January 5, 2009 AP Language/Terms Week #1

AP Language 6 Rhetorical DevicesAnaphora AntimetaboleAsyndeton JuxtapositionPolysyndeton Ellipsis

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 rash- embrac’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.