RHETORICAL DEVICES

Madison Mertz, Jenardis Mountain, Seth

McLendon

CHIASMUS (KAɪˈÆZMƏS)

A chiasmus is a type of balance in which

the second part is balanced against the

first, but with the part reversed. This

means that basically you would just turn

the sentence around.

Pronounced: (kaɪˈæzməs)

CHIASMUSEXAMPLE 1

You forget what you

wanna remember and

remember what you wanna

forget

CHIASMUS EXAMPLE 2

“Do I love you because

you’re beautiful? Or are you

beautiful because I love

you?”

OXYMORON

A self-contradicory combination of

words or smaller verbal units

usually noun-noun, adjective-

adjective, adjective-noun, adverb-

adverb, adverb-verb

OXYMORON EXAMPLE

Alone together

Civil war

Clearly misunderstood

Crash landing

MORE EXAMPLES!!

Devout atheist

Impossible solution

Living dead

Seriously funny

Unbiased opinion

JANUS WORDS

Janus words are any word that can have contradictory

meanings. These words are similar to oxymoron

except oxymorons are two words that are self

contradictory but Janus words are one word with two

contradictory meanings

LITOTES

A form of understatement in

which a thing is affirmed by stating

the negative of its opposite

Pronounced: (laɪˈtoʊˌtiz)

LITOTES EXAMPLES

Ferris does not have what

we consider to be an

exemplary attendance

record

LITOTES EXAMPLES

You are not unwelcome

No ordinary city