Figures of Rhetoric

Figures of rhetoric for GCSE Many rhetorical devices have the effect of emphasising a point. Always consider WHY a word/phrase is being emphasised – discuss the context and the meaning. In order to avoid repeatedly using the words ‘emphasise’ + ‘emphatic’ [!] try the following (but not all at once): accentuate indicate stress point out underline reiterate re-emphasise! highlight pinpoint put in the foreground spotlight dwell on make the point make clear make much of reinforce/ amplify (©Rufus Guy/George Robson 2016) Polyptoton In inflected languages polyptoton is the same word being repeated but appearing each time in a different case. otium/otio in your Catullus poem. Other than the function of emphasising ideas, the use of polyptoton as a rhetorical device adds (i) rhythm to a work as well as making it (ii) easier to remember. It can be used of verbs, too. Judge not, that ye be not judged Gospel of Matthew 7:1 "Who shall watch the watchmen themselves (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)?" Juvenal "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant." Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida I. i. 7-8 “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Anaphora Anaphora (Greek: ἀναφορά, "carrying back, repeating") is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighbouring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. Other than the function of emphasising ideas, the use of anaphora as a rhetorical device adds (i) rhythm to a work as well as making it (ii) more pleasurable to read and (iii) easier to remember. Anaphora serves the purpose of delivering an artistic effect to a passage. It is also used to appeal to the emotions of the audience in order to persuade, inspire, motivate and encourage them. In Dr Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, he uses anaphora by repeating "I have a dream" eight times throughout the speech.1 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way... — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. — Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 4 June 1940 Asyndeton Asyndeton (from the Greek: ἀσύνδετον, "unconnected") is a figure of speech in which one or several conjunctions (e.g. AND, BUT, AND THEN...) are omitted from a series of related clauses. Examples are veni, vidi, vici and its translation "I came, I saw, I conquered". Its use can have the effect of speeding up the rhythm of a passage and making a single idea more memorable. Or making a statement punchy and forceful, bringing out e.g. emotion, anger. "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth". Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address2 Delivered on August 28, 1963: he calls for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement 2 It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 1 Pleonasm Pleonasm (from Greek πλέον pleon "more, too much") is the use of more words or parts of words than is necessary or sufficient for clear expression: examples are black darkness, burning fire, or people's democracy. In many ways it is almost the same as tautology, saying the same thing. Pleonasm sometimes serves the same function as ‘repetition’—it can be used to reinforce an idea, contention or question, rendering writing clearer and easier to understand. "I will be brief: your noble son is mad: Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad?" — Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) "Let me tell you this, when social workers offer you, free, gratis and for nothing, something to hinder you from swooning, which with them is an obsession, it is useless to recoil ..." —Samuel Beckett, Molloy. Chiasmus Chiasmus (Latin term from Greek χίασμα, "crossing", from the Greek χιάζω, chiázō, "to shape like the letter Χ") is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point. Chiasmus was particularly popular in the literature of the ancient world, including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, where it was used to articulate the balance of order within the text. The elements of simple chiasmus are often labelled in the form A B B A, where the letters correspond to grammar, words, or meaning. For example John F. Kennedy said, "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country". Chiasmus derives its effectiveness from its symmetrical structure and serves to emphasise (that word again!) a point. It may also give a line a pleasing rhythm. A good example is the aphorism: quod cibus est aliis, aliis est venenum, "What is food to some, to others is poison." The pattern is: noun, verb, pronoun; pronoun, verb, noun. The neatness of this aphorism makes it memorable (as in the JFK phrase above). There is a virtuoso double chiasmus in Horace’s tale of the town mouse and country mouse. The effect is to use a grand figure of speech to ennoble two humble mice. Brilliant or ...? Why yes - BRILLIANT! 'olim rusticus urbanum murem mus paupere fertur accepisse cavo, veterem vetus hospes amicum... Hyperbaton Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which normally associated words are separated. The separation of connected words for emphasis or effect is possible to a much greater degree in highly inflected languages, where sentence meaning does not depend closely on word order. In Latin and ancient Greek, the effect of hyperbaton is usually to emphasize the first word. From your Ovid selection: virginibus cupidas iniciuntque manus. “And they throw their lustful hands upon the maidens” **The lustful part is stressed by coming before MANUS and being separated from the word by INICIUNT-QUE. "Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end" — William Shakespeare in Richard III, 4.4, 198. Bloody is separated from end to stress how horrible the death will be. Enjambment The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped. It can be used to suggest someone is rushing along/emotional/angry, that the action is fast; to highlight the word that begins the new line... In reading, the delay of meaning creates a tension that is released when the word or phrase that completes the syntax is encountered. William Carlos Williams’s “Between Walls” is one sentence broken into 10 enjambed lines: the back wings of the hospital where nothing will grow lie cinders in which shine the broken pieces of a green bottle The start of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot: April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire...