Tropes and Schemes AP Lang

Scheme

A change in the usual order of words for rhetorical effect. Deals with word order, letters, syntax and sounds, whereas tropes deal with modifying the meaning of a word.

Comes from the Greek schema meaning "form" or "shape"

elipsis

“…”

In grammar and rhetoric, use to indicate the omission of one or more words, without altering the original meaning.

Also used to cut out parts of text that can be easily understood from the context in grammar.

polysyndeton

Other Schemes

A rhetorical term for a sentence style that employs many conjunctions such as “and” “or” “but “nor”.

slows cadence of reading + prevents lists from blending together

ex: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers..."

Parenthesis

“()” “[]” “,,”

An explanatory or qualifying word, clause or sentence inserted into a passage with which it doesn't necessarily have any grammatical connection. Usually marked off with round brackets or dashes, or commas.

ex: "The train (which usually runs on time) was delayed today."

Asyndeton

A rhetorical term for a writing style that omits conjunctions such as “and” “or” “but” “so” between phrases, words, or clauses.

ex: I came, I saw, I conquered

Antithesis

Schemes of Structure and Order

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

ex: "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Chiasmus

Schemes of Structure and Order

In Rhetoric, a verbal pattern, a type of antihesis, in which the second half of the expression is balanced against the first half with the parts reversed.

Similar to antimetable but can work on the sentence level all the way up to the structure of an entire piece.

ex: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

Anastrophe

Schemes of Structure and Order

In literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (the form divine), a verb before as subject (came the dawn) or a noun proceeding its preposition (words between). Inversion is most commonly used in poetry in which it may both satisfy the demands of the meter and achieve emphasis.

Antimetabole

Schemes of Structure and Order

A verbal pattern in which the second half of the expression is balanced against the first but with the words in reverse grammatical order (A-B-C) (C-B-A).

"I can write better than anyone who can write faster and I can write faster than anyone who can write better"

"We didn't land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us."

Isocolon

Schemes of Structure and Order

A rhetorical term for a succession of clauses or sentences of approximately equal length and corresponding structure.

Apposition

Schemes of Structure and Order

Placing side by side two coordinate elements (noun phrases), the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first.

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins."

Parallellism

Schemes of Structure and Order

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses. Also called parallel structure. By convention, items in a series appear in parallel grammatical form; a noun is listed with other nouns, a -ing is listed with other - ing, forms and so on.

Climax

Schemes of Structure and Order

In rhetoric, mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction (see auxesis) with an emphasis on the high point of culmination of an experience or series of events.

Hyperbaton

Schemes of Structure and Order

A figure of speech that uses disruption or inversion of customary word order to produce a distinctive effect; also, a figure in which language takes a sudden turn usually an interruption.

"Object there was non. Passion there was none. I loved the old man."

Polyptoton

Schemes of Repetition

A rhetorical term for the repetition of words derived from the same root but with different endings.

"increasing, I will increase your sorrow."

"My own heart's heart and my ownest own farewell."

Anaphora

Schemes of Repetition

A literary or oratorical device involving the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several sentences or clauses, as in the well-known passage from the old testament (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2) That begins: "for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted."

Ephanalepsis

Schemes of Repetition

1. A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word of phrase at regular intervals: a refrain.

2. Repetition at the end of a clause or sentence of the word or phrase with which it began; a combination of anaphora and epistrophe.

Assonance

Schemes of Repetition

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in neighboring words.

"It made me feel real."

"Never ever"

Epistrophe

Schemes of Repetition

A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses. Also known as an ephanalepsis..

"Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends. You don't even look at any of my friends and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends."

Anadiplosis

Schemes of Repetition

Repetition of the words or phrase at the end of one sentence, line, or clause at the beginning of the next.

"It takes an egg to make a hen, it takes a hen to make an egg"

"the love of wicked men converts to fear and then that fear to hate."

Alliteration

Schemes of Repetition

The repetition of the beginning of sounds of words as in "peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" or "long lived" or "Short shrift" and " the little fickle finger of fate".

Trope

A figure of speech in which the use of a word or phrase other than in its literal meaning changes the meaning of a sentence. The word comes from Greek tropos meaning turn. That is turning the meaning of a sentence another way by the use of a word(s).

Paradox

Tropes of Contradiction

-A statement or preposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

-A self-contradictory and false preposition.

-Any person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature.

-An opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.

Ex. A rich man is no richer than a poor man.

Oxymoron

Tropes of Contradiction

A figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "cruel kindness" or "to make haste slowly" or "she looked like the living dead".

Irony

Tropes of Contradiction

The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.

"The police officer got arrested"

Litotes

Tropes of Contradiction

A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

"It's no ordinary city" (the city is amazing)

Hyperbole

Trope of Contradiction

A figure of speech (a form of irony) in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement.

"I was so hungry I ate a horse."

Onomatopoeia

Random Tropes

The formation of a words, as cuckoo, meow, honk or boom by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.

Meiosis

Random Tropes

A kind of humorous understatement that dismisses or belittles, especially by using terms that makes something seem less significant than it really is or ought to be.

"grease monkey" for mechanic

"shrink" for psychiatrist

"slasher" for suergon

Apostrophe

Random Tropes

A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate object, or a nonexistent character.

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Rhetorical Question

Random Tropes

A question asked merely for the effect with no answer expected. The answer may be obvious or immediately provided by the questioner.

"Is the pope catholic? Do bears live in woods?"

Anthimeria

Random Tropes

A rhetorical term for the use of one part of speech (or word class) for another. Nouns become a verb.

"Its time we should all have a good sing."

"Why don't you gift him a wig?"

Erotema

Random Tropes

The rhetorical question to affirm or deny a point strongly by asking it as a question. Generally the rhetorical question includes an emotional dimension, expressing wonder, indignation, sarcasm, ect..

"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?"

Antanaclasis

Tropes of Repetition and Omission

A form of speech in which a key word is repeated and used in a different, and sometimes contrary way for a play on words.

"The craft of a politician is to appear before the public without craft."

Periphrasis

Tropes of Repetition and Omission

In Rhetoric, a roundabout description of something- verbosity. A form of circumlocution.

"The big man upstairs (referring to God) hears your prayers."

Auxesis

Tropes of Repetition and Omission

A rhetorical term for a gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order of force or importance.

"It's a bird, it's a plane... it's superman"

Paralipsis

Tropes of Repetition and Omission

The suggestion by deliberately concise treatment of a topic, that much of significance is being omitted.

"..., not to mention other faults."

Parable

Tropes of Comparison

A short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

A statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like.

Allegory

Tropes of Comparison

A representation of a abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.

Personification

Tropes of Comparison

A trope or figure of speech (generally considered a type of metaphor) in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities.

Prosopopoeia

Tropes of Comparison

A figure of speech in which an absent or imaginary person is represented as speaking. Similar to personification.

Metaphore

Tropes of Comparison

A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common.

Simile

Tropes of Comparison

A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually as a phrase introduced by like or as.

Synecdoche

Tropes that Play With Words

A figure of comparison in which a word standing for part of something is used for the whole of that thing or vice verca; any part or portion or quality of a thing used to stand for the whole of the thing or vice versa.

Ex. Genus to species or species to genus.

Zeugma

Tropes that Play With Words

The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of the m or is appropriate to each, but in a different way as in to "wage war and peace", or "on his fishing trip, he caught tree trout and a cold." See Syllepsis.

Syllepsis

Tropes that Play With Words

A kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs. The use of a word or expression to perform two syntactic functions, especially to modify two or more words of which one does not agree in number, case, or gender as the use of "are" in neither he nor we are willing.

See Zeugma.

"When I address Fred, I never have to raise my voice or my hopes."

Pun

Tropes that Play With Words

A play on words, either on different sense or on the same words or on the similar sense or sound of different words. See paranomasia.

Paranomasia

Tropes that Play With Words

A rhetorical term for punning, playing with words.

Antonomasia

Tropes that Play With Words

Giving a proper name to something that has qualities associated with that name. Or reverse of this, that is using an epithet or phrase for a proper noun.

Ex. A philanderer can also be called "Don Juan".

Ex. "The little corporal" instead of Napoleon.

Metonymy

Tropes that Play With Words

A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related. This can be using teh symbol fro the thing signified ("from cradle to grave"), the instrument for the agent (" the pen is mightier than the sword"), the container for the thing contained. ("kettle boiled merrily"), or the author for his works, (I never read Shakespeare").