Figures of Speech
From Angl-Am
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Contents
Tropes: not to be taken literally
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
metaphor | ||
metonymy | ||
synekdoche | ||
metalepsis | ||
irony | ||
paradox | ||
oxymoron | ||
litotes | ||
hyperbole |
Metaplastic figures: playing with spelling and sound
The addition of letters and sounds
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
prosthesis | addition of letters to the beginning of a word | |
epenthesis | addition of letters to the middle of a word | |
paragoge | addition of letters to the end of a word |
The omission of letters and sounds
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
aphaersis | omission of letters to the beginning of a word | |
syncope | omission of letters to the middle of a word | |
apocope | omission of letters to the end of a word |
The switching of letters and sounds
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
antisthecon | substitution of a letter or sound for another within a word | |
metathesis | transposition of a letter out of its normal order in a word |
Combinations of these factors
synaeresis
Playing with the structure of sentences
Words (seem to) get lost
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
ellipsis | omission of a word | |
zeugma | an ellipsis of a verb, in which one verb is used to govern several clauses | |
scesis onamaton | omission of the verb of a sentence | |
anapodoton | omission of a clause | |
aposiopesis | stopping a sentence in midcourse so that the statement is unfinished | |
occupatio | The orator promises not to speak of a certain thing - and does it the more provocatively by doing so |
Repetions of words
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
epizeuxis | emphatic repetition of a word with no other words between | |
polyptoton | repetition of the same word or root in different grammatical functions or forms | |
antanaclasis | repetition of a word, but in two different meanings | |
anaphora | repetition of a word at the beginning of a clause, line, or sentence | |
epistrophe | repetition of a word at the end of a clause, line, or sentence | I'll have my bond!/ Speak not against my bond!/ I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.---The Merchant of Venice, 3.3.4 |
symploce | repetition of both beginnings and endings | |
epanalepsis | repetition of the beginning at the end | |
anadiplosis | repetition of the end of a line or clause at the next beginning | Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,/ Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain ---Sir Philip Sidney, Loving in Truth (1591) |
gradatio | ||
congeries | a heaping together and piling up of many words that have a similar meaning | |
antimetabole | repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order; a chiasmus on the level of words (AB; BA) | |
pleonasm |
Figures of unusual word order
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
Peculiar thoughts
Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
anthimeria