updated 24 February 2006
REVIEW
73 RHETORICAL TERMS WITH EXAMPLES: 2006

With examples provided by students enrolled in ENGL 5730 in Spring 2006 and submitted, in phase one, by the evening of Feb. 6; and, in phase two, by Feb. 12th.   Selections (i.e., those included as well as those excluded) have been guided by students' evaluations of the terms.  For the sake of variety--and, in a few cases, accuracy--some examples have been matched with terms other than those originally submitted.  On a few occasions, negative examples have been included: knowing what a term does not mean can be just as valuable as knowing what it does mean.  (Students' contributions are in Times Roman font; Nordquist's comments are in Tahoma.)   Terms beginning A-H are on this page.  Terms I-Z are here.

How to use this page: After studying the example(s) accompanying each rhetorical term below, try to compose a clear and accurate definition of the term.  Better yet, write down your definition.  Then click on the term to compare your definition with the one in our online glossary.

*  If you spot any errors in the transcription of quotations that you sent me, please notify me as soon as possible via e-mail.  Also, I've tried to credit all contributors by including your initials at the end of your examples: let me know if I've inadvertently misattributed or failed to attribute any of your  contributions. 

TERMS A-H

Accumulation
--"I’m a modern man, digital and smoke-free;
a man for the millennium. 

A diversified, multi-cultural, post-modern deconstructionist;
politically, anatomically and ecologically incorrect. 

I’ve been uplinked and downloaded,
I’ve been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing,
I know the downside of upgrading. 

I’m a high-tech low-life.
a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art,
bi-coastal multi-tasker,
and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond. 

I’m new-wave, but I’m old-school;
and my inner child is outward bound.
I’m a hot-wired, heat-seeking,
warm-hearted cool customer;
voice-activated and biodegradable. . . ."
(George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops;
Link provided: http://mensch.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/a_modern_man.html.) [LH]
NOTE: See also postscript to first class meeting of the term (Jan. 9) at NOTES. Tip for remembering accumulation: think of the last time you were in a quarrel when somebody began "piling up" your various offences over the past months or even years.

Alliteration
TERMS EXERCISE (ASSIGNMENTS, Feb. 6): " . . . And your great challenge is to find examples of some of the less obvious (and perhaps more difficult to remember) terms.  If you submit sorry examples of terms (such as alliteration and fable) that we have known all of our lives, I will deduct points and ridicule you mercilessly on this web site. . . ."  In other words, we don't need more examples of alliteration or cliche or fable.

Anadiplosis
--“The years to come seemed waste of breath,/waste of breath the years behind.”   (“An Irish Airman Foresees his Death,” W. B. Yeats) [MC]
--“I am Sam, Sam I am....”  (Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham)  [AlB]
NOTE: As some of you have pointed out (and as these examples demonstrate) anadiplosis calls for exact repetition.  NOTE THAT WHEN ANADIPLOSIS IS EXTENDED BEYOND TWO CLAUSES IT BECOMES GRADATIO.

Analogy
--“From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Jeopardy" comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.”
(Roy Ashley, Washington from "Worst analogies ever written in a high school essay" at website http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/analogies.html ) [AlB]

Anaphora
--“They have a right to do justice, as between their fellows, whether their fellows are in public function or in ordinary occupation. They have a right to the fruits of their industry; and to the means of making their industry fruitful. They have a right to the acquisitions of their parents.
(Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France) [SR]

Anticlimax
“For God, for country, and for Yale.” [MC]
NOTE: Though some Yale alumni/ae might disagree with this example, consider the expectations that are generally created by the first two items in a tricolon--and why the final item here might be perceived as "a bathetic declension." 

Antithesis
--"This world is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel." (Horace Walpole) [ET]
NOTE the full definition of antithesis: "contrasting ideas in balanced phrases" (i.e., phrase parallel to phrase, clause parallel to clause).  It does not simply mean "contrast."  Lisa's example (#7) from The House at Pooh Corner nicely illustrates enthymeme, but there are no antithetical statements in the passage she quotes.

Antonomasia
--Jerry:     The guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the     ordering procedure. He's secretly referred to as the Soup Nazi.
   Elaine:   Why? What happens if you don't order right?
   Jerry:     He yells and you don't get your soup.  (Seinfeld) [AF]

Apophasis
--"I don't need to remind you that the first assignment in the course was to read the syllabus--which explains, among other things, how to schedule appointments, how to keep track of handouts when you miss a class, and how to succeed in English 5730."   (Nordquist) [RN]
NOTE: apophasis is a species of irony, a trope much favored by wise-guy professors.

Aporia
--"I can't tell you how often writers use aporia."  
(a "horribly delivered joke" by Prof. Taylor of AASU) [NS]

Aposiopesis
--“I made an A in my--I almost forgot to call my mom.”  [TG]

Apostrophe
NOTE: The following quotation is not an example of apostrophe:
“O Romeo, Romeo!  Wherefore art thou Romeo?”  (Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet)
Why not?  Because Romeo is right in front of (or directly below) Juliet when she poses this rhetorical question.   "Wherefore" means "why," not "where."  See "Somewhere the Bard Weeps."
The following quotation is an example of apostrophe:
--"O stranger of the future!
O inconceivable being!
whatever the shape of your house,
however you scoot from place to place,
no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear,
I bet nobody likes a wet dog either.
I bet everyone in your pub,
even the children, pushes her away."
(Billy Collins, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now") [LM]

Asyndeton
--Pavement slipp’ry, people sneezing,/ Lords in ermine, beggars freezing;/ Titles glutons dainties carving,/ Genius in a garret starving.
(“January, 1795” by Mary Robinson) [MC]
--Bubba: "Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it."  (Forrest Gump) [AF]   

Bdelygmia
TIP: remember that bdelygmia is a litany of abuse.  There's a good example from Dr. Seuss in the glossary.  And here's one from Monty Python:
Q:   WHAT DO YOU WANT?
M:   Well, I was told outside that...
Q:   Don't give me that, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!
M:   What?
Q:   Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, maloderous, pervert!!!
M:   Look, I CAME HERE FOR AN ARGUMENT, I'm not going to just stand...!!
Q:   OH, oh I'm sorry, but this is abuse.
M:   Oh, I see, well, that explains it.
Q:   Ah yes, you want room 12A, Just along the corridor.
M:   Oh, Thank you very much. Sorry.
Q:   Not at all.
M:   Thank You.
(Under his breath) Stupid git!!
(Monty Python, "The Argument Clinic")
NOTE: Don't confuse bdelygmia with categoria (which is direct but not usually abusive) or with tapinosis (which is usually just a single demeaning word or phrase.

Catachresis
NOTE: One (usually inadvertent) species of catachresis is the mixed metaphor: visit the Mixed Metaphors page for dozens of examples.
Another variety (more often used deliberately) is a seemingly far-fetched or apparently incongruous figure of speech--keeping in mind that such evaluations are largely dependent on context.  The title and opening line of Thomas Campion's poem "There Is a Garden in Her Face" would be an example.   You'll find a good article on catachresis at e-Rhetoric Wiki (scroll down to the bottom of the page).   Finally, is Alex's line from the Beatles song--"We all live in a yellow submarine"--an example of catachresis?  Listeners may disagree (as some of you did): if you hear Lennon's lyric as just one element in a nonsense song, you'll probably say "yes--it's catachresis"; on the other hand, if you see (or hear) a metaphorical resemblance between "yellow submarine" and a once common hallucinogenic drug that was packaged in a slim yellow capsule, you might not find the trope so far-fetched after all.   

Categoria
--“Cooper’s word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but it is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending to say, but you also perceive that he doesn’t say it. This is Cooper.”
(Mark Twain, "Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences") [AW]
--“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” (Kanye West) [ArB]

Chiasmus
--“Virtue that transgresses is but patch’d with sin, and sin that amends is but patch’d with virtue.”
(Feste in Twelfth Night, I. v. 48-9.) [SR]
NOTE: Certainly parallel, arguably antithetical, and clearly characterized by epanalepsis, this line is not a perfect chiasmus--"transgresses" in the first half is replaced by "amends" in the second--but Virtue-Sin and Sin-Virtue do form the X pattern of a chiasmus, and that's close enough for rhetorical horseshoes.

Cliche
See alliteration.

Climax
--“But we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.” (St. Paul, the Bible) NOTE: This example has been lifted from Silvae Rhetoricae.
NOTE: This seemingly simple term--climax--along with a group of associated terms, including auxesis, accumulation, and a dozen others not in our glossary--is complicated by the fact that over the past 2,500 years various rhetoricians have defined these terms in some very different ways (true of most terms in our glossary).  In A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, Richard Lanham spends three pages trying to puzzle out the distinctions--and then metaphorically throws up his hands.  Here's my tip: think of accumulation as the broadest term of the three--a collection of items which may or may not provide a sense of "mounting" toward a high point; think of climax as a series of word-groups (phrases, clauses, or entire sentences) that build, in parallel form, toward a high point (i.e., the climax); and, finally, think of auxesis as a series of individual words that build (emotionally and/or logically) toward a high point.  This explanation is over-simplified (and it means that what we call anti-climax might at times more appropriately be called anti-auxesis) but it should serve our basic analytical needs.] 

Commoratio
--“Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most out of what you have.  It is later than you think.” (Horace) [NP]
--"'He’s gone off his rocker!' shouted one of the fathers, aghast, and the other parents joined in the chorus of frightened shouting.  'He’s crazy!' they shouted.            'He’s balmy!'             'He’s nutty!'             'He’s screwy!'             'He’s batty!'             'He’s dippy!'             'He’s dotty!'             'He’s daffy!'
'He’s goofy!'             'He’s beany!'             'He’s buggy!'             'He’s wacky!'           'He’s loony!'   
'No, he is not!' said Grandpa Joe."
(Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) [AF]

Complex sentence
NOTE: I'm leaving out grammatical terms, which by now you should know inside and out.  [And that, of course, is an example of a complex sentence.] 

Crot
TIP: Don't worry about this one for now: we'll find some good examples when we read excerpts from Tom Wolfe later in the term.

Diacope
--"We give thanks to Thee, 0 God, we give thanks . . . .”   (Psalm 75:1, NASB) [KP]
--“All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!”   (Shakespeare, Tempest)
NOTE: The citation for this example should be Silva Rhetoricae.   Consider how this brief quotation might also be used to illustrate epimone.

Dialectic
JERRY: I think Superman probably has a very good sense of humor.
GEORGE: I never heard him say anything really funny.
JERRY: But it's common sense. He's got super strength, super speed.  I'm sure he's got super humor.
GEORGE: You would think that, but either you're born with a sense of humor, or you're not. It's not going to change even if you go from the red sun of Krypton all the way to the yellow sun of the Earth.
JERRY: Why? Why would that one area of his mind not be affected by the yellow sun of Earth?
GEORGE: I don't know, but he ain't funny.
(Seinfeld) [AF]

Distinctio
Socrates: If I went on to say: “Tell me, what is this very thing, Meno, in which they all are the same and do not differ from one another?” Would you be able to tell me? 
Meno: I would. 
Socrates: The same is true in the case of the virtues. Even if they are many and various, all of them have one and the same from which makes them virtues, and it is right to look to this when one is asked to make clear what virtue is. Or do you not understand what I mean?
(Plato’s Meno)  [MC]
[NOTE: I'm not persuaded that this brief excerpt from Plato's Meno adequately illustrates distinctio, but certainly the dialogue as a whole (in which Aristotle seeks to clarify the meaning of "virtue") is a rich, extended example of distinctio.]

Dysphemism
--"Wendy, darling. Light of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya... I'm just gonna bash your brains in."  
(Jack Nicholson, The Shining)

Effectio
NOTE: The following example might be used to illustrate epithet (because "dumb" is an adjective that frequently precedes "blonde" and "blonde jokes"; "dumb blonde" is also an example of antonomasia.  As Stephanie Roberts has pointed out, this is also a good example of enthymeme.  However, Parton's remark is not a particularly apt example of effectio: compare Dolly Parton's witty observation to Maya Angelou's poem to determine why.
--“I'm not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde.”  [LH]
(Dolly Parton)

Energia
--"Don’t you ever laugh as a hearse goes by/For you may be the next to die/The bury you up in a big black box/And cover you up with dirt and rocks/All goes well for ‘bout a week /And then your coffin begins to leak/The worms crawl in/The worms crawl out/The worms play pinochle on your snout/They eat your eyes/They eat your nose/They eat the jelly between your toes . . .."
(from a song we used to sing as kids about being buried) [LM]

Enthymeme
--"Senator Quayle, I knew Jack Kennedy. I worked with Jack Kennedy. And I can tell you, you’re no Jack Kennedy."
(Lloyd Bentsen) [BC]
[This same example appears at Wikipedia, Changing Minds.org, Reference.com, About.com, et al.  Better--and more original--examples appear in our ad analyses: see, for instance, the ads for Jim Beam and McGriddles.]

Epanalepsis
“Strong I am with the Force, but not that strong.”
(Yoda in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) [TG]

Epicrisis
--“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident,’ they said, ‘that all men are created equal.’ Strange as it may seem, that was the first time in history that anyone had ever bothered to write that down. Decisions are made by those who show up.”
(Martin Sheen as President Bartlet in The West Wing) [SR]
--“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (Matthew 5:43) [LM]

Epideictic
--"I weep for Adonais-he is dead!/ O, weep for Adonais! Though our tears/ Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!/ And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years/ To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers,/ And teach them thine own sorrow, say: with me/ Died Adonais; till the Future dares/ Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be/ An echo and light unto eternity!"
(“Adonais” by Percy Bysshe Shelley) [MC]
-- [NP]

Epimone
--"Then since I do believe in spirits, as you admit, if spirits are gods, this is what I mean when I say you speak in riddles and in jest, as you state that I do not believe in gods and then again that I do, since I do believe in spirits. If, on the other hand, the spirits are children of the gods, bastard children of the gods by nymphs or some other mothers, as they are said to be, what man would believe children of the gods to exist, but not gods? That would be just as absurd as to believe the young of horses and asses, namely mules, to exist, but not to believe in the existence of horses and asses. You must have made this disposition, Meletus, either to test us or because you were at a loss to find any true wrongdoing of which to accuse me. There is no way in which you could persuade anyone of even small intelligence that it is possible for one and the same man to believe in spiritual but not also in divine things, and then again for that same man to believe neither in spirits nor in gods nor in heroes."
(Plato’s Apology) [MC]

Epiphora
-- The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and a**hole holy!
Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!"        |
(Allen Ginsberg, “A Footnote to Howl") [ArB]
NOTE: For those unfamiliar with this "beat" poet, stylistically Ginsberg was a mid-twentieth-century reincarnation of Walt Whitman; his long poem Howl is essentially a series of lists. 

Epiplexis
--"Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" (Job 3:11)  [NS]  [KC]
NOTE: The citation for this example should be Silva Rhetoricae. See also "Beginning with epis," by Bill Long.
--"How long, How long must we sing this song? How long?"
(U2, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday") [SD]
NOTE: This rhetorical question might also serve to illustrate both diacope and epizeuxis--but not erotesis.  

Epithet
TIP: think of "common epithets."

Epizeuxis
--"Here he is! The one and only winner of the Gemini Croquet contest! This boy is fueled, like FIRE! So start melting ladies 'cause the boy is hotter than hot. He's hot Hot! HOT!!" (delivered by Chris Tucker, from the movie The 5th Element)     [NS]
--“back back back in the back of your mind
are you learning an angry language…
back back back in the dark of your mind
where the eyes of your demons are gleaming
are you mad mad mad
about the life you never had
even when you are dreaming”
(Ani Difranco, “Back back back”) [LE]

Erotesis
--"Sound too good to be true?"
NOTE: a favorite device of the hyped-up hosts of infomercials.

Fable
See alliteration. 

Gradatio
--“It takes an egg to make a hen
It takes a hen to make an egg
There is no end to what I'm saying
It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes a word to make an action”
(Jason Mraz, “Life is Wonderful”) [AW]
--“They call for you: The general who became a slave; the slave who became a gladiator; the gladiator who defied an Emperor. Striking story." 
(Joaquin Phoenix, from the movie Gladiator) [AlB]
--"Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hatred; hatred leads to conflict; conflict leads to suffering."
(Yoda, Star Wars: Episode I)  [SD]
NOTE: Stephanie Deal's example from Yoda was voted one of the top standouts--so try associating gradatio with Yoda and you'll have this one nailed.
See also comment above on anadiplosis.

Hyperbaton
The first five examples below were contributed by Alex, who is specializing in this figure of speech.  Here's another place we could insert a shot of Yoda--but that would only be confusing.
1“Death Be Not Proud” –John Gunther*       2“Grave danger you are in. Impatient you are.” -Yoda, in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones  
3“I was in my Life Alone” –Robert Frost       4"Pity this busy monster man unkind not." -E. E.Cummings
5"This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."- Winston Churchill [AlB]
*  Note that Gunther's book title is an allusion to the John Donne sonnet of the same name. Is this imperative expresion an example of hyberaton (it's clearly an example of apostrophe and dehortatio)?   In Donne's era (the early 17th century), not really: at that time, the be construction in a negative imperative would have been considered normal word order.   In our own time, the be construction in a positive imperative ("Jimbo, be good") is conventional, but in negative constructions we usually rely on a form of do as a dummy auxiliary with be ("Jimbo, don't be silly").    Thus, one might win a bar bet (at least in the Tavern of Rhetoric) by arguing (1) that John Donne's use of "Death, be not proud" is not a case of hyperbaton but (2) that John Gunther's appropriation of the term for the title of his 1940s memoir is.  If nothing else, this example should alert us to the danger of anachronistic mislabeling of rhetorical and stylistic devices and the importance of including date of origin in our consideration of the rhetorical situation.  Recall our discussion of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 in which we noted how the noun wires and the verb reeks have changed in meaning since Shakespeare's day.    

Hypocrisis
--"I've been racking my brain about this 'healing a divided nation' stuff, and I think the fastest way to unify everybody is a war. I'm serious. A war is very togethering. People put aside their differences to fight a common enemy. But how do ya’ pick the right enemy? I asked Jim Baker the best way to go about looking, and he shook his head and said 'Simpleton.' But he's wrong. I don't think it's going to be easy at all."
(SatireWire's daily BushBlog [found on politcalhumor.about.com]) [AF]
NOTE: Hypocrisis--which involves the parodying of behaviors--is an essential strategy of any satire.

Hypophora
NOTE: In the following example, one might argue that the first question is answered (sort of) by the rhetorical questions in sentences two and three.  Or one might just call the first three sentences rhetorical questions delivered with verbal irony.  In any event, keep in mind that hypophora means raising "real" (i.e., not rhetorical) questions and then answering them.  (Quick example: the lyrics to the old pop song "What's It All About, Alfie?")
--"You might not think of the Black Chippendales as an Arts Pick, but why not?  After all, it’s 2006, in our post-modern times, the line between art and performance has been blurred, and who’s to say a bunch of dudes parading around in loincloths doesn’t qualify as art?  Wasn’t Michelangelo’s “David” really just a naked guy?  I have no doubt Genuwine, Hershy, Jay and the other Black Chippendales will speak at length about the Chippendales’ place in the cultural hierarchy of artistic relevance.  Then, they’ll get naked and dance.  By all accounts, the ladies love it – and as the night drags on, the party gets wilder and wilder.    Truly, the Black Chippendales are well-endowed with artistic ability."
(Chris Humpage, Savannah Morning News, Feb 9, 2006) [LH]
NOTE: The following example vividly demonstrates hypophora: the questions are raised in the first stanza and answered in the second:
--What of the mother
whose house is in flames
and both of her children
are in their beds crying
and she loves them both
with the whole of her heart
but she knows she can only
carry one at a time?

She's choking on the smoke
of unthinkable choices
She is haunted by the voices
of so many desires
She's bent over from the business
of begging forgiveness
while frantically running around
putting out fires.
(Ani DiFranco, “School Night”) [SR]

TERMS (I-Z) CONTINUED HERE

____________________________________________
English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
                    
updated 24 February 2006