Apophasis

Apophasis is a rhetorical device wherein the speaker or writer brings up a subject by either denying it, or denying that it should be brought up.^[1] Accordingly, it can be seen as a rhetorical relative of irony. Also called paralipsis (παράλειψις) – also spelled paraleipsis or paralepsis –, or occupatio,^[2][3][4][5] and known also as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis (κατάφασις), antiphrasis (ἀντίφρασις), or parasiopesis (παρασιώπησις), apophasis is usually employed to make a subversive ad hominem attack, which makes it a frequently used tactic in political speeches to make an attack on one's opponent. Using apophasis in this way is often considered to be bad form.

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." It can also be used in denying such claims entirely, for example by saying "I'm sure that my opponent is not lying; however, his grasp of the facts seems to be shaky."^[6]

Name

The word is Late Latin, from Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀπόφημι apophemi,^[7] "to say no".^[8]

Proslepsis

When paralipsis is taken to its extreme, proslepsis occurs, and the speaker provides full details stating and/or drawing attention to something in the very act of pretending to pass it over: "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."^[9]

Paralipsis was often used by Cicero in his orations:

"Obliviscor iam iniurias tuas, Clodia, depono memoriam doloris mei" ("I now forget your wrongs, Clodia, I set aside the memory of my pain [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

As a rhetorical device, it can serve various purposes, often dependent on the relationship of the speaker to the addressee and the extent of their shared knowledge. Apophasis is rarely literal; instead, it conveys meaning through implications that may depend on this context. As an example of how meaning shifts, the English phrase "needless to say" invokes shared understanding, but its actual meaning depends on whether that understanding was really shared. The speaker is alleging that it is not necessary to say something because the addressee already knows it, but is it so? If it is, it may merely emphasize a pertinent fact. If the knowledge is weighted with history, it may be an indirect way of levying an accusation ("needless to say, because you are responsible"). If the addressee does not actually already possess the knowledge, it may be a way to condescend: the speaker suspected as much but wanted to call attention to the addressee's ignorance. Conversely, it could be a sincere and polite way to share necessary information that the addressee may or may not know without implying that the addressee is ignorant.

An example of the last type of paralipsis/paralepsis, where it serves to politely avoid suggestion of ignorance, is found in 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.^[10]

With proper names

When it is taboo to speak of an entity by name, an epithet or sobriquet can be used in place of the name. For example, when it was forbidden in Myanmar to speak the name of political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, she was commonly referred to as "The Lady". Various names of God in Judaism are used to avoid writing or speaking sacred names. The name of the fictional Lord Voldemort in the popular Harry Potter universe is taboo, and he is commonly referred with epithets such as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" and "You-Know-Who".

Examples

Political

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan said of Michael Dukakis, a presidential candidate who was rumored to have received psychological treatment, "Look, I'm not going to pick on an invalid."^[11]

In 2015, Donald Trump said of fellow Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, "I promised I would not say that she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground."^[12]

In 2016, Trump tweeted of journalist Megyn Kelly, “I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct."^[13]

See also

Notes

References

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

External links

Look up proslepsis, paralipsis, or apophasis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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