Rhetoric Speech Terms Flashcards
Apostrophe
An address directed at one person or a group of people.
Antithesis
Contrasting ideas or words which are balanced against each other. Eg. “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more” - Julius Caesar by Shakespeare.
Archaism
Language which is old fashioned within the context.
Bathos
A descent from the elevated to the trivial for humorous effect.
Building Incrementum
When a speaker makes a series of progressively more powerful, persuasive or emotive points in a list, building up to a high impact conclusion.
Discourse Marker
Words and phrases which are used to signal the connections between utterances. Eg. “Firstly”, “on the other hand” or “what’s more”.
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration for effect.
Litotes
Deliberate understatement for effect.
Obsolete Grammar
Old fashioned grammatical structures used to convey gravity. Eg. “Let there be light” or “would that it were”.
Parallel Phrasing
Repeated grammatical structures. Eg. “Mine was baba, his was Amir”.
Rhetoric
Language used in a structured way with the aim of convincing or persuading someone to agree with a certain point of view or take a certain action.
Rhetorical Questions
Questions which do not require a response from the listener and are so framed as to suggest the answer the speaker wants. Eg. “And just what is the government doing to stamp out crime” which elicits the response “nothing”.
Synecdoche
A type of imagery where a small part of something is used to stand for the whole image. Eg. “A new set if wheels” for a car, “mouths to feed” for hungry people or “the press” for news media.
Triple Structure
Also known as power/list/group of three. Eg. “I came, I saw, I conquered”.
