Wandering rather [OT] (was Re: [PLUG] Drexel MCS Society Debate)

["Paul L. Snyder" <plsnyder@drexel.edu>]

On Fri, 20 May 2005, Jeff Abrahamson wrote:

> On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 11:51:34AM -0400, Paul L. Snyder wrote:
> > 
> > Apophasis.  (I won't say that it's a sleazy trick, but...)
[...]
> Cool site, thanks.  I see that the word I searched for was a synonym,
> praeteritio, which I learned in high school Latin while studying (I
> think) the orations of Cicero.

Neat, I hadn't seen the Latin, before.  Searching on it, I turned up an
English form, as well: preterition.

There are also other Greek terms for variants of this figure, including
paralipsis, cataphasis, and proslepsis.  (Proslepsis is the over-the-top
variant, dwelling on the sordid details it is not going to mention.)  

There's a lot of ambiguity in the taxonomy, so if someone objects to your
classification of a figure, you can probably muster reasonable doubt.

> My lisp experience calls me to wish that Eric had responded in his
> rebuttal with something like, "I will not call attention to my
> colleague's apophasis."

Rhecursion! (Or is it preteriteration?)

> > P.S. Bonus points for identifying the second rhetorical device in my
> > parenthetical comment.
> 
> The elliptical construct?

The very same.  I'll give it to you: it's an example of aposiopesis,
where the rhetor abruptly....

pls
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug