Term
Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated. (Also, it is the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.)
Example: The White House asked the television networks for air time on Monday night. |
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Definition
| Function: In the example above, The White House serves as a generalization for a more specific group with in The White House such as the President, Vice President, etc. This rhetoric effect serves to simplify the term for the audience giving an easier one for the reader to comprehend yet they still know who or what the writer is referring to. |
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Term
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, or the whole for a part.
Examples:
-All hand on deck.
- General Motors annouced cutbacks. |
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Definition
Function: The "hands" refer to the sailiors on a boat. This is a part for a whole because the part is the hands and the whole is the sailiors them selves.
General Motors, the company, didn't annouce the cutbacks, a more specific group working for GM, such as the financial department, would be that group to annuce a decision like that. Both serve to either generalize or specify something, these can help the writer clearify to the audience or make it clear the point they are trying to make. |
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Term
Irony:
-Verbal: The true meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.
-Situational: The incongruity of what is expected to happen and what actually does.
-Dramatic: An effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story.
Examples:
-Verbal: As soft as concrete.
-Situational: When John Hinckley atempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however, a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire was partially responsible for his being shot.
-Dramatic: Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare) |
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Definition
| Function: In each of the examples of irony the author, or situation, is almost satirical. The rhetorical effect is just that, satire. The reason that authors use irony in their work is to emphasize how the opposite way of thinking in a situation can dramatically change the perseption of the situation. |
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Term
Paradox: A figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself.
Example: Ignorance is strength. (George Orwell) |
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Definition
| Function: This statement does contradict itself but it proves that knowlegde isn't the only way to be strong. In a way it is true but also it can be false and is up to personal interpretation. |
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Term
Apostrophe: A figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistant person of thing is adressed as if present and capable of understanding.
Example: Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
like a diamond in the sky. |
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Definition
| Function: This famous peom is a classic example of apostrophe. The rhetorical effect of the strategy is almost like that of personification. Although apostrophe is a deeper adress to the object or thing. The use of apostrophe is to comunicate with the inatimate thing whereas personifcation is just a comparison of inatimate things and human like behavior. |
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