修辞学之句法修辞

①Syntactic schemes of Balance

Balance in sentence construction is based on the principle that ideas of the same importance should be expressed in the same grammatical form to enhance clarity and coherence, by giving them “equal weight” In a balanced sentence, not only are the forms of the balanced parts similar, but often the parts are also of similar length, with the same number of words. he chief schemes of balance are parallelism ,antithesis, chiasmus , and its variation antimetabole.

A "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!" -- Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream.

（Antithesis It s the rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences. by a strong contrast of skin and character, the speaker emphasis his dream.）

B "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose"-- Jim Elliot

C "Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him." (E. M. Forster, Howard's End)

D I came, I saw, I conquer.

(Parallelism It’s the deliberate repetition of similar or identical words, phrases or constructions in lines, sentences or paragraphs.)

E No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy

F In the days when all these things are to be answered for, I summon you and yours, to the last of your bad race, to answer for them. In the days when all these things are to be answered for, I summon your brother, the worst of your bad race, to answer for them separately. (repetition is used with parallelism to emphasize the equal importance and weight of his idea.)

②Syntactic schemes of Inversion

When the normal order of words in a basic sentence pattern is reversed, inversion takes place.

A After a storm comes a calm.

B Out of the mouth comes evil.

C Poor as the hometown is, the local customs are most abundant.

D May your love soar on the wings of a dove on flight.

( inversion is used to give a good wish)

E Long and steep is the path to virtue, and smooth is the way that leads to wickedness.

(By a sharp contrast, inversion is used to emphasize the hardship of keeping virtue. )

F Beautiful is youth because it never comes again.

(Inversion is used to emphasize the beautiful youth, by compared with

it never comes again )

③Syntactic schemes of Omission

A We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life defending something. You use them as a punch line-- delivered by Jack Nicholson (from the movie A Few Good Men)

B "From now on we are enemies, you and I. Because you choose for your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile little boy." -- delivered by F. Murray Abraham (from the movie Amadeus)

(He uses asyndetic coordination to describe the choice, emphasizing the sense of angry, hate and rage. )

C When we listen to the better angels of our nature, we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things -- such as goodness, decency,