9.3 Syntactic and Rhetorical Figures

Executive Summary: Syntactic and rhetorical figures govern how ideas are arranged within clauses, sentences, and paragraphs. On Part B of the Alberta ELA 30-1 Diploma Examination, multiple-choice questions frequently target sentence architecture, probing how authors use repetition, structural balance, inverted word order, and impassioned invocations to modulate pace, intensify emotional resonance, and clarify thematic arguments. Rather than viewing syntax as abstract grammar, successful candidates analyze sentence structure as the physical heartbeat of literary prose and poetry—a deliberate design where form mirrors and magnifies meaning.

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Syntax as Thematic Expression: Why Form Mirrors Meaning

In senior high English literature, an author's syntactic choices are never accidental. While diction determines the colors of an author's canvas, syntax supplies the scaffolding and momentum. A staccato sequence of short, asyndetic clauses generates breathlessness, claustrophobia, or military panic; conversely, a long, periodic sentence sustained through balanced parallel structures evokes judicial deliberation, philosophical contemplation, or majestic authority.

Practice-style questions ask: "The author's use of sentence structure in lines 14–22 primarily serves to..." or "The repetition of the phrase 'We must' in the final paragraph functions rhetorically to..." To answer these accurately, students must recognize the precise classical scheme and understand its psychological impact on the reader.

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Schemes of Repetition: Pacing, Cadence, and Psychological Fixation

Repetition is one of humanity's oldest rhetorical tools. When an author repeats words or phrases in disciplined syntactic positions, they impose order on chaos, build emotional momentum, and signal cognitive obsession.

ANAPHORA:   [ REPEATED PHRASE ] ──▶ Clause Body A
            [ REPEATED PHRASE ] ──▶ Clause Body B

EPISTROPHE: Clause Body A       ──▶ [ REPEATED PHRASE ]
            Clause Body B       ──▶ [ REPEATED PHRASE ]

SYMPLOCE:   [ REPEATED OPENING ] ──▶ Clause A ──▶ [ REPEATED CLOSING ]
            [ REPEATED OPENING ] ──▶ Clause B ──▶ [ REPEATED CLOSING ]

1. Anaphora

Anaphora is the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or poetic lines.

• Rhetorical Effect: It creates an incantatory, liturgical cadence that builds cumulative emotional power, driving an audience toward unified conviction. In Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, the opening sequence—"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."—deploys anaphora to establish an epoch of total contradiction.

2. Epistrophe (Epiphora)

Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

• Rhetorical Effect: Unlike anaphora, which propels the reader forward, epistrophe acts like a rhythmic hammer blow at the end of each thought. It emphasizes finality, inevitability, and psychological fixation. In Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the famous phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people" hammers the central civic identity into the national consciousness.

3. Symploce

Symploce combines anaphora and epistrophe simultaneously: one phrase is repeated at the beginning while another phrase is repeated at the end of successive clauses ("When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it"). It achieves total rhetorical containment, framing an idea in an inescapable structural vise.

4. Polysyndeton vs. Asyndeton: The Rhythm of Conjunctions

The handling of coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) dictates narrative velocity and cognitive weight:

• Polysyndeton: The deliberate insertion of multiple conjunctions between successive words, phrases, or clauses ("I marched and I suffered and I fought and I fell and I survived").
  • Effect: Retards the pace of reading, forcing the audience to experience each item individually; conveys a feeling of weariness, inexhaustible abundance, or overwhelming weight.
• Asyndeton: The deliberate omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses ("I came, I saw, I conquered").
  • Effect: Accelerates syntactic speed, producing a breathless, urgent, or spontaneous cadence; conveys decisive action, raw immediacy, or clinical detachment.

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Structural Balance, Contrast, and Reversal

Classical rhetoric places immense value on symmetry and inverted structures, which test an author's intellectual discipline and invite deep textual scrutiny on diploma exams.

Parallelism (Isocolon and Tricolon)

Parallelism involves arranging grammatically equivalent words, phrases, or clauses in a balanced sequence. When parallel clauses share identical syllable counts or structural lengths, it is termed isocolon. A three-part parallel structure is known as a tricolon (the "Rule of Three"), which satisfies the human ear's innate desire for completeness and rhetorical climax ("Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness").

Antithesis

Antithesis pairs sharply contrasting ideas within balanced, parallel grammatical constructions:

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." (Alexander Pope)

Antithesis forces two opposing truths into immediate syntactic confrontation. On Part B, antithesis frequently illuminates a protagonist's irreconcilable moral dilemma or an author's critique of societal hypocrisy.

Chiasmus and Antimetabole: The Mirrored Reversal (A-B-B-A)

• Chiasmus: A rhetorical scheme in which grammatical structures, concepts, or syntactic patterns are repeated in reverse order (A-B : B-A), without necessarily repeating the exact words ("By day the frolic, and the dance by night").
• Antimetabole: A precise, strict form of chiasmus where the exact same words are repeated in reverse grammatical order:

  "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." (John F. Kennedy) "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." (Macbeth)

The mirror structure of antimetabole locks two concepts in a dynamic reciprocal exchange, forcing the reader to re-examine who is the actor and who is the recipient.

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Word-Order Disruption and Dramatic Invocation

Standard English adheres to a strict canonical word order: Subject + Verb + Object (S-V-O). When an author fractures this order, the disruption immediately commands reader attention.

Inversion (Anastrophe)

Inversion (or anastrophe) is the deliberate reversal of standard grammatical word order—such as placing the object or adjective before the verb or subject ("Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing" or Milton's "High on a throne of royal state... Satan exalted sat").

• Purpose on ELA 30-1: In poetry, inversion preserves meter or secures end-rhymes; in formal prose and drama, it emphasizes the displaced element by granting it structural prominence at the beginning or end of the clause.

Apostrophe

In literature, apostrophe is not a punctuation mark; it is a rhetorical figure in which a speaker suddenly breaks off from addressing the audience to directly address an absent person, a personified abstract concept, or an inanimate object as though it were living, present, and capable of hearing:

• "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"
• "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee." (Wordsworth)
• "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being..." (Shelley)

Apostrophe signals intense psychological elevation, moral crisis, or existential isolation. It transforms an internal meditation into a dramatic invocation.

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Using These Figures in Your Own Writing

The same figures matter in Part A. For the CART, the Matters of Choice category tells markers to consider "choices of syntactic structures (such as parallelism, balance, inversion)" and how stylistic choices create voice. At Excellent, syntactic structures are "effective and sometimes polished"; at Satisfactory, "attempts at complex structures may be awkward." Use a figure when it sharpens an idea: a balanced sentence for a real contrast, or a periodic sentence for a real climax. One precise antithesis in a conclusion does more than five forced ones.

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Syntactic Figures Master Reference Chart