Semantic and syntactic patterning

1. Semantic and syntactic patterning

2. Antithesis • Listing • Parallelism Syntactic patterns

3. Repetition of similar phrasal structures • ‘Listing’* Syntactic parallelism

4. Rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences. EG ‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’ ‘One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind.’ ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine.’ Antithesis

5. Parataxis; ranging of propositions without the use of connectives, propositions may be loosely connected semantically, no sense of hierarchy* I see the tracks of the railroads of the earth,I see them in Great Britain, I see them in Europe, I see them in Asia and in Africa Walt Whitman, ‘Salut au Monde! 5:1-3’ ‘the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.’ Jack Kerouac, ‘On the Road’ Listing

6. Irony • Metaphor • Simile • Personification • Puns Semantic patterning

7. A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt. • Statement is incongruous with what is actually occurring EG ‘What a delightful day’ when in actual fact it is raining Irony

8. A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression. EG School buzzed with the sense of business-hive? peeling the onion to represent the removal of layers Metaphor

9. A comparison of one thing with another, esp. as an ornament in poetry or rhetoric. EG Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee Muhammad Ali Simile

10. The attribution of human form, nature, or characteristics to something; the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person (esp. in a rhetorical figure or a metaphor); (Art) the symbolic representation of a thing or abstraction by a human figure. EG With the grace of a ballerina, the paper floated up into the air, almost with the hope of someone eternally lost. Personification

11. The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations, or of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect; a play on words. EG When the TV repairman got married the reception was excellent. The baker stopped making donuts after he got tired of the hole thing. Optometrists live long because they dilate. Puns