Beyond My Wildest TROPES and SCHEMES!

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Beyond My WildestTROPESandSCHEMES!

• Rhetorical Tropes Schemes in Writing and Speech

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Rhetorical Tropes

• Trope a figure of speech that uses words or
  phrases in ways not intended by their normal
  meanings
• Essentially, artful diction
• Many literary devices are actually tropes
• Tropes are poetic, but they can also change the
  tone of the writingmore playful, more solemn,
  more formalit all depends on the context
• First, a few familiar faces

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Rhetorical Tropes

• Hyperbole
• Exaggeration for effect
• Oxymoron
• Self-contradictory phrase cold fire
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Allusion
• Sensory Imagery

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Paradox

• para- contrary to, dox- opinion
• An apparent oxymoron that actually contains a
  deeper truth
• Darth Vader is the epitome of a heroic villain
  true, he exterminates the Jedi and murders
  countless innocents, but by throwing the Emperor
  to his death, he also saves the galaxy.
• Note the difference from an oxymoron paradox
  doesnt just playfully juxtapose opposites it
  makes an argument about the objects complexity

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Litotes
LIE-toe-tees

• Making a point by denying its opposite
• He was not uncharitable toward his foes.
• As you can see, usually functions as a form of
  understatement he clearly wasnt hugely
  generous, but he was somewhat charitable.
• But their response, it didnt thrill us / They
  locked the doors and tried to kill
  us. --Weird Al Yankovic, The Saga Begins
• Here understatement is sarcastic. Not only did
  it fail to thrill us it really upset us.

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Euphemism

• eu- good/true, phem- speak
• Substitution of a more favorable (and often less
  direct) term for an unpleasant or controversial
  one
• Theyre not civilian casualties! Theyre
  collateral damage!
• Im not a criminal! Im a troubled youth!
• Its not abortion! Its reproductive health
  services!
• Im not a garbage man! Im a waste disposal
  engineer!

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Rhetorical Schemes

• Scheme a device that changes word order or
  pattern to produce an effect
• Essentially, artful syntax
• Tend to have Greek names describing their
  function
• Schemes serve to call attention to certain
  elements in the sentence, change its tone, show
  relationships among ideas, or simplify eliminate
  awkwardness or create euphony.

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Parallelism

• Similarity of structure in a series of related
  words, phrases, or clauses.
• parallelism of words She tried to make her
  pastry fluffy, sweet, and delicate.
• adj, adj, adj
• parallelism of phrases Singing songs, writing
  poems, and constructing cathedrals all glorify
  God.
• verbing nouns
• parallelism of clauses The elephant is larger,
  the horse is swifter and stronger, the butterfly
  is far more beautiful, the mosquito is more
  prolific, even the simple sponge is more
  durable. Inherit the Wind
• noun is comparative adj

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Parallelism

• Be the companion of his thought, the friend of
  his friendship, the lover of his virtue--but no
  kinsman of his sin. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• noun of his noun
• How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and
  conquerors have been how gloriously different
  are the saints. C.S. Lewis
• How adverb adjective

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Rhetorical Climax

• youre also likely to be tense, shakenanything
  but reassured. Peter Suderman
• Political language has to consist largely of
  euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy
  vagueness. George Orwell
• noun, noun, and adj. adj. noun
• Arrangement of a series of words, phrases, or
  clauses in order of importance, scope, or length
• End with longest or most significant
• Must have a series with parallel structure that
  gets slightly tweaked at the end

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Ellipsis

• And so the losers grow more aggrieved in defeat
  and the winners less generous in victory. James
  Poniewozik
• Happy the natural college thus self-instituted
  around every natural teacher the young men of
  Athens around Socrates of Alexander around
  Plotinus of Paris around Abelard Ralph Waldo
  Emerson
• Omission of certain words or phrases in a
  parallel series because they can be understood
  from context

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Anaphora

• Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe?
  Where is the debater of the age? --1
  Corinthians 120
• We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
  the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
  and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills
  we shall never surrender. --Winston
  Churchill, 1941
• Literally carrying back
• Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning
  of a series of successive phrases, clauses,
  sentences, or lines of poetry

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Anastrophe (Inversion)

• Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.
  Master Yoda
• Punished we were, disproportionate to the
  crime! Hector Barbossa
• Gathered along the ramp were firefighters in
  their black helmets and black coats.
• Suzanne Berne
• Reordering of words in order to affect sentence
  rhythm or emphasis
• How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and
  conquerors have been how gloriously different
  are the saints.
• And on the boy who lived in their letters, the
  splendid phantom who lived in all my hopes, it
  seemed to me I saw at last, my own face.

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Antithesis

• Americans in need are not strangers they are
  citizens not problems, but priorities. George
  W. Bush, 2001 Inaugural
• Your people will judge you on what you can
  build, not what you destroy.
• Barack Obama, 2009 Inaugural
• Id rather laugh with the sinners than cry with
  the saints Billy Joel (never elected)
• When he dives, the movie soars. Peter
  Suderman
• A juxtaposition of balanced opposites used for
  emphasis

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Antimetabole

• Ask not what your country can do for you, ask
  what you can do for your country. John F.
  Kennedy
• The reformer is always right about what is wrong.
  He is generally wrong about what is
  right. G.K. Chesterton
• Repetition of words in nearly identical
  successive clauses, with two words in reverse
  grammatical order

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Antimetabole!

• Be who you are and say what you feel, because
  those who mind dont matter, and those who matter
  dont mind. attr. to Dr. Seuss
• There are some who use change to promote their
  careers. And then there are those, like John
  McCain, who use their careers to promote
  change. Sarah Palin
• People the world over have always been more
  impressed by the power of our example than by the
  example of our power. Bill Clinton

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Zeugma

• Literally yoke (not yolk)
• A series of 2 or more words yoked grammatically
  to an earlier word in the sentence, often in
  contrasting ways
• I bought the salesmans story, and his product.
• He carried a strobe light and the responsibility
  for the lives of his men. Tim OBrien, The
  Things They Carried
• You held your breath and the door for
  me. Alanis Morrissette
• Im gonna lose my temper and some
  sleep. Brad Paisley
• You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a
  taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too
  soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff.
  Groucho Marx, Duck Soup