Rhetorical Devices 16-30

Apostrophe

a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate as if animate. They are addressed directly.

Appositive

a noun or noun phrase that follows another noun immediately or defines or amplifies its meaning. John and Jane, two excellent students, passed the AP test.

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words, e.g., the words "cry" and "side" have the same vowel sound and are so said to be in assonance.

Asyndeton

the omission of conjunctions between related clauses—I came, I saw, I conquered.

Bathos

insincere or overly sentimental quality of writing/speech intended to evoke pity.

Chiasmus

a form of parallelism; a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed. Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary. (or) Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you. (or) Do what you love and love what you do. (or) When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Cliché

an expression that has been overused to the extent that its freshness is worn off. We're not out of the woods yet!

Colloquial/colloquialism

The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.

Complex Sentence

a sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. When he handed in the homework, he forgot to hand in the last page. In this sentence, the dependent clause is "When he handed in the homework." The students are studying because they have a test tomorrow. In this sentence, the dependent clause is "The students are studying because."

Compound Sentence

a sentence with two or more coordinate independent clauses, often joined by one or more conjunctions. Alex played football, so Maria went shopping. or I tried to speak French, but my friend spoke the language better.

Conceit

A fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made. For example, comparing a prison cell to the world or an icy garden to your heart.

Conduplicatio

resembles anadiplosis in the repetition of a preceding word, but it repeats a keyword (not just the last word) from a preceding phrase, clause, or sentence, at the beginning of the next. *related to anadiplosis

"I could list the problems which cause people to feel cynical,problems which include lack of integrity in government, the feeling that the individual no longer counts...'"-- B. Jordan, 1976 Democratic National Convention Address

Context

the convergence of time, place, audience, and motivating factors in which a piece of writing or a speech is situated.

Consonence

the repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect; we say the language is in "consonance." E.g., Drawing the blinds did nothing indubitably different.

Circumlocution

the use of an unnecessarily large number of words or an indirect means of expression to express an idea so as to affect an evasion in speech.