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Pleonasm

Pleonasm: using more words than required to express an idea; being redundant. Normally a vice, it is done on purpose on rare occasions for emphasis:

  • We heard it with our own ears.
  • And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone. --Matthew 17:8

Exemplum

Exemplum: citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious:

  • Let me give you an example. In the early 1920's in Germany, the government let the printing presses turn out endless quantities of paper money, and soon, instead of 50-pfennige postage stamps, denominations up to 50 billion marks were being issued.

Sententia

Sententia: quoting a maxim or wise saying to apply a general truth to the situation; concluding or summing foregoing material by offering a single, pithy statement of general wisdom:

  • But, of course, to understand all is to forgive all.
  • As the saying is, art is long and life is short.
  • For as Pascal reminds us, "It is not good to have all your wants satisfied."

Hypotaxis

Hypotaxis: using subordination to show the relationship between clauses or phrases (and hence the opposite of parataxis):

  • They asked the question because they were curious.
  • If a person observing an unusual or unfamiliar object concludes that it is probably a spaceship from another world, he can readily adduce that the object is reacting to his presence or actions when in reality there is absolutely no cause-effect relationship. --Philip Klass
  • While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. --John 9:5

Parataxis

Parataxis: writing successive independent clauses, with coordinating conjunctions, or no conjunctions:

  • We walked to the top of the hill, and we sat down.
  • In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. --Genesis 1:1-2 (KJV)
  • The Starfish went into dry-dock, it got a barnacle treatment, it went back to work.

Antanagoge

Antanagoge: placing a good point or benefit next to a fault criticism, or problem in order to reduce the impact or significance of the negative point:

  • True, he always forgets my birthday, but he buys me presents all year round.
  • The new anti-pollution equipment will increase the price of the product slightly, I am aware; but the effluent water from the plant will be actually cleaner than the water coming in.

Enumeratio

Enumeratio: detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly:

  • I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips [etc.].
  • When the new highway opened, more than just the motels and restaurants prospered. The stores noted a substantial increase in sales, more people began moving to town, a new dairy farm was started, the old Main Street Theater doubled its showings and put up a new building . . . .

Anacoluthon

Anacoluthon: finishing a sentence with a different grammatical structure from that with which it began:

  • And then the deep rumble from the explosion began to shake the very bones of--no one had ever felt anything like it.
  • Be careful with these two devices because improperly used they can--well, I have cautioned you enough.

Aposiopesis

Aposiopesis: stopping abruptly and leaving a statement unfinished:

  • If they use that section of the desert for bombing practice, the rock hunters will--.
  • I've got to make the team or I'll--.

Epizeuxis

Epizeuxis: repetition of one word (for emphasis):

  • The best way to describe this portion of South America is lush, lush, lush.
  • What do you see? Wires, wires, everywhere wires.

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