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Rhetorical Figures and Stylistic Devices

The document outlines various figures of style or rhetoric categorized into three levels: phonetic, syntactic, and semantic. Each level includes specific techniques such as alliteration, anaphora, and metaphor, along with examples to illustrate their use. These stylistic resources enhance the expressiveness and depth of language in literature and speech.

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41 views3 pages

Rhetorical Figures and Stylistic Devices

The document outlines various figures of style or rhetoric categorized into three levels: phonetic, syntactic, and semantic. Each level includes specific techniques such as alliteration, anaphora, and metaphor, along with examples to illustrate their use. These stylistic resources enhance the expressiveness and depth of language in literature and speech.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Stylistic Resources

The figures of style or rhetoric are divided into three levels: phonetic, syntactic and
semantic.

• Phonetic level (= of sounds):


oAlliteration: repetition of the same consonant sounds through 1 or
more verses. Ex.: "Strong, faithful, bold";
o Assonance: repetition of the same vowel sounds. Ex.: 'And the deaf';
o Rhyme: correspondence of sounds in specific places of the verses (it is
a kind of assonance.
• Syntactic level (= of syntax, of sentence structure):
oAnacoluthon: a sudden change in the logical sequence of a sentence by
break of grammatical construction. Ex.: "Saint Anthony (…), opened to him
God, one day the eyes
oAnaphora: repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of each verse
or sentence;
oAsyndeton: omission of conjunctions, usually coordinating;
oEllipsis: suppression of signs that are easily implied;
oEnumeration: successive presentation of several elements. The last or
the first may be a word that synthesizes them all. Ex: "Teacher"
doctor, merchant, everyone was selling themselves;
oEpanadiplose: repetition of a word or words at the beginning and at the end
Did you extinguish the candle? Did you extinguish it?
Did you close the shutter? Did you lock it?
oEpiphora or Epistrophe: repetition of a word or words at the end of
verses or successive phrases. Ex.: "Distant lighthouses…/Life of nothing
serve.../Thinking about life serves nothing.../Thinking about thinking about life
nothing works...
oEpizeuxis or Reduplication: repetition of a word or words in
verse or phrase. Ex.: "Hours, hours would end...";
oGraduation: ordering of ideas in ascending or descending scale.
Horrible, fierce, huge, fearful
oHyperbaton or Inversion: Violent inversion of the logical order of words.
Cases that Adamastor told futures
o Parallelism: repetition of the same phrasing structure. Ex.: "Your voice of
flowing water / Taught me to sing... and this song / Was rhythm in my
verses of passion / It was grace in my heart of an unbeliever
oPleonasm: repetition of an idea with the intention of emphasizing it.
admittedly. Ex.: "Clearly seen in bright light";
oPolysyndeton: intentional repetition of the copulative conjunction conveying
continuity and fluidity;
oChiasmus: the existence of four elements arranged in pairs, according to
a crossed structure. E.g.: 'Leaves to the shy, leaves to the '
dreamers,/gloomy noise…
oZeugma: omission of a word already expressed in another part of the sentence; it is
a kind of Ellipsis. Ex.: "Where the day is long and where it is brief."
• Semantic level (= of meaning):
o Allegory: elaboration of a metaphorical type that concretizes abstract ideas
(virtues, vices, institutions). Ex.: The Trial of the Soul, The Trial of the Fair.
Gil Vicente's Barcas
oAnimism: attributing life to inanimate beings (differs from Personification)
because beings are not elevated to the category of persons). E.g.: "The light of
barrel chomping on logs...
oAntithesis: confrontation of opposing ideas to reinforce the message.
That sad moonlit dawn
o Apostrophe or Invocation: invocation that constitutes an interruption
exclamatory of speech to highlight an idea. E.g.: "You who
parts...
oComparison: confrontation of two distinct realities to highlight your own.
similarity using the comparative particle as;
oEuphemism: mitigation of the degree of violence or sad character of a
idea through the use of pleasant words. Ex.: "Take Inês to the world"
determine...
oExclamation: to express feelings or emotions;
oHypallage: assignment of a characteristic to an object that logically
belongs to another with which it is related. Ex.: "Then, in silence
estofadoda sala…", "baforava umfumo feliz";
oHyperbole: use of words or expressions that exaggerate
reality. Ex.: "whiter than pure snow";
o Image: a broader view than Comparison and Metaphor, in it are
express three terms: the real, the metaphoric, and the common. Combine them in the same
phrase a Comparison and a Metaphor or two Metaphors. Ex.:
["Slender twigs like sighs.","I never did more than smoke a"]
life."/The vain hope, its empty glows";
oInterrogation: a question phrased to highlight an idea and add more.
liveliness to the speech (rhetorical question);
o Irony: suggests the opposite or something different from what the words
they literally mean;
o Metaphor: assignment of imaginary meaning to words establishing
a relationship of similarity. Ex.: "The plain is a burning..."; "beautiful
cor... changed from fine gold to beautiful silver;
oMetonymy: the assignment of a name to a reality or concept that
it refers to another reality or concept. For example: "There was a labyrinth"
(Dédalo foi o inventor do labirinto); "Deleitava-se lendo o seuCamilo"
(works by Camilo Castelo Branco);
oParadox: applying irreconcilable terms to the same reality,
thus highlighting its complexity (relationship of contradictions). E.g.:
My bitter pleasure, sweet torment
oParaphrase: to designate someone or something, not by the terms
habitual, but in a descriptive way and therefore more developed and
emphatic. Example: "Finally, the curtain fell on this nightmare with bugs"
of steel (...) and cities on fire." (that is: the war has finally ended);
oPersonification: attribution of life to inanimate beings, elevating them to
categoria de pessoas;
o Synecdoche: substitution of one term for another of different extent.
From the Western Lusitanian beach
oSynesthesia: fusion of perceptions related to different senses. Ex.: "...
water from which a green breath is exhaled, wrapped in the waves.

• Anastrophe: switching nearby elements in the sentence, with the determiner placed before.
to the determiner or the direct object of the verb. Ex.: 'Of sun in the sunset a'
final ray.
• Onomatopoeia: to reproduce or describe the sounds themselves.
• Oxymoron: expression of two contradictory concepts, seeking to reveal a
deep truth that arises from the reconciliation of the two antithetical concepts. Ex.:
"Cheirando orquídeas inodoras."; "O cérebro é cego e pode ver, é surdo e ouve,
has no hands and reaches.
• Parataxis: juxtaposition of sentences, enumeration.
• Pun: repetition of a word with two or more meanings. Ex.: "... loses
apenned to flight/ earns apenned torment.

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