Thursday, October 06, 2005

For the Language Geeks Among Us

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us{lifted from our comrade in Greensboro, Anonymoses Hyperlincoln}

"Hey kids! Loopy about linguistics? Ready for some rhetoric?
Here goes a page with many fun greek terms for oblique ways to tweak what you speak...and make knees weak with wonder.

Here is a sample of what you will learn:

adnoun
the use of an adjective as a noun. Blessed are the merciful. See also: adnominal.

anadiplosis
rhetorical repetition of one or more words, particularly a word at the end of a clause. "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business." -- Francis Bacon. See also: anaphora, epistrophe, symploce.

anastrophe
transposition or inversion of normal word order; a type of hyperbaton. "Once upon a midnight dreary..." -- Edgar Allan Poe. "The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See also: hyperbaton, synchysis.

antanaclasis
repetition of a word whose meaning changes in the second instance. "Your argument is sound...all sound." -- Benjamin Franklin.

apophasis
mentioning something by declaring that it shall not be mentioned. Same as "paralepsis" and "preterition." "I need not remind you to get your Christmas shopping done early." See also: autoclesis, parasiopesis.

aposiopesis
a halting or trailing off of speech caused by the speaker seemingly overcome by an emotion such as excitement, fear, or modesty; a form of brachylogy. "When your father finds out...." See also: brachylogy.

asyndeton
lack of conjuctions between coordinate words, phrases, or clauses; a form of brachylogy. "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." -- Abraham Lincoln. See also: brachylogy, polysyndeton.

...and those are just some of the A-list."

1 comment:

1000 black lines said...

assman
no definition needed, just watch the episode--Seinfeld