Figures of Syntaax and Rhetoric

[quasimodo1]

These rhetorical devices predate Virgil; some are still commonly used. Others could be. ............."Apostrophe" this device is a sudden break from a previous method of discourse and an addressing, in the second person, of a person or thing, absent or present. e.g.-O fatherland, O home of the gods! (I this example, the speaker is in carthage, manty miles from his home, and is making an "apostrophe" to Troy, which has been sacked by the Greeks.

[quasimodo1]

This rhetorical device is just the reversal of the normal or natural order (for rhetorical effect) e.g.- "Let us die and rush into the midst of arms".

[quasimodo1]

This rhetorical device is the use of a word, usually an adjective, before it is logically appropriate, as in "overwhelm the sunken ships, i.e., sink and overwhelm the ships.

[Virgil]

Great thought for a thread, Quasi. I will contribute to this. It is something they do not teach in colleges anymore.

[quasimodo1]

To Virgil: I'm sure some of these rhetorical devices have fallen into disuse despite the fact that they can really add something to an essay or arguement. It might be worth mentioning that syntax has one "a". Also, Virgil of Latin fame used almost all of them. quasi

[quasimodo1]

Anaphora, the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses, as "they marvel at the gifts of Aeneas, they marvel at Iulus, they marvel at Poseidon's mercy."

[Virgil]

metonymy
Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is meant ("crown for royalty"). In modern literary criticism, metonymy is often seen as the controlling trope for the loosely structured, open-ended works associated with post-modernism. Broadly viewed, metaphor indicates similarity, metonymy contiguity. Metonymy can also refer to the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it: for instance, describing someone's clothing or belongings in order to characterize the individual. Advertising frequently uses this kind of metonymy, simply putting a product in close proximity to something we want (companionship, beauty, happiness). (See Michael Quinion's distinction between synechdoche and metonymy at http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-syn1.htm .)
[Gk. "substitute meaning" or "beyond name"]
-"The pen is mightier than the sword."
-"Have you read Faulkner?"
-"Her voice is full of money." (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
-"The suits on Wall Street walked off with most of our savings."
-"The B.L.T. left without paying." (Waitress referring to a customer.)
-"Reverend Beadle has not always been a man of the cloth."
-"You're not in the ball park yet, but you have pulled into the parking lot." (combination of metaphor and metonyny)

[quasimodo1]

I guess most everybody knows of this one. It is the use of words where the sound suggests the meaning as in "the mighty rumbling of the mountain" or "wind whistling through the trees" etc.

[quasimodo1]

Synecdoche is using a part for the whole, or the reverse, as roof for house, as the stern for a ship, as point for the sword.

[Virgil]

epithet
Using an appropriate adjective (often habitually) to qualify a subject.
-"heartfelt thanks," "wine-red sea," "blood-red sky," "fleet-footed Achilles," "stone-cold heart"
-"The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea." (James Joyce, Ulysses)

[AuntShecky]

Four Literary Devices from the same general family:

Meiosis
sounds like a biological process, but it is a Greek term
meaning "understatement
The example that the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Termsprovides is when Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet calls his wound "a scratch."

Litotes
Pronounced "LY-toe-teez" methinks:means affirming something by denying its opposite (a grammatically-correct way of a double negative, perhaps)
"no mean feat," "not uncommon," etc.

oxymoron
Pronounced as if you were insulting someone--
(Oks-ee-MOR-on) two contradictory terms in a "compressed
paradox" : "darkness visible" (Milton) "cold fire" (again, Romeo and Juliet) Or the favorite oxymoron of comedians:
"military intelligence."

and finally paradox
a seemingly self-contradictory statement, which as the Oxford dictionary says, "provoking us to seek another sense or context in which it may be true." The book adds
that some paradoxes cannot be resolved into truths, as in
statements such as:
"Everything I say is a lie."

Not very much I say is a lie. That's a litotes, and that's the truth from:
Aunt Shecky

[Musaeus]

periphrasis - in latin circumlocution - a wordy way of saying something; using longer words than are necessary, for effect:

rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture....

but, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article etc [Hamlet]

I was an excrescence on the entertainment [Dickens]

Besides being possessed by my sister's idea that a mortifying and penitential character ought to be imparted to my diet... [ib]

You have anticipated me--- see my thread 'Rhetoric' !

[miyako73]

By rhetoric, what do you mean exactly?

It is too broad a field. Maybe you're referring to figures of speech--schemes and tropes.

All cultures have their own figures of speech, so it's not right to say that they are Latin and Greek in origin.

[Musaeus]

As taught by the classical experts, rhetoric was indeed much to do with schemes and tropes, though it was also concerned with large scale forms of writing and how to construct them. Aristotle wrote about Topics - which are useful methods of reasoning to persuade an audience, and enthymemes, which are a form of logic.

So rhetoric is a broad field, yes...

[miyako73]

Rhetoric as a whole is the classical way to communicate argument/discourse/persuasion between speakers and audience.

I cannot find a novel that uses rhetoric as its literary framework, can you?

[Musaeus]

the novel obviously lay beyond the field of classical rhetoricians, since it wasnt invented until Apuleius. But the big classical poems are full of rhetoric - which is essentially the study of a whole range of literary devices...

However, you dont seem especially interested -

[miyako73]

okay, I got it. Your use of rhetoric pertains to grandiloquent language or figures of speech.

The rhetoric I'm familiar with is the one used in communication, persuasion, and semiotics, used in classical Greek dramas and dialogues.

[Musaeus]

the novel was outside the scope of the rhetoricians - because it was a late invention and not taken seriously until modern history (when literary scholars were using different terms from rhetoric).

But the novel uses rhetorical devices, of course.

[Virgil]

I had completely forgotten about this thread. This is an important thread. This is what they should be teaching in school. Not that "express-your-feelings" crap. :wink5: