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 I-Z are on
this page. A-H
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.
TERMS I-Z
Identification
NOTE: In this passage (as it stands out of context), I
don't see an explicit instance of identification. However, if the
speaker had made clear that she sees younger versions of herself in the girls and that her
advice derives from this sympathetic connection, we'd have a clear case of identification.
Keep in mind, also, that an audience may resist a rhetor's efforts to suggest or
impose identification. For example. whenever an older person addresses a younger
person with the trite expression, "I was young myself, once," it's perfectly
natural and appropriate for the younger person to silently resist the attempted
identification ("You clueless old fool").
“Oh
my dear girls—for to such only am I writing—listen not to the voice of love,
unless sanctioned by paternal approbation: be assured, it is now past the days of romance:
no woman can be run away with contrary to her own inclination: then keel down each
morning, and request kind heaven to keep you free from temptation, or, should it please to
suffer you to be tried, pray for fortitude to resist the impulse of inclination when it
runs counter to the precepts of religion and virtue.”
(Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple) [AF]
Induction
NOTE: Discussions of induction and deduction
mark the point where discussions of rhetorical logos begin to slide into the formal
study of logic. See this short
article on inductive and deductive arguments at the online Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Invective
NOTE: in the first few weeks after Katrina hit
the Gulf Coast, we heard a lot of invective--a general term for casting blame.
Invented Ethos
--George: You have no idea
of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world then George
Costanza as you know him ceases to exist. You see, right now I have Relationship George.
But there is also Independent George. That's the George you know, the George you grew up
with . . . Movie George, Coffee Shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George.
Jerry: I love that George.
George: Me too, and he's dying. If Relationship George walks
through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot
stand!
(Seinfeld, "The Pool Guy") [AF]
NOTE: Though I have some quarrels with this example,
I'm going to keep them to myself since several of you have said that Autumn's Seinfeld
passages (see also situated ethos, below) have helped you to understand the
distinction between invented and situated ethos. Keep in mind that generally in
rhetorical criticism we're primarily concerned (as was Aristotle) with invented ethos--i.e.,
the image of the rhetor as conveyed or projected by the words in his or her text. As another example, in what passed for "real life," the poet
Dylan Thomas was a sick, rather sad, intoxicated fellow in his final years (such
biographical information might be considered situated ethos); nonetheless, the
voice or the textual "self" conveyed in his poetry and prose (that is,
the invented ethos) is generally vibrant and energetic. The drunk died young;
the spirited voice lives on.
Isocolon
--"They have suffered
severely, but they have fought well.”
(Winston Churchill Speech to the House of Commons June 18, 1940) [MC]
---“Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave
and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the feeling
which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human
sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.”
(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man) [AW]
Kairos
--“Janice: I've got the perfect girl for
you!
Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn): [sigh]
Janice, I apologize to you if I don't seem real eager to jump into a forced awkward
intimate situation that people like to call dating. I don't like the feeling. You're
sitting there, you're wondering do I have food on my face, am I eating, am I talking too
much, are they talking enough, am I interested…I'm not really interested, should I
play like I'm interested but I'm not that interested but I think she might be interested
but do I want to be interested but now she's not interested? So all of the sudden I'm
getting, I'm starting to get interested... And when am I supposed to kiss her? Do I have
to wait for the door cause then it's awkward, it's like well goodnight. Do you do like
that ass-out hug? Where you like, you hug each other like this and your ass sticks out
cause you're trying not to get too close or do you just go right in and kiss them on the
lips or don't kiss them at all? It's very difficult trying to read the situation. And all
the while you're just really wondering are we gonna get hopped up enough to make some bad
decisions? Perhaps play a little game called "just the tip". Just for a second,
just to see how it feels. Or, ouch, ouch you're on my hair.
Janice: Okay... (Wedding Crashers) [AlB]
--"President Bartlet: Good. I like your show. I like how you call
homosexuality an abomination.
Dr. Jenna
Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is
an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.
President
Bartlet: Yes it does. Leviticus.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
President
Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted
to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm interested in selling my
youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table
when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I
ask another? My Chief of Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it
okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of
sports fans in this town: touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus
11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my
brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small
family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those
questions, would you? One last thing: while you may be mistaking this for your monthly
meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands,
nobody sits.
(Martin Sheen as President Bartlet in The West Wing) [SR]
NOTE:
These two examples cleverly illustrate two different qualities of kairos: Vince
Vaughan's character demonstrates that he recognizes conventions for doing (and thinking)
certain things at certain times in a typical courtship ritual--in other words, he
acknowledges "openings" in the game. Sheen's character, on the other hand,
creates an opening and dives in. Comedians refer to this activity as
"timing." Rhetorical analysis usually
begins with some examination of the rhetorical situation--and that means
acknowledging conditions of time and place (kairos).
Litotes
--“He’s not the sharpest knife in the
drawer.” [SD]
--"It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.'
(J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye) NOTE: This example appears at Silva Rhetoricae.
Malapropism
-- “If it’s the left or the right, it
doesn’t matter, I’m amphibious.”
(Savannah Morning News- quote from an NFL player)
[MC]
Metaphor
--“I ran until my muscles burned and my
veins pumped battery acid. Then, I ran some more.”
(Edward Norton, narrating the movie Fight Club)
[AlB]
Metonymy
NOTE: see synecdoche, below.
Mondegreen
Our one non-rhetorical term attracted the most
examples. Here are a few.
-In Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona Quimby, Age 8,” Ramona
hears the star-spangled banner line “the dawn’s early light” as
“Donzier lee-light.” [LM]
-When I was little I thought the song “Smooth Operator” was a little scary, I
heard it: “Eewww, Papa Red Eye” [LM]
-And at Christmas I sang about the soft drink in Jingle Bells: “bells on bob-tails ring, making Spirit
Sprite®” [LM]
--Mistaking Bob Dylan’s lyrics, “the answer my friend is blowing in the
wind” for “the ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind.” http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/mondegreen.html
[MC]
--Misheard as: “Pour some shook up ramen.”|
Originally: “Pour some sugar on me.” Def Leppard, Pour some sugar on me [SD]
--When
I was young, I misunderstood the song lyrics to “The devil with a blue dress on”
to be “The devil with a blue, glass eye.
[LE]
--My choir teacher in lower school : “While shepherds washed their socks by
night” (while shepherds watched their flocks by night) [MC]
-In Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona Quimby, Age 8,”
Ramona hears the star-spangled banner line “the
dawn’s early light” as “Donzier lee-light.” [LM]
-When I was little I thought the song “Smooth Operator” was a little
scary, I heard it: “Eewww, Papa Red
Eye” [LM]
-And at Christmas I sang about the soft drink in Jingle Bells: “bells on bob-tails ring, making Spirit
Sprite®” [LM]
Oxymoron
NOTE: an oxymoron is, simply enough, a
two-word paradox. You'll find 36 examples here. And the
image of "Death Valley Health Center" already appears by the word oxymoron
in our glossary. More precisely, the sign illustrates verbal irony.
Parable
--The Giving
Tree, by Shel Silverstein (LE)
NOTE: In recent years, Silverstein's parable (or
fable--interchangeable for our purposes) has generated a lot of discussion, even
heated controversy. If you're curious, check out the highlights from this 1995 symposium.
Paradox
--“…some
day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
(C.S. Lewis to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, to whom he dedicated The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe) [LM]
--"Take
some more tea," the March hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take
more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to
take more than nothing."
(Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7) [BC]
NOTE: the study of paradox is a course in
itself--see "List of
Paradoxes" at Wikipedia.
Paralepsis
--"We will not speak of all
Queequeg's peculiarities here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his
undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare. (Herman Melville, Moby Dick "Breakfast") [MC]
TIP: For our purposes, paralepsis and apophasis
are essentially interchangeable. Both are particular forms of verbal irony.
Parallelism
--“Constipated and bloated people
are all that you see on the commercials during Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.”
(Beanie Barbee, my grandmother) [AlB]
NOTE: Though not the most sustained example of
parallelism available, I couldn't miss an opportunity to include Mrs. Barbee's observation
on our course web site.
Paranomasia
--O dreamy eyes,/They tell sweet lies of Paradise;And in those eyes the lovelight lies/And
lies--and lies--and lies! (Anita
Owens) [ArB]
Parenthesis
--" . . Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say)
satisfactory."
(Source: T.S. Eliot, “The Journey of the Magi”) [SR]
Note: keep in mind that
parenthesis may be indicated by pairs of dashes (usually for greater emphasis) or commas
(for standard emphasis) as well as parentheses (usually for less emphasis). Note
also that a skilled rhetor may employ parenthesis in the spirit of understatement:
casually slipping a main point into a discussion as if it were of secondary
importance when, in fact, it may be THE main point.]
Personification
NOTE: You should know this one from school days:
Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an
object, or a concept. Closely related to personification is apostrophe, which
consists in addressing someone absent or something non human as if it were alive
and present and could reply to what is being said.
Phatic communion
--"It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.
I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record."
Source: Leonard Cohen, “Famous
Blue Raincoat” [SR]
NOTE: We could debate at which point in Cohen's
lyric the speaker advances (if he does advance at all) from phatic communion (basically,
the empty small talk of our everyday lives) to more meaningful communication.
Because we lack context, we can never know for sure: behind the most banal statement may
lie a revelation (see the plays of Harold Pinter) not readily accessible to outsiders;
conversely, an earnestly delivered monologue may only seem to be about something
when in truth it's little more than a yawp or a whine that says "I'm
here." In such matters, rhetoric hands off to psychology.
Pleonasm
NOTE: the most common form of pleonasm
is redundancy: see our list.
Ploce
--"A
rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily [SD]
NOTE: Though this example topped the list of
puzzlers, I think it indeed demonstrates ploce--especially in the version of the
line that I'm more familiar with: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"--which
might be read as moving from the abstract notion of "rose" to the more specified
senses appealed to and engendered by individual roses. (In fact, the line appears in
several of Stein's works, in a variety of contexts.) Consider Stein's remark in Four
in America: "Now listen! I’m no fool.
I know that in daily life we don’t go around saying “is a …
is a … is a …” Yes, I’m
no fool; but I think that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English
poetry for a hundred years." Discuss among yourselves.
Polyptoton
--"Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For
it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in
dying that we are born to eternal life. "
(Prayer from St. Francis of Assisi) [LM]
--“With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.” John of Guant – William Shakespeare’s
Richard II [TG]
Polysyndeton
--"It's
[football] a way of life, really, to those particular people who are a part of it. It's
more than a game, and regardless of what level it's played upon, it still demands those
attributes of courage and stamina and coordinated efficiency and goes even beyond that for
[it] is a means -- it provides a mental and physical relaxation to everybody that watches
it, like yourself." --Vince Lombardi [TG]
--“Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war -- not
history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor
religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government -- not any other thing. We are the
killers.” -- Katherine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter [TLC]
Proverb
--ASSIGNMENTS for Feb. 12: I
expect you to provide a fresh example, not one that's already been submitted. 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 proverb
and simile) that we have known all of our lives, I will deduct points and
ridicule you mercilessly on this web site.
Refutation
NOTE: In the following example, because neither individual is anticipating opposing
arguments and answering them, it's not refutation in any formal, rhetorical sense.
It's disagreeing. One might say that Specter, in his final remark, is using a
version of distinctio.)
"We
actually didn't get a letter," the chairman said.
"You did get a letter," Kennedy insisted.
"Now, wait a minute: You don't know what I got."
"Yes, I do, senator, since I sent it."
After a few more minutes, Specter growled thusly:
"I take umbrage at your telling me what I received. I don't mind your telling me what
you mailed. But there's a big difference between what's mailed and what's received. And
you know that."
(Mark Leibovich,
Washington
Post, February 8, 2006; Page C01) [LH]
NOTE: here's a simple example of
refutation from a University of Maryland course site.
Rhetorical
Question
--“Why not come into our store and see for yourself?” The Gregg Reference
Manual, Tenth Edition [TG]
--“Suppose that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth,
beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other
animals. Would they have the right to treat you as you treat the animals you breed, keep,
and kill for food?”
(John Harris "Killing
for Food," Animals, Men, and Morals, pg. 110) [LE]
NOTE: This one appears to be a specific kind
of rhetorical question--i.e., erotesis.
Simile
--ASSIGNMENTS for Feb. 12: I
expect you to provide a fresh example, not one that's already been submitted. 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 proverb
and simile) that we have known all of our lives, I will deduct points and
ridicule you mercilessly on this web site.
Situated Ethos
--Jerry: Interesting. She doesn't care for
you, then a stern warning, suddenly a phone call. Seems Elaine's made you the bad
boy. And Anna digs the bad boy. George: I'm the bad boy. I've never been the
bad boy.
Jerry: You've been the bad employee, the bad son, the bad friend . . .
George: Yes, yes . . .
Jerry: The bad fiancé‚ the bad dinner guest, the bad credit risk . . .
George: Okay, the point is made.
Jerry: The bad date, the bad sport, the bad citizen . . . (looks at table as George exits)
The bad tipper!
(Seinfeld
"The Little Kicks") [AF]
Syllepsis
--“You took my hand and breath away” (Tyler Hilton, “You, My Love”)
[AW]
--“PEACE. Live in it or rest in it.” (Bumper Sticker) [ET]
--"You
held your breath and the door for me." (Alanis
Morissette) [KP] NOTE: This last one (the song is "Head over Feet") also appears on
Alison
Frane's "Zeugma" page and
the FreeDictionary page
for the entry on syllepsis. Though you'll find here a clear
distinction drawn between syllepsis and zeugma, for our purposes the
terms are virtually interchangeable.
Synathroesmus
--Of all the bete, clumsy, blundering, boggling, baboon-blooded stuff I ever saw on
the human stage, that thing last night beat-as far as the story and acting went-and of all
the affected, sapless, soulless, beginningless, endless, topless, bottomless,
topsyturviest, tuneless, scrannelpipiest-tongs and boniest-doggerel of sounds I ever
endured the deadlines of, that eternity of nothing was the deadliest, as far as its sound
went. (John
Ruskin) [ArB]
NOTE: Synathroesmus is similar to bdelygmia,
but limited to volleys of adjectives--as demonstrated in this example. Bdelygmia
is the broader term, not limited to a single part of speech.
Synecdoche
NOTE: Though metonymy is increasingly
used synonymously with synecdoche, check out the distinction at World Wide Words.
Tapinosis
--calling civilians
killed while minding their own business during a "targeted bombing" operation
"collateral damage." (http://www.shumavon.net/blog/2005/07/tapinosis.html) [MC]
NOTE: Some of you questioned
Mary's example: clearly "collateral damage" is a kind of euphemism;
because the phrase dehumanizes the civilian victims of the bombing, it would also fit the
definition of tapinosis.
Tetracolon Climax
--"I
had seen so many begin to pack their lives in cotton wool, smother their impulses, hood
their passions, and gradually retire from their manhood into a kind of spiritual and
physical semi-invalidism. In this they are encouraged by wives and relatives, and it's
such a sweet trap."
(John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley) [LE]
Tricolon
--First Chatham Bank slogan: "Tradition.
Innovation. Service" [LM]
--“I think we've all arrived at a very special place.
Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically.” (Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of
the Caribbean) [TG]
--"Some people call me the space cowboy; yeah/Some call me the gangster
of love;/Some people call me Maurice . . ."
(The Steve Miller Band, "The
Joker") [KP]
NOTE: This example is misquoted (a mondegreen,
in fact) at upside-down.com.
NOTE: "The Joker"
also illustrates tetracolon and ethos ("Cause I’m a
picker/I’m a grinner/I’m a lover/And I’m a sinner"), epizeuxis
("Say I’m doin’ you wrong, doin’ you wrong"), dehortatio
and diacope ("Well, don’t you worry baby/Don’t worry"), assonance
("Wooo wooooo/You’re the cutest thing"), metaphors
("You’re the cutest thing I ever did see/Really love your peaches want to shake
your tree"), allusion ("pompitous of love"), pathos
and prolepsis ("Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time/Ooo-eee
baby, I’ll sure show you a good time"), phatic communion ("Wooo
woooo"), asyndeton ("Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah/Some call
me the gangster of love/Some people call me Maurice/Cause I speak of the pompitous of
love"), parataxis ("I’m a joker/I’m a smoker/I’m a
midnight toker/I sure don’t want to hurt no one"), refutation
("People keep talking about me baby/They say I’m doin’ you wrong/Well
don’t you worry, don’t worry, no don’t worry mama/Cause I’m right here
at home")--and more.
zeugma
--CJ: "The theme of the Egg Hunt is 'learning is delightful
and delicious'--as, by the way, am I."
(Allison Janney
as C.J. Cregg in an episode of The West Wing
[SR]
NOTE: Great example of zeugma. See
note at syllepsis.
TERMS (A-H) RETURN HERE
____________________________________________
English 5730 is taught by Dr.
Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
updated 24 February 2006