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Auxesis

Rhetorical Devices
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Auxesis is the arrangement of words or ideas in order of increasing importance or intensity. It builds emphasis by making each successive element seem greater than the last.

Detailed Definition
Auxesis is a rhetorical progression that rises from the lesser to the greater, enlarging the apparent force, value, or seriousness of successive words, clauses, or images. It may move from a small disturbance to a disaster, or from affection to devotion to sacrifice. Related to climax, auxesis is especially concerned with magnification and escalation. In poetry, it gives a passage momentum, enabling emotion or argument to gather pressure line by line. Poets use it to dramatize revelation, heighten praise or blame, and lead readers toward a culminating image or claim.
Example
Example in poetry:
“I asked for a glance, then a word, then a lifetime” rises in intensity; “A spark became a flame, a flame became an inferno” builds from small to great; “He whispered, he pleaded, he screamed” increases vocal force; “She lost a coin, then a home, then a country” enlarges the scale of loss
Additional Notes
Auxesis arranges terms in rising scale, moving from lesser to greater force, importance, or scope. A poem may build from a private feeling to a public crisis, or from a whisper to a cry. The progression should be perceptible and earned; auxesis is closely related to climax, while anticlimax reverses the expected ascent.
Also Known As
Amplification Rhetorical Climax Gradation
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