Figures of Speech that create Rhythm

Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system

Tropes:

Trope – is a figure of speech based on some kind of transfer of denomination.

1. Metaphor—the application of a word (phrase) to an object (concept) it doesn't literally denote to suggest comparison with another object or concept. EX. A mighty Fortress is our God.

2. Puzzle (Riddle)—a statement that requires thinking over a con­fusing or difficult problem that needs to be solved. EX. What should we do to solve our problem?

3. Synecdoche—the mention of a part for the whole. EX. A fleet of 50 sail, (a ship)

4. Metonymy—substitution of one word for another on the basis of real connection. EX. Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer's poems; wealth for rich people.

5. Catachresis — misuse of a word due to the false folk etymology or wrong application of a term in a sense that does not belong to the word. EX. Alibi for excuse; mental for weak-minded; mutual for common; disinterested for uninterested.

6. Epithet — a word or phrase used to describe someone or something with a purpose to praise or blame. EX. It was a lovely, summery evening.

7. Periphrasis — putting things in a round about way in order to bring out some important feature or explain more clearly the idea or situation described. EX. I paid him twenty rupees a month, about thirty bob, at which he was highly delighted.

8. Hyperbole—use of exaggerated terms for emphasis. EX. A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a lion.

9. Antonomasia—use of a proper name to express a general idea or conversely a common name for a proper one. EX. The Iron Lady; a Solomon; Don Juan.

These expressive means were divided into 4 large groups:

a)Figures that create rhythm by means of addition:

1. Doubling (reduplication, repetition) of words and sounds. EX. Tip-top, helter-skelter, wishy-washy; oh, the dreary, dreary moorland.

2.Epenalepsis (polysyndeton) conjunctions: use of several con­junctions. EX. He thought, and thought, and thought; f hadn't realized until then how small the houses were, how small and mean the shops.

3. Anaphora: repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two
or more clauses, sentences or verses. EX. E.g. No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass, not a bird or beast, not even a fish that was not owned!

4. Enjambment: running on of one thought into the next line, without breaking the syntactical pattern. EX. In Ocean's wide domains

Half buried in the sands

Lie skeletons in chains

With shackled feet and hands.

5. Asyndeton: omission of conjunction. EX. He provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect.

b) Figures based on compression:

1. Zeugma (syllepsis): a figure by which a verb, adjective or other part of speech, relating to one noun is referred to another. EX. He lost his hat and his temper, with weeping eyes and hearts.

2. Chiasmus—a reversal in the order of words in one of two parallel phrases. EX. He went to the country, to the town went she.

3. Ellipsis—omission of words needed to complete the construction of the sense. EX. H e was hanged and his followers imprisoned.

c)Figures based on assonance or accord:

1. Equality of colons—used to have a power to segment and arrange.

2.Proportions and harmony of colons.

d) Figures based on opposition:

1. Antithesis—choice or arrangement of words that emphasises a contrast. EX. Give me liberty or give me death.

2. Paradiastola—the lengthening of a syllable regularly short (in Greek poetry).

3.Anastrophe— inversion in contemporary terms. EX. Me he restored, him he hanged.

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