The figures--The term figure in its most general meaning refers to any device or pattern of language in which meaning is enhanced or changed. The term has two subcategories:
a. Trope: use of a word to
mean something other than its ordinary meaning--a Metaphor, for example.
b. Scheme: a figure in which words preserve
their literal meaning, but are placed in a significant arrangement of some
kind.
2. Figure of thought: a large-scale trope or scheme, or a combination of both.
--Richard A. Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms (2nd ed) summarizing Quintilian's classification
Terms defined in this document (click on any word to see its definition):
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I reprint this here, in the hope that the summary view it presents may
helpstudents of rhetoric learn some of these terms a little more easily.
The most complete and judicious modern list of rhetorical terms and definitions
is Lanham's. Anyone wanting further information on any of these tropes
and
figures should go there.
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I. FIGURES OF WORDS A. THE TROPES--ten tropes (from Crowley, 213-218) onomatopoeia--invention of new words or use of existing words that in some way imitate the sound of what they refer to: as in the description of a hive of bees "brushed with the hiss of rustling wings" (Milton). antonomasia--use of a descriptive phrase for a proper name: "the Bambino" for Babe Ruth; Benedick calls Claudio "Monsieur Love" (Much Ado) metonymy--naming something with a word or phrase closely associated with it, the cause for effect, the proper name for one of its qualities, and vice versa: "Buckingham Palace" or "the crown" to refer to the royal family; "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" (Churchill). See synecdoche. periphrasis--circumlocution, speaking more fully than strictly required. Common in poetry, as in familiar periphrases for sleep--"death's other self," or prayer- -"the heart in paraphrase, soul in pilgrimage." Also found elsewhere, as in Winston Churchill's answer to a dumb question, "the answer to your question, sir, is in the plural, and they bounce." hyperbaton--transposition of a word to somewhere other than its ordinary place, often involving the separation of two or more words belonging together. Churchill mocked a grammarian who corrected a sentence ending with a preposition with "That is the kind of impertinence up with which I will not put." See also the schemes of unusual word order, below. hyperbole--self-conscious exaggeration, deliberate overstatement not meant to be taken literally. Falstaff tells the Prince, "When I was thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring." (1 Henry IV) synecdoche--using the part to stand for the whole or vice versa; Corbett gives four types:
Corbett also points out that "metonymy and synecdoche are so close to being the same trope that George Campbell . . . wondered whether we should make any great effort to distinguish them." This is worth keeping in mind. catachresis--use of words wrenched from common usage or meanings; "I will speak daggers to her, but use none" (Hamlet); Donne has parting lovers "melt," rather than part or separate. Notice that this trope often implies a metaphor. metaphor--use of one term or phrase for another, unrelated but analogous one. "That time of year thou may'st in me behold, / When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang" says the aging speaker of Shakespeare's sonnet, combining metaphor with anastrophe. See also simile. allegory--a sustained metaphor, that is, one where the substitution of analogous terms is continued through a narrative of some length. Formal allegory in the literary sense includes works like Everyman, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Orwell's Animal Farm. Examples of less formal allegory which fit the rhetorical definition range from the parables of Jesus to poems like Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death," in which the identities of Death the coachman and the "I" appear stable, while the coach, the horses, the destination, and the ride itself seem to be open for considerable debate and interpretation. Since allegory always involves more than a single word or phrase, most authorities do not include it with the tropes. Quintilian calls it a "figure of thought."
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OTHER TROPES USUALLY INCLUDED IN LISTS
simile--a comparison made using specific comparative
terms, such as "like" or "as." Crowley defines simile
on 188, but appears to lump simile with metaphor. If
there is a difference, it is that simile emphasizes
likeness ("My love is like a red red rose") while
metaphor may assert or suggest identity.
anthimeria--substitution of one part of speech for
another; Shakespeare gives us lots of examples:
But me no buts. (conjunction for a verb)
Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence. (noun for a verb)
The thunder would not peace at my bidding. (noun for a verb)
Or this, more recently: "Me, dictionary-ing heavily,
'Where was the one they were watching?'" (Hemingway).
Linguists call this "conversion."
auxesis--deliberate overstatement meant to magnify the
significance of the subject: the betrayed King Lear
calls his daughters "tigers, not daughters"; Marc
Antony calls Brutus' attack on Caesar "the most
unkindest cut of all."
RETURN TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE B. THE SCHEMES i. Schemes of Words (not in Crowley) prothesis--adding a letter or syllable at the beginning of a word: "irregardless" for "regardless" epenthesis--adding a letter or syllable in the middle of a word: "orientated" for "oriented" paragoge--adding a letter or syllable at the end of a word: "climature" for "climate" or "scientifical" for "scientific" aphaeresis--subtracting a syllable from the beginning of a word: "'neath" for "beneath"; "'round" for "around" syncope--subtracting letters or syllables from the middle of a word: "Worcester" is pronounced "Wooster" apocope--subtracting a letter or syllable from the end of a word: "even" for "evening"; "oft" for "often" metathesis--transposing sounds or letters in a word: "aks" for "ask" antistoecon--change of sound in a word: "strond" for "strand" RETURN TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE
ii. Schemes of Construction
a. Schemes of unusual or inverted word order
(hyperbaton)--Crowley (200-201)
parenthesis (200)--insertion of a word, phrase or
clause inside a complete sentence: "But Miss Bart, it
appeared, really did want to know about Americana"
(Edith Wharton).
apposition (200-201)--insertion of a parenthesis which
describes or comments on the first part of the
sentence:
After the Otho the emperor had slain himself, Pity
(which is the tenderest of affections) provoked many
to die, out of mere compassion to their sovereign,
and as the truest sort of followers. --Bacon
In grammar, apposition refers specifically to cases
where a noun modifies another noun: "the president,
Mr. Clinton" or "my teacher, Professor Smith"
apostrophe (201)--interrupting a discussion to address
someone, either the audience or some nonpresent person:
Thy age, like ours, O soul of Sir John Cheke,
Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taughtst Cambridge, and King Edward, Greek.
--Milton
"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"
--Melville
metabasis (201)--a summary, inserted as a parenthesis,
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" (St. Paul).
asyndeton (201)--omission of conjunction(s) where one
would normally go:
Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight
Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined.
--Milton
When he first thought about him it was always the eyes.
The big frame, the quick movements, the wide shoulders,
the hooked, hawk nose, the beard that covered the weak
chin, you never thought about--it was always the eyes.
--Hemingway
polysyndeton (201)--use of conjunction(s) where one or
more could normally be omitted: "Softness, and peace,
and joy, and love, and bliss" (Herbert).
But Nature is so uncomfortable. Grass is hard and
lumpy and damp and full of dreadful black insects.
--Wilde
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Other schemes not in Crowley
anacoluthon--changing the grammatical construction in
the middle of the sentence, so that it ends with a
different grammatical structure than it began with:
As for thy passion--But of that anon,
When with the other I have done. --Herbert
I thank him that he cuts me from my tale,
For I profess not talking: only this--
Let each man do his best. --Shakespeare
anastrophe--unusual word order, often involving an
inversion of the usual pattern of the sentence: "Bliss
was it in that time to be alive" (Wordsworth)
Brief I shall endeavor to be, for that which I have
to say assuredly this nation hath extreme need should
be done rather than spoken. --Milton
ellipsis--omission of a word readily supplied from the
context: "And he to England shall along with you"
(Hamlet); "And so to bed" (Pepys).
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b. Schemes of repetition--Crowley (202-206)
synonymy (202)--using synonyms to repeat the same idea
in different terms:
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise . . .
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this
England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings.
--Shakespeare
This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be.
It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is
a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it
rests in peace. . . . It's rung down the curtain
and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot.
--Monty Python
paronomasia (202)--play on two or more words or phrases
which sound similar, but are not the same; a kind of
pun: "If reasons (pronounced like "raisins") were as
plentiful as blackberries, I would not give you my
reason" (Falstaff in 1 Henry IV); "I love a lass--
alas!" (Spenser). Often called a trope.
antanaclasis (203)--the same word used in two different
senses; another kind of pun: "If we don't hang
together, we'll hang separately" (Ben Franklin). The
word does not have to be used twice: "Here, take this
pencil and draw the blinds!" (Spike Milligan). Often
called a trope.
homoioteleuton (203)--using words having the same or
similar ending sounds in a sentence or phrase: "the
long habit of living indisposes us for dying" (Browne);
[God] would put in [His preachers] a care of
delivering God's messages, with consideration,
with meditation, with preparation; and not
barbarously, not suddenly, not occasionally, not
extemporarily. --Donne
In poetry this is called rhyme.
zeugma (203)--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" (Puttenham);
Could the body achieve it [unity with the beloved],
or the mind, subtly mingling in the intricate
passages of the brain? or the heart?
--Virginia Woolf
Sometimes it is a simple figure of omission (a kind of
ellipsis); but often zeugma involves a subtle and
sometimes witty shift of meaning in the way the shared
word relates to the clauses that govern it. Crowley
quotes the famous example from Pope:
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.
Or the line about the poker-playing surgeon who would
"rather lose a patient than a hand." Zeugma is often
called a trope; since it always involves the omission
of a word in one of the phrases, it is hard to know why
Crowley classes it among the schemes of repetition;
more properly, it may belong with ellipsis in the
schemes of unusual word order. An excellent discussion
of zeugma (and its close relative, syllepsis) can be
found in Wimsatt.
syllepsis--like zeugma, but the shared word is
grammatically or idiomatically incompatible with one of
the clauses that govern it: "Jane has murdered her
father, and may you too" (Corbett).
epanaphora (203)--repetition of the same word or words
at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses (also
called anaphora):
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the
landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the hills.
--Winston Churchill
Why should white people be running all the stores in our
community? Why should white people be running the banks
of our community? Why should the economy of our
community be in the hands of the white man? Why?
--Malcom X
antistrophe (192)--repetition of the same word or words
at the end of successive phrases or clauses (Crowley
[203] calls this epiphora): "When I was a child, I
spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as
a child" (1 Corinthians).
symploce (203)--repetition of one word or words at the
beginning and another word or words at the end of
successive phrases or clauses; a combination of
epanaphora and antistrophe:
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. --Malcom X
anadiplosis (203-204)--repetition of a word from the
end of one line or clause to begin the next line or
clause:
But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time's fool,
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. --Shakespeare
climax (204)--placing a series of phrases or clauses in
order of increasing importance, often by repeating key
terms using anadiplosis:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he
called, them he also justified, and whom he
justified, them he also glorified. --Romans 8
antimetabole (206)--pairing, usually for contrast, two
phrase or clauses which mirror one another; that is,
where the first unit has the structure A B, the second
will reverse the order to B A: "Ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
country" (J. F. Kennedy); "Life imitates art far more
than art imitates life" (Wilde); "If I don't eat soon
then I'll die. And if I die . . . then I won't eat
soon" (Spike Milligan); "This man I thought had been a
lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among
lords" (Dr. Johnson on Lord Chesterfield). This is also
called chiasmus.
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Other schemes not in Crowley. alliteration--recurrence of an initial sound, usually but not necessarily a consonant, in two or more words: "That winter is washed away" (Stevens). "The nattering nabobs of negativism" (Spiro Agnew). assonance--repetition of identical or similar internal vowels in nearby words; many stock phrases use this: "hit or miss," "old bones" etc; "the time is always ripe to do right" (Martin Luther King). epanalepsis--repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of the same clause or sentence: "Nothing will come of nothing" (King Lear). polyptoton--repeating different words from the same root, usually with a different ending or form: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" (F.D.Roosevelt). "Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are" (Kennedy). RETURN TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE
c. Schemes of Balance isocolon (204)--(i) any parallel structure, that is, similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words:
. . . a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal --Lincoln
(ii) more specifically, phrases or clauses of parallel structure and approximately equal length:
I returned and saw under the sun that the race is
not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to
men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
of skill; but time and chance happeneth to all.
--Ecclesiastes
antithesis (205)--the joining of opposite or
contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind" (Neil Armstrong);
O Zelmane, dost thou offer me physic, who art my
only poison? Or wilt thou do me service, who hast
already brought me into eternal slavery?
--Sidney, Arcadia
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II. FIGURES OF THOUGHT
interrogatio (207)--a rhetorical question, one which
implies an answer but is not meant to elicit one:
"What obligation lay on me to be popular?" (Edmund
Burke); or Benedick listening cynically to a love song:
"Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls
out of men's bodies?" (Shakespeare, Much Ado about
Nothing).
hypophora (207)--using rhetorical question to disarm or
discredit one's opponent in an adversarial way: "And
this--say you?--will make monotony? You are mistaken,
completely mistaken" (Max Beerbohm).
ratiocinatio (207)--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 away the
grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in
surgery then? No. What is honor? A word. What
is in that word honor? What is that honor?
Air--a trim reckoning. --Falstaff, in 1 Henry IV
prolepsis (208)--anticipating and replying to possible
objections to one's position: "You might object that .
. . But in fact . . ."
paralepsis (208)--pretending to avoid discussing
something (but often emphasizing 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 . . .
[six lines omitted]
all these things I do not mention now.
--Chaucer, Knight's Tale
dubitatio (208)--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 art only marked
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven
To punish my mistreadings.
--Henry IV, in 1 Henry IV
correctio (209)--correcting a word or phrase, either
before it is used or after:
Your 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.
--Shakespeare
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea more than married are.
--Donne
concessio (209)--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 contront the issue. --M. L. King
paradox (209)--a seemingly contradictory statement that
contains a revealing truth: "There are wonders in true
affection: it is a body of enigmas, mysteries and
riddles, wherein two so become one, as they both become
two" (Sir Thomas Browne). Endless paradoxes are found
in Wilde; for example, "If one tells the truth, one is
sure, sooner or later, to be found out"; and "Religions
die when they are proved to be true. Science is the
record of dead religions."
oxymoron (209)--joining of two contradictory terms; it
condenses a paradox and often has an ironic overtone:
"darkness visible" (Milton); "Feather of lead, bright
smoke, cold fire, sick health!" moans the lovesick
Romeo; the ironies come out loud and clear in "military
intelligence," "business ethics," "campus food,"
"academic administration," etc.
parrhesia (209)--speaking frankly or bluntly in a
position where the speaker would normally not do so
(before a king, judge, etc.); so the prophet Nathan
before King David:
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."
--2 Samuel 12
litotes--deliberate understatement meant to intensify
what is being said: "It isn't very serious. I have
this tiny little tumor on the brain" (Salinger, Catcher
in the Rye). Often this figure works by denying the
contrary: "I am a citizen of no mean city" (St. Paul).
prosopopoeia--personification, representing animals or
inanimate entities with human characteristics:
Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb. --Shakespeare
The other houses of the street, conscious of
decent lives within them, gazed at one another
with brown imperturbable faces.
--Joyce, "Araby"
enargeia (211)--vivid scene painting, particularly
visual description.
irony (211-2)--language which conveys or suggests a
meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the words:
"For Brutus is an honorable man" (Marc Antony in Julius
Caesar).
ethopoeia (212)--vivid character portrayal or
description of a person.
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Works used: Besides Crowley's chapter, I have relied very heavily on the first two works below for definitions and examples: Richard A. Lanham. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. 2nd ed. Berkeley: U California P, 1991. This is the most scholarly, complete and accurate list of the whole range of ancient, medieval and renaissance rhetorical terms that I know. It is so complete that it mirrors some of the confusions and shifting definitions in the 2000-year history of classical rhetoric rather too effectively; as a result, it is not as easy to use as it should be. But it is very much worth consulting. Edward P. J. Corbett. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford U P, 1971. Corbett's text was intended for the composition class, so his list of terms is much less complete than Lanham's, but his explanations of all the figures are helpful, when accurate, and his ordering of the schemes, which I partly follow, is better than Crowley's. W. K. Wimsatt, Jr. "Rhetoric and Poems: Alexander Pope." rpt. in The Verbal Icon. Louisville: U Kentucky P, 1954. An early literary critical application of rhetorical analysis to literature, still quite useful and insightful.
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