Langlit speech devices

Alliteration

The repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of several words in a sequence.

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‘Let us go forth to lead the land we love.’ (John F. Kennedy)

Allusion

Reference to another speech or famous phrase.

Amplification

Repetition of a word or phrase with the addition of more detail, in order to emphasise something.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence.

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‘I have a dream' (Martin Luther King)

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word in a sentence as the first word of the next sentence.

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‘They call for you: the general who became a slave: the slave who became a gladiator: The gladiator who defied an emperor.’

Antithesis

Contrasting two opposing ideas in consecutive sentences.

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‘Many are called, but few are chosen’ (Jesus Christ)

Chiasmus

The inversion of parts of sentences in sequence.

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‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’ (Shakespeare)

Diacope

The repetition of a phrase, after an intervening word or phrase.

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‘Free at last, free at last; thank God almighty, free at last!’ (Martin Luther King)

Figurative speech

Figurative speech refers to any form of language that is not meant literally. This can include many devices from rhetorical questions to imagery.

Hypophora

Common to start a speech with hypophora, speaker asks a question and answers it.

Metaphor

The comparison of two things by speaking of one in terms of the other.

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‘The mother of all battles' (Saddam Hussein)

Parallelism

Parallel sentence structures or phrases in a consecutive order.

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‘Who still doubts…who still wonders…who still questions…’ (Barack Obama)

Polysyndeton

A way of listing items to include ‘and’ instead of commas, in order to stress the importance of something.

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‘5 and 10 and 15’

Asyndeton

The absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

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‘5, 10, 15’

Repetition

Involves using the same word or phrase over and over again in a piece of writing or speech.

Tricolon

A list of three, or a sentence with three parts or clauses.

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‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ (Julius Caesar)

Synecdoche

A part of something is substituted for the whole

‘He has many mouths to feed’

Pathos

Appeal to emotions and ideals of the audience, eliciting feelings that already reside in them.

Ethos

Appeal to the audience’s ethics.

Logos

Appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning.

Enumeration

Stating a list of things one after another.