Tropes and Schemes

Similie

Trope

A figure of speech that compares two different things using “like” or “as”

Ex: As busy as a bee

Metaphor

Trope

A figure of speech that compares two different things by saying one thing is the other

Ex: Time is a thief

Synedoche

Trope

Part stands for the whole or vice versa

Ex: Lend me your ears

Metonymy

Trope

Substitution of some suggestive word for what is meant

Ex: The pen is mightier than the sword

Antanaclasis

Trope

Repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning CHANGES the second instance

Ex: Put out the light, then put out the light

Personification

Trope

A figure of speech that gives human traits, emotion, or actions to non-human things like objects

Ex: The wind whispered through the dark trees

Parallelism

Scheme

Using the same matching word form or sentence shape for parts that go together

Ex: It was the best of times, It was the worst of times

Isocolon

Scheme

Parallel structure that occurs when parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length

Ex: Easy come, easy go

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of CONTRASTING, often in parallel structure

Ex: It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness

Anastrophe

Scheme

The natural inversion of word order

Ex, The greatest teacher, failure is

Parenthesis

Scheme

Insertion of some verbal unity in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence

Ex. He was the kind of a guy that he’d start showing you a picture of his girl (I hate like hell when somebody does that).

Apposition

Scheme

When you place side-by-side two coordinate elements and the second serves as an explanation or modification of the first

Ex: Maycomb was an old

town, but it was a tired old town