Education and Information Site VirtualSalt A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices, Page 2 Robert A. Harris
January 5, 2010


Alliteration Antithesis Climax Epizeuxis Metanoia Polysyndeton
Allusion Apophasis Conduplicatio Eponym Metaphor Procatalepsis
Amplification Aporia Diacope Exemplum Metonymy Rhetorical Question
Anacoluthon Aposiopesis Dirimens Copulatio Sentential Adverb Onomatopoeia Scesis Onomaton
Anadiplosis Apostrophe Distinctio Hyperbaton Oxymoron Sententia
Analogy Appositive Enthymeme Hyperbole Parallelism Simile
Anaphora Assonance Enumeratio Hypophora Parataxis Symploce
Antanagoge Asyndeton Epanalepsis Hypotaxis Parenthesis Synecdoche
Antimetabole Catachresis Epistrophe Litotes Personification Understatement
Antiphrasis Chiasmus Epithet Metabasis Pleonasm Zeugma



Or parallel verbs and adverbs: Or parallel verbs and direct objects: Or just the objects: Or parallel prepositional phrases: Notice how paralleling rather long subordinate clauses helps you to hold the whole sentence clearly in your head: It is also possible to parallel participial, infinitive, and gerund phrases: In practice some combination of parts of speech or sentence elements is used to form a statement, depending as always on what you have to say. In addition, the parallelism, while it normally should be pretty close, does not have to be exact in its syntactical similarity. For example, you might write, Here are some other examples of parallelism:




A more important version of this form (with its own name, diazeugma) is the single subject with multiple verbs: Notice that two or three verb phrases are the usual proportion. But if you have a lot to say about the actions of the subject, or if you want to show a sort of multiplicity of behavior or doings, you can use several verbs: Two or more subordinate relative pronoun clauses can be linked prozeugmatically, with the noun becoming the yoking word: You could have two or more direct objects: Or a preposition with two objects: Sometimes you might want to create a linkage in which the verb must be understood in a slightly different sense: In hypozeugma the yoking word follows the words it yokes together. A common form is multiple subjects: It is possible also to hold off a verb until the last clause: Hypozeugma can be used with adjectives or adjective phrases, too. Here, Peacock uses two participial phrases, one past and one present: The utility of the zeugmatic devices lies partly in their economy (for they save repetition of subjects or verbs or other words), and partly in the connections they create between thoughts. The more connections between ideas you can make in an essay, whether those connections are simple transitional devices or more elaborate rhetorical ones, the fewer your reader will have to guess at, and therefore the clearer your points will be.


Antithesis can convey some sense of complexity in a person or idea by admitting opposite or nearly opposite truths: Antithesis, because of its close juxtaposition and intentional


Note also that short phrases can be made antithetical: 10. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism: Anaphora can be used with questions, negations, hypotheses, conclusions, and subordinating conjunctions, although care must be taken not to become affected or to sound rhetorical and bombastic. Consider these selections: Adverbs and prepositions can anaphora, too: 11. Epistrophe (also called antistrophe) forms the counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences: Epistrophe is an extremely emphatic device because of the emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or sentence. If you have a concept you wish to stress heavily, then epistrophe might be a good construction to use. The danger as usual lies in this device's tendency to become too rhetorical. Consider whether these are successful and effective or hollow and bombastic: 12. Anadiplosis repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. it can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression: Most commonly, though, anadiplosis is used for emphasis of the repeated word or idea, since repetition has a reinforcing effect: Notice how the main point of the sentence becomes immediately clear by repeating the same word twice in close succession. There can be no doubt about the focus of your thought when you use anadiplosis.


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