Schemes
Anadiplosis
 Refers to the repetition of a word or
words in successive clauses in such a
way that the second clause starts
with the same word which marks the
end of the previous clause.
“This public school has a record of
extraordinary reliability, a reliability that
every other school is jealous of in the
city.”
Anaphora
 the deliberate repetition of a
grammatical pattern at the beginning
of successive phrases or clauses in
order to achieve an artistic effect
“…government of the people, for the
people, by the people…”
“…that all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among
these are…”
Antithesis
 literal meaning opposite, is a
rhetorical device in which two
opposite ideas are put together in a
sentence to achieve a contrasting
effect. Antithesis emphasizes the
idea of contrast by parallel structures
of the contrasted phrases…
“That’s one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind.”
Asyndeton
 a stylistic device used in literature
and poetry to intentionally eliminate
conjunctions between the phrases
and in the sentence, yet maintain the
grammatical accuracy.…
“Are all thy conquests, glories,
triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure?”(Julius
Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1 by William
Shakespeare)
“Without looking, without making a
sound, without talking” (Oedipus at
Colonus by Sophecles)
Antimetabole/Chiasmus
 Antimetabole is a literary term or device that
involves repeating a phrase in reverse order.
“You like it; it likes you” and “Fair is foul and foul
is fair” etc.
 Chiasmus is a rhetorical device in which two or
more clauses are balanced against each other
by the reversal of their structures in order to
produce an artistic effect. “Never let a Fool Kiss
You or a Kiss Fool You.”
 They are essentially the same thing—we won’t
pick hairs…
Epistrophe
 derived from a Greek word that
means turning upon, which indicates
the same word returns at the end of
each sentence. Epistrophe is a
stylistic device that can be defined as
the repetition of phrases or words at
the end of the clauses or sentences.
“Hourly joys be still upon you! Juno
sings her blessings on you. . . .
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres’ blessing so is on you.”
Isocolon
 a rhetorical device that involves a
succession of sentences, phrases
and clauses of grammatically equal
length. In this figure of speech, a
sentence has a parallel structure that
is made up of words, clauses or
phrases of equal length, sound,
meter and rhythm.
*Parallelism
 Parallelism is the use of components
in a sentence that are grammatically
the same; or similar in their
construction, sound, meaning or
meter.
 Grammatical vs. “artistic”
Juxtaposition
 Juxtaposition is a literary technique in
which two or more ideas, places,
characters and their actions are
placed side by side in a narrative or a
poem for the purpose of developing
comparisons and contrasts.
 No direct comparison/contract
drawn!
Zeugma
 from Greek “yoking” or “bonding”, is a
figure of speech in which a word,
usually a verb or an adjective, applies
to more than one noun, blending
together grammatically and logically
different ideas.
 Always do your best, but not your best
friend.
Polysyndeton
 a stylistic device in which several
coordinating conjunctions are used in
succession in order to achieve an
artistic effect
“And Joshua, and all of 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.” (The Bible)
Loose Sentence
 A sentence structure in which a main
clause is followed by one or
more coordinate orsubordinate phras
es and clauses. Contrast withperiodic
sentence.
I knew I had found a friend in the
woman, who herself was a lonely soul,
never having known the love of man or
child. (Emma Goldman)
Periodic Sentence
 A long and frequently
involved sentence, marked by
suspended syntax, in which the sense
is not completed until the final word-usually with an emphatic climax.
Contrast with loose
sentence andcumulative sentence.
"To believe your own thought, to believe
that what is true for you in your private
heart is true for all men, that is
genius."
(Ralph Waldo Emerson, "SelfReliance,"1841)
Cumulative Sentence
 An independent clause followed by a
series of subordinateconstructions
(phrases or clauses) that gather
details about a person, place, event,
or idea. Contrast with periodic
sentence.
 Another name for a loose sentence
Climactic sentence
 A rhetorical term for a gradual
increase in intensity of meaning with
words arranged in ascending order of
force or importance.
"It's a well hit ball, it's a long drive, it
might be, it could be, it IS . . . a home
run."
(American baseball broadcaster Harry
Carey)
Inverted sentence
 a literary technique in which the
normal order of words is reversed in
order to achieve a particular effect of
emphasis or meter
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:”
(“Kubla Khan,” Samuel Taylor
Coleridge)
Rhetorical Question
 asked just for effect or to lay
emphasis on some point discussed
when no real answer is expected.