We will discuss these figures of style in class, but here is a listing of some. The figures listed here barely scratch the surface of all the possible figures of style. You can do a quick internet search for “figures of style” and find a wealth of options. For a great listing of devices, I really like the “forest of rhetoric” at http://rhetoric.byu.edu/.
- The devices we discussed during the commemorative days
Assonance and consonance: The repetition of sounds
Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds
Anaphora: Repetition at the beginning of phrases.
Epistrophe: repetition at the ends of phrases
Epizeuxis: Repetition of the same word.
Anadiplosis: The end of one phrase begins the next
Symploce: Repetition at the beginning and ends.
Enumeratio: Listing details.
Parallelism: Similar repeated syntactic structure.
- The devices we discussed during the advocacy days
Asyndeton. Omitting normally occurring conjunctions.
Polysyndeton. Inserting extra conjunctions.
Tricolon: Three parallel phrases of the same length in a series.
Hypophora: Raising and responding to your own question.
Appositio: Variation on a word.
Schesis Onomaton: Variation on a phrase.
Antithesis. The pairing of contrasting words or ideas.
Antimetabole. A pattern for antithesis, where the phases are structured: A B B A.
Maxim: a short, pithy phrase.
