Apophasis

Not to be confused with Apophysis, Apoptosis, or Apophis.

Apophasis (Late Latin, from Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀπόφημι—apophemi, "to say no") refers, in general, to "mention by not mentioning". Apophasis covers a wide variety of figures of speech.

Apophasis was originally and more broadly a method of logical reasoning or argument by denial—a way of describing what something is by explaining what it is not, or a process-of-elimination way of talking about something by talking about what it is not.^{[citation needed]} An example of this is the Wikipedia article "'Wikipedia: What WIkipedia is not."

Paralipsis

Paralipsis (παράλειψις) or occupatio, also spelled paraleipsis or paralepsis, and known also as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis (κατάφασις), antiphrasis (ἀντίφρασις), or parasiopesis (παρασιώπησις), is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by denying that it should be brought up. As such, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Paralipsis is usually employed to make a subversive ad hominem attack.

The device is typically used to distance the speaker from unfair claims, while still bringing them up. For instance, a politician might say, "I don't even want to talk about the allegations that my opponent is a drunk." A political advertisement may say, "Vote for Smith for sober leadership", implying that Jones, his opponent, is an irresponsible drunk.

Proslepsis is an extreme kind of paralipsis that gives the full details of the acts one is claiming to pass over; for example, "I will not stoop to mentioning the occasion last winter when our esteemed opponent was found asleep in an alleyway with an empty bottle of vodka still pressed to his lips."

Paralipsis was often used by Cicero in his orations. For example:

"Obliviscor iam iniurias tuas, Clodia, depono memoriam doloris mei" (I now forget your wrongs, Clodia, I set aside the memory of my pains (that you caused)."

—Cicero, "Pro Caelio", Chapter 50

"It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that this is war."

—Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Ambassador to Britain , dispatch to Earl Russell, 5 September 1863, concerning Britain's relations with the Confederacy.

"Ssh," said Grace Makutsi, putting a finger to her lips. "It's not polite to talk about it. SO I won't mention the Double Comfort Furniture Shop, which is one of the businesses my fiance owns, you know. I must not talk about that. But do you know the store, Mma? If you save up, you should come in some day and buy a chair."

—Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes and Happiness, Chapter 4

A more positive usage of paralipsis/paralepsis embodies the narrative style of Adso of Melk in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, where the character fills in details of early fourteenth-century history for the reader by stating it is unnecessary to speak of them.

See also

• Argument from ignorance
• Argument from silence
• Elephant in the room
• Glossary of rhetorical terms
• Problem of induction

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1984) [1920]. Greek Grammar. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0. 

External links

• Figures of rhetoric: Apophasis
• A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices: Apophasis
• Wordsmith: Paralipsis