Figures of styles

The figures of styles that we have to learn for the argumentation class good luck! All the info is sourced from the website that is given on canvas. No AI was used.

Parallelism

Structure of Balance
Definition : Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses.

Example : parallelism of clauses:
Perch are inexpensive; cod are cheap; trout are abundant; but salmon are best.

Isocolon

Structure of Balance

Definition : A series of similarly structured elements having the same length.

Example : Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) note : also a tricolon and asydeton.

Tricolon

Structure of Balance

Definition : Three parallel elements of the same length occurring together in a series.

Example : Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) note : also an isocolon and asydeton.

Anthithesis

Structure of Balance

Definition : Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas (often in parallel structure).

Example : "It can't be wrong if it feels so right" —Debbie Boone

Climax

Structure of Balance, Repetition.

Definition : Generally, the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure.

Example : Miss America was not so much interested in serving herself as she was eager to serve her family, her community, and her nation.

Anastrophe

Changing word order
Definition : Anastrophe occurs whenever normal syntactical arrangment is violated for emphasis:

Example : She looked at the sky dark and menacing. (Normally: She looked at the dark and menacing sky)

Parenthesis

Changing word order

Definition : Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical flow

Example:

The garrulous Polonius from Hamlet can't help but interrupt himself as he speaks to King Claudius about Prince Hamlet's behavior toward his daughter, adding a parenthesis to his own parenthesis: But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing— As I perceiv'd it (I must tell you that) Before my daughter told me—what might you, Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think...? —Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.131-35

Apposition

Changing word order

Definition : Additional of an adjacent coordinate explanatory element.

Definition : Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest of scientists, seemed not to have mastered the physics of hair combing.

Ellipsis

Omission

Definition : Ommission of a word or words readily implied by the context

Example : "The average person thinks he isn't." –Father Larry Lorenzoni
The term "average" is omitted but understood after "isn't."

John forgives Mary and Mary, John.
Note that the comma signals what has been elided, "forgives"

Asydeton

Omission

Definition : The omission of conjunctions between clauses, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect.

Example : Veni, vidi, vici (Caesar: "I came; I saw; I conquered") note : also a isocolon and tricolon

Brachylogia

Omission

Definition : Omission of conjunctions between a series of words.

Example : Phillip! Rise! Eat! Leave!

Polysyndeton

Omission

Definition : Opposite of asyndeton, a superabundance of conjunctions

Example :

I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right," and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water. —Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm."

Alliteration

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.

Example : Why not waste a wild weekend at Westmore Water Park?

Assonance

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.

Example : The seargant asked him to bomb the lawn with hotpots.

Polyptoton

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of words derived from the same root.

Example : With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.

Antanaclasis

Repetition and wordplay/pun

Definition : Repetition of a word in two different senses.

Example : While we live, let us live.
Your argument is sound...all sound.

Anaphora

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.

Example :

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as [a] moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings [. . .] This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leas'd out — I die pronouncing it — Like to a tenement or pelting farm.

Epistrophe

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses.

Example : What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us.

Anadiplosis

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.

Example : The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.
—Shakespeare, Richard II 5.1.66-68f

Antimetabole

Repetition

Definition : Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. (Sometimes mistaken as chiasmus)

Example : Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. —John F. Kennedy

Chiasmus

Repetition

Definition : 1 Repetition of ideas in inverted order

2 Repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order (not to be mistaken with antimetabole, in which identical words are repeated and inverted).

Example : It is boring to eat; to sleep is fulfilling

Epanalepsis

Repetition

Definition : Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.

Example : In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.

Metaphor

Reference to one thing as another

Definition : Reference to one thing as another implying a comparison

Example : Life is a beach.

Simile

Reference to one thing as another

Definition : An explicit comparison, often (but not necessarily) employing "like" or "as."

Example : My love is like a red, red rose —Robert Burns

Synecdoche

Reference to one thing as another

Definition : A whole is represented by naming one of its parts.

Example : Listen, you've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels.
One refers to a vehicle in terms of some of its parts, "wheels"

Metonymy

Reference to one thing as another

Definition : Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes

Examples :

The pen is mightier than the sword The pen is an attribute of thoughts that are written with a pen; the sword is an attribute of military action We await word from the crown.

Personification

Reference to one thing as another

Definition : Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects a though they had human qualities or abilities.

Example : O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

Paronomasia

Word play and puns

Definition : Using words that sound alike but that differ in meaning (punning)

Example : A pun is its own reword.

Syllepsis

Word play and puns

Definition : Using a word differently in relation to two or more words that it modifies or governs (sometimes called zeugma)

Example : You held your breath and the door for me

Onomatopoeia

Word play and puns
Definition : Use of words whose sound correspond with their semantic value.

Example : The buzzing of innumerable bees

Anthimeria

Substitution

Definition : Substitution of one part of speech for another

Example : Feel bad? Strike up some music and have a good sing.
Verb used as noun.

Periphrasis

Substitution

Definition : Substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for quality associated with the name.

Example : He's no Fabio to look at; but then, he's no Woody Allen, either.

In the TV show "Dinosaurs" the infant dino called his father, "Not-the-Mama."

Hyperbole

Overstatement/understatement

Definition : Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis on effect

Example : I've told you a million times not to exaggerate.

Auxesis

Overstatement/understatement

Definition : 1 Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force. In this sense, auxesis is comparable to climax and has sometimes been called incrementum.

2 A figure of speech in which something is referred to in terms disproportionately large (a kind of exaggeration or hyperbole).

3 Amplification in general.

Example : Said of a scratch:
Look at this wound!

Litotes

Overstatement/understatement

Definition : Understatement used deliberately.

Example : It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.

Meiosis

Overstatement/understatement

Definition : Reference to something with a name disproportionately lesser than its nature (a kind of litotes)

Example : Said of an amputated leg: "It's just a flesh wound"

Rhethorical question

Semantic Inversion

Definition : Asking a question for a purpose other than obtaining the information requested.

Example : Why me, God?!

Irony

Semantic Inversion

Definition : Speaking in such a way as to imply the contrary of what one says, often for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest.

Example : O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.

Oxymoron

Semantic Inversion

Definition : Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another. A compressed paradox.

Example : The Sounds of Silence

Paradox

Semantic Inversion

Definition : An apparently contradictory statement that contains a measure of truth.

Example : Whosoever loses his life, shall find it.