Rhetorical Devices

Alliteration Definition:

• Two or more consonants are repeated, but the adjacent vowels differ 

• The repetition of identical or similar syntactic elements (word, phrase, clause).

• the same sound is repeated at the beginning of several words or stressed syllables in close proximity 

• The repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred in the beginning.

Assonance Definition:

• use of words with the same or similar meanings

• The sound of the word imitates the sound of the thing 

• A word or expression is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses or lines. Reversal of Anaphora

• the same or similar vowel sounds are repeated in the stressed syllables of words that are in close proximity while the consonants differ 

What's the Rhetorical Device?

The process of creating a word that mimics a sound and using it to describe that sound

What's the Rhetorical Device?

Similar to antithesis in that it involves contradiction. It differs in that it brings together two contradictory terms. For example, Wise fool,  Civil War, Jumbo Shrimp

 

What's the Rhetorical Device?

Example: Let us march to the realization of the American dream. Let us march on segregated housing.

Let us march on segregated schools. Let us march on poverty. Let us march on ballot boxes. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

What's the Rhetorical Device?

Obvious exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Juxtaposition Definition:

• Feelings the word evokes

• The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side by side in order to compare/contrast the two.

• A daring statement which unites seemingly contradictory words but which on closer examination proves to have unexpected meaning and truth

• A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.

What's the term?

Dictionary definition

Euphemism Definition:

• Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.

• Division of an idea into three harmonious parts, usually of increasing power.

• Obvious exaggeration for emphasis or effect 

• Use of words with the same or similar meanings

What's the Rhetorical Device?

reference in a work of literature to something outside the work of literature, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.