Definition:
In rhetoric, a particular instance that serves to illustrate a principle or support a claim. Related to: example (composition).
See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "to take out"Examples and Observations:
- "Aristotle divides examples into factual and fictitious, the former relying on historical experience and the latter invented to support the argument. . . . Holding together the categories of example . . . are two major ideas: first, that concrete experience, especially when it is familiar to an audience, is highly significant; and, second, that things (both material objects and events) repeat themselves."
(John D. Lyons, "Exemplum," in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001) - "As Quintilian defined it, an example adduces 'some past action real or assumed which may serve to persuade the audience of the truth of the point which we are trying to make' (V xi 6). If, for instance, a rhetor wants to convince her neighbor that he should keep his dog inside the fence that surrounds his property, she can remind him of a past instance when another neighbor's dog, running free, spread another neighbor's garbage all over both front yards. Rhetorical examples should not be confused with the particulars used in inductive reasoning. This rhetor has no interest in generalizing about all dogs in the neighborhood but is only concerned to compare the actual behavior of one dog running free to the probable behavior of another in similar circumstances. . . .
"Rhetorical examples are persuasive because they are specific. Because they are specific, they call up vivid memories of something the audience has experienced."
(S. Crowley and D. Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. Pearson, 2004)
