Latin: Figures of Speech & Rhetorical Devices
LATIN: FIGURES OF SPEECH & RHETORICAL DEVICES ALLITERATION (L., toward the same letters) Repetition of the same sound, usually initial, in two or more words. This term normally applies to consonants and accented initial vowel (magno cum murmure montis, Aeneid 1.55). ANAPHORA (Gk., carrying back) Repetition of a word, usually at the beginning of successive clauses or phrases, for emphasis or for pathetic effect. This figure is often accompanied by asyndeton and ellipsis (hic illius arma, hic currus fuit; hoc regnum..., Aeneid 1.16-17; ubi...ubi...ubi, Aeneid 1.99-100). APOSIOPESIS (Gk., becoming silent) An abrupt failure to complete a sentence, for rhetorical effect (Quos ego - , Aeneid 1.135). APOSTROPHE (Gk., turning away) Address of an absent person or an abstraction, usually for pathetic effect (o terque quaterque beati, Aeneid 1.94). ASSONANCE (L., answer with the same sound) The close recurrence of similar sounds, usually used of vowel sounds (amissos longo socios sermone requirunt, Aeneid 1.217). ASYNDETON (Gk., not bound together) Omission of conjunctions in a closely related series (don’t confuse with anaphora). CHIASMUS (Gk., marking with diagonal lines like a X) Arrangement of pairs of words in opposite order ABBA ELLIPSE (Gk., leaving out) Is the suppression of a word or of several words of minor importance the logical expression of the thought, but necessary to the construction. It allows for brevity, force and liveliness and often unconsciously supplied. ENJAMBMENT (Fr., the act of straddling) The running over of a sentence from one verse or couplet into another so that closely related words fall in different lines (ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est seditio, Aeneid 1.148-49).
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