November 28, 2008

Some more word tricks

Fellow speaker,

Ways to speak:
  • Epistrophe - repeating of words or phrases at the end of each sentence in a series (e.g., "You wanted a winner, you got John Smith. You wanted honesty, you got John Smith. You wanted trust, you got John Smith.")
  • Peroration - a dramatic finish to an emotional speech (self-explanatory)
  • Paraleipsis - say something and then say it was not worth saying (e.g., "You may have heard that this is a man who is involved in criminal actions and is right now under FBI investigation. I don't know anything about his honesty in these matters and will not use this information to pass judgement on him.")
In memoriam,

Tim