Rhetorical Devices:

1. Rhetorical Devices: More than you ever wanted to know, almost all you will ever need…

2. What is Rhetoric? • The basis of this class…how people use language to create meaning. • Don’t forget the rhetorical triangle • Modes: narration, description, process analysis, exemplification, compare/contrast, classification/division, definition, cause/effect…

3. Schemes and Tropes • In classical rhetoric, the tropes and schemes fall under the canon of style. These stylistic features certainly do add spice to writing and speaking. And they are commonly thought to be persuasive because they dress up otherwise mundane language; the idea being that we are persuaded by the imagery and artistry because we find it entertaining. There is much more to tropes and schemes than surface considerations. Indeed, politicians and pundits use these language forms to create specific social and political effects by playing on our emotions.

4. Definitions • Trope: The use of a word, phrase, or image in a way not intended by its normal signification. • Scheme: A change in standard word order or pattern. • Tropes and schemes are collectively known as figures of speech.

5. Tropes—involving repetition • Alliteration- Recurrence of initial consonant sounds. • Assonance- Similar vowel sounds in successive or proximate words containing different consonants • Epanalepsis—(also known as symploche) repetition of word at beginning and at the end of phrase or clause. • Diacope-Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase

6. Tropes Involving Comparison • Metaphor-comparison without using like or as • Implied Metaphor- not straight forward; reader knows what is being compared based on diction • Simile- Comparison using like or as • Synecdoche- substitution of part for whole • Metonymy-Substitution of something associated with another term for the term itself.

7. Cont’d • Personification-giving the characteristics of human beings to inanimate objects. • Analogy-Compares two things, which are alike in several aspects, for the purpose of explaining through showing something familiar.

8. Tropes Involving Word Play • Pun- play on words • Anthimeria- substituting one part of speech for another. • Onomatopoeia- when a sound of a word suggests its meaning. • Zeugma- one verb governs several words, or clauses, each in a different sense. Example: “He stiffened his drink and his spine.”

9. Tropes Involving Overstatement or Understatement • Litotes- affirmation of the positive through denial of the negative • Hyperbole-overstatement • Understatement- Deliberately expressing an idea as less important than it is • Euphemism: substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.

10. Tropes Involving Meaning • Irony- (verbal) meaning the opposite of what you say • Sarcasm- Saying something with the intent of hurting someone else • Paradox- an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless true • Oxymoron:A trope that connects two contradictory terms.

11. More tropes • Rhetorical Question- Asking a question and not expecting an answer/not answered by author • Hypophora- Raising one or more questions and then proceeding to answer them, usually at length • Allusion- Short, informal reference to a famous person, work, or event

12. Schemes • Epistrophe- opposite of anaphora; repetition comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. • Anaphora-repetition of same words or word at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly with climax and/or parallelism.

13. Schemes cont’d • Antithesis: makes use of contrasting words, phrases, sentences, or ideas for emphasis (generally used in parallel grammatical structures). • Anadiplosis: Repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at (or very near) the beginning of the next. • Apostrophe: a person or an abstract quality is directly addressed, whether present or not. • Antimetabole: Reversing the order of repeated words or phrases to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, or show contrast

14. Cont’d • Chiasmus-might be called reverse parallelism since the second part of a grammatical structure is balanced or paired by the first part, only in reverse order. • Parallelism- Recurrent syntactical similarity/balanced structure • Asyndeton- Omitting conjunctions between words • Polysyndeton- Adding conjunctions between each clause, phrase, word

15. One more thing before you go… • Terms/Concepts you should have learned before today: • Tone • Syntax • Diction (connotation, denotation)