updated 23 October 2007 
REVIEW
RHETORICAL TERMS WITH EXAMPLES: Fall 2007

With examples provided by students enrolled in ENGL 5730 in Fall 2007. Sources of quotations (if provided) are in parentheses; the names of the students who submitted the quotations (if provided) are in brackets.
  
Terms beginning H-Z are on this page.  Terms A-G 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. Unlinked terms are not in our glossary.

If you spot any errors in the transcription of quotations that you sent me, please notify by email. 

Evaluations submitted by:
Sheryl Avery
Chris Buckner
Jeremy Buff
Erin Christian
Rance Clark
Donna Corbett
George Dalrymple
Mollie Diamond
Karen Farmer
Johnny Flynn
Eugene Garcia
Veronica Golden
Wanda Goss
Brandon Griffin
Pat Hamilton
Victoria Hammond
Katharine Harrington
Lauren Hunsberger
Caitlin Johnson
Elizabeth Larrimore
Michael Martin
Stacy Mincey
Jim Muenckler
Chris Murphy
Katie Nichols
Erin O'Keefe
Carmela Orsini
Kathryn Palmer
Sarah Rauers
Scott Robinson
Laura Stephens
John Wilson
__________________________

TERMS H-Z

Homoioiteleuton
--“That’s why, darling, it’s incredible/ That someone so unforgettable/ Thinks I’m unforgettable too.”
(Nat King Cole, “Unforgettable”) [Victoria Hammond]
(That's it.--N)
J
STANDOUT & PUZZLER
--“Oooh she made us drinks, to drink
We drunk 'em, got drunk”
(T-Pain – “Bartender”) [Jeremy Buff] 
* I mean, could there be a more perfect example of homoioteleuton? Even though they are basically repetitions of the same word, they’re different parts of speech…[Jeremy Buff]
*  I’m unclear if repeating a word counts as homoioiteleuton. it seems like a better example of diacope and ploce. [Donna Corbett]
(You're right, Donna.--N)

Hyberbaton
--"And then when my head was well in the room I undid the lantern cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hinges creaked), I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye."
(Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart") [Erin Christian]  
(OK, but this might be a bit clearer if we look at the second paragraph of Poe's story--specifically at "Object there was none. Passion there was none." in this passage:
"It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man."
--N)

Hyperbole
--“The skies are too clear lifes for easy today
The beer is too cold, the daiquiris to fruitiful”
(Jimmy Buffet—The Weather is Here”)[Chris Buckner] 

--"I must laugh or die."
(Katherine Mansfield, “Bliss”)[Sheryl Avery]

STANDOUT
-- The little girl lost twelve more pounds. It’s official. She’s a rail. [Johnny Flynn]
* I just really liked this one. It was a good simple example that will help me remember this term. [Katie Nichols]
* "Rail" is an exaggerated term used to give the image of thinness heightened effect. This example is good because it is so vivid. [Laura Stephens]

--“I would rather eat a Chik-Fil-A sandwich that has been run over twice than have its Krystal’s counterpart.”
(Chris Murray) [Chris Murray] 

Hypocrisis
STANDOUT
--I couldn't figure out a way to attach it, but Will Ferrell's parody of George Bush on SNL is a great example. Here is a link-http://youtube.com/results?search_query=will+ferrell+george+bush+SNL [Heather Benton] 
* I think Hypocrisis is a really easy, visual form of rhetoric perfectly displayed in this example. [Jeremy Buff]
(Great way to remember this term.--N)

PUZZLER
--“You can’t say nuclear that really scares me” (jibjab.com-not sure about this one?) [Brandon Griffin]
* Maybe it’s just me being confused, but I am unsure what is exaggerated or parodied in this example? [Jeremy Buff]

PUZZLER
--The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror - “The Raven”:
Narrator: “Quoth the Raven,
Bart Simpson as the Raven: 'Eat my shorts'”  [Camela Orsini] 
* From my understanding, a hypocrisis is when speakers mock their opponents by mimicking their speech or gestures. From my experience with the Simpson’s, Bart always says “Eat my shorts,” so although Bart is mocking either Edgar Allen Poe or the narrator, he is not using their speech or gestures to do so he is using his own. Because I Bart is using his own speech and gestures I do not think that this is an example of hypocrisis. [Lauren Hunsberger]

Hypophora
--"Want to stop smoking? Give them an hour. Have you tried and failed to give up smoking? Tried patches, gum and other methods? Then this could be the best news you read this year."
(an advertisement from the Wellness Within Center) [Lauren Hunsberger]

--“Why can’t they have gay people in the army? Personally, I think they’re just afraid of a thousand guys with M-16’s going, ‘Who’d you call a faggot?’ “
(Jon Stewart) [Laura Stephens]

-- Bollinger asked, "Why is your government providing aid to terrorists? Will you stop doing so and permit international monitoring to certify that you have stopped?"

Through a translator, Ahmadinejad replied, "Well, I want to pose a question here to you. If someone comes and explodes bombs around you, threatens your president, members of the administration, kills the members of the Senate or Congress, how would you treat them? Would you reward them or would you name them a terrorist group? Well, it's clear. You would call them a terrorist."
(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Columbia University, 9/24/2007)[Pat Hamilton]

--"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." –Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) [Brooke Palmer]

(These examples of hypophora all look good to me; just remember that it involves a rhetor answering his or her own questions.--N)

STANDOUT
--“Do you know what that was, Bryson?  Cream soda.  You know what else?   I’m drinking it right now, and I’m not giving you any.  And you know what else?  It’s delicious.” (Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods) [Caitlin Johnson] 
* The author uses hypophora in a series.  It helps the concept really sink in. [Chris Buckner]

STANDOUT
--“What is the first part of politics?  Education.  The second?  Education.  And the third?   Education.” (Jules Michelet, Le Peuple (1846)) [Caitlin Johnson] 
* I thought the repetition of the term (figuratively) in the actual definition makes it a good example. [Pat Hamilton]

-- "What is George Bush doing about our economic problems? He has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the people riding in limousines."
(Bill Clinton 1992 Democratic National Convention) [Katharine Harrington] 

--" If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction."
(Shylock, from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Act 3 Scene 1))  [Eugene Garcia]

PUZZLER
----“What’s this stuff?”
Some cereal, it’s suppose to be good for you.”
“I’m not gonna try it.”
“Lets get Mikey.  He wont eat it he hates everything.”
“He LIKES it!  Hey Mikey!”
(A famous commercial for Life Cereal in the early 1970s.) [Jim Muenckler]
* I see a question raised and an answer but it lacks the depth that the other examples showed. Also, there is a direct question to someone. Not one raised and answered by the same individual. [Johnathon Robinson]
(Right. This isn't hypophora.Nor is the example below.--N)

--“What are your characters teaching their children by example and indoctrination? For instance, I was teaching Sam peace chants for a long time, when he was only two. It was during the war in the Persian Gulf; I was a little angry.

           “What de we want?” I’d call to Sam.

          “Peace,” he’d shout dutifully.

          “And when do we want it?” I’d ask.

          “Now!” he’d say, and I’d smile and toss him a fish.

The words were utterly meaningless to him, of course. I might as well have taught him to reply “Spoos1” instead of “Peace” and “August” instead of “Now.”
(Anne Lamont, “Bird by bird”) [Wanda Goss]

STANDOUT
--"Why do we have to worship God? Obviously, because he has a serious ego problem." (Bill Maher (my personal hero) [Heather Benton]
* The comment itself is quite an attention grabber. [Karen Farmer]

--“How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.”
(Bob Dylan, Blowin’ in the Wind) [Elizabeth Larrimore]
(Well, we could get painfully pedantic with this one and say that Dylan never really answers the questions he raises; he just tells us where the answers are. I defer to Lisa:
Mother Simpson: [singing] How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?
Homer: Seven.
Lisa: No, dad, it's a rhetorical question.
Homer: OK, eight.
Lisa: Dad, do you even know what "rhetorical" means?
Homer: Do I know what "rhetorical" means?)

--“How is the weather going to be today? Well, I will tell you, it is going to be sunny and hot.” (Meteorologist Lee Haywood) [Chris Murray]

--“Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks.” (Song lyrics from the They Might Be Giants song called
“Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”) [Camela Orsini] 

HYPOTAXIS -- check out Baldwin's hypotaxis

Identification
PUZZLER
--"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." (George Eliot)[Eugene Garcia]
* I don't know that this particular example is terribly "puzzling" so much as my unclarity on exactly how "wide" the figure of identification is, and what it includes. To me, this example seems a little obscure. "Blessed is the man..." - does this really allow the speaker to include him/herself on a level field with the reader? Can means of using the figure of "identification" include that which imposes ideas/ideals on the reader? [Erin O’Keefe]
(It puzzles me. See identification.--N)

Induction
PUZZLER
-- Those four black girls blown up/in that Alabama church/remind me of five hundred mile passage lacks, /in a net, under water/ in Charlestown harbor /so redcoats wouldn’t find them./ Can’t find what you can’t see can you?   (American History ( for John Callahan) by Michael S. Harper Norton Anthology of American Literature  p. 3008) [Johnathon Robinson]  
* I’m not sure that this example provides a generalization that is meant for several different instances. [Donna Corbett]

--“I’m a dummy.”
George always said there was no shame in this, but it was a fact and you had to recognize it. You couldn’t fool anybody into thinking you were smart. They looked at you and saw the truth: the lights were on but nobody was home. If you were a dummy, you had to just do your business and get out. And if you were caught, you owned up to everything except the guys who were with you, because they’d get everything else out of you in the end, anyway. George said dummies couldn’t lie worth shit.
(Stephen King, “Blaze”) [Wanda Goss]

Invective
--"According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the Bush administration. The policy process has been nothing short of 'disastrous,' he says. 'The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly. At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible. I think he was led to believe that things were chugging along far more purposefully and coherently than in fact they were. I think he didn't realize the depth of the disputes underneath. I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty.'"
(taken from an article concerning the war in Iraq. The article appeared inVanity Fair, was written by David Rose, and titled "Neo Culpa.")              [ Lauren Hunsberger]
(Okay, the spirit of invective is here, but we usually reserve the term for fiercer and more extended expressions of disagreement (think of a prolonged rant), with a sprinkling of phrases like "international gang of criminal bastards" and "ignorant imperialists, losers and fools." -- N)

--"God, isn't he dreadful? ...A ponderous Saxon. He thinks you're not a gentleman. God these bloody English. Bursting with money and indigestion. Because he comes from Oxford." (Buck Mulligan from Joyce's Ulysses) [Erin Christian]

Invented Ethos
PUZZLER
-- What sholde I moore seyn, but this Millere
He nolde his wordes for no man forbere,
But tolde his cherles tale in his manere.
M'athynketh that I shal reherce it heere.
And therfore every gentil wight I preye,
For Goddes love, demeth nat that I seye
Of yvel entente, but for I moot reherce
Hir tales alle, be they bettre or werse,
Or elles falsen som of my mateere....
Blameth nat me if that ye chese amys.
(From Chaucer's "The Miller's Prologue") [Erin Christian]
* Have no idea how this represents invented ethos, can barely read it, is the form itself the ethos? [Veronica Golden]
This updated version may help clarify the sense:

• I think I'll here re-tell it, if I may.
• And therefore, every gentle soul, I pray
• That for God's love you'll hold not what I say
• Evilly meant, but that I must rehearse,
• All of their tales, the better and the worse,
• Or else prove false to some of my design.
• Therefore, who likes not this, let him, in fine,
• Turn over page and choose another tale:
  

By distancing himself from the bawdy story that the drunken miller is about to tell, the narrator gets to have it both ways, projecting an image of himself as morally superior to the miller while going right ahead and relating a funny dirty story. So  good example of invented ethos. But then Aristotle would remind us that every text projects ethos of some kind or other.

Irony
STANDOUT
--Well that’s fantastic. He died on his birthday. Who gave him that present? [Johnny Flynn]
* This stood out for me because I thought how ironic to leave the world on the day you first came into it. And also, what a present to receive…death! [Sheryl Avery]

Isocolon
STANDOUT & PUZZLER
--“Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea.” (Pepto Bismol) [Victoria Hammond] 
* Because it is such a known jingle it is easy to remember and illustrates the term well. [Caitlin Johnson]
* These words seems to be building so I am thinking Auxesis, or Asyndeton, and it is also not two clauses of equal structure, and balance. [Sheryl Avery]
* I thought isocolon dealt with phrases more than items in a series. [Michael Martin]
(The next two examples more clearly illustrate isocolon than this asyndetic list.--N.)

-- "With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue"
(“True” by Spandau Ballet) [Katharine Harrington] 

STANDOUT & PUZZLER
--"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) [Eugene Garcia]
* I think that this is not only a good example of isocolon, but also chiasmus and possibly antithesis. [Erin Christian]
(Exactly. Good example. -- N)
* It's listed as isocolon.   Maybe antimetabole is more appropriate. [Karen Farmer]
(It's both. -- N)

--I have begun this letter five times and torn it up five times. My Dungeon Shook: (Letter to my Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation James Baldwin) [C. Ferguson]

--"What Democratic congressmen do to their women staffers, Republican congressmen do to the country." (Bill Maher) [Heather Benton]

--“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”(Mark Twain) [Elizabeth Larrimore]

PUZZLER
-- The smaller the feet, the harder the street. [Johnny Flynn]
* I wrote this one myself and, looking at it again, realize that the example is correct but the meaning isn’t clear enough. Oops. [Johnny Flynn]
(But it's still an isocolon. -- N)

Kairos
STANDOUT
--"I don't feel no ways tired.. I come too far from where I started from...Nobody told me that the road would be easy!"
(Hillary Clinton in Selma, AL on the anniversary of the civil rights riots (even though it was not exactly taken as she intended it) [H. Benton]
* While I might not agree with the veracity of Mrs. Clinton’s sincerity, I thought this public show of political prowess, especially the adoption of an obvious and farcical “accent,” made for an easily understood definition to the term. [Pat Hamilton]

More at kairos -- N

Litotes
STANDOUT
--“It’s not that you won’t hear about what’s going on with the rest of the world; it just takes a while longer.”
“Y’all not from around here, are ya?” (From Suddenly Southern: A Yankee’s Guide to Living in Dixie by Maureen Duffin-Ward) [Donna Corbett]
* No comment. [Karen Farmer]
* Considering the context in which this question would arise, it is a true understatement.  This is really a perfect example of an affirmative being expressed by negating its opposite. Trying to understand the definition of “litotes” is tricky, but this example makes it very clear to me. To understand just how this works, I had to spell it out. The affirmative is Y’all (are) from out of town.  The opposite of the affirmative is Ya’ll are from around here.  Negating the opposite is to say, “ya’ll not from around here, are ya? I’m going to remember Donna’s example for future reference. [Katharine Harrington]

--"We oppose the way the U.S. government tries to manage the world. ... We propose more humane methods of establishing peace," he said.
(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Columbia University, 9/24/2007)[Pat Hamilton]

PUZZLER
--“ …I was born in bread, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world…”
(Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography [Part One]) [Brooke Palmer] 
* How is this an understatement or affirmation by negation of opposite? [Veronica Golden]
(The original line in context--"Having emerg’d from the Poverty and Obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a State of Affluence & some Degree of Reputation in the World . . ."--does illustrate understatement but not the particular kind of understatement that we call litotes.--N)

--"Basically, I no longer work for anything but the sensation I have while working." (Albert Giacometti (sculptor)) [Eugene Garcia] 

STANDOUT
--“Poverty is not a disgrace, but it's terribly inconvenient.” (Milton Berle) [John Wilson]
* This is not only an understatement, but a universal truth. What more can I say? [Sheryl Avery]

PUZZLER
--The art exam today was not hard. (Katie Nichols) [Katie Nichols]  
* I would not choose this sentence to identify with Litotes because there is no context behind it. From the sentence, we do not know if this was an understatement or not.[Kathryn Palmer]
(Good point, Kathryn. If we knew, for instance, that the art exam consisted of one question--"What is your favorite color?"--this line would illustrate litotes.--N)

Maxim
STANDOUT
--“some days you are the pigeon; some days you are the statue” (Roger Anderson) [Johnathon Robinson]
* I have heard this saying a few times and it shows wisdom. Basically some days you are the crapper and some days you are the one who gets crapped on. Very clear example. [Victoria Hammond] 

--"You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."(Yogi Berra) [Eugene Garcia] 

--A thing similar is not exactly the same. [Johnny Flynn]  

--"For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled." (Hunter S. Thompson) [George Dalrymple]

STANDOUT
--“Boys will be Boys; Girls will be Girls” [Jeremy Buff] 
* These statements illustrate the traditional view of the differences between males and females in a simple and memorable way. [Michael Martin]

Meiosis
--“The yuppies networking” (Radiohead—“Paranoid Android”)[Chris Buckner]

STANDOUT
--“And Morton became the Lord of Misrule, and maintained (as it were) a school of Atheism.”
(William Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation) [Brooke Palmer] 
* Although this expression uses more than one word to rename a group an institution, in nonetheless applies a false but accurate title to the entity. [Michael Martin]

--“Right-Wing Nutjobs” for Republicans.  “Left-Wing Pansies” for Democrats.  “Our Land”  -   www.Jibjab.com [Lawrence L. Clark III]

-- Jarhead for Soldier (Came to mind, just recently saw the movie Jarhead)[Brandon Griffin]

--“grease monkey” for “mechanic.” [Elizabeth Larrimore]

--My brother (*hangs head in shame) calls homosexuals “Ankle grabbers” and Islamic men “Towel heads” [Camela Orsini] 

Metaphor
--One of them said, The very time I thought I was lost, My Dungeon shook and my chains fell off. ("My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation," James Baldwin)[C. Ferguson] 

Metonymy
STANDOUT
--“And the Halos beat Seattle 7 to 4” (Hazel Mae, NESN sportscaster referring to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim v. Seattle Mariners game Sunday 9/24/07.) [Donna Corbett]
* This has been one of the more difficult terms for me to truly understand and apply or recognize. (not just memorize the definition).  This example helps me to truly understand and use the term. [Stacy Mincey]

--“The bank is closed.” (referring to my mother closing her wallet) [Kara Hooper]

--"It is difficult even to choose the adjective
For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.
The great structure has become a minor house.
No turban walks across the lessened floors.     
Stripped of from meaning this line helps to build a fictitious understanding to the idea of alienation." 
(In Wallace Stevens “Plain Sense of Things”   2^nd Stanza (line 8)) [Johnathon Robinson]

--“I’ve had the blues, the reds and the pinks
One thing for sure
(Love stinks)
Love stinks, yeah, yeah”
(The J. Geils Band, “Love Stinks”) [Wanda Goss]

-- "Blood's not thicker than money."
(Groucho Marx)[Lawrence L. Clark III]

All good examples of metonymy -- N


Mondegreen
--“I’ll never leave your pizza burning.” (I’ll never be your beast of burden, Rolling Stones)[Kara Hooper]

--“Later on, we’ll perspire, as we dream by the fire.” (Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire)
(Brooke Palmer (when I was a little girl)) [Brooke Palmer] 

--“There’s a bad moon on the right!”  (Creedence Clearwater Revival  sounds like “There’s a bathroom on the right.”) [Jim Muenckler] 

--“You had sex in your backyard?” (for “I have snakes in my backyard”)
Original, I had a clerk at Parkers in Richmond Hill repeat what she thought I said. I started laughing, because I wouldn’t be sharing that kind of information with a stranger. I really had snakes in my backyard. [Wanda Goss]

--“I’m blue, da ba dee da ba dye.  If I was green, I would die” 
Actual lyrics to Blue by Eiffel 65 - “I’m blue, da ba dee da ba dye, da ba dee da ba dye”. [Lawrence L. Clark III] 

STANDOUT
-- Nirvana, "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Wrong lyric: I'm blotto and bravado/I'm a scarecrow and a Beatle
Right lyric: A mulatto, an albino/A mosquito, my libido [Chris Murray]J
* Comment: I thought that they were saying something about beetles too. [Michael Martin]

--"Reaching for something in the distance so close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions."
(Natasha Bedingfield song Unwritten) [Katie Nichols]  

----“And I miss you like a desert masquerade” (What I sang when I was 12)
“And I miss you like the deserts miss the rain” (actual song by Everything but the Girl) [Camela Orsini] 

Onomatopoeia
--Bleating and babbling they fell on his neck with a scream, wave upon wave
of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity, into the dream.
(Pink Floyd on the Sheep) [George Dalrymple] 

Oxymoron
-- The sweet stink of the deodorant pervaded the room. [Johnny Flynn]

Paradox
 --“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. Having said that, all options are on the table.”
(George W. Bush, Feb. 22, 2005) [Mollie Diamond]
(Good--N)

PUZZLER
-- “Forgiveness is the
The ultimate sacrifice.” (System of A Down—“Sad Statue”)[Chris Buckner]
* I wasn't quite sure if this seems to contradict itself because forgiveness is a sacrifice.  It might be that the idea, however, has become standard enough that it no longer seems paradoxical where it might have been once upon a time.  [Carmela Orsini]
(I'm puzzled. See paradox. -- N)

-- "And too many moonlight kisses seem to cool in the warmth of the sun."    
(“When I Fall in Love” words and music by Edward Heyman and Victor Young) [Katharine Harrington] 
(A contrast and a commonplace, but I don't see a paradox. See examples of paradox and parataxis in this passage from Steinbeck.-- N)

Paralepsis
STANDOUT
--“Let’s not talk about the mailbox you ran over and how you’re going to fix it out of your own allowance. Let’s just not talk about it; because then we’d have to talk about how your grounded for two weeks.”(in reference to a conversation I had with my dad after I ran over the mailbox.) [Kara Hooper] 
* A good example, as it “passes over” the conversation about the mailbox but at the same time gets to the expected end of that conversation (the punishment).  [Sarah Rauers]
*  I find the anecdote cute and easy to remember. [Donna Corbett]
(OK -- N)

Parallelism
-- "Fresh Thinking, Healthy Eating"
(From an advertisement for The Pita Pit) [Lauren Hunsberger]
(OK -- N)

--"Now, I just want to play on my panpipes;
I just want to drink me some wine.
As soon as you're born, you start dying,
So you might as well have a good time."
(Cake "Sheep go to Heaven") [Erin Christian]

STANDOUT
-- “I don’t want to live on in my work. I want to live on in my apartment.”
(Woody Allen)[Laura Stephens]
* Woody Allen’s quote makes for a perfect example of Paralellism because it is a cut and dry, straight from the text-book example. It makes the device easy to understand and easy to remember. Many of these devices  and examples are close in meaning so it is good to have an example that is easy. I also like this example because it helped me differentiate between the meaning of parallelism and an isocolon. This example uses two clauses that are unequal in number of syllables so it is only parallel, if it were perfectly matched it would an isocolon.   [Lauren Hunsberger]
(OK Also antithesis. -- N)

STANDOUT
--"I think that if the U.S. administration, if the U.S. government puts aside some of its old behaviors, it can actually be a good friend for the Iranian people, for the Iranian nation," he said. "For 28 years, they've consistently threatened us, insulted us, prevented our scientific development, every day, under one pretext or another."
(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Columbia University, 9/24/2007)[Pat Hamilton]
* Good example because it is current! [Veronica Golden]

--“Each one’s himself yet each one’s everyone.” (Theodore Roethke, The Sententious Man (1958)) [Caitlin Johnson]

Paranomasia
STANDOUT
-- “Get that bird a glass of water, he’s perched!” (Magilla Gorilla on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law) [Donna Corbett]
* I like it! Cute! [Veronica Golden]
* This is a great example of paronomasia.  It gives a wonderful play on words.  I really wanted to use this as one of my examples; however, I could not find a good example and this one definitely hits the nail on the head. [Jim Muenckler]

--"An old hare hoar,
And an old hare hoar,
Is very good meat in lent
But a hare that is hoar
Is too much for a score,
When it hoars ere it be spent."
(Mercutio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) [Erin Christian]

--“Generally speaking, politicians are generally speaking.” (John Sergeant) [Laura Stephens]

--"GottaWannaNeedaGettaHava Bojangles'" (Bojangle's marketing slogan) [Sarah Rauers]

STANDOUT
--“Horse Lovers are Stable People.” (Saying on pillow in Potpourri gift catalog.)[Karen Farmer]
* Karen’s example for paranomasis was my favorite because it is clearly playing with the word stable. This example is the only example of this device I thought that actually played with the words. I will definitely remember what paranomasia means because it is funny, clever, and because I like horses. [Lauren Hunsberger]
* The word play with stable is fun and catchy.  The phrase clearly demonstrates the dual meaning of the word. [Carmela Orsini]

---"They were newly and remotely happy.  He did not even regret the loss of his sight in these times of dark, palpable joy."
(D.H. Lawrence, “The Blind Man”)[Sheryl Avery] 

---"Oh look it has B-12 in it.  I didn’t know that B-4."
(T.V. Commercial – Kellogs Bran Cereal)[Sheryl Avery] 

-- “Peace is much more precious than a piece of land.”
(Anwar al-Sadat, Speech in Cairo (March 8, 1978)) [Caitlin Johnson]  

STANDOUT
--" I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it. "
(Groucho Marx) [Katharine Harrington] 
* This example is absolutely perfect to express a play on words, and it made me laugh quite a bit. [Sheryl Avery]

--“I drink therefore I am.” [John Wilson]

--Bee Happy! Bee Healthy! (Honeynut Cheerios slogan The slogan is shown as a bumblebee flies around.) [C.Ferguson]

Parataxis
--"I came; I saw; I conquered"
(Julius Caesar) [Katie Nichols] 

Parataxis. -- N

Parenthesis
--“We must have the attitude that every child in America—regardless of where they’re raised or how they’re born—can learn.” (George W. Bush, New Britain, Conn., April 18, 2001)

---“It’s not what I mean, because – Thank you, Mary” – She went into the hall."
(Katherine Mansfield, “Bliss”)[Sheryl Avery]

Both fine. -- N

Parison
--“If you don’t stand for anything, you don’t stand for anything! If you don’t stand for something, you don’t stand for anything!” (George W. Bush, Bellevue Community College, Nov. 2, 2002)[Mollie Diamond]  

OK--N

Periodic sentence
--"Biscuit sandwiches filled with mouth-watering items like spicy chicken filets, seasoned sausage or steak, country ham, eggs and cheese are served hot and fresh all day, every day." (Bojangles' website) [Sarah Rauers]

(OK--see periodic sentence. -- N)

STANDOUT
--And it is in this darkness, though attracted now by a light purple and
ever-burning flame, my vision takes sight of an old memory, an old friend,
who took shape and became the slight taste of life I would see; the weary
traveler, the envious, unforgiving, and constantly laughing, deliberately
laughing, face of Desire. (George Dalrymple) 
* This example of a periodic sentence is great because not only is the reader left in the dark as to who the speaker is talking about, but also because the reader is deceived into thinking that the subject of the sentence is an actual person when it is really an abstraction of a feeling. The structure of the sentence is complex in itself, but the writing is brought to another level because the writer plays with the already illusive subject of the sentence making it doubly effective. [Lauren Hunsberger]
(I agree. -- N)

Phatic communion
STANDOUT & PUZZLER
--“One of the greatest things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.” (George W. Bush, Jan. 3, 2000)[Mollie Diamond]
* I have absolutely no idea in what context this quote could possibly have any bearing on anything, and that is why it’s a perfect example of phatic communion. It’s talking for the sake of talking. [Elizabeth Larrimore]
* I really didn't see the attempt in the quote to extend the communication between Bush and the audience. [Carmela Orsini]
(You both make good points, but phatic communion--as it's understood rhetorically--may serve a number of purposes, including the wish to "sustain [the] attention" of an audience. Think of a bad first date where somebody might keep on talking about himself or herself, to a point approaching senselessness, simply to perpetuate the sad illusion of a relationship where none exists. -- N)

--“Aloha Ya’ll”  (Quote off a bumper sticker for local surfer shop Underground Boardworks located on Tybee Island!) [Jim Muenckler] 

Pleonasm
--As mean as a snake [Kara Hooper]

--Free gift [Kara Hooper]

--Future plans [Kara Hooper]

--“ Would you like your fries hot?”
(Original- Burger king employee asked me this question.) [Wanda Goss]

--“A very muted buzz.”  (The Wheel of Time:  Path of Daggers p. 364 – Robert Jordan)[Lawrence L. Clark III]

-- It was an ENORMOUS elephant! (Made up) [Brandon Griffin]

--"...[T]he only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
(Franklin D. Roosevelt, "First Inaugural Address", March 1933.) [Chris Murray]

(Here are a couple hundred more. -- N)


Ploce
--"There were six men in Birmingham,
In Guidlford there’s four
That were picked up and tortured
And framed by the law
And the fifth got promotion
But they’re still doing time for being Irish in the wrong place
And at the wrong time"
(From “Birmingham Six” by Shane McGowan) [Donna Corbett]

--“And its burning in our fingers and its burning on the road” (Heather Nova—“Walk This World”)[Chris Buckner]

--"Whoever said 'think outside the box' never looked inside one of ours." (Bojangles' corporate marketing slogan) [Sarah Rauers]

--"Don’t talk the talk, if you can’t walk the walk."  (A commonly spoken phrase or some variation thereof.)[Karen Farmer]

--“The thing that eats the heart is mostly the heart.” (Stanley Kunitz, The Thing that Eats the Heart (1958)) [Caitlin Johnson]

-- He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot. (Groucho Marx)[Lawrence L. Clark III]

STANDOUT & PUZZLER
--“Boys will be Boys; Girls will be Girls” [Jeremy Buff] 
* I liked this because it is a easy and simple example to remember for ploce. [Katie Nichols]
* While this statement does include repetition of the words “boys” and “girls,” their meaning seems to be the same with each mention.   Ploce implies that the words “boys” and “girls” would take on a new meaning by the end of the phrase.  It’s a tough term to find outright. The definition examples given to us often have words that can be used in several parts of speech -  adjectives, nouns, verbs, e.g. the word “like”  in the Felix example.  [Katharine Harrington]
(I think this is a good example of  ploce as a commonplace (more common in the past than now, perhaps) with the presumption that any group of actual boys and girls will exhibit traits commonly attributed to the class of boys and girls. Part of speech is inconsequential. -- N)

 Polyptoton
--“I’m sure you can imagine it’s an unimaginable honor to live here.” (George W. Bush, addressing agricultural leaders at the White House, June 18, 2001)[Mollie Diamond] 

-- “The duty of an opposition is very simple: to oppose everything and propose nothing.” (Lord Derby) [Laura Stephens]

--“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”   (Quote from Marianne Williamson.)[Karen Farmer]

--“Kill reverence and you’ve killed the hero in man.” (Ayn Rand) [Caitlin Johnson]

--“Lonely people talking to each other can make eac


(OK--all these examples work. -- N)

Polysyndeton
-- "And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and the
aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper
plate and the disposable bottle, and this was good
because Man could then take his automobile and buy his
food all in one place and he could save that which was
good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that
which had no further use, And pretty soon the earth
was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and
paper plates and disposable bottles, and there was
nowhere left to sit down or to walk. And man shook his
head and cried, Look at all this God-awful litter."
(Art Buchwald 1970 featured in a Sierra magazine) [Lauren Hunsberger]

--“They were digging a new foundation in Manhattan
And they discovered a slave cemetery there
May their souls rest easy
Now that lynching is frowned upon
And we’ve moved on to the electric chair
And I wonder who’s gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dummer?
And who’s gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?”
(Ani Difranco—“Fuel”) [Chris Buckner] 

-- "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." (Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn) in “The Lion in Winter” )[Katharine Harrington]

--“As soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writer’s, in congress and out had concocted a story that I’d left him behind on the Lucian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three or eight twenty million dollars, his scout soul was furious” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) [Katie Nichols]

(OK--see Hemingway's polysyndeton here. -- N)

--PROLEPSIS

Refutation
--"According to a widespread complaint, many men of the more learned kind
are unapproachable, rude, queer, and possessing none of the graces of
persuasive speech. I confess that the man who shuts himself up and is
almost entirely immured in study, is readier to talk with the gods than
with men, either because he is habitually at home among celestial affairs
and is unfamiliar and really strange among mortal ones, or because a mind
which has been enlarged by the steady pursuit of divine interests is irked
by physical constraints for the more formal social amenities. But if good
friendships of the right kind come into his way, no one is more loyal than
he."
(John Milton Prolusion VII. On Learning Makes Men Happier Than Does
Ignorance) [George Dalrymple] 

Running Style
--“Helen, we're both in sales. Let me tell you why I suck as a salesman. 
Let's say I go into some guy's office, let's say he's even remotely interested in buying something. 
Well, then I get all excited, I’m like Jo-Jo, the idiot circus-boy, with a pretty new pet. 
The pet is my possible sale. Oh, my pretty little pet. I love you! So I stroke it, and I pet it, and I 
massage it. I love it; I love my little naughty pet. You're naughty. And then I take my naughty pet, 
and I go...I killed it! I killed my sale! That’s when I blow it. That’s when people like us have 
got to forge head, Helen. Am I right?”
(Tommy Boy (the movie)) [Brooke Palmer] 

--"It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we gota full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark, and
we’re wearing sunglasses."
(Elwood The Blues Brothers)[ George Dalrymple]

(Both are fine. -- N)

Simile
--She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat. (James Joyce, “The Boarding House”)[Sheryl Avery] 

(See more examples of simile here. N)

Simple Sentence
“Wake up in a dream. Frozen fear. All your hands on me. I can’t scream.”
(Evanescence, “Snow White Queen”)[Victoria Hammond]

Situated Ethos
--"In a university environment we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk so that the truth is eventually revealed by all," he said.
(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Columbia University, 9/24/2007)
I describe this as situated ethos because Ahmadinejad knew his audience was probably both friendly and hostile; by reminding them of their environment, he causes them to question their own open-mindedness. He also equates the word "talk" with "truth," which I thought was very interesting.[Pat Hamilton]
 

Sprezzatura
--"Duty - Honor - Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean"
(General Douglas MacArthur, Thayer Award Acceptance Address delivered 12 May 1962, West Point, NY) [Stacy Mincey]

PUZZLER
--“How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!”
(Something my dad always said in a situation that was too big to conceptualize and handle.) [Jim Muenckler]
* This answer does not convince that the speaker is doing/speaking easily in a graceful manner; I would need more details from the speaker rather than a blanket sentence. This is flippant not a smooth, have all the answers and its easy effect. [Wanda Goss]
* I find this example puzzling because it seems to consist of a simple commonplace.  Because it is a pre-fabricated saying, I doubt that it will come across in any situation as spontaneous or natural. Maybe through its application to certain situations in which one is least to expect this saying, it can be ‘sprezzaturistic’, but if the father repeatedly said this, it will most likely have lacked spontaneity and originality after the first time. [Laura Stephens]
* This one probably confuses me because of my understanding (or lack thereof) not faultiness in the example, but I understand sprezzetura to be rehearsed spontaneity as in making it seem like you have not prepared and your eloquent remarks are just coming from your passion about the subject.  This doesn’t really seem to fit my understanding of the term. [Stacy Mincey]
(Stacy's comment, I think, is the most relevant one. Likewise I don't see how this maxim illustrates sprezzatura. In fact, it's hard to deduce sprezzatura from any brief quotation since its effectiveness (or not) depends in part on delivery and in part on whether an audience is seduced into believing that the carefully crafted illusion of spontaneity is genuine. As Saccone et al. have argued, sprezzatura is not a quality but an ability; it can't be simply defined, it must be enacted. Nixon never had that ability; Reagan often did.--N.)

Syllepsis
-- "I don't even know where to begin talking about Bojangles but I'll give it a try! Years ago I first started eating there because they sponsored a race car. It looked just like the chicken box so me and my girlfriend just had to try it out and *we soon fell in love. With the fried chicken and with each other all over again!*"(Epinions review of Bojangles') [Sarah Rauers]

STANDOUT
--“Set up another case bartender! The best thing for a case of nerves is a case of Scotch.” (W. C. Fields) [John Wilson]
* This example is well set.  It is easier to pick up that “case” is the modified word, since it is mentioned three times, two times having a different meaning. [Lawrence L. Clark III]

STANDOUT
--“If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon.” (W. C. Fields) [John Wilson]  
* I like the idea of living another life especially over a bar/saloon. [Johnathon Robinson]

STANDOUT
-- He won the game and the girl. (Made up though not really an original idea) [Brandon Griffin]
* I picked this example, because once again it is a simple example and something that I think will help me remember the word. I have also heard it somewhere before, which helps. [Katie Nichols]
* It is simple yet it expresses the concept of syllepsis better than the other examples. [Chris Buckner]

STANDOUT
--“She blew my nose and then she blew my mind”(The Rolling Stones, Honkey Tonk Women) [Elizabeth Larrimore]
* This is really random but it’s a working example of the term in the context of a memorable song—well, memorable for me at least. Maybe I’m a little biased on this one, but since I know the song so well it sticks in my mind and stands above the rest. [Johnny Flynn]
(Ditto. Excellent taste in music.--N)

--“Get out of my dreams, And into my car” (Billy Ocean – “Get out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car”) [Jeremy Buff]

-- “Lay down the law and break it, when Josie comes home” (From Steely Dan's “Josie”) [Camela Orsini]

--“Keep your hand and your mind on the ball” (mine) [Francisco Resto]

Syllogistic Progression

--“Dear Mr. President (Ayatollah Khomeini)

            Today’s press had reported you as deploring what you describe as the fundamental hostility of the United States toward you.

            With all respect, Mr. President, this can only reflect a complete misunderstanding of the American government and its people.

            There is no hostility toward Iran that one single act will not remove. That is the release of the American diplomats held hostage for the last eight months. …The United States has only one other interest in Iran, that is the maintenance of Iran’s independence and territorial integrity by a people and government pursuing policies of their own choosing and without outside interference.

Sincerely,

L. Bruce Laingen

Charge d’ Affaires”

(Bruce Laingen the highest ranking American official in Iran held hostage writing to Khomeini to remind him that he and others were still hostages there.   Guests of the Ayatollah  Mark Bowden pp. 504) [Johnathon Robinson]  

Synathroesmus
-- “Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.”   (Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No.1)[Kara Hooper]

(OK--more examples here. -- N)

STANDOUT
-- “He is a super-sonic, idiotic, brain-affected, booger-pickin’, leaf-lickin’, pee-drinking, dirty-headed chicken.” ( Saying that my (at the time) six-year old son and his friend made up on the bus ride home from school – I was appalled.) [Karen Farmer]
* This example directly piles up adjectives with negative connotations and very vividly illustrates the meaning of synathroesmus as a form of speech used in the spirit of invective (discourse that blames). [Laura Stephens]
(I agree. Karen, your son has a bright future as a shameless, name-calling, no-holds-barred, compound-sesquipedalian, serial-insulting ghostwriter of cheap campaign invective.)

STANDOUT
--“The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep you ever got with a cold…medicine.” (Vicks NyQuil) [Victoria Hammond]
* I thought that both of these are very accurate uses of the term with a sufficient amount of adjectives used. [Carmela Orsini]
* The meaning of the word is a piling up of adjectives and this was just that. It helped me understand the meaning of it. [Victoria Hammond]

-- Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,
With eyes of gold and bramble dew,
Steel-true and blade-straight
The great artificer
Made my mate.
(Robert Louis Stevenson, Songs of Travel, "To My Wife")[Caitlin Johnson] 

--“A demd, damp, moist, unpleasant body!” (Charles Dickens)[Caitlin Johnson]

STANDOUT
--“He's a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy....Ya know what I'm saying? He's gay.”(Clueless) [Elizabeth Larrimore]
* I thought that both of these are very accurate uses of the term with a sufficient amount of adjectives used. [Carmela Orsini]

--“You bumbling, drooling, two-timing twit!”(mine) [Francisco Resto]

Synecdoche
--The Molly Maguires are controlling the coals
(from “Molly Maguires” by The Irish Rovers)[Donna Corbett]

STANDOUT
--"Biscuits are who we are; they're what we do." (Mike Knutson, director of training for Bojangles' Famous Chicken n' Biscuits) [Sarah Rauers]
* This example was perfect because there is clearly no way one can be a biscuit. This drew out the definition perfectly for me. [Victoria Hammond]

--"Helmet and rifle, pack and overcoat/Marched through a forest.   Somewhere up ahead Guns thudded.  Like the circle of a throat/The night on every side was turning red . . ."  (Louis Simpson, “The Battle”)[Sheryl Avery]

--"Give us this day out daily bread"  (Matthew 6:11) [Katie Nichols]
 

Tapinosis
-- A bible-hugger or a bible-humper for a very religious person
(found in everyday speech) [Lauren Hunsberger]

--“If variety is the spice of life, marriage is the big can of leftover Spam.” (Johnny Carson) [John Wilson] 

PUZZLER
--"Fame has sent a number of celebrities off the deep end, and in the case of Michael Jackson, to the kiddy pool." (Bill Maher) [Heather Benton]
* This example puzzles me because Michael Jackson is being debased by a metaphor (pool) and pun (kiddy pool implying pedophilia). I understood tapinosis to be a negative alternative name for a person or thing. [Laura Stephens]
(Right. See tapinosis.--N)

--“Many countries collectively agree … that children are a tantrum wrapped in a diaper and not worth the trouble.”  (Emily Yoffee.) [Chris Murray]

--“The comedy stylings of Miss Cordelia Chase, everybody. Who incidentally won’t be needing a higher education when she can just market her own very successful line of Hooker Wear.” (-Xander, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) [Jeremy Buff] 

PUZZLER
----“Do you believe in religion?” “No, I’m not superstitious”(mine) [Francisco Resto]
* I can see that Francisco is knocking religion with this statement by equating being religious with being superstitious.  I think tapinosis is would use words to make the idea more specific.   “Religion” is fairly generic. To believe in God or Allah or Buddha, is more specific and makes the question more personal and makes the attack/the object of debasement clearer.  I was thinking that it might work as an example of tapinosis if the statement read, “Do you believe in God?” and to reply, “No, I’m not superstitious.”  [Katharine Harrington]
(Tapinosis commonly involves name-calling of one sort or another. Following up on Katharine's comment, I might recast this (with an allusion to Nietzsche) as “Do you believe in God?” with the reply, “No, I don't believe in ghosts."-- N)

Tenor
PUZZLER
--“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.  Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.   That’s relativity (Albert Einstein ) [Jim Muenckler] 
* It was hard for me to identify the tenor. It is also hard for me to find the vehicle and tenor together in a metaphor. [Victoria Hammond]

See tenor. -- N

Testimony
--"Before I got into that relationship, I had a good head on my shoulders and walked with my head up high," Gonzalez, 21, says in the July issue of Seventeen.

"But during that relationship, things went down little by little. It was such a dark moment in my life. It was horrible!"

Because of her situation, "I wasn't having my rest or eating the food I wanted to eat. So I mentally gave up, but I still did what I had to do. I think perseverance is the key to success. There were so many roadblocks for me, but I overcame them all." 
(Jaslene Gonzalez, Winner of America’s Next Top Model  http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20040301,00.html [Victoria Hammond]

Tetracolon Climax
STANDOUT
--“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly and applying unsuitable remedies.”
(Groucho Marx) [Laura Stephens] 
* This example is successful because it has the required four parts and it is a simple statement that is also humorous, which in turn, makes it memorable. [Katharine Harrington]

--"Bojangles' menu offers a distinctive spicy flavor profile with signature items that include spicy, Cajun-style chicken, made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits, one-of-a-kind sides like Cajun Pintos and Legendary Iced Tea." (Bojangles Press Release, 9/13/07) [Sarah Rauers]

--“I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food.” He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself. (Johnny Carson) [John Wilson] 

--"Well, he is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life;he was defeated long before he died, because at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him." (My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation James Baldwin)[C. Ferguson]

--"If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly -- why it happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved -- and put it all together to understand how to prevent the crisis in Iraq, fix the problem in Afghanistan and Iraq combined."
(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Columbia University, 9/24/2007)[Pat Hamilton] 

Tricolon
-- Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. (General Douglas MacArthur, Thayer Award Acceptance Address delivered 12 May 1962, West Point, NY) [Stacy Mincey] 

--"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." (Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940) [Stacy Mincey]

--“…she could smell rivers and woodsmoke, could hear steaming trains chuffing out of winter stations in long-ago nighttimes, could see travelers in black robes moving steadily along frozen rivers…”  (Page 107 from The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller.) [Karen Farmer]  

--"if you’ve loved anybody that long, first as an infant, then as a child, then as a man, you gain a strange perspective on time and human pain and effort."  (My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation James Baldwin) [C. Ferguson]

--“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”(Jefferson) [Francisco Resto] 

Understatement
--“It wouldn’t really be all that great to have your father run over you and break both your legs on the day you were suppose to get an award”
(Comment in my 4th grade student’s reading journal about Pinballs by Betsy Byars) [Stacy Mincey] 

-- This is the Hour of Lead—
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the snow--
First—Chill—then stupor—then the letting go—
(From Emily Dickinson’s After a great pain, a formal feeling comes) [Johnathon Robinson]

PUZZLER
--“He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed”(expression) [Francisco Resto]
* This expression seems more like paronomasia. [Karen Farmer]
* For me this just seems more like tapinosis or a maxim, and not so much and understatement since it’s not really understating anything?  [Jeremy Buff]
(Right--unless (let's really stretch here) "he" is a personification of a brick or a sponge or some other remarkably unsharp object in a shed. However, the first two examples of understatement are fine.)

VEHICLE

zeugma
STANDOUT
-- "He handed her the documents and free reign," (Found here-http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower/z.comments.html) [Brandon Griffin]
*  This example is good because it clarifies the meaning of zeugma through the way in which the same verb (to hand) modifies both ‘documents’ and ‘reign’, but is logically correct with only ‘documents’. [Laura Stephens]
*  I felt his example clearly reflects the meaning of the term.   It is also an easy to remember example that I can attach to the term to help remember the meaning. [Stacy Mincey