Figures Of Speech And Thought

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onomatopoeia

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(figure speech: trope) use of words whose sound echoes the sense “The spray was hissing hot, and a huge jet of water burst up from its midst.”

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antonomasia

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(figure speech: trope) use of a descriptive phrase for a proper name “the Bambino” for Babe Ruth

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metonymy

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(figure speech: trope) substitution of some attribute or suggestive word for what is actually meant “He was addicted to the bottle.”

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periphrasis

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(figure speech: trope) substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name, or vice versa “She may not have been a Penelope, but she was not unfaithful as the gossips made out.”

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hyperbaton

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(figure speech: trope) the transposition of a word to somewhere other than its ordinary place, often involving the separation of words belonging together “That is the kind of impertinence up with which I will not put.”

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hyperbole

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(figure speech: trope) the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect “His eloquence would split rocks.”

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synecdoche

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(figure speech: trope) where a part stands for the whole “All hands were summoned to the quarter-deck.”

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catachresis

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(figure speech: trope) use of words wrenched from common usage or meanings “I will speak daggers to her, but use none”

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metaphor

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(figure speech: trope) an implied comparison between two things of unlike nature that have something in common “On the final examination, several students went down in flames.”

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allegory

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(figure speech: trope) a sustained metaphor, where the substitution of analogous terms is continued through a narrative of some length “Because I could not stop not stop for Death,” (Dickens) where the coach, the horses, the destination, and the ride itself are identities in dispute

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simile

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(figure speech: trope) an explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature that have something in common “He had a posture like a question mark.”

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anthimeria

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(figure speech: trope) the substitution of one part of speech for another “I’ll unhair thy head.”

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auxesis

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(figure speech: trope) deliberate overstatement meant to magnify the significance of the subject; Brutus’ attack on Caesar “the most unkindest cut of all.”

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prothesis

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) adding a syllable in front of a word; beloved for loved

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epenthesis

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) adding a syllable in the middle of a word; visitating for visiting

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proparalepsis

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) adding a syllable at the end of the word; climature for climate

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aphaeresis

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) subtracting a syllable from the beginning of a word; ‘neath for beneath

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avncope

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) subtracting a syllable from the middle of a word; prosprous for prosperous

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apocope

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) subtracting a syllable from the end of a word; even for evening

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metathesis

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(figures of speech: schemes: words) transposition of letters in a word; clapse for clasp

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antistoecon

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(figures of speech: schemes words) change of sound; wrang for wrong

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anastrophe

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) inversion of the natural or usual word order “With folly no man is willing to confess himself very intimately acquainted.”

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parenthesis

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence “He tried—who could do more?—to restrain the fury of the mob.”

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apposition

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) placing side by side two coordinate elements, the second which serves as an explanation or modification of the first “Men of this kind—soldiers of fortune—expend their talents on trivialites.”

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apostrophe

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) interrupting a discussion to address someone, either the audience or some non-present person “In this Afric temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be a Nantucketer, and a whaleman, you will silently worship there.”

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metabasis

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) a summary, inserted as a paranthesis, into a longer sentence to clarify a developing discussion. It can also be a summary which serves as a transition from one section to another “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

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asyndeton

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) omission of conjunction where one would normally go “Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined.”

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polysyndeton

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) use of conjunction where one or more could normally be omitted “But Nature is so uncomfortable. Grass is hard and lumpy and damp and full of dreadful black insects.”

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anacoluthon

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) changing the grammatical construction in the middle of the sentence, so that it ends with a different grammatical structure then it began “I thank him that he cuts me from my tale, For I profess not talking only this—Let each man do his best.”

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ellipsis

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(figures of speech: schemes: constructions) omission of a word readily supplied from the context “When in doubt, play trumps.”

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synonymy

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) using synonyms to repeat the same idea in different terms “This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, this earth of majest, this seat of Mars, this other eden, demi-paradise…”

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pun: antanaclasis

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of a word in two different senses “Learn a craft so that when you grow older you will not have to earn your living by craft.”

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pun: paronomasia

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) use of words alike in sound but different in meaning “RCA—a sound tradition.”

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homoioteleuton

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) using words having the same or similar ending sounds in a sentence “God would put in His preachers a care of delivering God’s messages, with consideration, with mediation, with preparation;”

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zeugma

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) use of one word, usually but not necessarily a verb, to govern more than one parallel phrase or clause “Her beauty pierced mine eye, her speech mine woeful heart.”

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pun: syllepsis

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words “He lost his hat and his temper.”

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anaphora

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of same word or groups of words at the beginnings of successive clauses “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and the streets, we shall fight in the hills.”

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antistrophe

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of the same words or words at the end of successive clauses “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.”

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symploce

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of one word or words at the beginning and another word or words at the end of successive phrases or clauses “The white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled.”

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anadiplosis

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of the last word one clause at the beginning of the succeeding clause “Labor and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry.”

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climax

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance “Let a man acknowledge obligations to his family, his country, and God.”

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chiasmus

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order “One should eat to live, not live to eat.”

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alliteration

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of initial sounds or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words “The nattering nabobs of negativity.”

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assonance

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) the repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in stressed syllables of adjacent words “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying kind—“

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epanalepsis

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition at the end of a cluse of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause “Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows…”

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polyptoton

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(figures of speech: schemes: repetition) repetition of words derived from the same root “Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are.”

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isocolon

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(figures of speech: schemes: balance) any parallel structure, that is, similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words and equal length “I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither the bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill…”

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antithesis

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(figures of speech: schemes: balance) the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure “That’s one small step for man; one giant step for mankind.”

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parallelism

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(figures of speech: schemes: balance) similarity of structure in a pair or series or related words “He tried to make the law equitable, precise, and comprehensive.”

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interrogatio

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(figures of thought) a rhetorical question, one which implies an answer but is not meant to elicit one “Am I to believe every absurdity? If not, why this one in particular?”

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hypophora

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(figures of thought) using rhetorical questions to disarm or discredit one’s opponent in an adversarial way “An this—say you?—will make monotony? You are mistaken, completely mistaken.”

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ratiocinatio

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(figures of thought) reasoning by question and answer “Honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take to take the grief of a wound? No.”

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prolepsis

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(figures of thought) anticipating and replying to possible objections to one’s position “You might object that…But in fact…”

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paralepsis

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(figures of thought) pretending to avoid discussing something, but often emphasize it by doing so “The music, the service at the feast, the noble gifts for the great and small, the rich adornment of Theseus’ palace…all these things I do not mention now.”

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durbatio

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(figures of thought) showing or pretending to show doubt about an issue “I know not whether God will have it so For some displeasing service I have done,…But thou dost in thy passages of life Make me believe that thou are only marked For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven To punish my mistreatings.”

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correctio

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(figures of thought) correcting a word or phrase, either before it is used or after “You brother, no, no brother, yet the son, Yet not the son, I will not call him son, Of him I was about to call his father.”

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concessio

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(figures of thought) conceding a point to strengthen one’s position “You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”

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paradox

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(figures of thought) a seemingly contradictory statement that contains a revealing truth “Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.”

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oxymoron

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(figures of thought) the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory “A thundering silence”; “A cruel kindness”; “A sweet pain”

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parrhesia

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(figures of thought) speaking frankly or bluntly in a position where the speaker would normally not do so “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die…’ Nathan said to David ‘You are the man.’”

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litotes

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(figures of thought) deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive but to enhance the impressiveness of what we say “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”

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prosopopoeia

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(figures of thought) personification, representing animals or inanimate entities with human characteristics “The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.”

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enargeia

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(figures of thought) vivid scene painting, particularly visual description

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irony

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(figures of thought) use of a word a way such to convey a meaning opposite the literal “For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men.”

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ethopoeia

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(figures of thought) vivid character portrayal or description of a person