The list of stylistic devices

1. Epithet (Greek - "addition") is a stylistic device emphasizing some

quality of a person, thing, idea or phenomenon. Its function is to reveal
the evaluating subjective attitude of the writer towards the thing
described.(examples: misterious woman,sleeping face)
2. Evaluative - based on or relating to an assessment to form an idea or
the value of something
3. A rhetorical question - is a figure of speech in the form of a question
that is asked in order to make a point , for effect or to lay emphasis
and no real answer is expected.
xamples:
Who knows?
Why not? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
4. anaphora is the repetition of a word or words a the beginning of two
or more clauses, sentences or verses.
example: it's an new dawn , it's a new day, it's a new life
5. Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book,
speech and the like used by the way of illustration, proof or as a basis
for further speculation on the matter. By repeating the utterance in a
new environment, we attach to the utterance an importance.
Example: "Don't ever tell anybody anyting. If you do, you start
missing everybody"(J.D.Salinger)
6. Litotes is an understatement in which a positive statement is
expressed by negating its opposite
(He is not unkind; not bad)
7. Pun is a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by
using a word that suggests two or more meanings by exploiting similar
sounding words having different meanings.
For example: At a pizza shop: "7 days without pizza makes one
weak"
"Why can a man starve in the Great Desert? - Because he can
eat the sand which is there."
8. Connotation is a set of associations implied by a word in addition to
its literary meaning. It can be positive or negative. Ex:"Wall Street"
Literary means a street situated in Lower Manhattan,but
connotativly it refers to "wealth" and "power")
9. Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects,
phenomena, properties, actions are named one by one so that they
produce a chain, that displays homogeneity.
Examples :
1.In competitive swimming each contestant swims four
different strokes: the breast stroke, back-stroke, butterfly and
freestyle.
2. " ... businessmen who have lived five, ten, twenty years in
America..."
10.
metaphor - transference of names based on the associated
likeness between two objects.
example: the whole world is theatre and people are the actors.

11.
Antithesis is a stylistic device in which two opposite ideas are
put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect
Ex. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
12.
Irony - is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a
way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning
of the words. Example: The butter is as soft as a marble piece.
13.
1. Denotation is a translation of a sign to its literal meaning.
2. Denotation is the direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or
expression, distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it
or suggested by it.
14.
Personification-is the attribution of personal nature or
character to inanimate objects or abstract notions
-The city never sleeps
15.
Clich is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work
which has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning,
effect or novelty (e. g. as brave as a lion; frightened to death;
waking up on the wrong side of the bed; read between the
lines).
16.
CHAIN REPETITION presents several successive anadiploses
(...a, a...b, b...c, c). The effect is that of the smoothly developing logical
reasoning.
EXAMPLE: Smile extended into laugh, the laugh into roar, and
the roar became general.
17.
CHIASMUS - 2 syntactical constructions (sentences or phrases)
are parallel, but their members (words) change places, their syntactical
positions.
EXAMPLE: All for one, and one for all; You can take the boy out
of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.
18.
Tautology is the repetitive use of words or phrases that more or
less convey similar meaning with the purpose of emphasizing or
adding literary beauty.
Ex. I want to live while I am alive.
There is nothing you can do that can't be done.
19.
Trope- is a figure of speech based on some kind of transfer of
denomination
( T.A.Znamenskaya).
Trope is a word of phrase that is used in a way that is different from its
usual meaning in order to create a particular mental image or effect.
( Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary).
There are many different types of tropes depending on how the
meaning is changed.(e.g. hyperbole, irony, litotes, metaphor,
metonymy,etc.)
20.
Detached construction - is a syntactical stylistic device based
on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of
punctuation and intonation.
Ex.: She was crazy about you. In the beginning.
Ex.: She was lovely: all of her - delightful.
21.
synecdoche - is a literary device in which a part of something
represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part.
For example:
the term "suits" refers to buisnessmen

the term "boots" refers to soldiers

the term "pentagon" refers to a few decision makers
22.
Figure of speech is a stylistic device of whatever kind,
including tropes and syntactical expressive means.
23.
Meiosis, or understatement - a device serving to underline
the insignificance of what we speak about, lessening, weakening,
reducing the real characteristics of the object of speech. This trope is
the logical and psychological opposite of hyperbole.
A typical meiosis is, for instance, the current expression "It will
cost you a pretty penny" which in reality implies not 'a penny',
but certainly a large sum of money.
Ex.: It's a bit warm (when one is sweating in sauna or traveling
through a desert at midday).
I'm a little tired (after completing a marathon).
24.
S u s p e n s e is a compositional device where a deliberate
postponement of the completion of the sentence takes place.
Eg: I just want you to know that even if you leave me, if you
break my heart, if you spend all my money or if you eat my
dinner again, I will still love you.
25.
Ordinary repetition- is a simple repeating of a word within a
sentence or a poetical line,with no particular placement of words,in
order to provide emphasis,clarity,amplification or emotional effect.
Example:Today,as never before,the fates of men are so
intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a
disaster for everybody.
26.
Alliteration - the repetion of consonants, usually in the
beginning of words. (Donald Duck; Coca-Cola; Mickey Mouse)
27.
Antonomasia- is a lexical stylistic device in which a proper
name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa
Example: Iron Lady, Dr. Fresh Air,Mr. Owl Eyes
28.
a proverb - a brief well-known phrase or sentence that gives
advice about how people should live or that expresses a belief that is
generally rhought to be true.
a saying - a short well-known statement of a particular character that
expresses something about life that most people believe is wise and
true
29.
Asyndeton - is a deliberate omission of conjunctions within the
sentence or between sentences.
Example: The dark, the moon, the stars - all created a romantic
effect.
30.
Anadiplosis is the repetition of the end of one clause (sentence)
in the beginning of the following one.
Example: "Strength through purity, purity through faith."
31.
Framing- stylistic device in which the beginning of the sentence
is repeated in the end of the sentence.
ex. Obviously he is guilty, obviously.
32.
Represented speech is a device which conveys the actual
words or thoughts of a character not directly, but within the authors
speech, retaining the peculiarities of the speakers manner of
expression. Example: Old Jolyon was on the alert at once. Wasn't
the "man of property" going to live in his new house, then?
(Galsworthy)

33.
Anticlimax refers to a figure of speech in which statements
gradually descend in order of importance. Unlike climax, anticlimax is
the arrangement of a series of words, phrases, or clauses in order of
decreasing importance. These are some examples of anticlimax:
1. She is a great writer, a mother and a good humorist.
2. He lost his family, his car and his cell phone.
34.
Stylistic devices are the use of any of a variety of techniques to
give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to the literal or written.
It can be metaphor, simile, personification and so on.
Example:"That boy is as fast as a fox." is a simile but "That boy
is a fox!" is a metaphor.
35.
Aposiopesis - is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is
deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied
by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to
continue. An example would be the threat "Get out, or else!"
This device often portrays its users as overcome with passion (fear,
anger, excitement).
36.
The expressive means of a language are those phonetic,
morphological, word building, lexical, phraseological or syntactical
forms which exist in language as-a-system for the purpose of logical
and various dictionaries.
37.
Periphrasis- it is a stylistic device that can be defined as the
use of excessive and longer words to convey a meaning which could
have been conveyed with a shorter expression or in a two words. Its
an indirect or round about way of writing about things. Example: Im
going to instead I will.
38.
Simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing
similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile
draws resemblance with the help of the words like or as. Therefore,
it is a direct comparison. Example: I would have given anything
for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its
invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel
wires of a cage.
39.
Emotive meaning has reference to the emotions of the speaker
towards the thing or phenomena defined. The bearers of emotive
meaning are interjections, exclamatory words, swear-words, a great
number of qualifying words, intensifiers.
E.g. a)Oh, My God!
b)I feel so damned lonely!
40.
Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, characterized by
basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent,
in alternation with opposite or different elements or features
41.
Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other
reiterated units. The most emphatic type of repetition which signifies
the peak of emotions of the speaker. Example: Its a mad,mad,mad
world.
42.
Convergence is a combination or accumulation of stylistic
devices promoting the same idea, emotion or motive. Example: The
door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall
young man in a Clinging tore-gray coat. After him, like the first
breath of spring in the champs- Elysses came Mrs. Beste- chet

wynde- two lizard- skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight
little black hat, pinned with platinum
43.
The decomposition of set phrase- a kind of violation a set
phrase by either changing of 1 or more components or prolongation.
Example: To be born with a golden spoon ( golden instead of
silver)
44.
Epiphora - is a stylistic device, which represents identical
elements at the end of the sentences, paragraphs, chapters, stanzas.
Example:
I'm a Pepper,
He's a Pepper,
She's a Pepper,
We're a Pepper
Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?
Doctor Pepper!
45.
EPIGRAM is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes
surprising or satirical statement. Here lies my wife: here let her
lie!
Now she's at rest and so am I.
John Dryden
46.
Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects,
actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.
Examples:
1) The children were screaming and shouting in the fields.
("screaming" and "shouting" appeal to our auditory sense)
2) The fresh and juicy oranges are very cold and sweet. ('juicy"
and "sweet" have an effect to our sense of taste)
47.
Ellipsis is the omission of a word necessary for the complete
syntactical construction of a sentence but not necessary for
understanding. It is used to change the tempo of the sentence and to
heighten the emotional tension of the narration. "You feel alright?
Anything wrong or what?"
"What is he doing? Annoying father"
48.
Climax - an arragement of sentences or homogeneous parts of
sentences which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance
or emotional tension
Example: They looked at hundreds of houses, they climbed
thousands of stairs, they inspected innumerable kitchens.
49.
Metonymy - is a figure of speech in which something is called by
a new name that is related in meaning to the original thing or concept.
The Yankees have been throwing the ball really well.
(the name of a sports team is used in place of its individual
members)
50.
Question in the narrative is asked and answered by one and
the same person, usually the author to sustain tension and keep the
reader interested.
Example: how long must it go on? How long must we suffer?
Where is the end? I don't know.
51.
Onomatopoeia () - is a combination of
speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature
(wind, water, leaves), by animals, by people and by things (machins or

tools) Example: Animals - miaow, roar, bow-wow. People - blahblah, murmur. Nature - buzz, splash, whistle.
52.
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound
combinations of words .
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
53.
Assonance - the repetition of similar vowels usually in stressed
syllables.
"Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese" pink cloyed
"Try to light the fire"
"Hear the mellow wedding bells" e.a. Poe.
54.
Gap-sentence link is a way of connecting two sentences
seemingly unconnected and leaving it to the readers. Example: She
and that fellow might to be the subberes ,and they are in Italy.
55.
Zeugma-is a figure of speech in which one single phrase or word
joins different parts of a sentence.
56.
Oxymoron is a figure of speech that juxtaposes elements that
appear to be contradictory. Oxymorons appear in a variety of contexts,
including inadvertent errors (such as "ground pilot") and literary
oxymorons crafted to reveal a paradox.
57.
euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in
place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something
unpleasant. pregnant=expecting,invalid=disabled
58.
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or
figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis
(lit. "growth"). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong
feelings, and creates strong impressions. As a figure of speech, it is
usually not meant to be taken literally.
59.
inversion is any of several grammatical constructions where two
expressions switch their canonical order of appearance, that is, they
invert.
a. A unicorn will come into the room. b. Into
the room will come a unicorn.
60.
parallelism, also known as parallel structure or parallel
construction, is a balance within one or more sentences of similar
phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure.The
application of parallelism improves writing style and readability, and is
thought to make sentences easier to process.
Parallelism is often achieved using antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton,
climax, epistrophe, and symploce.
Lacking parallelism: "The dog ran across the yard, jumped
over the fence, and down the alley he sprinted."
Parallel: "The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the
fence, and sprinted down the alley."
Grammatical but not employing parallelism: "The dog ran
across the yard and jumped over the fence, and down the
alley he sprinted."

61.
Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close
succession, especially where some could otherwise be omitted (as in
"he ran and jumped and laughed for joy").
62.
Allusion is a figure of speech, in which one refers covertly or
indirectly to an object or circumstance from an external context. A
sobriquet