Transcript 6 rhetorical devices

AP Language
6 Rhetorical Devices
Anaphora
Asyndeton
Polysyndeton
January 5, 2009
Antimetabole
Juxtaposition
Ellipsis
AP Language/Terms Week #1
Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or group
of words at the beginnings of
successive clauses.

i.e. “The Lord sitteth above the water
floods. The Lord remaineth a King
forever. The Lord shall give strength
unto his people. The Lord shall give
his people of blessing of peace.”
 Psalm 29
Ellipsis

A rhetorical figure in which one or
more words are omitted.

"The Master's degree is awarded by
seventy-four departments, and the
Ph.d. by sixty.“

“is awarded” is omitted from the
second clause
Antimetabole
Anti-muh-ta`-boh-lee
 Inverting phrases using the same
words. A-B, B-A


“When the going (A) gets tough (B),
the tough (B) get going (A)”

“You can take the kid (A) out of the
country(B), but you can’t take the
country (B) out of the kid (A).
Antimetabole

“Ask not what your country (A) can
do for you (B)—ask what you (B) can
do for your country (A).”
Asyndeton:
the omission of conjunctions.
“I have spoken, you have heard; you
know the facts; now give your
decision.”
Aristotle
 “I do not understand; I pause; I
examine.”
Montaigne

Asyndeton can occur within a sentence
anywhere—at the beginning, at the end.
“A cathedral, a wave of a storm, a
dancer’s leap, never turn out to be as
high as we had hoped.”
Proust
 “A confidence always aims at glory,
scandal, excuse, propaganda.”
Valery

Polysendeton: Too many
conjunctions

Polysyndeton gives the sense of an
ever lengthening catalogue of roughly
equal members.

“And Joshua, and all Israel with him,
took Achan the son of Zerah, and the
silver, and the garment, and the
wedge of gold, and his sons, and his
daughters, and his oxen, and his
asses, and his sheep, and his tent,
and all that he had.”
Example: Polysyndeton

“How all the other passions fleet to
air,
As doubtful thoughts, and rashembrac’d despair,
And shuddering fear, and green-ey’d
jealousy.”
MV 3.2.105
Juxtaposition



An act or instance of placing close together
or side by side, esp. for comparison or
contrast.
The state of being close together or side by
side.
In Romeo and Juliet, one way to think of
things being "juxtaposed" is Juliet's love for
Romeo as compared, side-by-side, to her
father and mother's desire for her to marry
Paris. For Juliet, looking at the two choices
closely, there simply is no comparison.
Juxtaposition



“Blind Sight, Cold Fire” – these are the
juxtapositions of opposites, or oxymoron.
The juxtaposition of two opposing ideas is
called antithesis.
Juxtaposition is the idea of putting two
contrasting ideas side by side. For example,
Michael Moore uses juxtaposition in
Fahrenheit 911, when he plays the song
"What a Wonderful World" while playing
scenes of war and violence.