Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Metaphors Be with You Homer Simpson's Figures of Speech
6
3.Antithesis
Definition:
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses. Plural: antitheses. Adjective: antithetical. See also:
Parallelism Chiasmus Isocolon The Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy The Inaugural Address of Barack Obama
Etymology:
From the Greek, "opposition"
Examples:
"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing."(Goethe)
"Hillary has soldiered on, damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, like most powerful women, expected to be tough as nails and warm as toast at the same time."(Anna Quindlen, "Say Goodbye to the Virago," Newsweek, June 16, 2003)
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."(Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in
7
trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." (Jack London)
"Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee."(advertising slogan)
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."(Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
"You're easy on the eyesHard on the heart."(Terri Clark)
"The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression."(Harold Pinter)
Pronunciation: an-TITH-uh-sis
Figures of Balance
Anaphora Apposition Parallelism
Figures of Speech
Top 20 Figures of Speech Rhetorical Analysis of E B. White's "The Ring of Time" Figures & Tropes
8
4.Apostrophe (figure of speech)
Definition:
A figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. (For the mark of punctuation, see apostrophe [punctuation].) See also:
Personification Ecphonesis Top 20 Figures of Speech
Etymology:
From the Greek, "turning away"
Examples:
"O western wind, when wilt thou blowThat the small rain down can rain?"(anonymous, 16th c.)
"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)
"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
"Blue Moon, you saw me standing aloneWithout a dream in my heartWithout a love of my own."(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")
"I believe it is the lost wisdom of my grandfatherWhose ways were his own and who died before I could ask."Forerunner, I would like to say, silent pilot,Little dry death, future,
9
Your indirections are as strange to meAs my own. I know so little that anythingYou might tell me would be a revelation."(W.S. Merwin, "Sire")
"O stranger of the future!O inconceivable being!whatever the shape of your house,however you scoot from place to place,no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear,I bet nobody likes a wet dog either.I bet everyone in your pub,even the children, pushes her away."(Billy Collins, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now")
"Dear EllaOur Special First Lady of SongYou gave your best for so long."(Kenny Burrell, "Dear Ella")
Pronunciation: ah-POS-tro-feeAlso Known As: turne tale, aversio, aversion
Master Tropes
Metaphor What Is Irony? Metonymy
Figures of Speech
Chiasmus Epexegesis Synathroesmus
10
5.Assonance
Definition:
Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words. See also:
Parechesis Homoioteleuton Consonance
Etymology:
From the Latin, "sound"
Examples:
"Those images that yetFresh images beget,That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea."(W.B. Yeats, "Byzantium")
"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 day;Rage, rage, against the dying of the light."(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")
"The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on its knees."(John Hawkes, Death, Sleep, and the Traveler)
"It beats as it sweeps as it cleans."(Slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners)
"I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless."(Thin Lizzy, "With Love")
"A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her orange-brown bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack."(Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita)
11
"Strips of tinfoil winking like people"(Sylvia Plath, "The Bee Meeting")
Observations:
"Beware of excessive assonance. Any assonance that draws attention to itself is excessive."(John Earle, A Simple Grammar of English, 1898)
"Assonance, (or medial rime) is the agreement in the vowel sounds of two or more words, when the consonant sounds preceding and following these vowels do not agree. Thus, strike and grind, hat and man, 'rime' with each other according to the laws of assonance."(J.W. Bright, Elements of English Versification, 1910)
"The terms alliteration, assonance, and rhyme identify kinds of recurring sound that in practice are often freely mixed together. . . . It may not be easy or useful to decide where one stops and another starts."(Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992)
Pronunciation: ASS-a-ninsAlso Known As: medial rhyme (or rime)
Sound Effects
Alliteration Homoioteleuton Onomatopoeia
12
6.Chiasmus
Definition:
A verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed. Essentially the same as antimetabole. (Note that a chiasmus includes anadiplosis, but not every anadiplosis reverses itself in the manner of a chiasmus.) Adjective: chiastic. See also: <UL
Chiasmus on the Campaign Trail Quiz on the Top 20 Figures of Speech
Etymology:
From the Greek, "mark with the letter X."
Examples:
"Nice to see you, to see you, nice!"(British TV entertainer Bruce Forsyth)
"You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."(Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006)
"I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."(Ovid)
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."(William Shakespeare, Macbeth I.i)
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."(Samuel Johnson)
"If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks."(Frederick Douglass, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage")
"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order."(Alfred North Whitehead)
13
"The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults."(Peter De Vries)
"Don't sweat the petty things--and don't pet the sweaty things."(anonymous)
"You can take it out of the country, but you can't take the country out of it."(slogan for Salem cigarettes)
"Friendly Americans win American friends."(United States Travel Service, 1963)
"Never let a fool kiss you--or a kiss fool you."(anonymous)
"My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington."(Barack Obama)
"I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me."(advertising jingle for Band-Aid bandages)
Pronunciation: ki-AZ-musAlso Known As: antimetabole, epanodos
Elsewhere on the Web
Chiasmus.com (Dr. Mardy Grothe)
Matching Figures
Tricolon Parison Isocolon
14
7.Euphemism
Definition:
Substitution of an inoffensive term (such as "passed away") for one considered offensively explicit ("died"). Adjective: euphemistic. See also:
Language Taboos: Never Say "Die" Fifty Reasons You'll Never Be Told, "You're Fired" Euphemisms, Dysphemisms, and Distinctio Soft Language Dysphemism Orthophemism Taboo Language Weasel Word
Etymology:
From the Greek, "use of good words"
Examples and Observations:
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.)
Dr. House: Who were you going to kill in Bolivia? My old housekeeper?Dr. Terzi: We don't kill anyone.Dr. House: I'm sorry--who were you going to marginalize?("Whatever It Takes," House, M.D.)
Pre-owned for used or second-hand; enhanced interrogation for torture; wind for belch or fart; convenience fee for surcharge
Dan Foreman: Guys, I feel very terrible about what I'm about to say. But I'm afraid you're both being let go.Lou: Let go? What does that mean?Dan Foreman: It means you're being fired, Louie.(In Good Company, 2004)
15
"Euphemisms are not, as many young people think, useless verbiage for that which can and should be said bluntly; they are like secret agents on a delicate mission, they must airily pass by a stinking mess with barely so much as a nod of the head. Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne."(Quentin Crisp, Manners from Heaven, 1984)
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)
Paul Kersey: You've got a prime figure. You really have, you know.Joanna Kersey: That's a euphemism for fat.(Death Wish, 1974)
Pronunciation: YOO-fuh-miz-emAlso Known As: soft language, euphemismus, conciliatio, paradiastole, soother
Words and Meanings
Denotation Connotation Distinctio
Offending Words
Dysphemism Tapinosis Meiosis
16
8.Hyperbole
Definition:
A figure of speech (a form of irony) in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement. Adjective: hyperbolic. Contrast with understatement.
See also:
H.L. Mencken's Hyperbolic Prose Style Hyperbole, by W. S. Walsh Hyperbole in Dave Barry's "Revenge of the Pork Person" Tall Talk The Ten Greatest Hyperboles
Etymology:
From the Greek, "excess"
Examples and Observations:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."(Kent Brockman, The Simpsons)
"Kingsley fell over. And this was no brisk trip or tumble. It was an act of colossal administration. First came a kind of slow-leak effect, giving me the immediate worry that Kingsley, when fully deflated, would spread out into the street on both sides of the island, where there were cars, trucks, sneezing buses. Next, as I grabbed and tugged, he felt like a great ship settling on its side: would it right itself, or go under? Then came an impression of overall dissolution and the loss of basic physical coherence. I groped around him, looking for places to shore him up, but every bit of him was falling, dropping, seeking the lowest level, like a mudslide."(Martin Amis, describing his father)
"O for the gift of Rostand's Cyrano to invoke the vastness of that nose alone as it cleaves the giant screen from east to west, bisects it from north to south. It zigzags across our horizon like a bolt of
17
fleshy lightning."(John Simon, review of Barbra Streisand, 1976)
"If we're going to start crucifying people for hyperbole in this society, there's going to be a long line. If I were writing a diet book, I wouldn't say, 'It's going to take a lot of work and it'll be a pain in the butt.' I'd say, 'Thin thighs in 30 days!'"(Matthew Lesko. The Week, August 3, 2007)
Pronunciation: hi-PURR-buh-leeAlso Known As: overstatement, exuperatio
Master Tropes
Metaphor Metonymy Irony
Scrapbook of Styles
Hyperbole in Martin Amis's "Money" Raymond Chandler's Hardboiled Prose Style Hemingway's Use of Repetition
Common Figures of Speech
Top 20 Figures of Speech Figures of Speech in Advertising Slogans Figures, Tropes, and Other Rhetorical Terms
18
9.IronyDefinition:
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized:
1. Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.
2. Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.
3. Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story.
See also: What Is Irony? Ironist Irony Deficiency Antiphrasis "A Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift Sarcasm Accismus Epitrope
Etymology:
From Greek, "feigned ignorance"
Examples & Observations:
"It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, launder became a dirty word."(William Zinsser)
"I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it."(Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons)
"Irony has always been a primary tool the under-powered use to tear at the over-powered in our culture. But now irony has become the bait that media corporations use to appeal to educated
19
consumers. . . . It's almost an ultimate irony that those who say they don't like TV will sit and watch TV as long as the hosts of their favorite shows act like they don't like TV, either. Somewhere in this swirl of droll poses and pseudo-insights, irony itself becomes a kind of mass therapy for a politically confused culture. It offers a comfortable space where complicity doesn't feel like complicity. It makes you feel like you are counter-cultural while never requiring you to leave the mainstream culture it has so much fun teasing. We are happy enough with this therapy that we feel no need to enact social change."(Dan French, review of The Daily Show, 2001)
Pronunciation: I-ruh-neeAlso Known As: eironeia, illusio, dry mock
Master Tropes
Metaphor Metonymy Hyperbole
Common Figures of Speech
Top 20 Figures of Speech What Is Irony? Using Similes & Metaphors
Varieties of Irony
Accismus Sarcasm Antiphrasis
Related Articles
broadening - definition and examples of broadening pejoration - definition and examples of pejoration amelioration - definition and examples of amelioration Italian Semantics
10.Litotes
Definition:
20
A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. See also: meiosis.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "plainness, simplicity"
Examples:
"The grave's a fine a private place,But none, I think, do there embrace."(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
"We are not amused."(attributed to Queen Victoria)
"'Not a bad day's work on the whole,' he muttered, as he quietly took off his mask, and his pale, fox-like eyes glittered in the red glow of the fire. 'Not a bad day's work.'"(Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1905)
"for life's not a paragraphAnd death I think is no parenthesis"(e.e. cummings, "since feeling is first")
"What we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail."(Samuel Beckett)
"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)
"We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry! It's just thrown in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn't include the courting of twelve-year-old boys. Not even the smart twelve-year-olds--the stupid ones! The idiots--of which there are plenty, thanks in no small measure to this network! So why don't you just change the channel? Turn off the TV. Do it right now. Go ahead."(Judd Hirsch playing Wes Mendell in the pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, 2006)
21
"I'm not doing this for my health."(O.J. Simpson, in a paid appearance at a horror comic book convention)
Pronunciation: LI-toe-teez
Figures of Emphasis
Hyperbole Understatement Parrhesia
Common Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Rhetorical Analysis of E B. White's "The Ring of Time" Review Quiz: Top 20 Figures of Speech
Metaphors
Metaphor Vehicle Tenor
22
11.Metaphor
Definition:
A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. A metaphor expresses the unfamiliar (the tenor) in terms of the familiar (the vehicle). When Neil Young sings, "Love is a rose," "rose" is the vehicle for "love," the tenor. (In cognitive linguistics, the terms target and source are roughly equivalent to tenor and vehicle.) Adj.: metaphorical.
Types of Metaphors: absolute, burlesque, catachretic, complex, conceptual, conventional, creative, dead, extended, grammatical, mixed, ontological, primary, root, structural, submerged, therapeutic, visual
See also:
What Is a Metaphor? Time Metaphors 13 Types of Metaphors
Etymology:
From the Greek, "carry over"
Examples:
"Between the lower east side tenementsthe sky is a snotty handkerchief."(Marge Piercy, "The Butt of Winter")
"The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner."(Cynthia Ozick, "Rosa")
"But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."(William Sharp, "The Lonely Hunter")
"Men's words are bullets, that their enemies take up and make use of against them."(George Savile, Maxims)
23
"A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind."(Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors)
"The rain came down in long knitting needles."(Enid Bagnold, National Velvet)
Lenny: Hey, maybe there is no cabin. Maybe it's one of them metaphorical things.Carl: Oh yeah, yeah. Like maybe the cabin is the place inside each of us, created by our goodwill and teamwork.Lenny: Nah, they said there would be sandwiches.(Simpsons)
"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."(Austin O'Malley, Keystones of Thought)
"It would be more illuminating to say that the metaphor creates the similarity than to say that it formulates some similarity antecedently existing."(Max Black, Models and Metaphors, 1962)
Pronunciation: MET-ah-forAlso Known As: lexical metaphor
Working Metaphors
Humaphors: The Top 10 Metaphors of Stephen Colbert Using Similes and Metaphors to Enrich Our Writing House Calls: The Metaphors
1. Absolute Metaphor A metaphor in which one of the terms (the tenor) can't be readily distinguished from the other (thevehicle).
2. Complex Metaphor A metaphor in which the literal meaning is expressed through more than one figurative term (a combination of primary metaphors).
24
3. Conceptual Metaphor A metaphor in which one idea (or conceptual domain) is understood in terms of another.
4. Conventional Metaphor A familiar comparison that doesn't call attention to itself as a figure of speech.
5. Creative Metaphor An original comparison that does call attention to itself as a figure of speech.
6. Dead Metaphor A figure of speech that has lost its force and imaginative effectiveness through frequent use.
7. Extended Metaphor A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.
8. Mixed Metaphor A succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons.
9. Primary Metaphor A basic, intuitively understood metaphor--such as KNOWING IS SEEING or TIME IS MOTION--that may be combined with other primary metaphors to produce complex metaphors.
10.Root Metaphor An image, narrative, or fact that shapes an individual's perception of the world and interpretation of reality.
25
11.Submerged Metaphor A type of metaphor in which one of the terms (either the vehicle or tenor) is implied rather than stated explicitly.
12.Therapeutic Metaphor A metaphor used by a therapist to assist a client in the process of personal transformation.
13.Visual Metaphor The representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by way of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity.
Regardless of the types of metaphors you favor, keep in mind Aristotle's observation 2,500 years ago in Rhetoric: "Those words are most pleasant which give us new knowledge. Strange words have no meaning for us; common terms we know already. It is metaphor which gives us most of this pleasure."
26
12.Metonymy
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Main Clause - Oxymoron
A Red Letter Day
Definition:
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty"). Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, such as describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual. Adjective: metonymic. See also:
Metonym Synecdoche Tom Wolfe's Status Details
Etymology:
From the Greek, "change of name"
Examples & Observations:
"Many standard items of vocabulary are metonymic. A red-letter day is important, like the feast days marked in red on church calendars. . . . On the level of slang, a redneck is a stereotypical member of the white rural working class in the Southern U.S., originally a reference to necks sunburned from working in the fields."
27
(Connie Eble, "Metonymy." The Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992)
"Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on rain forest trees and panda blood."(Conan O'Brien)
"Metonymy is common in cigarette advertising in countries where legislation prohibits depictions of the cigarettes themselves or of people using them."(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics. Routledge, 2007)
"I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver Wig, and I never saw her again."(Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep)
The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night.
"Whitehall prepares for a hung parliament."(The Guardian, January 1, 2009)
The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings.
"The B.L.T. left without paying."(waitress referring to a customer)
"Metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation."(Hugh Bredin, "Metonymy." Poetics Today, 1984)
Pronunciation: me-TON-uh-meAlso Known As: denominatio, misnamer, transmutation
Figures of Substitution
Antonomasia Synecdoche Metonym
Master Tropes
Metaphor Hyperbole Irony
28
13.Onomatopoeia
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Main Clause - Oxymoron
The onomatopoeic Snap, Crackle, and Pop! (Kellogg's Rice Krispies®)
Definition:
The formation or use of words (such as hiss or murmur) that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Adjective: onomatopoeic or onomatopoetic. See also:
Onomatope Reduplicative Sound Symbolism Introduction to Etymology
Etymology:
From the Latin, "make names"
Examples and Observations:
"I'm getting married in the morning!Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime."(Lerner and Loewe, "Get Me to the Church on Time," My Fair Lady)
"Onomatopoeia every time I see yaMy senses tell me hubbaAnd I just can't disagree.I get a feeling in my heart that I can't describe. . . .
29
It's sort of whack, whir, wheeze, whineSputter, splat, squirt, scrapeClink, clank, clunk, clatterCrash, bang, beep, buzzRing, rip, roar, retchTwang, toot, tinkle, thudPop, plop, plunk, powSnort, snuck, sniff, smackScreech, splash, squish, squeakJingle, rattle, squeal, boingHonk, hoot, hack, belch."(Todd Rundgren, "Onomatopoeia")
"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."(slogan of Alka Seltzer, U.S.)
"Plink, plink, fizz, fizz"(Alka Seltzer, U.K.)
"Klunk! Klick! Every trip"(U.K. promotion for seat belts)
"[Aredelia] found Starling in the warm laundry room, dozing against the slow rump-rump of a washing machine."(Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs)
"Bang! went the pistol,Crash! went the windowOuch! went the son of a gun.Onomatopoeia--I don't want to see yaSpeaking in a foreign tongue."(John Prine, "Onomatopoeia")
"Linguists almost always begin discussions about onomatopoeia with observations like the following: the snip of a pair of scissors is su-su in Chinese, cri-cri in Italian, riqui-riqui in Spanish, terre-terre in Portuguese, krits-krits in modern Greek. . . . Some linguists gleefully expose the conventional nature of these words, as if revealing a fraud."(Earl Anderson, A Grammar of Iconism. Fairleigh Dickinson, 1999)
Pronunciation: ON-a-MAT-a-PEE-aAlso Known As: echo word
Figures of Sound
30
Homoioteleuton Onomatopoeia Assonance
Writers on Writing
Advice from One Writer to Another Writers on Writing: E.B. White Doris Lessing on the Compulsion to Write
Figures of Speech
Top 20 Figures of Speech Review Quiz: Top 20 Figures of Speech Similes and Metaphors
Related Articles
Stipulative Definitions: Arbitrary Definitions
31
14.Oxymoron
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Main Clause - Oxymoron
A small crowd: alone together?
Getty Images
Definition:
A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side; a compressed paradox. Adjective: oxymoronic. See also: verbal paradox.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "sharp-dull"
Examples & Observations:
"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)
"A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."(G.K. Chesterton)
"O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!"(John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions)
32
"That building is a little bit big and pretty ugly."(James Thurber)
"'I want to move with all deliberate haste,' said President-elect Barack Obama at his first, brief press conference after his election, 'but I emphasize "deliberate" as well as "haste."'
"It’s not easy to be both deliberate and hasty at the same time unless you are consciously embracing an oxymoron--from the Greek word meaning 'pointedly foolish'--and it is a jarring juxtaposition of contradictory words like 'cruel kindness' and 'thunderous silence.'"(William Safire, "Frugalista." The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2008)
"The phrase 'domestic cat' is an oxymoron."(George Will)
"A log palace is an architectural as well as a verbal oxymoron; so is a short skyscraper, or an urban villa."(J. F. O'Gorman and Dennis E. McGrath, ABC of Architecture. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)
the expressions "act naturally," "original copy," "found missing," "alone together," "peace force," "definite possibility," "terribly pleased," "real phony," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "alone together," "loose tights," "small crowd," and "clearly misunderstood"
Pronunciation: ox-see-MOR-on
Figures of Speech
Paradox Top 20 Figures of Speech Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analyses
Rhetorical Analysis of E B. White's "The Ring of Time" Homer Simpson's Rhetoric The Rhetoric of Tony Soprano and Uncle Junior
15.Paradox
Filed In:
33
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Palindrome - Quotative
M. C. Escher's "Waterfall": a visual paradox
Definition:
A statement that appears to contradict itself. Adjective: paradoxical. See also:
Verbal Paradox Oxymoron "The Superstition of School," by G.K. Chesterton "Paradox and Dream," by John Steinbeck
Etymology:
From the Greek, "incredible, contrary to opinion or expectation"
Examples and Observations:
"The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot."(Henry David Thoreau, Walden)
"If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness."(Alexander Smith)
"A dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tale when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased and wag my tale when I'm angry."
(The Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
34
"War is peace.""Freedom is slavery.""Ignorance is strength."(George Orwell, 1984)
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to."(Joseph Heller, Catch-22)
"Paradox of Success: the more successful a policy is in warding off some unwanted condition the less necessary it will be thought to maintain it. If a threat is successfully suppressed, people naturally wonder why we should any longer bother with it."(James Piereson, "On the Paradox of Success." Real Clear Politics, Sep. 11, 2006)
"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)
Pronunciation: PAR-a-dox
Scrapbook of Styles
Polysyndeton in Julie Myerson's "Sad-Grand Moment" Hyperbole in Martin Amis's "Money" Ian Frazier's List of Reasons in "Great Plains"
Logic
Logos Antirrhesis Argument
Figures of Speech
Top 20 Figures of Speech Homer Simpson's Figures of Speech The Rhetoric of Tony Soprano
16.Personification
Filed In:
35
1. Grammar & Composition
John Bull and Uncle Sam
Definition:
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. See also:
What Is Personification? Personification in Motherless Brooklyn "On a Rainy Morning," by C. S. Brooks "Story of a Garden," by Mabel Wright Progymnasmata
Examples and Observations:
As personifications of their respective nations, England and the U.S., John Bull and Uncle Sam became popular during the 19th century.
The wind stood up and gave a shout.He whistled on his fingers and
Kicked the withered leaves aboutAnd thumped the branches with his hand
And said he'd kill and kill and kill,And so he will and so he will.(James Stephens, "The Wind")
"The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side, the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests."(Richard Selzer, "The Knife")
"Personification, with allegory, was the literary rage in the 18th century, but it goes against the modern grain and today is the feeblest of metaphorical devices."(Rene Cappon, Associated Press Guide to News Writing, 2000)
36
"Only the champion daisy trees were serene. After all, they were part of a rain forest already two thousand years old and scheduled for eternity, so they ignored the men and continued to rock the diamondbacks that slept in their arms. It took the river to persuade them that indeed the world was altered."(Toni Morrison, Tar Baby)
"The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!"(slogan for Chevrolet automobiles)
"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there."(proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)
"Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie."(slogan on a package of Oreo cookies)
"The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!"(Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)
Pronunciation: per-SON-if-i-KAY-shunAlso Known As: prosopopoeia
Figures of Speech
Litotes Hyperbole Synecdoche
Figurative Comparisons
Metaphor Simile Using Similes and Metaphors to Enrich Our Writing
Key Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Review Quiz: Top 20 Figures of Speech Review Quiz: Rhetorical
17.Pun
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Composition
37
Slogan of Morton Salt (since 1911)
Definition:
A play on words, either on different senses of the same word or on the similar sense or sound of different words. See also:
Paronomasia Antanaclasis Homophones Verbal Play Charles Lamb on Puns Store Name Puns
Etymology:
Uncertain
Examples:
"When it rains, it pours."(advertising slogan for Morton Salt)
"When it pours, it reigns."(slogan of Michelin tires)
"What food these morsels be!"(slogan of Heinz pickles, 1938)
"American Home has an edifice complex."(slogan of American Home magazine)
38
"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight"(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night")
"Look deep into our ryes."(slogan of Wigler's Bakery)
"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted."(Fred Allen)
A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."(Groucho Marx)
"Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart."(Jonathan Swift)
"A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect."(Charles Lamb)
"All obscene puns have the same underlying construction in that they consist of two elements. The first element sets the stage for the pun by offering seemingly harmless material, such as the title of a book, The Tiger's Revenge. But the second element either is obscene in itself or renders the first element obscene as in the name of the author of The Tiger's Revenge--Claude Bawls."(Peter Farb, Word Play, 1974)
"To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms."(Walter Redfern, Puns, 1974)
Pronunciation: punAlso Known As: paronomasia
Word Play
Paronomasia Blend Malapropism
Your Writing
39
Secrets to Success in English 101 The Write Attitude The Writing Process
Words About Words
Homonym Antonym Synonym
Related Articles
pejoration - definition and examples of pejoration transition - definition and examples of transition folk etymology - definition and examples of folk etymology broadening - definition and examples of broadening intensifier - definition and examples of intensifier
40
18.Simile
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Reading - Syntax
Definition:
A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as. See also:
100 Sweet Similes Metaphor Analogy Using Similes to Enrich Our Writing Similes That Make Us Smile The Simile Poem
Etymology:
From Latin, "likeness" or "comparison"
Examples and Observations:
"He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow."(George Eliot, Adam Bede)
"Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we bang out tunes that make bears dance, when we want to move the stars to pity."(Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary)
"Humanity, let us say, is like people packed in an automobile which is traveling downhill without lights at terrific speed and driven by a four-year-old child. The signposts along the way are all marked 'Progress.'"(Lord Dunsany)
41
"Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep."(Carl Sandburg)
"My face looks like a wedding-cake left out in the rain."(W.H. Auden)
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."(Raymond Chandler)
"The simile sets two ideas side by side; in the metaphor they become superimposed."(F.L. Lucas)
"you fit into melike a hook into an eye
a fish hookan open eye"(Margaret Atwood)
"She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat."(James Joyce, "The Boarding House")
"She has a voice like a baritone sax issuing from an oil drum, and hams even with her silences."(John Simon, reviewing Kathleen Turner in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, April 2005)
"Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong."(slogan of Pan-American Coffee Bureau)
"Life is rather like a tin of sardines: we're all of us looking for the key."(Alan Bennett)
"Matt Leinart slid into the draft like a bald tire on black ice."(Rob Oller, Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 25, 2007)
Pronunciation: SIM-i-lee
Similes & Metaphors
Using Similes and Metaphors to Enrich Our Writing "A New Song of New Similes," by John Gay Top 20 Figures of Speech
42
Tropes
Metaphor Hyperbole Irony
Metaphors Be With You
"House" Calls: The Metaphors of Dr. Gregory House What Is a Metaphor? What Are Mixed Metaphors?
Related Articles
Simile -- Definition of Simile -- Simile for Fiction Writers Examples of Metaphor from Raymond Chandler -- Metaphor
Examples by Raymond ... understatement - definition and examples of understatement alliteration - definition and examples of alliteration prosopopoeia - definition and examples of prosopopoeia
43
19.Synecdoche
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Reading - Syntax
Definition:
A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it. Considered by some to be a form of metonymy. Adjective: synecdochic or synecdochal.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "shared understanding"
Examples and Observations:
"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)
All hands on deck.
General Motors announced cutbacks.
"Take thy face hence."(William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
9/11
"And let us mind, faint heart n'er wanA lady fair."(Robert Burns, "To Dr. Blalock")
white-collar criminals
"In photographic and filmic media a close-up is a simple synecdoche--a part representing the whole. . . . Synecdoche invites or expects the viewer to 'fill in the gaps' and advertisements
44
frequently employ this trope."(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge, 2002)
Give us this day our daily bread.
"The daily press, the immediate media, is superb at synecdoche, at giving us a small thing that stands for a much larger thing."(Bruce Jackson)
Brazil won the soccer match.
"And the Stratocaster guitars slung overBurgermeister beer guts, and the swizzle stick legsjackknifed over Naugahyde stools . . .."(Tom Waits, "Putnam County")
"It's true that there's something sad about the fact that David Leavitt's short stories' sole description of some characters is that their T-shirts have certain brand names on them. . . . In our post-1950s, inseparable-from-TV association pool, brand loyalty really is synecdochic of character."(David Foster Wallace, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction." The Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993)
Pronunciation: si-NEK-di-keyAlso Known As: intellectio, quick conceit
Figures of Substitution
Antonomasia Metonymy Euphemism
Master Tropes
Metaphor Hyperbole Irony
Common Figures
Figures & Tropes Top 20 Figures of Speech
45
20.Understatement
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Taboo Language - Zeugma
The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Sony Pictures
Definition:
A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is. Contrast with hyperbole. See also: litotes.
Examples and Observations:
"It's just a flesh wound."(Black Knight, after having both of his arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
"The grave's a fine and private place,But none, I think, do there embrace."(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
"I am just going outside and may be some time."(Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to face certain death, 1912)
"A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty."(Mark Twain)
46
"This [double helix] structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."(J. Watson and F. Crick)
"I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."(Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)
"The new EU member states of Poland and Lithuania have been arguing this week for the summit to be called off, and criticizing the German preparations. For historical reasons, the east Europeans are highly sensitive to any sign of Germany cutting deals with Russia over their heads."(The Guardian, May 17, 2007)
"Well, that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?"(Dinner guest, after a visit from the Grim Reaper, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life)
"The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist bombings and threats to destroy nightclubs and airports, and therefore have raised their security level from 'Miffed' to 'Peeved.' Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to 'Irritated' or even 'A Bit Cross.' Brits have not been 'A Bit Cross' since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out."(anonymous post on the Internet, July 2007)
Pronunciation: UN-der-STATE-mentAlso Known As: litotes
Common Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Using Similes and Metaphors Metaphors Be With You
Figures of Speech
Meiosis Litotes Hyperbole
Essays by Mark Twain
"On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Two Ways of Seeing a River" Writers on English Spelling
47
AccismusDefinition:
A rhetorical term for coyness: a form of irony in which a person feigns a lack of interest in something that he or she actually desires.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "coyness"
Examples and Observations:
"Accismus is . . . a form of irony where one pretends indifference and refuses something while actually wanting it. In Aesop's fable, the fox pretends he doesn't care for the grapes."(Anu Garg at Wordsmith.org)
"My name is Elizabeth Urello. I currently live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I do not desire to be a writer/actor/comic/playwright/household name/superstar-personality, any more than I desire your good opinion. I do not desperately want more friends, and I am not badly in need of dates."("About Elizabeth," at the blog Accismus)
". . . I saw Mark Antony offer him [Julius Caesar] a crown--yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets--and as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by; and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps."(Casca in Act 1, scene 2 of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare)
"The purer the golden vessel, the more readily is it bent: the higher worth of women is sooner lost than that of men. . . .
"Nature herself has surrounded these delicate souls with an ever-present, in-born guard, with modesty, both in speaking and hearing. A woman requires no figure of eloquence--herself excepted--so often as that of accismus.*
"* So rhetoricians term the figure by which one speaks, without all
48
longing, of the very objects for which one feels the strongest."(Jean Paul, Levana: Or, The Doctrine of Education, 1848)
Pronunciation: ak-IZ-mus
Varieties of Irony
Chleuasmos Antiphrasis Verbal Irony
49
AccumulationDefinition:
A figure of speech in which a speaker or writer gathers scattered points and lists them together.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "pile up, heap"
Examples:
"A generation goes and a generation comes, yet the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and rushes back again to the place from which it rises. The wind blows south, then returns to the north, round and round goes the wind, on its rounds it circulates. All streams flow to the sea, yet the sea does not fill up."(Ecclesiastes, The Old Testament)
"I don't know how to manage my time; he does. . . .I don't know how to dance and he does.I don't know how to type and he does.I don't know how to drive. . . .I don't know how to sing and he does."(Natalia Ginzburg, "He and I")
"Now Senator McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears, and I’m just spouting off and he’s somber and responsible. Senator McCain--this is a guy who sang 'bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,' who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don’t think is an example of speaking softly. This is the person who after we hadn’t even finished Afghanistan where he said--'next up, Baghdad.' So I agree that we have to speak responsibly.”(Senator Barack Obama, U.S. Presidential Debate, October 7, 2008)
I’m a modern man, digital and smoke-free;a man for the millennium.
A diversified, multi-cultural, post-modern deconstructionist;politically, anatomically and ecologically incorrect.
I’ve been uplinked and downloaded,
50
I’ve been inputted and outsourced.I know the upside of downsizing,I know the downside of upgrading.
I’m a high-tech low-life.a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art,bi-coastal multi-tasker,and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond. . . . (George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, Hyperion, 2004)
Pronunciation: ah-kyoom-you-LAY-shunAlso Known As: accumulatio, congeries
51
AllegoryDefinition:
Extending a metaphor through an entire speech or passage so that objects, persons, and actions in the text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text. The most famous allegory in English is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678), a tale of Christian salvation. Adjective: allegorical. See also:
Aptronym "False and True Humour," by Joseph Addison Metaphor Parable
Etymology:
From the Greek, "to speak so as to imply something other"
Example:
"And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. . . . And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision."(Plato, "Allegory of the Cave" from Book Seven of The Republic)
52
Pronunciation: AL-eh-gor-eeAlso Known As: inversio, permutatio, false semblant
Related Rhetorical Strategies
Metaphor Fable Narrative
Narratives
"A Fable," by Mark Twain Willie Morris's Descriptive Narrative Susan Orlean's Extended Metaphor: "Super-Duper"
AlliterationDefinition:
The repetition of an initial consonant sound. Adjective: alliterative. See also:
Assonance Consonance Homoioteleuton Reduplicative Rhyme
Etymology:
From the Latin, "putting letters together"
Examples and Observations:
"You'll never put a better bit of butter on your knife."(advertising slogan for Country Life butter)
"The soul selects her own society."(Emily Dickinson)
"Forget the most obvious problem with collegiate calorie counting, that studying Kierkegaard or Conrad after a dinner of seitan and soy chips would render even robust stomachs seasick, sometimes outright ill. And I won’t harp on the clear link between vigorous salad consumption and sulkiness."
53
(Marisha Pessl, "Seize the Weight," The New York Times, Oct. 6, 2006)
"In a somer seson, whan soft was the sonne . . ."(William Langland, Piers Plowman, 14th century)
"The sibilant sermons of the snake as she discoursed upon the disposition of my sinner's soul seemed ceaseless."(Gregory Kirschling, The Gargoyle, 2008)
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."(Henry David Thoreau, Walden)
"The daily diary of the American dream."(slogan of The Wall Street Journal)
"Pompey Pipped at the Post as Pippo Pounces"(sports headline, Daily Express, Nov. 28, 2008)
"Alliteration, or front rhyme, has been traditionally more acceptable in prose than end-rhyme but both do the same thing--capitalize on chance. . . . This powerful glue can connect elements without logical relationship."(Richard Lanham, Analyzing Prose, Continuum, 2003)
"A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow."(Vladimir Nabokov, Conclusive Evidence)
"Guinness is good for you."(advertising slogan)
"Good men are gruff and grumpy, cranky, crabbed, and cross."(Clement Freud)
"My style is public negotiations for parity, rather than private negotiations for position."(Jesse Jackson)
Pronunciation: ah-lit-err-RAY-shunAlso Known As: head rhyme, initial rhyme, front rhyme
Allusion
54
Definition:
A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional. Adjective: allusive. See also: Allusion and Illusion.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "to play with"
Examples and Observations:
"Even sports newsletters allude to [Robert] Frost. When a New York Giants tackle was diagnosed as having cancer, Inside Football commented, 'The rest, since there was no more to build on there, turned to their affairs.' That's an allusion to a 1916 Frost poem about a boy's accidental death: 'No more to build on there. And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.' (The poem's title is 'Out, Out--,' itself an allusion by Frost to Shakespeare; after Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth speaks of life's shortness, 'Out, out, brief candle!')"(William Safire, "On Language: Poetic Allusion Watch." The New York Times, July 24, 1988)
"I violated the Noah rule: predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does."(Warren Buffett)
"An allusion which is explained no longer has the charm of allusion. . . . In divulging the mystery, you withdraw its virtue."(Jean Paulhan)
"Comic books have become reference points in the most popular and the most esoteric fiction and art. Everyone understands a Superman allusion or a Batman joke."(Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow, Basic Books, 2005)
"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth."(Senator Barack Obama, speech at a fund-raiser for Catholic charities, October 16, 2008)
"Senator Obama's call to 'ask not just what our government can do for us, but what we can do for ourselves' had an even more direct connection to the inaugural address of the first G.I. Generation president of the United States."
55
(Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, Millennial Makeover. Rutgers Univ. Press, 2008)
Pronunciation: ah-LOO-zhen
56
Ambiguity
Definition:
The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage. Also, a fallacy in which the same term is used in more than one way. Adjective: ambiguous. See also:
Lexical Ambiguity Syntactic Ambiguity Amphiboly Crash Blossom Double Entendre Equivocation Garden-Path Sentence
Etymology:
From the Latin, "wandering about"
Examples and Observations:
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband.
We saw her duck.
Roy Rogers: More hay, Trigger?Trigger: No thanks, Roy, I'm stuffed!
Pentagon Plans Swell Deficit(newspaper headline)
I can't recommend this book too highly.
"An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful. I propose to use the word in an extended sense: any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language. . . .
"We call it ambiguous, I think, when we recognize that there could be a puzzle as to what the author meant, in that alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading. If a pun is quite obvious it
57
would not be called ambiguous, because there is no room for puzzling. But if an irony is calculated to deceive a section of its readers, I think it would ordinarily be called ambiguous."(William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity, 1947)
"Leahy Wants FBI to Help Corrupt Iraqi Police Force"(headline at CNN.com, December 2006)
Prostitutes Appeal to Pope(newspaper headline)
Union Demands Increased Unemployment(newspaper headline)
"Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that before."(Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in Seattle, 1993)
"Quintilian uses amphibolia (III.vi.46) to mean 'ambiguity,' and tells us (Vii.ix.1) that its species are innumerable; among them, presumably, are Pun and Irony."(Richard Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Univ. of California Press, 1991)
Pronunciation: am-big-YOU-it-teeAlso Known As: amphibologia, amphibolia, semantic ambiguity, equivocation
58
AmplificationDefinition:
A rhetorical term for all the ways that an argument, explanation, or description can be expanded and enriched. A natural virtue in an oral culture, amplification provides "redundancy of information, ceremonial amplitude, and scope for a memorable syntax and diction" (Richard Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, 1991).
Etymology:
From the Latin "enlargement"
Examples:
"Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their place was new, . . . their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly-married as was lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather, he would have come home in matting from Pantechnicon, without a scratch upon him, French-polished to the crown of his head."(Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)
"Goethe's final words: 'More light.' Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry: 'More light.' Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon. Incandescent. Lights that banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlight for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home--Lead Thou me on! Arise, shine, for thy light has come. Light is knowledge. Light is life. Light is light."(Chris Stevens, Northern Exposure)
Pronunciation: am-pli-fi-KAY-shun
Amplification
59
Copia Epimone Synathroesmus
Amplifying Figures
Metaphor Hyperbole Simile
60
Anadiplosis
Definition:
Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next. Anadiplosis often leads to climax (see also gradatio). Note that a chiasmus includes anadiplosis, but not every anadiplosis reverses itself in the manner of a chiasmus. See also: Would You Repeat That, Please?
Etymology:
From the Greek "doubling back"
Examples:
"At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb . . ."(Elizabeth Bishop, "A Miracle for Breakfast")
"When I give I give myself."(Walt Whitman)
"Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."(Henry James)
"All service ranks the same with God,With God, whose puppets, best and worst,Are we."(Robert Browning, Pippa Passes)
"The years to come seemed waste of breath,waste of breath the years behind."(William Butler Yeats, "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death,")
"Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard. Standard performance is sub-standard. Sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist."(Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk)
"The laughter had to be gross or it would turn to sobs, and to sob would be to realize, and to realize would be to despair."(Howard Griffin, Black Like Me)
61
"The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it."(Dylan Thomas on Wales)
"I am Sam, Sam I am."(Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham)
"Only the brave deserve the fair and the fair deserve Jaeger."(advertising slogan for Jaeger Sportswear)
"The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story!"(Commodus in the movie Gladiator, 2000)
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you."(Frank Oz as Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance)
Pronunciation: anna di PLO sisAlso Known As: duplicatio, reduplicatio, redouble
Mounting Figures
Gradatio Climax Auxesis
Figures of Repetition
Diacope Epizeuxis Ploce
62
Analogy
Definition:
Reasoning or explaining from parallel cases. A simile is an expressed analogy; a metaphor is an implied one. Adjective: analogous. See also:
What Is an Analogy? Analogies in David Simon's "Homicide" "The Battle of the Ants," by Henry David Thoreau Benchley's "Advice to Writers"
Etymology:
From the Greek "proportion"
Examples and Observations:
"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."(Don Marquis)
"Being obsessed with deficit reduction when the economy has suffered its largest setback since the Depression is like being obsessed with water conservation when your house is on fire--an admirable impulse, poorly timed."(Daniel Gross, "A Birder's Guide to D.C." Newsweek, Nov. 16, 2009)
"Harrison Ford is like one of those sports cars that advertise acceleration from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in three or four seconds. He can go from slightly broody inaction to ferocious reaction in approximately the same time span. And he handles the tight turns and corkscrew twists of a suspense story without losing his balance or leaving skid marks on the film. But maybe the best and most interesting thing about him is that he doesn't look particularly sleek, quick, or powerful; until something or somebody causes him to gun his engine, he projects the seemly aura of the family sedan."(Richard Schickel, Time magazine review of Patriot Games)
"If I had not agreed to review this book, I would have stopped after five pages. After 600, I felt as if I were inside a bass drum
63
banged on by a clown."(Richard Brookhiser, "Land Grab." The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2007)
"One good analogy is worth three hours discussion."(Dudley Field Malone)
"MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken."(Lewis Black)
"Memory is to love what the saucer is to the cup."(Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, 1949)
Pronunciation: ah-NALL-ah-gee
Figurative Comparisons
Simile Metaphor Catachresis
Arts of Persuasion
Ethos Pathos Logos
64
Anaphora (rhetoric)
Definition:
A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses. For the grammatical term, see anaphora (grammar). Adjective: anaphoric. Compare with epiphora. See also:
Bryson's Anaphora Giovanni's Anaphora "I Have a Dream"
Etymology:
From the Greek, "carrying back"
Examples:
"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)
"I don't like you sucking around, bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I don't like your jerk-off name. I don't like your jerk-off face. I don't like your jerk-off behavior, and I don't like you, jerk-off."(Policeman in The Big Lebowski)
"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."(Winston Churchill, speech to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940)
"It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that
65
America has a place for him, too."(Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Hope," July 27, 2004)
"I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes."(Kinky Friedman, When the Cat's Away)
Pronunciation: ah-NAF-oh-rahAlso Known As: epanaphora, iteratio, relatio, repetitio, report
Rhetorical Devices of Repetition
Commoratio Diacope Would You Repeat That, Please?
Common Figures
Top 20 Figures of Speech Metaphors Be with You Homer Simpson's Figures of Speech
66
Anticlimax
Definition:
An abrupt shift from a serious or noble tone to a less exalted one--often for comic effect. Adjective: anticlimactic. Contrast with climax. See also: bathos.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "down a ladder"
Examples and Observations:
"The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money."(Mark Twain)
"In moments of crisis I size up the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles, take a firm grip on myself and, without a tremor, always do the wrong thing."(George Bernard Shaw)
"'For God, for Country and for Yale,' the outstanding single anti-climax in the English language."(James Thurber)
"One of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at 21 that everything afterward savors of anticlimax."(F. Scott Fitzgerald)
"Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends."(Woody Allen)
"And as I’m sinkin’The last thing that I thinkIs, did I pay my rent?"(Jim O'Rourke, "Ghost Ship in a Storm")
"He has seen the ravages of war, he has known natural catastrophes, he has been to singles bars."(Woody Allen, "Speech to the Graduates")
67
"He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling."(Walter Shobchak, played by John Goodman, as he prepares to spread Donny’s ashes, The Big Lebowski, 1998)
"For [Immanuel] Kant, the incongruity in a joke was between the 'something' of the setup and the anticlimactic 'nothing' of the punch line; the ludicrous effect arises 'from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.'"(Jim Holt, "You Must Be Kidding," The Guardian, Oct. 25, 2008)
Pronunciation: ant-tee-CLI-maxAlso Known As: catacosmesis
Figures of Climax
Climax Gradatio Anadiplosis
Comic Effects
Antanaclasis Parody Malapropism
68
Epithet
Filed In:
1. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 2. > Echo Word - Eye Dialect
Definition:
Using an appropriate adjective (often habitually) to characterize a person or thing. Adjective: epithetic. See also:
Antonomasia Hypallage
Etymology:
From the Greek, "added"
Examples and Observations:
"heartfelt thanks," "wine-dark sea," "blood-red sky," "fleet-footed Achilles," "stone-cold heart"
"Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness."(Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
"In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters."(Paul Gauguin)
"Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot. He was not afraid to die, oh brave Sir Robin. He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways, brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin."(Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
"The fixed epithet, a special variety found in epic poetry, is the repeated use of an adjective or phrase for the same subject; thus in
69
Homer's Odyssey, the wife Penelope is always 'prudent,' the son Telemachus is always 'sound minded,' and Odysseus himself is 'many minded.'"(Stephen Adams, Poetic Designs. Broadview, 1997)
"As a result of the feminist revolution, 'feminine' becomes an abusive epithet."(Wyndham Lewis)
"The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea."(James Joyce, Ulysses)
"'I am working on a piece about nationalism with a focus on epithet as a smear word,' writes David Binder, my longtime Times colleague, 'which was still a synonym for 'delineation' or 'characterization' in my big 1942 Webster’s but now seems to be almost exclusively a synonym for ‘derogation’ or ‘smear word.’ . . . In the past century, [epithet] blossomed as 'a word of abuse,' today gleefully seized upon to describe political smears."(William Safire, "Presents of Mind." The New York Times, June 22, 2008)
Pronunciation: EP-i-tetAlso Known As: qualifier
70
RHETORICAL QUESTION
Definition:
A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected. The answer may be obvious or immediately provided by the questioner. See also:
What Is a Rhetorical Question? Erotesis Epiplexis Rhetoric
Examples and Observations:
"Hath not a Jew eyes?Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh?If you poison us, do we not die?(Shylock in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice)
"Can I ask a rhetorical question? Well, can I?"(Ambrose Bierce)
"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?"(H. L. Mencken)
"Aren't you glad you use Dial?Don't you wish everybody did?"(1960s television advertisement for Dial soap)
"To actually see inside your ear canal--it would be fascinating, wouldn't it?"(Letter from Sonus, a hearing-aid company, quoted in "Rhetorical Questions We'd Rather Not Answer," The New Yorker, March 24, 2003)
"Something [rhetorical] questions all have in common . . . is that they are not asked, and are not understood, as ordinary information-seeking questions, but as making some kind of claim, or assertion, an assertion of the opposite polarity to that of the question."(Irene Koshik, Beyond Rhetorical Questions. John Benjamins, 2005)
71
Grandma Simpson and Lisa are singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" ("How many roads must a man walk down/Before you call him a man?"). Homer overhears and says, "Eight!"Lisa: "That was a rhetorical question!"Homer: "Oh. Then, seven!"Lisa: "Do you even know what 'rhetorical' means?"Homer: "Do I know what 'rhetorical' means?"(The Simpsons, "When Grandma Simpson Returns")
"If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice?"(Billy Corgan)
"Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?"(George Carlin)
Pronunciation: ri-TOR-i-kal KWEST-shunAlso Known As: erotesis, erotema, interrogatio, questioner, reversed polarity question (RPQ)
Rhetorical Questions
Erotesis Epiplexis Hypophora
Q&A About Rhetoric
What Is a Rhetorical Question? What Is a Metaphor? What Is Sprezzatura?
Rhetorical Terms
Figures, Tropes, and Other Rhetorical Terms Top 20 Figures of Speech Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis
72