Yesterday we had a look at nautical terms. For today, the technical writers of the world would like to bring you the terms used in the foundation of our field: rhetoric.
You probably can’t get through secondary school without knowing, at least temporarily, that a “simile” is almost the same as a “metaphor”, but with the inclusion of either “like” or “as” — “a simile is like a metaphor” is a simile, while “the simile stood as metaphor” is a metaphor (sort of). Both “simile” and “metaphor” are terms of rhetoric; the study or art of the use of language. Now, you’re probably suspecting at this point that additional terms of rhetoric are very, very likely to follow. And since the repetition of “very” for emphasis in the previous sentence is an example of “epizeuxis,” you’d be right! And for what it’s worth, the use of either simile or metaphor to communicate meaning is called “parabola.”
Do you expect this paragraph to include more rhetorical terms? A question like that is an example of “erotesis.” It’s probably the most widely used rhetorical technique in the history of the world! Oh…that last bit was “hyperbole,” “superjection,” or “overexaggeration.” And if I were to explain that in that last word, “over” is quite similar, really, to “exaggeration”, that would be an example of “merism,” the contrasting of two parts of a whole (it doesn’t have to be a whole word, by the way).
Writing or speaking “snarkily” is pretty popular in some circles; “snark” is a sort of ironic sarcasm. It might, in fact, be a bit snarky to point out that “snark” has been around for millennia, but until the less rhetorically informed began to refer to it, it was called “mycterism.”
One rhetorical technique I tend to overuse — it’s a well-documented rhetorical approach — is “parembole.”It’s inserting something related to a subject into a phrase about the subject. And that was a pretty sorry example, but it was all I could think of at the time. Ordinarily I would call that un-bloody-acceptable, but in this case it served to set up an example of “tmesis,” separating a word into parts by inserting another word.
Some rhetorical terms have more to do with the placement of words than their meaning. If you repeat the same word at the end of several sentences in a row, that’s “epiphora.” If you do the same thing but with clauses instead of sentences (remember, rhetoricians came up with this terminology), it’s “epibole.” And any sort of word repetition, regardless of purpose, is “epanalepsis.” “Hyperbation” is reversing the order of words. To “metaphrase” a bit of prose means to turn it into poetry, and vice versa. It’s not clear exactly what you have to do in order to accomplish that. Maybe just claim “no, this is poetry” (or prose).
Another batch of rhetorical terms have to do with techniques of explanation, argument, or debate. “Dicaeology” is claiming justification as a means of argument, as in “I had no choice but to…”. If you say something like “I had no choice, first because X, second because Y, third because Z…”, that’s “dinumeration,” numbering your points. If you say “I had no choice, because think about it, if gravity were suddenly to stop working…”, that’s “adynation,” using an impossible situation for emphasis or justification. And I’m not going to say that “apophasis” is saying something by claiming you’re not going to mention it.
And finally (big sigh of relief is called for because of the “finally”), some rhetorical terms have to do with delivery. If you stop in the middle of a sentence just for emphasis, that’s “aposiopesis.” If you’re arguing with someone and you just repeat their own words back to them (for whatever reason; maybe you’ve suddenly regressed to the age of 12), that’s “echolalia.” And the terrible technique to tend to try to tell tremendous truths by repeating a consonant sound is “gemination.” And now watch this: ending with an exclamation! That’s “epiphonema!”
