Rhetorical Terms Presentation #9By: Kaitlin Suchowesky, Shelby Stubbs, and Krista King

Anadiplosis: Figure of repetition that occurs when the last word or

terms in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are

repeated at or very near the beginning of the next

sentence, clause, or phrase

“When I make a promise, that promise is kept.”

“Gradually I worked the spider into the story that you know, a story of friendship and salvation on a farm.-A letter from E.B. White (author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little) to his readers

“She had one of her daughters and some friends with her, some friends from church.”- “Amazing Grace” Jonathan Kozol

Archetype:An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life.

Damsel in distress rescued by prince.

From the way of all waiting I got the mother devoted to her sick child. -"The Way of All Waiting" by S.L. Wisenberg

Drug addict turned drug counselor- “Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Kozol

Analepsis - an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. (Flashback)

“I felt the back end swerve like it did the morning I flipped my truck, and I realized then I had to get back behind the wheel.”

“One day when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most pigs, he was doomed to die.” – E.B. White (Letter from Mr. White)

Mrs. Washington, in Amazing Grace, talked about her multiple hospital stays throughout the book.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis will explain the significance of something to the reader by using flashbacks.

Antimetabole: the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order.

Seeing is believing, and believing is seeing. “To be kissed by a fool is stupid; To be

fooled by a kiss is worse.” --Ambrose Redmoon.

“But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.” --Francis Bacon, "Of Truth“

“I don't think he's ignorant. He seems to be well educated, though you can be educated and still be ignorant but I don't think he's ignorant. I think he's cruel.”—Jonothan Kozol, “Amazing Grace”

Conduplicatio: Figure of repetition in which the key word or words in one phrase, clause, or sentence is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases; repetition of a key word over successive phrases or clauses.

"Drugs don't just destroy their victims; they destroy entire families, schools, and communities." -- Elizabeth Dole, 1999 San Diego Stump Speech

"And now, I stand before you, Mr. President -- Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others -- and I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people. Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being."-- Elie Wiesel, The Perils of Indifference

“But the very things that make it a good game make it a rough game, and there is always the chance of your being laid up. Now, I should not in the least object to your being laid up for a season if you were striving for something worthwhile.” “A Proper Place for Sports” by Theodore Roosevelt.

 “They're afraid to sound like children. But it isn't bad to sound like children. Children sometimes understand things that most grown-ups do not see.” –Jonathan Kozol, “Amazing Grace”

Pathetic Fallacy: The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature.

A cruel lonesome wind is howling through the trees.

“A forlorn exile in her own house and home, weary object of formal ceremonies and machine-made worship, winged child of the sun, native to the free air and the blue skies and the flowery fields, doomed by the splendid accident of her birth to trade this priceless heritage for a black captivity, a tinsel grandeur, and a loveless life, with shame and insult at the end and a cruel death - and condemned by the human instinct in her to hold the bargain valuable!”-"The Bee" by Mark Twain

“It was a dark, and stormy night.” “Eats Shoots and Leaves

Periphrasis - an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech in which more words are used than necessary to describe something.

“Your prodigious and faithful attention to the demands of daily drudgery in a dusty classroom have progressed beyond the highest expectations of your lowly instructor's best hopes for your gloriously bright future.”

“In fact, I can't remember any time in my life when I wasn't busy writing.” – E.B. White (Letter from Mr. White)

“When I ask, however, if these understandings hold the seeds of possible political resistance, he says ‘No…’” – Jonathan Kozol (Amazing Grace)

“I dialed the number that was promptly given to me to reach the parents of the young man who had run away from his seemingly cruel household.”

Philophronesis - The pacification of an adversary by use of mild speech or promises.

“What are we going to do about him dying?” “Nothing. We didn’t kill him.”

(Readers are mad E.B. White can’t respond to his letters. White responds in gentle speech.) I receive many letters from children and can't answer them all -- there wouldn't be time enough in a day. That is why I am sending you this printed reply to your letter. – E.B. White (Letter from Mr. White)

“Anthony, what should we do to do to end this plague?” “Mr. Jonathan,” he answers, “only God can do that. I cannot be God.” (He simply answers a question to a concerning topic) – Jonathan Kozol (Amazing Grace)

“How dare you do such a thing to me!” “It wasn’t I that did anything to you. Besides, you brought this upon yourself.”

Polyptoton: is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated.

“Working hard or hardly working?“ "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to

their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;" William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida I, i, 7-8

“I have seen how the embargo hurts everyone in Cuba, but especially Cuban children, infants in particular.” Letter from Alice Walker to President Clinton

“Do the hidden believe they are being hid?” –Jonathan Kozol, “Amazing Grace”

Semantics: The study of actual meaning in languages, especially the meanings of individual words and word combinations in phrases and sentences.

I heart twilight, the real meaning is I love twilight. “I am very busy now, facing the usual endless

worry and discouragement..” -"Proper Place for Sports" by Theodore Roosevelt

“A comma, at the time was the name or a relatively short bit( the words means in Greek “piece cut off”); and in fact when the words “comma” was adopted into English in the 16 century, it still referred to a discrete, separable group of words rather than the friendly little tadpoley number-nine-dot-with-a-tail that today we know and love.-Eats Shoots and Leaves

Syntheton - When by convention two words are joined by a conjunction for emphasis.

Time and effort. Truth and justice. In the old days, paper files had been necessary, and

young people accepted the job because it provided an introduction to journalism. "The Middleman," of Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present

“Nearly three quarters of the inmates of state prisons in New York come from the same seven neighborhoods of New York City: the south Bronx, Harlem, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, south Jamaica, east new York , and the lower east side of Manhattan, all the but last of which are…” (and is not needed, just for emphasis) – Jonathan Kozol (Amazing Grace) 

Systrophe: The listing of many qualities or descriptions of someone or something, without providing an explicit definition.

“What [a] piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?”—Shakespeare, Hamlet2.2.303-310

“Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights.” Francis Bacon, "Of Truth“

“My job is like a pilot on a hijacked plane, and my job is to throw the hijacker off, even if it means bodily.” –Jonothan Kozol, “Amazing Grace”