Tropes: not to be taken literally
| Name
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Explanation
|
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
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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
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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
|
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
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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
