Tropes: not to be taken literally
Name
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Explanation
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Example
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metaphor
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metonymy
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synekdoche
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metalepsis
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irony
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paradox
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oxymoron
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litotes
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hyperbole
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Metaplastic figures: playing with spelling and sound
The addition of letters and sounds
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
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prosthesis
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addition of letters to the beginning of a word
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epenthesis
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addition of letters to the middle of a word
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paragoge
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addition of letters to the end of a word
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The omission of letters and sounds
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
aphaersis
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omission of letters to the beginning of a word
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syncope
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omission of letters to the middle of a word
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apocope
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omission of letters to the end of a word
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The switching of letters and sounds
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
antisthecon
|
substitution of a letter or sound for another within a word
|
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metathesis
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transposition of a letter out of its normal order in a word
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Combinations of these factors
synaeresis
Playing with the structure of sentences
Words (seem to) get lost
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
ellipsis
|
omission of a word
|
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zeugma
|
an ellipsis of a verb, in which one verb is used to govern several clauses
|
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scesis onamaton
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omission of the verb of a sentence
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anapodoton
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omission of a clause
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aposiopesis
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stopping a sentence in midcourse so that the statement is unfinished
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occupatio
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The orator promises not to speak of a certain thing - and does it the more provocatively by doing so
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Repetions of words
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
epizeuxis
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emphatic repetition of a word with no other words between
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polyptoton
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repetition of the same word or root in different grammatical functions or forms
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antanaclasis
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repetition of a word, but in two different meanings
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anaphora
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repetition of a word at the beginning of a clause, line, or sentence
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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
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symploce
|
repetition of both beginnings and endings
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epanalepsis
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repetition of the beginning at the end
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anadiplosis
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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
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For I have loved long, I crave reward/ Reward me not unkindly: think on kindness,/ Kindness becommeth those of high regard/ Regard with clemency a poor man's blindness---Fidessa, 16
gradatio repeating anadiplosis My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,/ And every tongue brings in a several tale,/ And every talecondemns me for a villain.---Richard III, 5.3.194
congeries a heaping together and piling up of many words that have a similar meaning But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in/ To saucy doubts and fears.---Macbeth, 3.4.24
antimetabole repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order; a chiasmus on the level of words (AB; BA) Thy sea within a puddle's womb is hearsed,/ and not the puddle in thy sea dispersed.---The Rape of Lucrece, 657-658
pleonasm the needless repetition of words; a tautology on the level of a phrase Sober he seemde, and very sagely sad,/ And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent,/ Simple in shew, and voyde of malice bad...---The Faerie Queene, Book 1, 1.29
Figures of unusual word order
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
metaphor
|
|
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metonymy
|
|
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synekdoche
|
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metalepsis
|
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Peculiar thoughts
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
metaphor
|
|
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metonymy
|
|
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synekdoche
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metalepsis
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anthimeria