Rhetorical Choices: Syntax (Examples)

Aporia

I am at a loss for words.

Anastrophe

To the store went we to buy some bread.

Antithesis

We shall support any friend, oppose any foe.

Chiasmus

Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.

Antimetabole

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

Anadiplosis

“Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task.” --Henry James

Anaphora

Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! –William Shakespeare

Epistrophe

…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. –Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Zeugma

All over Ireland the farmers grew potatoes, barley, and bored.

Antanaclasis

You’ll be fired if you don’t get fired up about selling these shoes.

Polyptoton

Who shall watch the watchmen?

Asyndeton

…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

Polysyndeton

He ran and jumped and laughed for joy.

Epimone

“Put money in thy purse; follow thou the wars; defeat thy favor with an usurped beard; I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor--put money in thy purse--nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration; put but money in thy purse.” --Shakespeare's Othello, Act 1, Scene 3