Tropes and Schemes

Tropes

Figures of speech with an unexpected twist in the meaning of words

Metaphor

implicit comparison (when something is something else)

Simile

Explicit comparison (features a specific connector word)

Metonymy

Using a vaguely suggestive physical object to embody a more general idea

ex: crown for royalty or the pen is mightier than the sword

Synecdoche

using a part of physical object to represent the whole object

ex: twenty eyes watched our every move, ex: 10 people watched

Puns

it twist the meaning of words. often to create a humorous effect

ex: Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare includes a pun from Mercutio as he is dying, “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man”.

Personification

giving human qualities to inanimate objects

Apostrophe

addressing someone or some personified abstraction that is not physically present

Erotema

Asking a rhetorical question to the reader as a transition or as a thought provoking tool before proceeding

Onomatopoeia

words that sound like what they mean

Hyperbole

extreme exaggeration

Oxymoron

using contradiction in a manner that oddly make sense

Schemes

figure of speech that deal with word order, syntax, letters, and sounds, rather than the meaning of words

Parallelism

when the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length

Antithesis

contrary ideas expressed in a balanced sentence

ex: evil men fear authority

Anastrophe

inverted word order from what one expects

ex: one ad does not a survey make

Chiasmas

taking parallelism and deliberately turning it inside out, creating a “crisscross” pattern

ex: “by any the frolic, and the dance by night”

Alliosis

presenting alternatives in a balanced manner

ex: you can eat well or you can sleep well

Ellpsis

omitting a word implied by the previous clause

Asyndeton

using no conjunctions to create an effect of speed or simplicity

Polysyndeton

using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect

ex: this term, I am taking biology and English and history and math and music and physics and sociology

Climax

arrangement in order of increasing importance

ex: let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country, and his God

Repetition

something that is repeated, whether it be sounds or actual words and phrases

Alliteration

repetition of the initial consonant, in multiple words within a phrase

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds within a phrase

Anaphora

repetition of beginning clauses

Epistrophe

repetition of concluding word

Analepsis

repeating a word from the beginning of a clause at the end of the same clause

ex: year chases yea

Anadiplosis

repeating the last word of a clause at the beginning of the next clause

ex: As Nietzsche said, “Talent is an adornment, an adornment is also a concealment”