Verbal Irony

• Definition:  irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. 

• Example: “Two households, both alike in dignity” (Shakespeare).
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Synecdoche

• Defintion:  A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole. 

• Example: 9/11

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Paradox

• Definition: A figure of speech in which a statement appears to contradict itself.

• Example: “I must be cruel to be kind.” (Shakespeare)
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Apostrophe

• Definition: A figure of speech in which some absent or nonexistent person or thing is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.

• Example: Busy old fool, unruly sun,
  Why dost thou thus,
  Through windows, and through curtains call on us? (Donne).
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Zeugma

• Definition: The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way.

• Example: Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard (7). (Lee).
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Alliteration

• Definition: The commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter.

• Example: From forth the fatal loins of these two foes; A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life. (Shakespeare).
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Ellipsis

• Example: The man looked above... all he could see were three black silhouettes against the bright blue sky.
  When the man looked above he couldn't quite believe what he saw...
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Anaphora

• Definition: The repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginnings of successive clauses.

• Example:      Nigger is, “Know your place.”

                Nigger is, “I am better than you.”

  Nigger is, “I can frame you or flunk you or beat you or kill you because…”

                Nigger is, “I own you.”

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Antimetabole

• Definition: The repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse order.

• Example: Play the game, but play it your own way – part of the time at least. Play the game, but raise the ante, my boy.
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Antithesis

• Definition: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure. The contrast may be in words or in ideas or in both.

• Example: Mother, who was my mother? Mother, the one who screams when you suffer – but who? This was stupid, you always knew your mother's name. Who was it that screamed? Mother? But the scream came from the machine. A machine my mother?…Clearly, I was out of my head.
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Ansyndeton

• Definition: The deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.

• Example: Darkness at Noon, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and the Studs Lonigan Trilogy all speak, in various ways, to the vestigial teenage psyches of men of a certain age.
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Polysyndeton

• Defintion: The deliberate use of many conjunctions. 

• Example: He pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup.
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Metonymy

• Definiton: The substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant.

• Example: The iron foot of oppression dark chambers of pessimism tranquilizing drug of gradualism dark and desolate valleys of despair to sunlit paths of inner peace sacrifice truth on the altar of self-interest sagging walls of bus segregation… crushes by the battering rams of… justice transform it[the jail] from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and dignity
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Oxymoron

• Definition: The yoking of two terms that are ordinarily contradictory.

• Example: I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
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Isocolon

• Defintion:Scheme of parallel structure which occurs when the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length (number of words or even number of syllables).

• Example: ...government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.
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Epanalepsis

• Definition:The repetition of the initial word (or words) of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence.

• Example: They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.
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Anadiplosis

• Definition: The repetition of the last word of a preceding clause.

• Example: We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.
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Anthimeria

• Defintion: The use of a word as if it were a member of a different word class.

• Example: I'll unhair thy head.
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Colloquialism

• Defintion: A word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing.

• Example:In offices, churches, hospitals, college dorms and schools—and even at yoga classes and in apple orchards—the fear of swine flu is turning age-old rituals on their head. What used to be O.K. is not anymore, as the flu has ushered in new standards of etiquette that can be, in turns, mundane, absurd and heartbreaking.
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Euphemism

• Definition: A more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable.

• Example:

Dr. House: I'm busy.

Thirteen: We need you to . . .

Dr. House: Actually, as you can see, I'm not busy. It's just a euphemism for "get the hell out of here."

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Climax

• Definition: The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order in increasing importance.

• Example: I am the way, the truth and the life.
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