Rhetorical Devices

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Anaphora

Anaphora (an-NAF-ruh): Figure of repetition that occurs when the first

word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are

repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences,

clauses, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over successive

phrases or clauses.

Anaphora example

• "What we need in the United States is notdivision. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness; but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country whether they be white or whether they be black."

• -- Robert F. Kennedy, Announcing the death of Martin Luther King

Epistrophe (eh-PISS-truh-FEE):

• Figure of repetition that occurs when the last

word or set of words in one sentence, clause,

or phrase is repeated one or more times at

the end of successive sentences, clauses, or

phrases.

Epistrophe example

• "I said you're afraid to bleed. [As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls be[ing] murdered, you haven't got no blood."

• -- Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots

Another example

• "Booze sold to a preacher or a high school girl

has the same effect as when it's sold to an

automobile thief, or a horse thief."

• -- Billy Sunday, Booze

Antithesis

• Antithesis (an-TIH-theh-sis): Figure of balance

in which two contrasting ideas are

intentionally juxtaposed, usually through

parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing

ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or

sentences.

Antithesis Example

• Ex: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot

keep to gain that which he cannot lose"

• -- Jim Elliot

• Ex: Lloyd Braun: "Serenity now; insanity later."

• -- from Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now"

Antithesis Example

• "I have a dream that my four little children

will one day live in a nation where they will

not be judged by the color of their skin but

by the content of their character. I have a

dream today!" -- Martin Luther King, Jr., I

Have a Dream

Antithesis Example

• "...although the surface appears to be...very,

very fine-grained as you get close to it. It's

almost like a powder...Okay, I'm going to step

off the LEM now. That's one small step for [a]

man; one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil

Armstrong, Apollo 11 Moon Landing Speech

Asyndeton

• Asyndeton (a-SIN-dih-tawn): Figure of

omission in which normally occurring

conjunctions (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet)

are intentionally omitted in successive

phrases, or clauses; a string of words not

separated by normally occurring conjunctions.

Asyndeton example

• "Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines."

–Marine Corps Advertisement

• - "When we listen to the better angels of our

nature, we find that they celebrate the simple

things, the basic things -- such as goodness,

decency, love, kindness." -- Richard Nixon,

Inaugural Address

Polysyndeton

• Polysyndeton (paulee-SIN-dih-tawn): Figure of

addition and emphasis which intentionally

employs a series of conjunctions (and, or, but,

for, nor, so, yet) not normally found in

successive words, phrases, or clauses; the

deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions

in successive words or clauses.

Polysyndeton example

• Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war -- not

history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor

the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor

ideas, nor kinds of government -- not any

other thing. We are the killers." -- delivered by

Katherine Hepburn (from the movie The Lion

in Winter)

Parallelism

• Parallelism: Figure of balance identified by a

similarity in the syntactical structure of a set

of words in successive phrases, clauses,

sentences; successive words, phrases, clauses

with the same or very similar grammatical

structure. This figure often occurs public

address with others such as antithesis,

anaphora, asyndeton, climax.

Parallelism example

action verb, adj. any, direct object

• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us

well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear

any burden, meet any hardship, support any

friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival

and the success of liberty."

• -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

Parallelism example

• "We have seen the state of our Union in the

endurance of rescuers, working past

exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of

flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of

blood, the saying of prayers -- in English,

Hebrew, and Arabic."

• George W. Bush, 9-20-01 Address to the

Nation on Terrorism

Parallelism with Anaphora

• "We have petitioned and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged and they have mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer. We entreat no more. We petition no more. We defy them." -- William Jennings Bryan

• Note here that the first three sentences comprise the first parallelism used in conjunction with anaphora. The the next three sentences constitute a second parallelism also in conjunction with anaphora.

Paradox

• –noun 1. a statement or proposition that

seems self-contradictory or absurd but in

reality expresses a possible truth.

• 2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.

• 3. any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an

apparently contradictory nature.

• 4. an opinion or statement contrary to

commonly accepted opinion.

Paradox

• "When I seem fullest, I'm often hungry."

• What is the hidden truth behind this paradox?

• Standing is more tiring than walking.

litotes

• li-to'-tees from Gk litos, "plain, small, meagre" Also sp. lyptote, liptoteantenantiosisdiminutio (deminutio), extenuatiothe moderatour

• Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite. The Ad Herennium author suggests litotes as a means of expressing modesty (downplaying one's accomplishments) in order to gain the audience's favor (establishing ethos).

• Examples It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain. —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Litotes

More examples

• understatement, esp. that in which an

affirmative is expressed by the negative of its

contrary, as in “not bad at all.”

• Simple examples:

• Not bad.

• I do not find the offer to be unattractive.

• Running a marathon in under two hours is no

small accomplishment

Litotes

More examples

• "I was not a little surprised," would be litotes,

especially if we knew the speaker had

practically jumped out of his skin, because the

speaker was the opposite of a little

surprised. So litotes does not HAVE to be a

double negative, but it does have to be the

opposite of the opposite.

• litotes is a type of understatement, but it is more specific. In litotes you must deny the opposite of the thing being affirmed.

• "Einstein is not stupid," is litotes. (What is being affirmed is that he is smart, and that statement denies ("not") the opposite (stupid).

• "Einstein is a pretty smart guy," is merely an understatement.

• Litotes is "a form of ironical understatement that affirms something be stating the negative of its opposite. For example, to say 'She is no fool' instead of "She is shrewd" is to use litotes. Meiosis, a near synonym, employs understatement to give the idea that something is less important or smaller than it really is: 'That was a pretty good movie.'" (from NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms by Kathleen Morner and Ralph Rausch)

Meiosis example: "A nuclear weapon attack puts a damper on a nice luncheon," would be meiosis.

Chiasmus

• chi·as·mus

• ka�� æz məs/ [kahy-az-muh s]

• a reversal in the order of words in two

otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to

the country, to the town went she.”

• A rhetorical inversion of the second of two

parallel structures

Chiasmus Example

• "Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you."

Epithet

• Source: Abrams's Glossary of Literary Terms

• "EPITHET ... denotes an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define the special quality of a person or thing... Homeric epithets are adjectival terms – usually a compound of two words... We often use fixed, or 'conventional' epithets in identifying historical or literary figures; for example, Charles the Great, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Patient Griselda"

Epithet examples…

• Examples: Richard the Lion-Hearted, wily

Odysseus, prudent Penelope, Crooner Sinatra,

Alexander the Great, Orphan Annie, The

Windy City, etc.

• Othello, the Moor of Venice”

• Kilimanjaro “The Cold One” and “The Big

One.”

• BEOWULF = the Geats' king

Epithet

• Equiano’s slave narrative

• Nominal Christians

• Epithet applies if the word or phrase is used as

an adjective to characterize the person or

thing: "Poseidon, Earthshaker" or "wine-dark

sea." These are often repeated throughout

the work, especially in epic poetry

example of antimetabole in

• "Although we are what we do, what we do is

not all that we are." Kathleen Parker's column

5/12/10

• "Nothing works, but everything might work."

(spoken about education)Diane Ravitch

• Appositive applies if the sentence has a noun

or noun phrase that explains or renames a

noun in a sentence (it could actually take the

place of the noun): "Denver, the capital of

Colorado" or "the dragonfly, an insect with

gossamer wings and greedy appetite, is often

misunderstood."

•

Appositive applies if the