Rhetorical Devices
Rhetorical Devices
Dutch public speaking favours restraint: the rhetorical question, the tripled phrase and the understated litotes do most of the work, while the grand flourishes English oratory allows tend to sound suspect.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
The rhetorical question as an argumentative move
Is dat werkelijk zo vreemd? Wie zou daar bezwaar tegen hebben?
Is that really so strange? Who would object to that?
A retorische vraag advances a claim by inviting the audience to supply the obvious answer. Note that the second example uses zou, which softens the question into a hypothetical and makes disagreement harder to voice. Because Dutch discourse prizes directness, an overtly leading rhetorical question can backfire — the device works best when the answer really is uncontroversial.
Litotes: asserting by denying the opposite
Dat is niet onbelangrijk. Het is niet zonder risico.
That is not unimportant. It is not without risk.
Double negation used as emphasis is a signature of Dutch formal style: niet onbelangrijk is a stronger claim than belangrijk, because it pre-empts a possible objection. niet zonder, niet ongebruikelijk and geen geringe follow the same pattern. English does this too, but Dutch uses it more freely and in more registers, especially where a direct superlative would sound boastful.
Tricolon, repetition and climax
sneller, goedkoper en eerlijker
faster, cheaper and fairer
The drieslag — three parallel items, usually in ascending order — is as central to Dutch rhetoric as to English. Dutch adds the constraint that the parallel elements must be grammatically identical, which is easy with comparatives but harder with mixed phrases, and a broken parallel is criticized sharply. Repetition of an opening word across clauses (anafoor) is available but used sparingly.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the rhetorical question
- English
- the tricolon
- English
- not unimportant
- English
- the metaphor
- English
- the anaphora
- English
- the understatement
- English
- the exaggeration
- English
- to object to
- English
- to convince
- English
- the emphasis
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