Epanalepsis or Round and Round.

In my beginning is my end...

Were you ever taught that in a speech you should go round in a circle? You start with a story about, say, a fish swimming upstream against all the currents and compare the person you are making a speech about to that fish. At the end of the speech, you gently remind the audience of the fish so you finish exactly where you started.

Epanalepsis is an old journalists' trick. A story starts and ends with the same words.

Start: “An MP was complaining to me about the lack of transgendered people in parliament. Why, she asked, is this?”
Finish: “And that is why, in parliament, there is not one transgendered MP.”

Start: “Mr Buggins is a man who breeds horses just outside Birmingham in Wolverhampton. He maintains that breeding horses in Birmingham itself is impossible for the following reasons.”
Finish: “So horses do not flourish in Birmingham but they do in Wolverhampton. You are quite correct, Mr Buggins.”

It works very well for sentences too.

The king is dead, long live the king!

Man's inhumanity to man.

Make sure the first word and the last are exactly the same! Otherwise the epanalepsis doesn't work at all.

Man's inhumanity to woman. 

The king is dead, long live the queen!

Epanalepsis! Advertisers, the Bible, authors - all love completing the circle with an epanalepsis!

"Always Low Prices. Always." (Walmart slogan)

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." (The Bible, Phil. 4.4)

We know nothing of one another, nothing. Smiley mused. However closely we live together, at whatever time of day or night we sound the deepest thoughts in one another, we know nothing." (John le Carré, Call for the Dead, 1961)

And now a very sad epanalepsis:

"They went home and told their wives,
 that never once in all their lives,
 had they known a girl like me,
 but… they went home."
"They Went Home," Maya Angelou.

In my end is my beginning.

A level students only

Did you get the TS Eliot quote? Picture at top of page. Ugly old devil wasn't he!

Pleonasm

If you want to make absolutely sure that people have completely understood what you are trying to say, repeat yourself again and again and again.

And again.

Most of the tricks on this website are there to show you how to repeat yourself.

African joke which I picked up (as you do) in Sierra Leone while teaching there: “Repeat yourself again for the second time once more.”

I think you had to be there really...

Most people don't bother with marriage any more, especially not in church. But for those who do, here is the part where the actual marriage is about to take place:

Dearly Beloved, we are gathered together in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony...

Three repeats in one sentence!

Too much? That is exactly what the word pleonasm means – too much of a good thing.

We do it all the time without thinking or using our heads.

(absolutely) essential
(absolutely) necessary
(actual) facts
advance (forward)
(advance) planning
(advance) preview
(advance) reservations
(advance) warning
add (an additional)
add (up)
(added) bonus
(affirmative) yes
(aid and) abet
(all-time) record

More pleonasm to add to your list? Click with your mouse just here on these words.

And the pleonasm can be quite sinister and forbidding too.

Here is your free gift...
They reached a safe haven...
Congratulations! You have won a free prize...

Or pleonasms can actually be quite nice and pleasant too:

Free, gratis and for nothing.
You do not have to pay a penny.
I saw it with my own two eyes.

Advertising something?

We are looking for a loving home for some adorable, lovable and cuddly kittens...(you then go on to explain that your cat has just had them and that you want them to be happy.)
Our cars are roomy, comfortable and spacious inside...(But outside, they are compact and they park really easily in tight spaces).
Tasty, rich and delicious! Come in and see for yourself!

A level students only:

NB Examiners are paid by the page: NEVER use pleonasms in exams. You are wasting the examiner's time.

Transferred epithet.

You have to have a rash computer to write a transferred epithet. As the tired snowflakes of your memory float down outside the uncaring windows, why not reach for a comforting sip of consoling coffee and begin the beckoning work? The shortest day peeps round the corner its eyes dark, its hair tattered but invisible in the blue mists of the mothering Fen.

Things do not have emotions. That may hurt them, but they do not. They are just – things.
It is only people who do things that have emotions and characteristics.
If we transfer our own feelings onto the things round us, a wonderful, magic world peeps at us through the murk.

He smoked a thoughtful cigarette.
He had been given a careless haircut.
He ate a hurried breakfast.

Charles Dickens was the master of this.

Mr Jaggers never laughed: but he wore bright red creaking boots; and in poising himself on these boots, with his large head bent down and his eyebrows joined together, awaiting an answer he sometimes caused the boots to creak, as if they laughed in a dry suspicious way.
With Dickens you are right there in the threatening chambers looking up at Mr Jaggers in his terrifying boots.

It is great fun to carry this a lot further.

He walked through the nonchalant door into the welcoming street where merry cars hurried along beside the bustling pavements eager to get to their next appointment. The shops peered down, squinting through benign windows to see what the fuss was all about.

Writings with and without transferred epithets:

Compare these two poems about war:

This time it’s oil, not markets.
This time it’s oil, not borders.
This time it’s oil, not ideas.
This time it’s money and power –
like last time and every time before.

Steve Ely doing his levelbest for the poetry society.

Or

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all...

That is Wilfrid Owen. We are there. And some very kind person has noted all the places where careful pencils should notice the tell-tale words that will usher in that tantalising offer beckoning you, too, to the joyful world of drunken University.

A transferred epithet is for life, not just for Christmas.

Connotation.

Everything brings out feelings and emotions.

So, for instance, a suit may bring back memories of a wedding – or a funeral. A pair of socks might bring back memories of getting soaked in a downpour and wading through a puddle. A Christmas cake might bring back many happy memories of Christmas past.

Connotations.

Some people – let's be frank – smell of sweat. Some people smell of Frederic Malle. Some wear dirty shoes. Some have Calvin Klein boxers. There are people who drive BMWs with just out of date number plates. Then there are others who depend on their “driver” as they step into this year's Mercedes...

We have connotations on everyone we meet. We just cannot help it.

So how about using the connotations as a Descriptor? (I love using that word. It sounds so powerful! Like Raptor)

For instance, we often talk about people as “suits”. We have nicknames too like Droopy Drawers or Mrs Overall.

Here's a little exercise. How would you describe this man in one word?

(The moustache? Mr Smile? Blue tie? Mr Eyebrows?)

This very useful trick is excellent for dismissing people, especially unimportant ones like soldiers, teenagers or religious nuisances.

Boots on the ground are what is needed in war torn Syria.
The side part with high fade was very proud of his new wheels.
“Jesus Saves” was taken away by two white coats.

But we often use this trick without thinking about it.

He asked for her hand in marriage.
She put her plastic on the little screen.
Downing Street announced that...
You don't have to be a grey beard to know that climate change is real.

And of course you can use it in a horrid way too.

Pearl necklace wanted to lock 'em up and throw away the key.
Dreadlocks admitted that she was a pupil at Roedean.
Alcohol breath swore he hadn't touched a drop.

Poets love it. William Blake with the unofficial National Anthem, Jerusalem:

And did those feet in ancient time?

Can you do a connotation for this little group?

A Level Students only:

Connotations in Greek is Synekdoche. Use it. And look for it in poetry, and especially Shakespeare, to give a good impression to that critical red pen!

Litotes

From the Greek ‪απλότης‬ meaning “simple”.

We all use it.

That is not bad. (Means: It is OK).
It is not unusual. (It is often done).
The dinner did not disappoint.

Historically the classic is Emperor Hirohito. When, for the first time the sacred Son of Heaven spoke to his people on the new radio the situation in Japan was dire. The country fced the entire might of the US airforce. The Imperial navy was at the bottom of the sea and the Shikoku (Air force) almost entirely wiped out. On top of all this, two atom bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and there was a real threat that the sacred soil of Japan would soon be facing a mighty invasion force.

His divine words?

“The war situatiojn has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage.”

That is litotes at its very best. Not bad eh?

English does not like a double negative, so when we use it, we always make sure that we are, how shall we say? - not exactly telling an untruth and not exactly being ironic. We are, however, without exception, not ungrateful for a wry smile.

It is Christmas 2019 when I am presenting this. Here is your Christmas Quiz: How many examples of litotes can you find?

Catachresis

Using words against each other – that's what this word means in ancient Greek.

Here are some examples from some once loved lyrics:

Dance me to the end of love.
She lives on love street.
Love in the first degree.
Bad case of loving you.
What time is love?
Lay a whisper on my pillow.

Every single one of the above, though sometimes beautiful, can be only scarcely an exact use of language. Dance me to the end of love, for just one example. What? Love's end? Where exactly is that? Love in the first degree? What is the third degree please? And so on. You can do the rest!

Catachresis – getting it deliberately wrong.

Thunderbirds are go.

Tom Robbins on a Full Moon

"The moon was full. The moon was so bloated it was about to tip over. Imagine awakening to find the moon flat on its face on the bathroom floor, like the late Elvis Presley, poisoned by banana splits. It was a moon that could stir wild passions in a moo cow. A moon that could bring out the devil in a bunny rabbit. A moon that could turn lug nuts into moonstones turn Little Red Riding Hood into the big bad wolf."

(Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker, 1980)

Catachresis – so like other magical tricks! So like other imaginations!

Metaphors and similes are its first cousins. Even so, the dear old catachresis gets put in the corner and given the dunce's hat. It is called “abuse” (abusio) and even an outrage (audacia) by the otherwise great Quintillian, the ancient Roman expert on language, who ought to have known better.

Advertising worships catachresis with incense:

Here's how to do it.

Think of your product – say a car.

Now think of something that you like very much.

Add both and stir...

Let's take one car at random – say, the long established Datsun. If we include all makes of car it will be boring. So let's don't.

One thing everyone can learn from catachresis: push the boat out to the moon! Think puffy clouds in a stormy sky!

(The catachresis is the elder brother to the metaphor, which depends on sense not sensibility.)

PS Exposing catachresis in some meetings might be a good thing to do? There seems to be a lot of it about in management-speak.

Magic Numbers

The Chinese I Ching has nine lines in groups of three. The 8^th line from the bottom is the strong, lucky line. The line fourth from the bottom is the unlucky weak line. There are strong male lines and broken female ones. If you can interpret the gua, you can see into the future...

Did the US government actually orchestrate the Twin Towers destruction?

In August 2004, a poll by Zogby International showed that 49 per cent of New York City residents, with a margin of error of 3.5 percent, believed that officials of the U.S. government “knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act.” [2] In a Scripps-Howard Poll in 2006, with an error margin of 4 percent, some 36 percent of respondents assented to the claim that “federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center or took no action to stop them.” [3] Sixteen percent said that it was either very likely or somewhat likely that “the collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings.”

Numbers prove it. So they did orchestrate it.

(NB I do not believe that myself.)

Magic numbers!

A dark cave. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
Thunder.
Enter the three Witches
First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Third Witch
Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time."
First WitchRound about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
All
Double, double, toil and trouble; (10)
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Good old Shakespeare! Nailed it thrice. (Macbeth).

At the beginning of the education revolution in the last century, an edict came down that we teachers had to give each “student” a mark out of twenty for attitude and achievement. I was faced with making up a lot of numbers fast.

So I did.

But there were no 10s or 20s! 19, 14, 11 – all difficult numbers giving the impression that I knew what I was doing. One particularly badly behaved boy, I remember, got 7 and a half.

I handed them in so that they could be checked as fact.

And everyone believed them: hey! - they were numbers!

I am not alone in this.

Numbers matter. They add gravitas:

This Christmas, 23,000 young homeless people like Mark won't have a place to call home.

Seven days to save the NHS!

Use numbers. There are 101 reasons to do so. 

Here is just one: it convinces everyone.