Definition:
(1) A figure of speech. (2) A rhetorical device that produces a shift in the meanings of words--in contrast to a scheme, which changes only the shape of a phrase. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "a turn"Examples and Observations:
- "For the Roman rhetorician Quintilian, tropes were metaphors and metonyms, etc., and figures were such forms of discourse as rhetorical questions, digression, repetition, antithesis, and periphrasis (also referred to as schemes). He noted that the two kinds of usage were often confused (a state of affairs that has continued to this day)."
(T. McArthur, Oxford Companion to the English Language, 1992) - "What was abandoned in the course of the 19th century was the traditionally strict distinction between tropes and figures/schemes (Sharon-Zisser, 1993). It gave way to the overall terms 'figures du discours' (Fontanier), 'figures of speech' (Quinn), 'rhetorical figures' (Mayoral), 'figures de style' (Suhamy, Bacry), or simple 'figures' (Genette)."
(H.F. Plett, "Figures of Speech," Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) - Metaphor
"His life is a garden, our friends are greed
Our friends are water, our friends are weeds
The government’s a gardener
He pimps for profit
And makes money off of shovels and hoes."
(Calm, "Anti-Smiles") - Metonymy
"The piano has been drinking
My necktie's asleep
The combo went back to New York, and left me all alone. . . .
The piano has been drinking
And he's on the hard stuff tonight."
(Tom Waits, "The Piano Has Been Drinking") - Irony
"But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side."
(Bob Dylan, "With God on Our Side")
Pronunciation: TROP
Also Known As: turn of phrase, figure of speech, figure
