syncrisis

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

syncrisis [sin-cri-sis] n. Greek (syn 'with,' krinein 'to separate') In rhetoric, a compare/contrast statement usually given in parallel clauses.

Examples:

I do the work, you take the credit.

I say 'po-tay-to', you say 'po-tah-to.'

Give him an inch, he takes a mile.


Usage:

The political speech writer effectively used syncrisis to undermine the opposing candidate's platform while improving his own candidate's image.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Ah, so that's the technical term for it. I usually end up just calling it parallelism.

---L.