Tropes and schemes are collectively known as figures of speech. Schemes and Tropes for AP Language & Composition Trope: The use of a word, phrase, or image in a way not intended by its normal signification. Scheme: A change in standard word order or pattern.
1. Schemes of Balance Antithesis (an-tith-a-sis) makes use of contrasting words, phrases, sentences, or ideas for emphasis of dissimilarity (generally used in parallel grammatical structures). Example: " Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities." Isocolon (i-sō-cō-lon) Parallelism A series of similarly structured elements having the same length (# of words or syllables). A kind of parallelism. Example: His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous. similarity in structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses. Emphasizes similarity and connections. Example: we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. 2. Schemes of Unusual or Inverted Word Order Anastrophe (a-nas-trō-fē) Apposition (ap-a-zish-en) A scheme in which normal word order is changed for emphasis. Example: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Placing side-by-side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves to identify, rename, explain or modify the first. Example: John Morgan, the president of the Sons of the Republic, could not be reached for comment. Parenthesis (pa-ren-tha-sis) the insertion of a verbal unit in a position which is incongruous with the normal word flow. Example: Every time I try to think of a good rhetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed--nothing happens. 3. Schemes of Omission Asyndeton (a-sin-da-ton) Ellipsis (ē-lip-sis) deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account. Example: On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame. the omission of one or more words readily implied by context, which must be supplied by the listener or reader. Example: And he to England shall along with you.
4. Schemes of Repetition Alliteration (a-lit-er-ā-shun) Anadiplosis (an-a-di-plō-sis) Anaphora (a-naf-a-ra) Antimetabole (an-tē-ma-tab-ō-lē) Assonance (as-a-nuns) Chiasmus (kī-az-mus) Climax Epistrophe (a-pis-trō-fē) Epanalepsis (e-pon-a-lep-sis) Polyptoton (pō-lip-ta-than) Polysyndeton the recurrence of initial or medial consonant sounds. Example: Tart, tingling and even ticklish. repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. Example: Labor and care are rewarded with success, success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism. Example: To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham reversing the grammatical order of repeated words or phrases to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, or to show contrast: Example: All work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work. similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants. Example: An old mad, blind, despised, and dying king. reversal of grammatical structure in successive phrases or clauses. Like antimetabole but without the repetition. Example: By day the frolic, by night the dance. consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis. Example: I think we ve reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all humanity, but for life upon earth. forms the counterpart to anaphora, because the repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. Example: I ll have my bond! Speak not against my bond! I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond! repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. Example: Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows: A rhetorical term for repetition of words derived from the same root but with different endings. Words do not lose their literal meaning. Example: The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength. Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant. the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause.
(pol-ē-sin-de-ton) Examples: They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and played and talked and flunked. 1. Tropes of Comparison Metaphor Metonymy (me-than-a-mē) Simile Synechdoche (si-nek-da-kē) 2. Tropes of Word Play Anthimeria (an-tha-mer-ē-a) implied comparison between two things of unlike nature Example: Her home was a prison. substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant Example: crown for royalty, wealth for rich people, pen for writers In Europe we gave the cold shoulder to De Gaulle, and the warm hand to Mao Tse-tung. explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature using like or as Example: Life is like a box of chocolates. figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole Examples: All hands on deck. Sail for ship, hands for helpers, roofs for houses, silver for money, canvas for sail, steel for sword. the substitution of one part of speech for another. Example: The thunder would not peace at my bidding. Apostrophe (a-pos-tra-fē) Periphrasis (pa-rif-a-sis) Personification (Prosopopoeia) Pun: Antanaclasis (an-ta-nak-la-sis) Pun: Paranomasia the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present Example: O eloquent, just and mighty Death! substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name Example: They do not escape Jim Crow; they merely encounter another, not less deadly variety. investing abstractions for inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities Example: the smiling sun repetition of a word in two different senses Example: But lest I should be condemned of introducing license, when I oppose licensing. use of words alike in sound but different in meaning Example: He robbed chickens and was charged with fowl play.
(par-a-nō-māsha) Pun: Syllepsis (si-lep-sis) use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs Example: There is a certain type of woman who d rather press grapes than clothes. Zeugma (zoog-ma) 3. Tropes of Exaggeration Hyperbole (hī-pur-ba-lē) using a single verb to refer to two different objects in an ungrammatical but striking way, or artfully using an adjective to refer to two separate nouns, even though the adjective would logically only be appropriate for one of the two Example: He maintained a flourishing business and racehorse. My teeth and ambitions are bared. the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect Example: My left leg weighs three tons. Irony Litotes (lī-ta-tēz) Onomatopoeia Oxymoron Paradox Rhetorical Question Sarcasm use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word Example: For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, honourable man. deliberate use of understatement Example: To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment. use of words whose sound echoes the sense Example: Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far. the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory Example: O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches! an apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth Example: Art is a form of lying to tell the truth. asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely the act of ostensibly saying one thing but meaning another. Example: Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.