Stylistic Devices / Rhetorical Devices

Der folgende Artikel gibt eine Übersicht über die 15 wichtigsten rhetorischen Mittel (Stylistic Devices) für den Englischunterricht. Das beinhaltet zunächst für jedes Stylistic Device eine kurze Definition / Bedeutungserklärung auf Deutsch. Darauf aufbauend folgen in englischer Sprache eine Definition, drei anschauliche Beispiele und die vom Stilmittel ausgehende Wirkung.

Was sind stylistic devices / rhetorical devices?

Ebenso wie die deutsche Sprache, kommt auch die englische Sprache nicht ohne Stilmittel aus. Stylistic Devices können je nach Kontext viele Funktionen inne haben: Betonung bestimmter Sachverhalte, Kritik üben, Aufmerksamkeit bündeln, eine humorvolle Situation schaffen oder auch den Zuhörer zum Nachdenken zu bewegen.

Im Unterricht werden Stylistic Devices besonders im Zusammenhang mit der Gedichtanalyse (poem analysis) oder der Redeanalyse (political speech analysis) benötigt. Im Rahmen dieser Aufsatztypen müssen die Stylistic Devices erkannt, benannt und deren Wirkung beschrieben werden.

Wirkung und Funktion sind nicht immer leicht herauszuarbeiten, weshalb du weiter unten zu jedem einzelnen Stilmittel allgemeine Informationen findest. Nachfolgend eine Liste der fünfzehn wichtigsten rhetorischen Stilmittel im Englischunterricht:

Stylistic Devices Definition / Bedeutung
Allegory
(Allegorie)
bildhafte Metapher, bei der das Objekt etwas anderes repräsentiert
Alliteration
(Alliteration)
Zwei oder mehr aufeinanderfolgende Wörter mit dem selben Anfangsbuchstaben
Anaphora
(Anapher)
Wiederholung eines oder mehrerer Worte am Satzanfang / Versanfang
Climax
(Klimax)
dreigliedrige Steigerung
Enumeration
(Aufzählung)
abschließende Aufzählung mehrerer Begriffe
Hyperbole
(Hyperbel)
starke Übertreibung
Metaphor
(Metapher)
bildhafter Vergleich
Onomatopoeia
(Onomatopoesie)
Lautmalerei
Oxymoron
(Oxymoron)
zwei sich gegenseitig ausschließende Begriffe
Paradox
(Paradoxon)
unauflösbarer Widerspruch
Parallelism
(Parallelismus)
ähnlicher Satzbau in mindestens zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Sätzen / Versen
Personification
(Personifikation)
Vermenschlichung
Rhetorical Question
(Rhetorische Frage)
Frage, bei der keine Antwort erwünscht ist
Simile
(Vergleich)
Gegenüberstellung zweier Begriffe
Symbol
(Symbol)
Begriff, der im übertragenen Sinne für etwas anderes steht

Allegory


Definition:
  • A symbol with a hidding meaning

Examples:
  • Justitia for justice
  • The port gets ever closer to the body's craft. - Andreas Gryphius
  • Liberty Leading the People - Eugene Delacroix

Function and Effect:
  • Aesthetic formulation; Create a picture in the mind of the listener

Alliteration


Definition:
  • At least two consecutive words beginning with the same letters

Examples:
  • The Elfin from the green grass (...) - Edgar Allan Poe
  • I murder hate by field or flood (...) - Robert Burns
  • I just had eighteen straight scotches. I think that's the record. - Dylan Thomas

Function and Effect:
  • Emphasizes the urgency; Aesthetic formulation; Intensification

Anaphora


Definition:
  • Repeating of a sequence of words at the beginning of a sentence or verse.

Examples:
  • I have a dream (...). I have a dream (...). - Martin Luther King
  • Mad world! Mad kings! Mad compositions - William Shakespeare
  • I smell the earth, I smell the bruised plant, I look into the crater of the ant - Robert Frost

Function and Effect:
  • Accentuate and emphasize something; Convincing the listener; Dramatization

Climax


Definition:
  • A three-stepped increase of words or phrases.

Examples:
  • Veni, vidi, vici. - Julius Cäsar
  • My brother, my captain, my king. - J. R. R. Tolkien
  • Let a man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country and his God. - George Washington

Function and Effect:
  • Emphasizes the urgency; Dramatization

Enumeration


Definition:
  • A completely and ordered list of words or items.

Examples:
  • Dear inhabitants from Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
  • This is my cap, this is my coat, here is my shaving kit - Günter Eich
  • Look at the red, green, yellow and blue lights.

Function and Effect:
  • Create the feeling of wholeness; Accentuate and emphasize something

Hyperbole


Definition:
  • Exaggeration of a normal issue / circumstances.

Examples:
  • dead tired (totmüde), snail pace (Schneckentempo), ten a penny (wie Sand am Meer)
  • Queen, you are full fair, 'tis true. But Snow-white fairer is than you - Brothers Grimm
  • A sea of a thousand tears

Function and Effect:
  • Dramatization; Shock effect

Metaphor


Definition:
  • Pictorial comparison between two things that are interconnected.

Examples:
  • see something through rose coloured glasses; looking for a needle in a haystack
  • trample on human rights; hit the bull's-eye
  • The sky flows into stone channels. - Oskar Loerke

Function and Effect:
  • Create a picture in the mind of the listener; Illustration of an issue; Aesthetic formulation

Onomatopoeia


Definition:
  • Words that imitate sounds.

Examples:
  • Pow, Meow, woof woof, tick tock, oink oink, click clack
  • The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden - Walt Whitman
  • scratching, buzzing, dazzling

Function and Effect:
  • Aesthetic and tuneful formulation;

Oxymoron


Definition:
  • Two or more words, which seems in combination totaly impossible

Examples:
  • living dead, black milk, open secret, less is more
  • Visibly: invisibly, around you? - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. - George Orwell

Function and Effect:
  • Shock effect; Make the reader think about the issue

Paradox


Definition:
  • Irresolvable contradictions of a set of facts.

Examples:
  • War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. - George Orwell
  • Free is only death, but it costs your life
  • The only constant is change. - Heraclitus

Function and Effect:
  • Aesthetic formulation; Make the reader think about the issue

Parallelism


Definition:
  • Parallel or similar syntax in several sentences.

Examples:
  • Talk is silver, silence is golden
  • O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? - Bible
  • We charge him (...). We accuse him (...). We censure him (...). - Thomas Babington Macaulay

Function and Effect:
  • Intensification; Repeat something

Personification


Definition:
  • Humanisation of animals, things and lifeless.

Examples:
  • The eye of the law; Mother Nature
  • Then let not winter's ragged hand deface - William Shakespeare
  • The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for - Ernest Hemingway

Function and Effect:
  • Aesthetic formulation; Illustration of an issue

Rhetorical Question


Definition:
  • Question where no response is expected

Examples:
  • Didn't I tell you before?
  • Are you out of your mind?
  • Isn't that great?

Function and Effect:
  • Make sb. feel to be a part of the speech; Dramatization; Involve the listener

Simile


Definition:
  • Comparison between two things through the connectives "as", "like" or "than"

Examples:
  • She was as hungry as a lion; As busy as a bee
  • My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun - William Shakespeare
  • Coral is far more red than her lips' red - William Shakespeare

Function and Effect:
  • Create a picture in the mind of the listener; Connect two different things

Symbol


Definition:
  • An object, which represents an idea or something else

Examples:
  • White pigeon (freedom), Uncle Sam (USA), Star of David (Judaism)
  • Hammer and sickle (communism), Red roses (love), Crucifix (Jesus Christ)
  • Ring (loyalty), blue helmet (UN soldiers), milk and honey (paradise)

Function and Effect:
  • Illustration of an issue; Create a picture in the mind of the listener; Aesthetic formulation

Weiterführende Links:


Linking words

Unregelmäßige Verben (Irregular Verbs)