Rhetorical Strategies and Terms

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words in sequence

Let us go forth to lead the land we love. John F. Kennedy

Analogy

A kind of extended metaphor or long simile in which an explicit comparison is made between two events, ideas, people, etc. for the purpose of furthering a line of reasoning or drawing an inference; a form of reasoning employing comparative or parallel cases.

Withdrawal of US troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public; the more US troops come home, the more will be demanded.

Henry Kissinger

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines

…not as a call to bear arms, though are we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are. John F. Kennedy

To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety.  It takes all of us. Hillary Clinton

Antithesis

Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction

We shall support any friend, oppose any foe. John F. Kennedy

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Apostrophe

Turning away from the audience to address someone not present.

Death, where is they sting?

Assonance

Repetition of different words with the same vowel sounds; two or more words with similar vowel sounds sandwiched between different consonants

In Brueghel's great picture, The Kermess,
the dancers go round, they go round and
around, the squeal and the blare and the
tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles
tipping their bellies (round as the thick-
sided glasses whose wash they impound)
their hips and their bellies off balance
to turn them. Kicking and rolling
about the Fair Grounds, swinging their butts, those
shanks must be sound to bear up under such
rollicking measures, prance as they dance
in Brueghel's great picture, The Kermess. William Carlos Williams

Asyndeton

Omission of normally occurring conjunctions (and, or, but, for, or, nor, yet, so) between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.  They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith: to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. General Douglas MacArthur

We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. John F. Kennedy

Cumulative sentence

Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence, and then builds and adds on; a sentence that begins with an independent clause and finishes with a series of dependent clauses

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course—both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war. John F. Kennedy

Climax

Figure of repetition in which words or phrases or sentences are arranged in order of increasing intensity or importance, often in parallel construction; words or phrases arranged by degrees of increasing significance.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.

Frank Borman

Chiasmus

A grammatical structure in which the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second, sometimes repeating the same words (from the Greek letter Chi or X).

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy

Ask not what your country can do for you,

╳

But what you can do for your country.

Euphemism

Figure used to transform an unpleasant, distasteful or repulsive expression into more socially acceptable terms.

Will: We're going to steal the ship? That ship?

Jack: Commandeer. We're going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term.

From Pirates of the Caribbean

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration of a person, thing, quality, event to emphasize a point; intentional exaggeration for rhetorical effect.

The only place where democracy comes before work is in the dictionary. Ralph Nader

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Inversion

Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of subject-verb-object order)

United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures.  Divided there is little we can do. John F. Kennedy

“Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.”

“Size matters not… Judge me by my size, do you?” 

Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Her mother is the lady of the house,

And a good lady, and wise and virtuous.

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my mind,

For them the gracious Duncan have I murther’d,

Put rancors in the vessel of my peace

Only for them… Shakespeare, Macbeth

Irony

In rhetoric, taking on another voice or role that states the opposite of what is expressed; when the character of the speaker or the nature of the subject is out of keeping with the words.

The new swimming pool and six more tennis courts were important additions to the Wilson University campus, even though the library funds had to be cut back.  After all, students, accustomed as they were to the country club life, would have been at a loss without their little luxuries.

Litotes (Understatement)

Intensification of an idea by understating it.

It wasn’t my best moment.

Albert Einstein knew a little bit about physics.

Metaphor

A comparison made by speaking of one thing in terms of another; an implied comparison between two different things which share at least one attribute in common; an association between two unlike things (A vs. B) achieved by borrowing the language that refers to thing A and applying it to thing B.

Why this country is a shining city on a hill. Mario Cuomo

True art is a conduit between body and soul… John Gardner

Metonymy

Substituting the name of one thing for another to which it is closely related.

The White House issued a statement…

(The White House stands in for the President or the administration.)

Good evening. Elvis Presley died today. He was 42. Apparently, it was a heart attack. He was found in his home in Memphis not breathing. His road manager tried to revive him—he failed. A hospital tried to revive him—it failed. His doctor pronounced him dead at three o'clock this afternoon.

NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor and David Brinkley

(The hospital stands in for the attending physician and health care workers.)

Oxymoron 

Figure that binds together two words that are ordinarily contradictory; a two-word paradox; two words with contrary or apparently contradictory meanings occurring next to each other, and, which, nonetheless, evoke some measure of truth; the figure conjures a new way of seeing or understanding, a novel meaning.

Safe sex—now there's an oxymoron. That's like 'tactical Nuke' or 'adult male.’

From Lover’s Knot

Paradox 

An apparent contradiction which, nonetheless, evokes some measure of truth; a statement which seems at one level to be nonsensical because it is a contradiction in terms.  At another level, however, it often creates a novel meaning.

The next time I have a daughter, I hope it’s a boy. From Bye Bye Birdie

He worked hard at being lazy.

What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young. George Bernard Shaw

Parallelism

A similarity in the syntactical structure of a set of words in successive phrases, clauses, sentences; successive words, phrases, clauses with the same or very similar grammatical structure. 

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. John F. Kennedy

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln

We have petitioned and our petitions have been scorned.  We have entreated and our entreaties have been disregarded.  We have begged and they have mocked when our calamity came.  We beg no longer.  We entreat no more.  We petition no more.  We defy them. William Jennings Bryan

Periodic Sentence

Sentence whose main clauses are withheld until the end; sentence ending with the independent clause.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support. John F. Kennedy

Personification 

Representation of abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities, including physical, emotional, and spiritual; the application of human attributes or abilities to nonhuman entities.

Once again, the heart of America is heavy. The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the very meaning of our land. Lyndon Johnson

Polysyndeton 

Intentional employment of a series of conjunctions (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet) not normally found in successive words, phrases, or clauses; the deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or clauses.

In years gone by, there were in every community men and women who spoke the language of duty and morality and loyalty and obligation. William F.Buckley

They all tasted to me like undersexed morons who had blundered or trickled into the wrong beds in automatic response to sexy advertisements, or to make themselves feel modern and emancipated, or to reassure themselves about their virility or their "normalcy," or...even because they had nothing else to do.

CS Lewis

Pun

A play on the meaning of words:

1) by repeating a single word in two different senses

2) by using words that sound alike but have different meanings

3) by using a single word with two different meanings within in the context of the sentence

But if we don’t hang together, we will hang separately. Ben Franklin

He couldn’t get his bearings in the Bering Strait.

The photograph that appeared in the London Times caused a royal flush.

Rhetorical Question 

Figure which asks a question, not for the purpose of further discussion, but to assert or deny an answer implicitly; a question whose answer is obvious or implied.

Sir, at long last, have you left no sense of decency? 

Joseph Welch, The Army-McCarthy Hearings

Simile

A comparison made in which two things that share at least one attribute are explicitly associated with each other; an overt comparison between two unlike things as though they were similar—usually with the words “like,” “as,” or “than.”

People in the streets see it now. They're running towards the East River—thousands of them dropping in like rats. Now the smoke's spreading faster. It's reached Times Square. People are trying to run away from it, but it's no use. They're falling like flies. from War of the Worlds

Synecdoche 

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

I should have been a pair of ragged claws 

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. T.S. Eliot

And I began a little quiet campaign of persuasion with certain editors, seeking to show the unlimited possibilities for education and amusement. One would have thought that we would find willing ears on the part of the newspapers.

Lee De Forest

Note: Two instances of synecdoche. The first uses a part (willing ears) to stand for the whole (persons in charge of making the decisions). The second uses a part (newspapers) to stand for the whole (newspaper companies).

Zeugma

Using two different words in a grammatically similar way but producing different, often incongruous, meanings.

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden. John F. Kennedy

She threw up her hands and her lunch.  

He lost his head and the throne.  

She stole my boyfriend and my favorite t-shirt.

Glossary compiled from:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/index.htm

The Language of Composition, Shea, Scanlon, Aufses