Tropes: not to be taken literally
Name
|
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
|
prosthesis
|
addition of letters to the beginning of a word
|
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epenthesis
|
addition of letters to the middle of a word
|
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paragoge
|
addition of letters to the end of a word
|
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The omission of letters and sounds
Name
|
Explanation
|
Example
|
aphaersis
|
omission of letters to the beginning of a word
|
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syncope
|
omission of letters to the middle of a word
|
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apocope
|
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
|
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
|
omission of the verb of a sentence
|
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anapodoton
|
omission of a clause
|
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aposiopesis
|
stopping a sentence in midcourse so that the statement is unfinished
|
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occupatio
|
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
|
emphatic repetition of a word with no other words between
|
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polyptoton
|
repetition of the same word or root in different grammatical functions or forms
|
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antanaclasis
|
repetition of a word, but in two different meanings
|
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anaphora
|
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
|
symploce
|
repetition of both beginnings and endings
|
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epanalepsis
|
repetition of the beginning at the end
|
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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
|
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congeries
|
a heaping together and piling up of many words that have a similar meaning
|
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antimetabole
|
repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order; a chiasmus on the level of words (AB; BA)
|
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pleonasm
|
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Figures of unusual word order
Peculiar thoughts
anthimeria
http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/williams/figofspe.htm#Figures%20of%20Repetition%20(clauses%20and%20ideas)