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Circular argument

Concept
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

A poetic or rhetorical structure looping back to its own beginning.

Detailed Definition
A circular argument in poetry occurs when a poem’s logic or imagery loops back to its starting point without progression, using repetition or recursive structure to suggest inevitability, futility, or meditative stasis; while logically fallacious in rhetoric, in poetry it can powerfully convey entrapment, ritual, or the cyclical nature of experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem arguing in a circle: “He is wise for he speaks wisely”; Verses proving point with restatement; Satirical poems mocking logic with circular reasoning; Couplets that fold back arguments without evidence.
Additional Notes
Circular argument|The flaw in logic or rhetoric where the conclusion of a poem's 'argument' or theme is essentially the same as its premise, or the premise relies on the conclusion; not usually an intentional poetic device.
Also Known As
vicious circle tautological argument self-reinforcing logic closed-loop reasoning Anacyclosis
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