AP English Language Rhetorical Devices

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly conjunction with climax and with parallelism.

Examples: GO big or GO home, GET BUSY living or GET BUSY dying, GIVE ME liberty or GIVE ME death, I WISH I may; I WISH I might

Anadiplosis repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next.

Examples: When I GIVE, I GIVE myself, Mankind must put an end to WAR— or WAR will put an end to mankind, She opened a CAFE, a CAFE that ruined her financially.

Antithesis establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in a parallel structure.

Examples: Man PROPOSES, God DISPOSES, Love is an IDEAL THING, marriage a REAL THING, Success makes men PROUD, failure makes them WISE.

Asyndeton consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.

Examples: I came, I saw, I conquered. She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels. They spent the day wondering, searching, thinking, understanding.

(Notice how there’s no “and”)

Polysyndeton is the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of Asyndeton.

Examples: Burnt green, and blue, and white. And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. I wore a sweater, and a hat, and a scarf, and a pair of boots, and mittens.

Synecdoche is a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, etc.

Ex: If I had some WHEELS (car), I’d put on my best THREADS (clothes) and ask for Janes’s HAND IN MARRIAGE (proposal); hungry MOUTHS (people) to feed;

Epistrophe forms the counterpart of Anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Ex: Face the DAWN, fear the DAWN, own the DAWN; where affections bear rule, there reason is SUBDUED, honesty is SUBDUED, good will is SUBDUED and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are SUBDUED.

(Notice how the repetition is at the end)

Oxymoron is a paradox to two words, usually in an adjective-noun or adverb-adjective relationship, and is used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit.

Ex: The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read; small crowd; old news; living dead

Chiasmus might be called “reverse parallelism,” since the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order.

Ex: When the going gets tough, the tough gets going; never allow a fool to kiss you or never kiss a fool

Apostrophe interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent.

Ex: Calgon, take me away!; DEATH, be proud not (considered death as a person); ALARM CLOCK, please don’t fail me

Onomatopoeia: The use of words whose pronunciation imitates the sound the word describes

Ex: Bang, pow, buzz; someone yelled “look out!” and I heard a loud screech followed by a GRINDING, WRENCHING crash

Zeugma: Includes several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech. (Using one word to link two or more thoughts)

Ex: She BROKE his car and his heart; Fred EXCELLED at sports; Harvey at eating; Tom with girls; He FISHED for trout and compliments; the farmers GREW potatoes, barley, and bored.

Parataxis: writing successive independent clauses, with coordinating conjunctions, or no conjunctions (conjoins two complete sentences, usually no conjunction)

Ex: I came, I saw, I conquered; I have bought some beautiful tapestries AND you’ll love them; There was no moon that night SO, they took the wrong turning

Exemplum: citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious

Ex: “for instance”, “for example”, “a case in point”, “a typical situation”

Pleonasm: Using more words than required to express an idea; being redundant. Normally a vice, it is done on purpose on rare occasions for emphasis

Ex: I heard it with my own ears (if you heard something, you would assume you did it with your ears); kick it with your feet; I myself