Figures of Speech: Schemes

Scheme: An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.

1. Structures of Balance

   • Parallelism Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
     • Isocolon A series of similarly structured elements having the same length.
     • Tricolon Three parallel elements of the same length occurring together.
   • Antithesis Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas (often in parallel structure).
   • Climax Generally, the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance, often in parallel structure.

2. Changes in word order

   • Anastrophe Inversion of natural word order.
   • Parenthesis Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical flow.
   • Apposition Addition of an adjacent, coordinate, explanatory element.

3. Omission

   • Ellipsis Omission of a word or words readily implied by context.
   • Asyndeton Omission of conjunctions between a series of clauses.
   • Brachylogia Omission of conjunctions between a series of words.
   • (Polysyndeton) Opposite of asyndeton, a superabundance of conjunctions

4. Repetition

   • Alliteration Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words.
   • Assonance Repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words.
   • Polyptoton Repetition of words derived from the same root.
   • Antanaclasis Repetition of a word in two different senses.
   • Anaphora Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
   • Epistrophe Repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses.
   • Epanalepsis Repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause.
   • Anadiplosis Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause.
   • Climax Repetition of the scheme anadiplosis at least three times, with the elements arranged in an order of increasing importance.
   • Antimetabole Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. (Sometimes mistaken as chiasmus)
   • Chiasmus Repetition of grammatical structures in reverse order in successive phrases or clauses (not to be mistaken with antimetabole).