Group EightRhetorical Masters

Samuel KellandAaron Hayes

ASYNDETON•The absence of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses or words.

Asyndeton Examples

• The car crashed, exploded, burned, melted.• In the cave there was a bear, a puppy, a tiger, a moose.• “She tells me of a child, an unhappy 12-year-old, the

granddaughter of a friend of hers, who rides in the car with her sometimes when she is doing errands in Manhattan.” (Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace)

• “He put his hammer down, took off his hat, brushed his hand across his forehead, wiped it on his pants, sat on the stoop, and put his elbows back, stretching his legs out in front of him.”(Esmeralda Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican)

ANAPHORA•Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines.

Anaphora Examples

• I warned you not to enter that cave, I warned you not to attack that moose, and I warned you that that moose was hungry.

• I cried as the car crashed, I cried as the car burned, and I cried as the car melted.

• “I am going home from the hospital today… I am starting kindergarten next week. I am going to wear my dress which has flowers on it and is black…” (Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace)

• “I was who I was because I was Dr. Sudhir Lal Mukherjee’s daughter, because I was a Hindu Brahmin, because I was Bengali-speaking…” (Mother Jones, American Dreamer)

ANTANAGOGE•Putting a positive spin on

something that is acknowledged to be negative or difficult.

Antanagoge Examples

• This diamond isn’t real, but at least it’s shiny!• When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.• “Perhaps the children of the children who are growing up

today in the South Bronx will someday live in attractive houses on the same nice streets as middle-class and working-class homeowners of all races.” (Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace)

• “And we will smile wisely and emit a streamer of drool because we will be very old and unable to hear them. And that will be a good thing, because there are many things about 2006 that we will not want to remember.” (Dave Barry, The Blasted Year)

EPIZEUXIS•Repetition of words in immediate succession.

Epizeuxis Examples• Bass, bass, bass! This song needs more bass!• “Oh you need fluff, fluff, fluff

To make a fluffer nutter,Marshmallow fluff and lots of peanut butter.First you spread, spread, spreadYour bread with peanut butter,Add marshmallow fluff and have a fluffernutter.”

• “From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, ‘Water, water; we die of thirst!’” (Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography)

• “Grandma, grandma, sick in bed, called the doctor and the doctor said: get the rhythm in the hands! Get the rhythm in the head! (song in Jonathan Kozol’z Amazing Grace)

EXTENDED METAPHOR•A metaphor continuing through a series of sentences.

Extended Metaphor Examples• We are rain drops falling into a puddle. We become

progressively uncharacteristic as we form into one. • In the Truman Show, the television producer is recognized as

God. This metaphor is extended throughout the movie.• “The poet’s voice need not nearly be the record of man, it

can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.” (William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Speech)

• The rats in Amazing Grace represent hardships that people in poverty must endure. The rats alone are small problems, but together create a major problem.

METONYMY•Describing something

indirectly by referring to things closely associated with it.

Metonymy Examples• "Detroit is still hard at work on an SUV that runs on

rain forest trees and panda blood."(Conan O'Brien)

• I’m too pretty for Hollywood. • “Mrs. Washington asks me, as she will do many times this

spring, why there is so much pressure to cut taxes. I repeat to her the arguments I hear downtown: Taxes are already viewed as very high in New York City.

• The pen is mightier than the sword• It was inevitable that the Nordic world and the African,

especially that part of it which constitutes the Yoruba world - should meet at the crossroads of Sweden. (Wole Soyinka, Banquet Speech)

PARAMYTHIA• An expression of consolation

and encouragement.

Paramythia Examples

• You may have lost a fight to a moose, but at least you tried your best.

• “That’ll do pig.” (Babe)

• “Sara’s mother – every day she’s doin’ it, doin’ what she has to do, right out there in the street.” (from Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace)

• “But I won’t be myself if I have to take drugs! I wailed to my therapist. ‘I think,’ he said, that you’re more yourself when you’re medicated than when you’re not.’” (Nancy Mairs, Waist-high in the World)

PARAPROSDOKIAN• When the latter part of a

sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.

Paraprosdokian Examples

• "If I am reading this graph correctly — I'd be very surprised.“ (Stephen Colbert)

• Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.• “’Some of them wear G-strings or a pair of tiny

shorts.’ ‘Is this only in the summer?’ ‘Even in October, in November.’” (from Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace)

• “With soccer, 22 kids can be running around, most of them aimlessly, or picking weeds by the sidelines.” (Dave Eggers, America and the World Cup)

PARATAXIS•Phrases or clauses

arranged independently.•Opposite of hypotaxis.

Parataxis Examples

• I came, I saw, I conquered.• The sirens were blaring. We went inside.• “This is the express. Get off at 125th street.” (from

Amazing Grace)

• “My heart and I went down again. I was aware of her hand.” (James Baldwin, Tell Me How the Train’s Been Going)

SYMPLOCE•Repetition of a word or

phrase at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses.

Symploce Examples

• "When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.” (Bill Clinton)

• Sometimes clouds rain on the ground. Sometimes clouds snow on the ground.

• “That spring was the harvest. That summer was the harvest.” (S.L. Wisenberg, The Way of all Waiting)

SYNESIS• A construction in which a

form, such as a pronoun, differs in number but agrees in meaning with the word governing it.

Synesis Examples

• If the band is popular, they will play next month.

• The police department is downtown.• “Miami doesn’t believe any of that stuff.”

(Esmeralda Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican)

• “The press subsequently reports a marked decline in murders in the area.” (Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace)

TAUTOLOGY

•Unnecessary repetition of meaning.•Redundancy!

Tautology Examples

• Free gift• Scary monster• “He had been a very charitable priest.” (James Joyce,

Araby)

• “Being treated as a friend this way by children in the neighborhood feels like a special privilege.” (Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace)

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