Figure of speech
A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetorical figure or device, or elocution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use. Note that not all theories of meaning necessarily have a concept of "literal language" (see literal and figurative language). Under theories that do not, figure of speech is not an entirely coherent concept. As an example of the figurative use of a word, consider the sentence, I am going to crown you. It may mean: I am going to place a literal crown on your head.I am going to symbolically exalt you to the place of kingship.I am going to punch you in the head with my clenched fist.
Classification
Figures of speech have been classified into a number of different categories. Most figures originated out of centuries of philological commentary on ancient texts, and so most are named from Greek or Latin, as they originally were meant to classify grammatical peculiarities of those languages. Scholars of classical Western rhetoric have divided figures of speech into two main categories: schemes and tropes. Schemes (from the Greek schēma, form or shape) are figures of speech in which there is a deviation from the ordinary or expected pattern of words. For example, the phrase, "John, my best friend" uses the scheme known as apposition. Tropes (from the Greek tropein, to turn) involve changing or modifying the general meaning of a term. An example of a trope is the use of irony, which is the use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So, are they all, honorable men"). During the Renaissance, a time when scholars in every discipline had a passion for classifying all things, writers spent a great deal of energy divising all manner of classes and sub-classes of figures of speech. Henry Peacham, for example, in his The Garden of Eloquence (1577) enumerated 184 different figures of speech. For the sake of simplicity, this article divides the figures between schemes and tropes, but does not attempt further sub-classification (e.g. "Figures of Disorder"). Within each category, words are listed alphabetically. Each figure links to a page that provides greater detail and relevant examples, but a short definition is placed here for convenience.
Schemesaccumulatio: Summarization of previous arguments in a forceful manneralliteration: Repetition of consonants in nearby wordsanacoluthon: A change in the syntax within a sentenceanadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the end of a clause at the beginning of anotheranaphora: The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clausesanastrophe: Inversion of the usual word orderantimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse orderantithesis: The juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideasaposiopesis: Breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effectapposition: The placing of two elements side by side, in which the second defines the firstassonance: Alliteration on the first sound in wordsasyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between related clauseschiasmus: Reversal of grammatical structures in successive clausesclimax: The arrangement of words in order of increasing importancedystmesis: A synonym for tmesisellipsis: Omission of wordsenallage: The substitition of forms that are grammatically different, but have the same meaning enthymeme: Informal method of presenting a syllogismepanalepsis: Repetition of a word at the end of a clause at the beginning of anotherepistrophe: Repetition of a word at the beginning and end of a clausehendiadys: Use of two nouns to express an idea when the normal structure would be a noun and a modifierhendiatris: Use of three nouns to express one ideahyperbaton: Schemes featuring unusual or inverted word orderhypallage: Changing the order of words so that they are associated with words normally associated with othersisocolon: Use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clausesparallelism: The use of similar structures in two or more clausesparaprosdokian: Unexpected ending or truncation of a clauseparenthesis: Insertion of a clause or sentence in a place where it interrupts the natural flow of the sentenceperissologia: The fault of wordinesspleonasm: The use of superfluous or redundant wordspolyptoton: Repetition of words derived from the same rootpolysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctionssynonymia: The use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentencetmesis: Insertion of one word between the syllables of a word or between the elements of a compound word
Tropesallegory: An extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subjectanacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speakerantanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different sensesanthimeria: The substitution of one part of speech for another, often turning a noun into a verbantonomasia: The substitution of a phrase for a proper name or vice versaaphorismus: Calling into question the meaning of a termaporia: Deliberating with oneself, often with the use of rhetorical questionsapostrophe: Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not presentauxesis: A form of hyperbole, in which a more important sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive termcatachresis: A mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)circumlocution: "Talking around" a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasisdenominatio: Another word for metonymyerotema: Synonym for rhetorical questioneuphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for anotherhyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasisinnuendoirony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaninglitotes: The deliberate use of understatementmeiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of somethingmetalepsis: Referring to something through reference to another thing to which it is remotely relatedmetaphor: An implied comparison of two thingsmetonymy: Substitution of a word to suggest what is really meantonomatopoeia: Using words whose sounds echo or suggest their senseoxymoron: Using two terms that normally contradict each other togetherparable: An extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lessonparadox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truthparalipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it overparonomasia: A form of pun, in which words similar in sound but with different meanings are usedperiphrasis: Substitution of a word or phrase for a proper namepersonification: Attributing a personality to some impersonal objectpraeteritio: Another word for paralipsisprocatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argumentprolepsis: Another word for procatalepsisproslepsis: An extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topicpun: A generic term for figures of speech that make a play on wordsrhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting somethingsimile: An explicit comparison between two thingssyllepsis: A form of pun, in which a single word is used to modify two other words, with which it normally would have differing meaningssynecdoche: A form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the wholezeugma: a figure of speech related to syllepsis, but different in that the word used as a modifier is not compatible with with one of the two words it modifies
See alsoRhetoric
ReferencesAristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. (Translated by J. H. Freese) Loeb Classical Library.Baldwin, Charles Sears. Ancient Rhetoric and Poetic: Interpreted from Representative Works. Peter Smith, Gloucester, 1959 (reprint).Rhetorica ad Herennium. (Translated by Henry Caplan) Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1954. Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.Kennedy, George. Art of Persuasion in Greece. Princeton Univ Press, 1969 (4th printing).Mackin, John H. Classical Rhetoric for Modern Discourse. Free Press, New York, 1969.Quintilian. Institutio oratoria. (In five volumes, trans. Donald A. Russell) Loeb Classical Library, 2002.
External links A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples Silva Rhetoricae, a guide to rhetorical ideas Stylistic Devices on English Grammar Online Figures of speech systematically classified adapted from E. W. Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the Bible
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