Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Definition and Examples of Isocolons in Rhetoric
Definition and Examples of Isocolons in Rhetoric Isocolonà is aà rhetorical termà for a succession ofà phrases,à clauses, orà sentencesà of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. Plural:à isocolonsà orà isocola. An isocolon with three parallel members is known as aà tricolon. A four-part isocolon is aà tetracolon climax. Isocolon is particularly of interest, notes T.V.F. Brogan, because Aristotle mentions it in theà Rhetoricà as theà figureà that produces symmetry and balance inà speechà and, thus, createsà rhythmicalà proseà or even measures in verse (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 2012). Pronunciation à ai-so-CO-lon Etymology From the Greek, of equal members or clauses Examples and Observations Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.ââ¬â¹It takes a licking, but it keeps on ticking!(advertising slogan of Timex watches)Im a Pepper, hes a Pepper, shes a Pepper, were a PepperWouldnt you like to be a Pepper, too? Dr. Pepper!(advertising jingle for Dr. Pepper soft drink)Come then: let us to the task, to the battle, to the toileach to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plow the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succor the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honor the brave.(Winston Churchill, speech given in Manchester, England, on January 29, 1940)Nothing thats beautiful hides its face. Nothing thats honest hides its name.(Orual inà Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retoldà by C.S. Lewis. Geoffrey Bles, 1956)Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.(James Joyce,à A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1917) An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.(G.K. Chesterton) Effects Created by Isocolon Isocolon... one of the most common and important rhetoricalà figures, is the use of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases similar in length and parallel in structure. . . . In some cases of isocolon the structural match may be so complete that the number ofà syllablesà in each phrase is the same; in the more common case, the parallel clauses just use the sameà parts of speechà in the same order. The device can produce pleasingà rhythyms, and the parallel structures it creates may helpfully reinforce a parallel substance in the speakersà claims... An excessive or clumsy use of the device can create too glaring a finish and too strong a sense of calculation.(Ward Farnsworth,à Farnsworths Classical English Rhetoric. David R. Godine, 2011) The Isocolon Habit Historians ofà rhetoricà continually puzzle over why theà isocolonà habit so thrilled the Greeks when they first encountered it, whyà antithesisà became, for a while, anà oratoricalà obsession. Perhaps it allowed them, for the first time, to see their two-sidedà arguments.(Richard A. Lanham,à Analyzing Prose, 2nd ed. Continuum, 2003) The Difference Between Isocolon and Parison - Isocolonà is a sequence ofà sentencesà of equal length, as in Popes Equal your merits! equal is your din! (Dunciadà II, 244), where each sentence is assigned five syllables, iconizing the concept of equal distribution... Parison, also calledà membrum, is a sequence ofà clauses or phrasesà of equal length.(Earl R. Anderson,à A Grammar of Iconism. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1998) - The Tudorà rhetoriciansà do not make the distinction betweenà isocolonà andà parison...The definitions ofà parisonà by Puttenham and Day make it identical with isocolon. The figure was in great favor among the Elizabethans as is seen from its schematic use not only inà Euphuesà but in the work of Lylys imitators.(Sister Miriam Joseph,à Shakespeares Use of the Arts of Language. Columbia Univ. Press, 1947)
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