Figures of Order

The following figures name the means by which sounds, letters, words, or ideas can be artfully ordered and arranged for effect, and as such fall under the the third of the four categories of change, transposition.

The idea of achieving the the most effective order for an entire speech is emphasized in the second canon of rhetoric, arrangement, and particularly when considering the partitio (division or outline) of a speech. Some of the figures below pertain to ordering an entire discourse, including certain figures of division and digression. Similarly, some figures, though not pertaining necessarily to parts of an oration, concern the artful ordering of concepts. Most of the following figures are for arranging rhetorical effects through manipulating word order. Some concern the rearrangement of letters within words. Finally, some of the figures of order are considered to be vices.

• Figures ordering parts of a speech, or ordering concepts
• Figures altering the order of words
• Figures altering the order of letters within words
• Figures of Disorder (Vices)

Figures ordering parts of a speech, or ordering concepts

• eutrepismus (Numbering and ordering the parts under consideration.)
• enumeratio (Dividing a subject into its adjuncts, a cause into its effects, or an antecedent into its consequents.)
• taxis (To divide a subject up into its various components or attributes.)
• merismus (The dividing of a whole into its parts.)
• parallelism (Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.)
• parecbasis (Digressing from the logical order of a speech.)
• chiasmus (Repetition of ideas in inverted order.)
• hysteron proteron (Ordering out of chronology.)
• catacosmesis (ordo) (Ordering words from greatest to least in dignity, or in correct order of time.)
• synthesis (An apt arrangement of a composition.)

Figures altering the order of words

• hyperbaton (The inversion of normal word order. A general term.)
• anastrophe (Departure from normal word order)
• antimetabole (Repetition of words in reverse grammatical order.)
• acrostic (Ordering words in successive lines so their first letters spell something or follow alphabetical order.)
• climax (The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance)
• catacosmesis (Ordering words from greatest to least in dignity, or in correct order of time.)
• hypallage (Shifting the application of words. Mixing the order of which words should correspond with which others.)
• hysterologia (Interrupting the order of a preposition and its object with an inserted phrase.)
• parenthesis (Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical order.)
• parallelism (Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.)

Figures altering the order of letters within words

• tmesis (Interjecting a word or phrase between parts of a compound word or between syllables of a word.)
• metathesis (The transposition of letters within a word)

Figures of Disorder (Vices)

• cacosyntheton (The incorrect or unpleasant ordering of words)
• synchysis (The confused arrangement of words in a sentence. Hyperbaton or anastrophe taken to an obscuring extreme, either accidentally or purposefully.)
• hysterologia (Interrupting the order of a preposition and its object with an inserted phrase)

Related Topics of Invention

• Division

See Also

• Figures of Division (Most of the figures of division provide some kind of ordering.)
• Figures of Reasoning (These figures create or suggest a sense of cohesion or orderliness within discourse.)