OWLs (OUTSTANDING WORDS - LEXICON) Advanced Rhetorical Devices
DETAILS & EXAMPLES:
Anaphora Repeats a word or phrase at the start of every line or passage.
The use of anaphora creates parallelism and rhythm, which is why this technique is
often associated with music and poetry. However, any form of written work can benefit
from this rhetorical device.
EXAMPLES:
I Have a Dream MLK’s speech (last line = greatest idea)
"It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach.
It rained all over the place." The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
The Tyger, William Blake (Lines 13 - 16)
"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?"
~Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
Anthimeria Using one part of speech in place of another.
BEWARE! It can easily become silly and is often overused.
It is definitely (over)used in advertising.
Noun Into Verb
''My sea-gown scarf'd about me.'' Shakespeare
To scarf,' the verbed word in Hamlet's speech.
Did you just verb that word?
That means making a word that is NOT a verb, act as a verb.
When I was on crutches I would sometimes exclaim, “I will crutch on over to you!” That turned the noun crutch into a verb.
The “oh-so-posh often ask, “Where do you winter?”
Or, they might explain that they “summer in the south of France.”
Anthimeria Nouns to verbs in advertising:
Come TV With Us — Hulu
How to Television — Amazon
Let’s Movie — Turner Classic Movies
Go Krogering — Kroger Grocery Store
Adjective Into Noun
Where Awesome Happens — Xfinity
We Put the Good in Morning — Tropicana
Spread the Happy — Nutella
Interjection Into Noun More Aaah — Canada Dry
Antiphrasis uses a word with an opposite meaning for ironic or humorous effect.
"We named our chihuahua Goliath."
Appositive places a noun or noun phrase next to another noun for descriptive purposes.
"Mary, queen of this land, hosted the ball."
In this phrase, "queen of this land" is the appositive noun that describes Mary's role.
An appositive is similar to a non-defining subordinate clause,
but it doesn't include "which" or "who." It's a word or phrase that can be substituted for a name.
Bob Vance, the president of Vance Refrigeration, married my coworker Phyllis.
Here, you could identify Phyllis's husband as either
"Bob Vance" or "the president of Vance Refrigeration." They are the same person.
You will notice that short or one-word appositives,
such as in the phrase "my coworker Phyllis" do not have to be set off with commas.
If you think a sentence or phrase would be clearer
by setting off a short appositive with commas,
then, by all means, do it. However, it is not absolutely necessary.
Chiasmus - the reversing of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases
or sentences. A chiasmus will reverse grammatical structure,
not necessarily with the exact same words.
This rhetorical device is also referred to as reverse parallelism or syntactical inversion.
An important subtype of chiasmus is antimetabole.
The main difference between the two is that antimetabole will
reverse the EXACT SAME words in the sentence,
while chiasmus will reverse grammatical structure, not necessarily with the same words.
This literary device was used in Hebrew scripture and ancient Greek writings.
CHIASMUS EXAMPLES:
"By day the frolic, and the dance by night." ~Samuel Johnson, "The Vanity of Human Wishes"
"His time a moment, and a point his space." ~Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Man"
"You see things; you say, 'Why?'
But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'"
~George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
"I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees." ~Attributed to Emiliano Zapata
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
~Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail
"Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in.
Those left behind, we will help to catch up." ~ Richard Nixon, "1969 First Inaugural Address"
Antimetabole (a type of chiasmus) repeats words or phrases in reverse order.
Reverses the EXACT SAME words in the sentence
"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”
~JFK
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
"But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first." ~Matthew 19:30
"Do I love you because you're beautiful? Or are you beautiful because I love you?"
~Oscar Hammerstein, "Cinderella"
Epistrophe (AKA: Epiphora) repeats ending words EXAMPLES:
And that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the Earth. ~Abraham Lincoln - Gettysburg Address
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
~ Corinthians 13:11
Epanalepsis (ep-uh-nuh-lep-sis) bookends
Repeats a similar grouping of words at the beginning of a sentence and at the end.
The repeated words act as "bookends.
"Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rake, blow!" King Lear, William Shakespeare
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." Phillippians 4:4
The king is dead, long live the king!
Always Low Prices. Always" ~ WalMart slogan
Run, Forrest, run!The repeated words act as bookends, driving the point home.
Does not have to identical:
No matter where I end up, I never seem to feel any different or any better
—no matter where I land.
In fact, epanalepsis often benefits from having slightly different wording,
as the slight change can make it feel more natural and less calculated.
Can be within a longer sentence.
He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.
~To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
A good mnemonic for epanalepsis is to remember that
"p" appears toward the beginning of the word, and is repeated again at the end
(epanalepsis).
Epizeuxis Repeats one word for emphasis.
The amusement park was fun, fun, fun!”
“Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!” ~Lady McBeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth Act 5, scene 1
“Everybody Happy, happy, happy!” ~Duck Dynasty
Give me a break! Give me a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!
(advertising jingle)
Hyperbole An exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.
Hyperbole is an unreal exaggeration used to emphasize a real situation.
This figure of speech is common in day-to-day speech.
(derived from a Greek word meaning “over-casting”)
My great-aunt is as old as the hills. (also a SIM)
Your suitcase weighs a ton!
I am dying of shame. (also a MET)
I am trying to solve a million issues these days.In our everyday conversations, hyperbole is a common way to
create humor, or to emphasize our stories.
In literature hyperbole has a serious job.
By using hyperbole, a writer or a poet can make ordinary human feelings remarkable.
Hyperbole intensifies dialogue, narration, and description
so that things and ideas grow beyond being ordinary.
In literature, the use of hyperbole can also develop contrasts.
When one thing is described with exaggeration, and the other thing is presented normally,
a striking contrast is developed. This technique is employed to hook the reader’s attention.
Hyperbole Example in Literature
Babe the Blue Ox (American Folklore)
In American folklore, Paul Bunyan’s stories are full of hyperboles.
In one instance, he exaggerates winter by saying:
“Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and
all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue.
Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard.
People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before.”
Metanoia corrects or qualifies a statement to strengthen it or soften it in some way.
"You are the most beautiful woman in this town, nay the entire world."
“To help or, at least, to do no harm.” The Hippocratic Oath
“And they lived, if not happily ever after, then at least reasonably so.” The Dot and the Line
Personification (& Anthropomorphism) the projection of characteristics that
normally belong only to humans onto inanimate objects, animals, deities,
or forces of nature.
Personification is figurative.
Anytime someone refers to the wind howling or a premonition
like cold fingers up a spine, it’s personification.
When you feel like chocolate is calling your name
or your bed is looking at you invitingly, that’s personification.
You can also represent abstract concepts through personification.
Justice must be blind because people deserve equal treatment under the law, right?
We refer to Father Time and Death with human-like characteristics.
Justice is blind.
The sun smiled down on them.
The stars winked.
The party died down.
The city never sleeps
The wind howled.
The car sputtered and coughed before starting.
Her heart was divided between concern for her sister,
and resentment against all the others. ~Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent to their plans.
Anthropomorphism is literal.
This literary technique usually needs some developing
to become truly anthropomorphic.
Speaking animals or objects who talk, think, or behave
like humans are all anthropomorphic.
Think of Thomas the Tank Engine, Winnie the Pooh, or Peter Rabbit.
They literally act as if they are human.
With anthropomorphism the non-human entities actually do human things
like talking, falling in love, wiggling their eyebrows,
and generally behaving like people behave.
