H is for a mouthful.
Well, it's actually for homoioteleuton. (ho moi o te LEU ton)
If you're like me, you'll have to say it a few times to get it right.
Homoioteleuton is Greek for "like ending," and means, in English at least, "the use of similar endings to words, phrases, or sentences" (Lanham). Silva Rhetoricae qualifies the definition, stating simply homoioteleuton is "similarity of endings of adjacent or parallel words."
Both sources give Peacham's example: "Eloquent is he who can invent excellently, dispose evidently, figure diversely, remember perfectly."
I wager you're willing to believe Peacham's proposition based on little more than the parallelism and similar clause endings; such is the suasive force of figures of parallelism and repetition. This suasive force, rhetoricians have been starting to argue, hinges on our cognitive affinity for repetition and position. Basically put: as humans, we're inclined to accept premises and propositions that involve repetition, especially when there is systematic positioning of repetition. There's a delightful little research paper floating around that examines the implications of this linguistic nuance in aphorisms, and it's called "Birds of a Feather Flock Conjointly." Isn't that beautiful?
Ripped off of dmnews.com
As a schematic figure of sound, homoioteleuton functions in an argument to link concepts across a text, because similarities in sound create cognitive connections that suggest similarities in meaning. In Rhetorical Style, Fahnestock notes how homoioteleuton "helps the rhetor produce the impression of a coherent set," which I think may be the best articulation of it's suasive function across all modes (poetry, prose, etc.)
The instance of homoioteleuton I have in mind today is again Pauline, from Romans 12:2 - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." In Greek, the imperative verb phrase "be conformed" is συσχηματίζεσθε, and the imperative verb phrase "be transformed" is μεταμορφοῦσθε. You don't need to know Greek to see the two verb phrases have identical endings; kudos to the translators for capturing the rhetorical figure in addition to the sense of the argument, which is a morphological leap from one state - being conformed - to another - being transformed. The Greek verb phrase for "be transformed" is "metamorphousthe" (see the "morph" hidden there), and the homoioteleuton suggests a sort of continuity from one state to another; it's too late for me to discern exactly what's happening in the argument, but my sense is the contradictory terms "conformed/transformed" are held somewhat stable by the homoioteleuton so Paul can demonstrate the morphological shift that happens in a single subject when his/her mind is renewed.
I don't know about you, but I'll take some of that medicine.
