Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
A collective term in rhetoric for all kinds of striking or unusual configurations of words or phrases. The variation can affect all units of the linguistic system (graphic, phonological, morphological. syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic patterns) and occur through (a) repetition, e.g. alliteration, polyptoton, parallelism; (b) extension, e.g. parenthesis, pleonasm; (c) abbreviation, e.g. apocope, ellipsis, zeugma; (d) permutation/transposition, e.g. palindrome, anastrophe, hyperbaton. Certain types of substitution and replacement are also considered figures of speech today, e.g. trope, as well as various pragmatic figures such as the rhetorical question or concession or prolepsis.
References
Dixon, P. 1971. Rhetoric. London.
Fowler, G. 1986. Linguistic criticism. Oxford.
Lanham, R.A. 1968. A handlist of rhetorical terms. Berkeley, CA.
Leech, G. 1966. Linguistics and the figures of rhetoric. In R.Fowler (ed.), Essays on style and language. London.
Leech, N.G.
1969. A linguistic guide to English poetry. London.
Murphy, J.J. (ed.) 1983. Renaissance eloquence. Berkeley, CA.
Nash, W. 1989. Rhetoric. Oxford.
Nowottny, W. 1962. The language poets use. London.
Ortony, A. (ed.) 1979. Metaphor and thought. Cambridge.
Plett, H.F. 1985. Rhetoric. In T.A.van Dijk (ed.), Discourse and literature. Amsterdam.
Quinn, A. 1987. Figures of speech: sixty ways to turn a phrase. Salt Lake City, UT.
Vickers, B. 1988. In defense of rhetoric. Oxford.
Wine, J.D. 1993. Figurative language in Cynewulf: defining aspects of a poetic style. New York.
rhetoric
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