Rhetorical Devices

AP Language

Balance Schemes

 Purpose:  To evenly distribute focus of individual concepts within a scheme: it also helps with the “flow” of a piece.

Schemes involving Balance

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Parallelism



MOST COMMON!

The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns.

  

Parallelism of words Parallelism of phrases Parallelism of clauses

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Examples

Parallelism of words



“Exercise physiologists argue that body- pump aerobics sessions benefit a person’ s heart and lungs, muscles and nerves, and joints and cartilage.



Active verb Parallelism of phrases

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“Exercise physiologists argue that body- pump aerobics sessions help a person breathe more effectively, move with less discomfort, and avoid injury of muscles and cartilage.

Example



Parallelism of clauses

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“Exercise physiologists argue that body pump aerobics is the most efficient exercise class, that body-pump participants show greater gains in stamina then participants in comparable exercise programs, and that body-pump aerobics is less expensive in terms of equipment and training needed to lead or take classes.”

Zeugma (zoog-mah)

 A figure in which more than one item in a sentence is governed by a single word, usually a verb .

Examples of zeugma



“You held your breath and the door for me.”

~Alanis Morissette “Head Over Feet” 

“You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit.”

~Star Trek: Next Generation “He runs his mouth as much As his feet” ~Noah P.

Antithesis

 Parallel structure that juxtaposes contrasting ideas (placement of two things side by side for emphasis)  Antithesis of:    Words, Phrases Clauses



Examples of Antithesis

Of WORDS

“When distance runners reach the state they call the zone, they find themselves mentally

engaged

yet

detached

.

 Of PHRASES

“When distance runners reach the state they call the zone, they find themselves mentally

engaged with their physical surroundings

yet

detached from moment-to-moment concerns about their conditioning.”

Examples of Antithesis

 Of CLAUSES

“When distance runners reach the state they call the zone,

they find that they are empirically engaged with their physical surroundings about their conditioning

.” yet

they are also completely detached from moment-to-moment concerns



Balance

Antimetabole (anti-met-ab-olee)  Words are repeated in different grammatical forms.

 **Most rhetoricians claim that antimetable and chiasmus are similar tools of rhetoric.



Antimetabole examples resemble chiasmus examples as they are marked by the inversion of structure.

(literarydevices.net)

Antimetabole

   “We didn’t land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.”  Malcolm X Eat to live, not live to eat.”  Socrates “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” 

“Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country.” JFK



“You can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can’t take the honky tonk out of the girl.” Brooks and Dunn

Student Input:

   

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog”



(Tyler A.) “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood”



(James S.) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, a peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

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(Bridget S. and Brandi B.)

Schemes Involving INTERRUPTION

Necessary for on the spot information or ideas  Parenthesis (paren-the-ses)  an amplifying or explanatory word, phrase, or sentence inserted in a passage from which it is usually set off by punctuation

“Sports night at the school always brings out the would-be jocks—who would expect any different?—ready to show that they’re potentially as good as the varsity players.

Interruption

 Appositive  A word or phrase that renames the nearby noun or pronoun.

“Joe Weider, a pioneer in personal weight training, would marvel at the facilities open to today’s student athletes.”

Omission

  Purpose: Gives the sentence rhythm is heightened and often accelerated and so the reader will pay close attention to the potentially dramatic effect of the prose.

Omission

 Asyndeton (a-sin-da-ton) A writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses “He has provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect.” No “and”

OMISSION

 Polysyndeton  The deliberate use of many conjunctions between words, phrases, clauses   

They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked.

pg. 20 and 76 of The Glass Castle

Schemes Involving Repetition

“Don’t be repetitive, but use repetition.”  Purpose: Leads the reader to pay closer

attention, to see the writer as purposeful, forceful, even artistic.

Alliteration-

words following each other or close together that start with the same consonant sound

“Intramural hockey is a strenuous, stimulating, satisfying sport.

Repetition

Assonance (ass-o-nance) the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables (and sometimes in the following unstressed syllables) of neighboring words “A workout partner is f

i nally a k i nd, rel i able, r i ght-m i nded helper.”

Repetition

Anaphora (ana-for-a) Deliberate repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs

“ Exercise builds stamina exercise builds stamina in young children, in teenagers and young adults, exercise builds stamina older adults and senior citizens. in

Schemes involving Repetition

 Epistrophe (E-pis-tro-fee)  Repetition a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or versus especially for rhetorical or poetic effect.

To become a top-notch player, I thought like an athlete, I trained like an athlete, I ate like an athlete.

Repetition

 Anadiplosis (ana-dip-lo-sis)  Repetition of the last words at one clause and the beginning of the next clause.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. ~(Yoda to Anakin Skywalker)

Repetition

 Climax  Repetition of words, phrases, or clauses in order of increasing number or importance

Excellent athletes need to be respectful of themselves, their teammates, their schools, and their communities.

Comparison

 Purpose  Leads the reader to emphasize or downplay a particular topic and perhaps, achieve a better understanding

Comparison

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Synecdoche

Metaphor where the part stands for the whole: seems more literal

We decided we could rearrange the gym equipment if everyone would lend a hand.

Comparison



Metonymy

 A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated at a deeper level  (“crown for royalty; “lend me your heart”) Today, the White Announced that…”

Comparison



Personification:

Giving human qualities to something that is not human

The wind whispered through the pines.

Comparison

 Periphrasis (puh-RI-frah-suhs) A trope in which one substitutes a descriptive word or phrase for a proper noun

The New York Rangers and the New York Islanders vie to be the best hockey team in the Big Apple.

Schemes Involving Comparison



Metaphor:

 A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unlike things

Many an athletic contest is lost when the player’s mind is an idling engine.

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Comparison

Simile:

To compare two unlike things using the connecting words like or as

An athlete’s mind must be like a well tuned engine, in gear and responding to the twists and curves of the contest. (This sentence begins w/ simile and ends with implied metaphor.)

Word Play

 Purpose:  To attract reader’s attention

Tropes Involving Word Play

 Pun  The use of similar sounding words to create an alternate meaning to the sentence in which they are used.

When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye.

Word Play

 Anthimeria (anti-mer-ia)  One part of speech, usually a verb, that substitutes for another word, usually a noun (any novel change in a word’s use)

When the Little Leaguers lost the championship, they just needed to have a good cry before they could feel okay about their season.

Word Play

 Onomatopoeia (ono-mato-pia)  A word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.

The puck whizzed and zipped over the ice, then clattered into the goal.

Word Play

 Euphemism  Mild, indirect or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive terms 

“passed away” vs. “died”

Overstatement and Understatement

 Hyperbole (Hy-per-bowl-ee)  Also known as overstatement; exaggeration used to emphasize a point

He couldn’t make that shot again if he tried a million times.

Overstatement and Understatement

 Litotes (LYE-tuh-tees)  A particular form of understatement generated by denying the opposite of the word which would otherwise be used

Shutting out the opponents for three straight games is no big deal (NBD) .

Litotes Examples

 "Not bad." “Good”  "[…] no ordinary city “[ ] a very impressive city.

 "She is not as young as she once was." “She’s old.”

Management of Meaning

 Irony  The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

Their center is over seven feet tall- where

do they come up with these little pipsqueaks?

Management of Meaning

 Sarcasm  A style of bitter irony intended to hurt or mock its target

“Thanks for everything you did for us tonight” (when he really did nothing…).

Management of Meaning

 Oxymoron  A figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed paradox

When you have to face your best friend in competition, whoever wins feels an aching pleasure.

Jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, alone together Same difference, constant variable, unbiased opinion, pretty ugly, old news, freezer burn, organized chaos, living dead, plastic silverware

Management of Meaning

 Rhetorical Question  A question that is merely asked for effects

Hasn’t the state of intercollegiate athletics reached the point where the line between professionalism and amateurism is blurred?

Word Play

 Imperative Sentence  Sentence giving a command.

 And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. ~JFK  “We’re going into the attic now, folks. Keep your accessories with you at all times.” (Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story 3)

Imperative Sentence

 "You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith

that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be

changed." (Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream," August 1963)

Imperative Sentence

"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." (Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poets Society, 1989)