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Results for rhetorical
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2 votes

Name for this rhetorical device

With all due respect to the Gricean maxim of quantity (as Edwin Ashworth so nobly sets it forth), I think what you are really looking for is damning with faint praise. Damning with faint praise is …
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3 votes

Is there a name for this particular kind of rhetorical question?

You can get by simply by calling it a "rhetorical question," and though that is much more general a statement that is the one that will be more familiar to your audience. …
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10 votes

Word for rhetorical style where different arguments get progressively weaker

This might be a form of catacosmesis, which is the ordering of components (usually words, not arguments) from most to least important. It is the opposite of climax (rhetorically speaking), so perhaps …
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23 votes

Name for rhetorical technique of abandoning commas in a long list?

You are likely thinking of polysyndeton and asyndeton—probably the latter, but the former can achieve the same result in a different way. From your example, the list of which includes both comma-separ …
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32 votes
Accepted

Omitting "and" in a sentence

It's a rhetorical device called asyndeton, and you can find its definition (as well as those of other rhetorical figures) here. …
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8 votes
Accepted

"We must eat to live, not live to eat." — What kind of rhetorical figure is that?

This is a type of chiasmus (in general) or antimetabole (to be specific). Example of antimetabole from Sylvae Rhetoricae: You can take the gorilla out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle …
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2 votes
Accepted

Suitable description for this type of sentence

This is a rhetorical figure known as epimone, which is the consecutive repetition of phrases in a sentence or passage. …
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3 votes

What is prefacing paragraphs with "first," "further," and "also" called?

It is one way of making a rhetorical argument based on listing points and drawing a generalized conclusion based on inductive reasoning. …
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4 votes
Accepted

What does 'should' mean in this sentence?

Should in your sentence and did in mine are used as a mild form of erotema, a rhetorical device that asks a question to dramatize a certain event. … It is, in fact, the most common device, otherwise known as a "rhetorical question". …
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2 votes

A Good Resource (Book, ...) For Literary Techniques/Devices?

For rhetorical devices (anaphora, isocolon, chiasmus, metanoia, etc.) I recommend Classical English Rhetoric by Ward Farnsworth. For other literary devices (synecdoche, alliteration, prosody, etc.) …
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4 votes

Is there a name for the relationship between two unconnected hypothetical arguments?

These statements constitute a rhetorical device expressing the impossibility of a task. …
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9 votes

Commas around non-parenthetical name like "The famous playwright, William Shakespeare, was b...

This is just a rhetorical figure called an appositive: appositive a noun or noun substitute placed next to (in apposition to) another noun to be described or defined by the appositive. …
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5 votes

Do you have English counterpart to “To ask a question is a shame of a moment. Not to ask the...

And I think it's meaning you're after here, not rhetorical structure, correct? (The structure of your example, by the way, is called isocolon.) …
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0 votes

Confusion over "respected" in the following sentence

It is an example of litotes, a rhetorical figure involving understatement through negation of the reverse (think about when someone says a thing is "not bad" they actually mean it is good.). …
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3 votes

“It was great seeing you.” “You too.” Why not “Me too”?

This is a rhetorical device known as ellipsis: ellipsis |iˈlipsis| noun ( pl. ellipses |-sēz| ) the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood …
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