Figures of Speech

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Figures of Speech

  • Metaplastic figures: playing with spelling and sound
    • The addition of letters and sounds (prosthesis, epenthesis, paragoge)
    • The omission of letters and sounds (aphaersis, syncope, apocope)
    • The switching of letters and sounds (antisthecon, metathesis)
  • Playing with the structure of sentences
    • Words (seem to) get lost (ellipsis, zeugma...)
    • Repetions of words (epizeuxis, polyptoton, antanaclasis...)
  • Figures of an unusual arrangement of clauses and thoughts (auxesis, isocolon, chiasmus, antithesis, periphrasis...)
  • Peculiar thoughts (adynaton, aporia, correctio...)

Tropes: not to be taken literally: (metaphor, metonymy, synekdoche, metalepsis, irony...)

Figures of Speech

  • accumulation: Summarization of previous arguments in a forceful manner
  • adnominatio: Repetition of a word with a change in letter or sound
  • alliteration: A series of words that begin with the same letter or sound alike
  • anacoluthon: A change in the syntax within a sentence
  • anadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the end of a clause at the beginning of another
  • anaphora: The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses
  • anastrophe: Inversion of the usual word order
  • anticlimax: the arrangement of words in order of decreasing importance
  • antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse order
  • antistrophe: The repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses
  • antithesis: The juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
  • aphorismus: statement that calls into question the definition of a word
  • aposiopesis: Breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effect
  • apostrophe: Directing the attention away from the audience and to a personified abstraction
  • apposition: The placing of two elements side by side, in which the second defines the first
  • assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
  • asteismus: Facetious or mocking answer that plays on a word
  • asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between related clauses
  • cacophony: The juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound
  • classification (literature & grammar): linking a proper noun and a common noun with an article
  • chiasmus: Reversal of grammatical structures in successive clauses
  • climax: The arrangement of words in order of increasing importance
  • consonance: The repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
  • Diorimazeau
  • dystmesis: A synonym for tmesis
  • ellipsis: Omission of words
  • enallage: The substitution of forms that are grammatically different, but have the same meaning
  • enthymeme: Informal method of presenting a syllogism
  • epanalepsis: Repetition of the initial word or words of a clause or sentence at the end of the clause or sentence.
  • epistrophe: The counterpart of anaphora
  • euphony: This is the opposite of cacophony - i.e. pleasant sounding
  • hendiadys: Use of two nouns to express an idea when the normal structure would be a noun and a modifier
  • hendiatris: Use of three nouns to express one idea
  • hypallage: Changing the order of words so that they are associated with words normally associated with others
  • hyperbaton: Schemes featuring unusual or inverted word order
  • isocolon: Use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses
  • internal rhyme : Using two or more rhyming words in the same sentence
  • kenning: A metonymic compound where the terms together form a sort of synecdoche
  • non sequitur: a statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding
  • merism: Referring to a whole by enumerating some of its parts
  • parallelism: The use of similar structures in two or more clauses
  • paraprosdokian: Unexpected ending or truncation of a clause
  • parenthesis: Insertion of a clause or sentence in a place where it interrupts the natural flow of the sentence
  • paroemion: A resolute alliteration in which every word in a sentence or phrase begins with the same letter
  • parrhesia: Speaking openly or boldly, or apologizing for doing so (declaring to do so)
  • perissologia: The fault of wordiness
  • pleonasm: The use of superfluous or redundant words
  • polyptoton: Repetition of words derived from the same root
  • polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions
  • pun: When a word or phrase is used in two different senses
  • sibilance: Repetition of letter 's', it is a form of alliteration
  • synchysis: Interlocked word order
  • synesis: An agreement of words according to the sense, and not the grammatical form
  • synizesis: The pronunciation of two juxtaposed vowels or diphthongs as a single sound
  • synonymia: The use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence
  • tautology: Redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice
  • tmesis: Division of the elements of a compound word


Tropes

  • allegory: An extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject
  • allusion: An indirect reference to another work of literature or art
  • anacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker
  • antanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses
  • anthimeria: The substitution of one part of speech for another, often turning a noun into a verb
  • antiphrasis: A word or words used contradictory to their usual meaning, often with irony
  • antonomasia: The substitution of a phrase for a proper name or vice versa
  • aphorism: A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion, an adage
  • apophasis: Invoking an idea by denying its invocation
  • aporia: Deliberating with oneself, often with the use of rhetorical questions
  • apostrophe: Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not present
  • archaism: Use of an obsolete, archaic, word(a word used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language)
  • auxesis: A form of hyperbole, in which a more important sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive term
  • catachresis: A mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)
  • circumlocution: "Talking around" a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasis
  • commiseration: Evoking pity in the audience.
  • correctio: Linguistic device used for correcting one's mistakes, a form of which is epanorthosis.
  • denominatio: Another word for metonymy
  • epanorthosis: Immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue.
  • erotema: Synonym for rhetorical question
  • euphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another
  • hermeneia: Repetition for the purpose of interpreting what has already been said
  • hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
  • hypophora: Answering one's own rhetorical question at length
  • hysteron proteron: Reversal of anticipated order of events
  • innuendo: Having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not
  • invocation: An apostrophe to a god or muse
  • irony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning
  • litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite
  • malapropism: Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar
  • meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
  • metalepsis: Referring to something through reference to another thing to which it is remotely related
  • metaphor: An implied comparison of two unlike things
  • metonymy: Substitution of a word to suggest what is really meant
  • neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time. Opposite of archaism.
  • onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
  • oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
  • parable: An extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson
  • paradox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth
  • paralipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over
  • paronomasia: A form of pun, in which words similar in sound but with different meanings are used
  • pathetic fallacy: Using a word that refers to a human action on something non-human
  • periphrasis: Substitution of a word or phrase for a proper name
  • personification/prosopopoeia/anthropomorphism: Attributing applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena
  • praeteritio: Another word for paralipsis
  • procatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument
  • prolepsis: Another word for procatalepsis
  • proslepsis: An extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic
  • rhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting something. Or asking a question not for the sake of getting an answer but for asserting something (or as for in a poem for creating a poetic effect).
  • simile: An explicit comparison between two things
  • syllepsis: A form of pun, in which a single word is used to modify two other words, with which it normally would have differing meanings
  • synecdoche: A form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole
  • synesthesia: The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
  • transferred epithet: The placing of an adjective with what appears to be the incorrect noun
  • truism: a self-evident statement
  • tricolon diminuens: A combination of three elements, each decreasing in size
  • tricolon crescens: A combination of three elements, each increasing in size
  • zeugma: a figure of speech related to syllepsis, but different in that the word used as a modifier is not compatible with one of the two words it modifies
  • zoomorphism: applying animal characteristics to humans or gods