AP Lang - Figures, Schemes, and Tropes

Schemes / Figures

Figures of thought that serve as persuasive tricks and rules of thumb - usually a change from the ordinary arrangement of words

Accismus

The oh-you-shouldn’t have figure (you didn’t need to throw a whole party for little ol me!) - Coyness

Dialogismus

Dialogue used to add realism to storytelling

Periphrasis / Circumlocution

Uses a description as a name (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named)

Figures of Speech

Change ordinary language through repetition, substitution, sound, and word-play

Figures of Thought

Logical or emotional tactics— ready-to-hand schemes for using logos or pathos (change meaning or expression of an idea)

Trope

Swap one image or concept for another - makes words stand for something different from its usual meaning

Anaphora

Repeated first words (And the heavens and earth were created, and plants and animals created, and people were created, and homes were created, etc.)

Diazeugma

Multiple yoking / play by play - He runs . . . shoots . . . scores!

Idiom

Combines words to make a single meaning, often not decipherable by singular words (Break a leg, it’s raining cats and dogs)

Hypophora

A figure that asks a rhetorical question and then immediately answers it (Who’s the best? I am!)

Metaphor

A figure that makes something represent something else (You have a heart of gold, the world is a stage)

Irony

Swaps apparent meaning for real one (Saying,”What nice weather we’re having!” when it’s storming outside)

Synechdoche

Swapping one thing for a collection / one part for a whole (I want to get back on those waves - meaning you want to get to the ocean)

Metonymy

Using characteristics to describe the whole (Referring to a monarchy as the “crown” or businesspeople as “suits”)

Chiasmus

The crisscross figure (Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country)

Dialysis

This-not-that figure / Yes-No (Don’t buy the shoes. Buy the colors.

Antithesis

Weighs one argument next to the other (Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven)

Litotes

The figure of ironic understatement, usually negative (We are not amused, War is not healthy for kids)

Anadiplosis

Climax; a figure that builds one thought on top of another by taking the last word for a clause and using it to begin the next clause.

Anthimeria

Verbing (She’s adulting, he’s been Scooby Doo’d)

Parelcon

The “like” figure; redundancy

Asyndeton

Eliminates the conjunctions between phrases for poetic or emotional effect (Reduce, reuse, recycle or live, laugh, love)

Metallage

Takes a word or phrase and uses it as an object within a sentence (I’ve heard enough nos for today)