Home › Glossary › Letter N

Nominatio

Rhetorical Devices
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

The deliberate naming of people, places, or things for emphasis. It makes an abstract statement more specific and forceful.

Detailed Definition
Nominatio strengthens a passage by supplying names where a general reference might otherwise stand. Instead of saying that many cities suffered, a poet may name each city; instead of referring vaguely to the dead, the poem may speak their individual names. This act of naming can honor, accuse, memorialize, or make a scene more immediate. In political and elegiac poetry especially, nominatio resists anonymity by insisting that persons and places deserve particular recognition.
Example
Example in poetry:
Whitman calls Lincoln “O Captain! my Captain!” using a title instead of the president’s name; “The Bard of Avon still speaks through his plays” names Shakespeare through an identifying epithet; “Welcome, Keeper of the Hearth,” the poem says to the grandmother, giving her a ceremonial name; “The Iron Lady crossed the page” uses a well-known descriptive name for Margaret Thatcher
Additional Notes
Nominatio gains force through specific naming: naming a city, historical figure, object, or person can anchor a poem’s claim in concrete reality. A poet may use names to honor, accuse, memorialize, or make an abstraction more emotionally immediate.
Also Known As
Naming Appellation Name-Listing Denominatio
Skip to main content