Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of phrases.
"The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers."
—Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture, 1993. The repetition of the "L" sound—"language," "lies," "limn," and "lives" lends the sentence its music.
Allusion
Reference to another artistic work, person, place or idea well known to the audience in order to use its message or characteristics to illustrate the author's message. For example, English speakers frequently allude to Shakespeare or the Bible.
"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, 'Farewell Address to the Nation,' January 17, 1961. Eisenhower warns against the "military-industrial complex." The reference is to the Biblical prophets Isaiah and Joel; the latter urges the nations to beat their plowshares into swords (Isaiah 2:4; Joel 3:10). The phrase's long Old-Testament history subtly reinforces the idea that a standing army is a relatively new innovation.
"Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.'"
—Frederick Douglass, 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' (Online excerpt) Address to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, July 5, 1852. Here Douglass alludes to Psalm 68:31. This quote of a less well-known passage makes an appeal to authority with Douglass' largely Christian audience, and an appeal to ethos by reminding them of his extensive knowledge of the text. (Full version: The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series Two: Autobiographical Writings; Volume 1 Narrative. Edited by John W. Blassingame, John R. McKivigan, and Peter P. Hinks; Textual editor, Gerald Fulkerson.)
Anaphora
A form of parallelism, anaphora refers to the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses in a sentence. Such insistent repetition leds emphasis and builds momentum.
"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."
—Winston Churchill, 'We Shall Fight on the Beaches,' June 4, 1940, House of Commons, arguing to Parliament and the British people that they must continue to confront the Nazi threat.
"Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors ... Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah to 'undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free.'"
—John F. Kennedy, 'Inaugural Address,' remarking on the Cold War, January 20, 1961.
Antecedent and Consequence
Often, we will say that one thing “follows” from another: it is a result or logical conclusion. This relationship between terms is often at the heart of a deductive argument. For instance, a person discussing new infrastructure projects might say, “If we build new roads, we will have to levy new taxes to pay for them.” This can easily be the first premise of a syllogism:
If we build new roads, we will have to levy new taxes to pay for them.
We have built new roads.
Therefore, we will have to levy new taxes.
It’s worth noting that, like an enthymeme, this kind of statement of antecedent and consequence generally conceals some unspoken assumption. Here, the assumption is that the only way to pay for new infrastructure projects is to levy taxes. While the syllogism is valid, we might question the truth of the initial premise by questioning that assumption. Why not build a tollbooth?
Antithesis
A pair of opposing terms in direct juxtaposition. This figure of speech often plays a part in the topics of contradiction and contraries. Antithesis often occurs within the scheme of parallelism, which works to emphasize the opposition of the terms.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
"What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil."
Novelist and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel giving a speech titled "The Perils of Indifference" in the Millenium Lecture series, April 12, 1999.
Argument ad Hominem
The argument ad hominem is the fallacy of making a personal attack on your interlocutor instead of answering his or her argument. Though it fails to address the interlocutor's logic or evidence, it can often still be persuasive because it affects the other person's ethos and hence his or her credibility.
We shouldn’t take Senator McDowell’s foreign-policy proposals seriously. She couldn’t even keep her hotel company from going out of business.
Mr. Olson is just another undereducated bumpkin from the country—we can’t trust his opinion on healthcare reform.
Argument ad populum
The argument ad populum takes two primary forms: either an appeal to something “everybody knows,” or the use of charged words that play on emotional or historical associations that will resonate with the audience without necessarily being grounded in fact. Though it does not necessarily hold water, it is often still persuasive, since it can involve a powerful appeal to pathos.
Everybody knows that free trade policies are the only way to bring about economic growth.
Patriotism is just Nazism in disguise.
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds.
"Why is mob murder permitted by a Christian nation? What is the cause of this awful slaughter? This question is answered almost daily—always the same shameless falsehood that 'Negroes are lynched to protect womanhood.'"
— Ida B. Wells, 'Lynching Our National Crime, Address at the National Negro Conference,' 1909. The "aw" sounds in "awful" and "slaughter" echo a cry of pain. The "aw" sounds in "awful" and "slaughter" echo a cry of pain. And the long "a" sounds in "daily," "same," and "shameless" feel drawn-out and weary, lamenting the perpetual cycles of violence and injustice.
Cause and Effect
The topic of cause and effect is likely to be necessary for making an inductive argument for a particular action based on the outcome of similar actions, because it must be shown in each example that the action was what probably caused the outcome.
In order to argue for a particular free-market policy based on examples of positive outcomes in various countries, we would have to show that it was at least highly probable that the policy in question had caused the increases in the example countries' prosperity.
Chiasmus and Antimetabole
Chiasmus is the inversion of grammatical structure in successive clauses; antimetabole is the repetition of the same words in inverse grammatical order in successive clauses. (In the quizzes for this course, we will refer to both under the heading of chiasmus.) Both figures of speech create a "mirroring" effect.
Chiasmus:
"Love without end, and without measure Grace.”
—John Milton, Paradise Lost.
Antimetabole:
"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
—John F. Kennedy, address before the United Nations General Assembly, September 25, 1961.
Contradiction
The example above depends on the intersection of two terms. Other syllogisms, however, might depend upon a contradiction:
A college professor is someone who teaches students.
Dr. Arnold does not teach students.
Therefore, Dr. Arnold cannot be a professor.
This syllogism depends on two pairs of contradictory terms: teaching and not teaching, being a professor and not being a professor. If one term in such a pair is true, the other—by definition—must be false.
Contraries
Another topic that is similar to the topic of definition is the topic of contraries. Contraries are two terms that are opposites or that cannot both be true. In such a case, proving that one of the terms is true is enough to disprove the other. When a traffic-light is green, for example, it cannot be red: establishing that fact rules out the possibility of the other.
Sometimes, there are only two options. When we come to a fork in a road, for example, we know that our path must lie either to the left or to the right. More often, though, as in the example of the traffic-light, there are other possibilities. In this case, establishing that one of the terms is false does not prove that the other is true. If the light is not red, it may still be either green or yellow.
Often an argument that uses the topic of contraries will align two pairs of contrary terms and use one to make a claim about the other:
Daylight is the proper home of honest deeds; it is the night that harbors evil.
The two contraries here are “day” and “night,” “honest deeds” and “evil.” If a link can be established between the first two terms of the pair—“day” and “honest deeds”—we find it easy to imagine that those terms’ contraries will also coincide.
Definition
In Inductive Reasoning
The topic of definition is a key step in making any kind of appeal to logos, and inductive reasoning is no exception. If you are attempting to use one situation as an example to make an inference about another situation, you will need to show that the two situations are analogous, and one key step to doing so is to prove that specific terms mean the same thing in both cases.
In order to argue, for example, that a free market is good for a country's prosperity, we would have to define both the term "free market" and the term "prosperity." Would a free market involve freedom for corporations from antitrust regulations? Or would it involve freedom for consumers from price manipulation by corporations? Each of these competing definitions would have an effect on how we could interpret our examples.
In Deductive Reasoning
Many of the topics that are necessary for inductive reasoning are also key for deductive reasoning. A syllogism, for example, might be entirely composed of definitions:
A college professor is someone who teaches students.
Dr. Arnold is a college professor.
Therefore, Dr. Arnold teaches students.
Difference
The topic of difference may be useful to counter an inductive argument by showing that the examples given are not analogous to the case in question, or that the terms used in the example do not match the definition given for them in the argument itself.
In countering the argument that a free-market policy is good for the prosperity of a country, we might seek to find differences between the example countries and the one for which the policy was being advocated, or differences between the policy proposed and the policies in the examples given.
Division
The topic of division enumerates the constituent parts of an idea, entity, or argument, and articulates the logical relationship of those parts to each other.
—President Lyndon Johnson outlines his domestic policies (the “Great Society” program) before Congress on January 5, 1965."I want to talk to you today about three places where we begin to build the Great Society: in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms.
Our society will never be great until our cities are great. Today the frontier of imagination and innovation is inside those cities and not beyond their borders. It will be the task of your generation to make the American city a place where future generations will come not only to live, but to live the good life.
A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside. We have always prided ourselves on being not only America the strong and America the free, but America the beautiful. Today that beauty is in danger. The water we drink, the food we eat, the very air that we breathe, are threatened with pollution.
A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There your children’s lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination."
Either/or Fallacy
The either/or fallacy involves insisting on a binary opposition of terms when, in fact, there are multiple options.
Either you’re in favor of these new rent-control policies or you’re supporting the very worst kind of gentrification.
There are really only two options: appeasement and war.
Elision (or Ellipsis)
The omission of words that can be inferred from context.
"As with rivers so with nations.”
—Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", July 5, 1852. Douglass has omitted pronoun and verb: "As [it is] with rivers so [it is] with nations."
"Children are trained in military tactics, the glory of military achievements extolled in the curriculum, and the youthful mind perverted to suit the government.”
—Anarchist Emma Goldman, in a speech on the dangers of patriotism, New York, 1910. Goldman omits verbs in the last two list items: "glory...[is] extolled...and the youthful mind [is] perverted."
Equivocation
To equivocate in deductive reasoning is to change your terms halfway through. This is most likely to happen when a word means two things, or when two concepts are similar but have a key difference:
The new study shows that sleep is essential to good health. Therefore, you must take naps in order to be healthy.
Professor Hamilton’s website says that he teaches a class on Marxist literary theory. Marxists are dangerous communists and shouldn’t be teaching our children.
Faulty Generalization
A faulty generalization is a problem in moving from a particular example to a larger claim. To have bearing on a case, each rhetorical example must be analogous to that case, and the conclusion must suit the representativeness of the examples.
I couldn’t seem to get good grades in my statistics course. I must just be bad at math.
Our Olympic swim team didn’t win a single medal this year. I’m sure the gymnasts won’t do well either.
Hyperbaton
Hyperbaton is a change from the ordinary or natural word order. The Greek etymon means "stepping over": we may imagine the reader "jumping" from word to word to make sense of the sentence.
"Crises there will continue to be.”
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation, January 17, 1961. Ordinarily, this sentence would be constructed thus: "There will continue to be crises."
"Climb with us the hills of God...with peace and brotherhood make sweet the bitter way of men!”
—Helen Keller, tireless Communist activist, in a speech celebrating the Russian Revolution on December 31, 1920. Ordinarily, these sentences would run as follows: "Climb the hills of God with us...make the bitter way of men sweet..."
Leading or complex question
The leading question involves some tacit, contestable assumption. In order to answer the question as it was asked, the other person will have to admit the truth of the question’s premise:
When did you stop cheating on your exams?
Is it true that you supported loosening immigration regulations to let all kinds of dangerous terrorists into the country?
Metaphor
The use of a word or phrase to symbolically represent another word or concept in order to highlight the similarities between them. Vivid images and apt analogies help capture an audience's attention and imagination, but they can also make subtle suggestions.
"I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, 'Inaugural Address,' March 4, 1933, likening overcoming the challenges of the Great Depression with fighting a war, with himself leading the people—his "army"—into battle. The martial metaphor suggests strength.
"This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close.”
——Martin Luther King Jr., 'Eulogy for the Martyred Children,' given September 18, 1963 for the four young victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. King likens the lives of the young girls to an act on the "stage of history," suggesting to his audience that, like parts in a play, human lives are ordained by God.
Metonymy
Metonymy is the trope of referring to a person, place, or thing by the name of one of its attributes or other things associated with it. Like the metaphor, this trope works by a logic of substitution. Many scholars also distinguish a trope of synecdoche, in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by the name of one of its parts. For the purposes of this class, however, we will consider both tropes under the general heading of metonymy.
"Woman's power can only be expressed and make itself felt when she refuses the task of bringing unwanted children into the world to be exploited in industry and slaughtered in wars.”
—Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization (1922). Here, the singular "woman" stands in for all women.
"The men of the Niagara Movement...pausing from the earning of their daily bread, turn toward the nation.”
—W.E.B. DuBois, speaking to the Niagara Movement in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in August, 1906. The "daily bread" marks metonymically all of the things one must be able to purchase for survival.
Paradox and Oxymoron
These two closely related tropes work through the startling juxtaposition of apparently incompatible ideas or words. An oxymoron is a single term that contradicts itself, like "bittersweet" or "cruel kindness." A paradox is a statement or phrase that seems to contradict itself. Both paradoxes and oxymorons can startle the reader or hearer and make familiar ideas seem fresh and new.
"Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!”
—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
"His words at Gettysburg were sacred, yet strange with a color of the familiar.”
—The poet Carl Sandburg, in a speech honoring Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1959.
Parallelism
A pairing (or grouping of several) related words, phrases, or sentences with the same or similar grammatical structure.
"We can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground."
—Abraham Lincoln, 'Gettysburg Address,' November 19, 1863
"Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in. Those left behind, we will help to catch up."
—Richard Nixon, 'Inaugural Address,' January 20, 1969.
Personification
Personification refers to some place, idea, or thing as if it were a person capable of thought, emotion, or action.
"The Kerner Commission told white America what black America had always known: that prejudice and hatred built the nation's slums, maintain them, and profit by them.”
—Representative Shirley Chisholm, speaking to the House of Representatives against reductions in spending on social programs, March 16, 1969. Prejudice and hatred are here figured as persons hard at work in the business of oppression.
"A shocked and stricken world stands helpless before the fact of death.”
—Cardinal Richard Cushing, in his nationally televised eulogy for President John F. Kennedy, November 24, 1963. The world is here imagined as a shocked onlooker at Kennedy's assassination.
Polyptoton
This kind of repetition uses two or more different forms of the same root word.
"He found himself an orphan in an orphaned world.”
—Elie Wiesel, reflecting on his experiences during and after the Holocaust in a speech at the White House, April 19, 1985.
"With so many guided missiles, and so much misguided leadership, the stakes are extremely high.”
— Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking to the Democratic Party Convention on July 17, 1988, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sibilance
The word "sibilant" comes from a Latin root meaning "hissing." Sibilance refers to the repetition of sibilant consonant sounds, like "s," "sh," "z," and "j."
"They have something to say to us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the Gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.”
—Martin Luther King Jr., 'Eulogy for the Martyred Children,' 1963. Here, the pronounced sibilance hisses, snakelike, and sometimes even spits (when paired with the plosive consonants "p" and "t"), suggesting to the listeners everything that is sneering, subtle, sinister, sneaky, or sly.
"Courage, brothers! The battle for humanity is not lost or losing. All across the skies sit signs of promise. The slave is rising in his might, the yellow millions are tasting liberty, the black Africans are writhing toward the light, and everywhere the laborer, with ballot in his hand, is voting open the gates of opportunity and peace. The morning breaks over blood-stained hills. We must not falter, we may not shrink. Above are the everlasting stars.”
—W. E. B. Du Bois, 'Niagara Movement Speech,' Harpers Ferry, Virginia, August, 1906. Here, in the final moments of his speech, DuBois falls into a lyrical cadence, evoking the crescendo of an anthem or the climax of a sermon. Part of the effect comes from the song-like rhymes, like "might" and "light." Also at work is the liquid sibilance of "All across the skies sit signs of promise. The slave is rising in his might," which, together with the assonance of the repeated open, round vowels ("a" and "o") and the long and short "i" sounds, creates a swirling cascade of sound, underlined by the drumbeat alliteration of "we must not ... we may not" and "brothers ... battle ... black ... ballot ... breaks ... blood."
Similarity
The topic of similarity is necessary for making an inductive argument because it must be shown that the examples given are analogous to each other and to the situation in question.
In order to argue inductively that a particular country should adopt free-market policy based on examples of successful policies in other countries, we would have to show that the economic situations of those other countries were similar enough to be used as analogous cases.
Slippery Slope
The “slippery slope” fallacy suggests that one single action or event must inevitably lead to a whole sequence of related events. Now, the slippery slope argument may have some truth in it. Without establishing a direct causal link, however, it is impossible to say what will happen for certain.
If we legalize marijuana, it won’t be long before there are shops selling heroin on every corner!
Don’t let yourself have that cookie! Pretty soon you’ll be completely out of shape.
Statistics
Statistics is a way of presenting a very large number of cases in the aggregate, as one example.
In making a case for or against free-market policies, we might cite GDP growth, standard of living, and other metrics for prosperity.
Straw Man
Like the argument ad hominem, the “straw man” argument is a diversion: it is the tactic of misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to counter.
Do you really think Mr. Anderson is qualified for this engineering position? His degree is in sociology!
How can you say that sociology isn't important? The humanities and social sciences teach critical-thinking skills that our society badly needs!
Testimony
The topic of testimony may be a useful way to present an example in an inductive argument.
In making a case for or against free-market policies, we might quote the testimony of a defector from a communist regime, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or of a vocal critic of the treatment of workers in a capitalist society, like Dolores Huerta.