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