A Delightful Way to Foster Witty Teen-Aged Banter
Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 09:37AM
Figaro

popeye.gifQuote:   "I'll hit you so hard I'll kill your whole family." Fenwick, a character in the 1982 movie "Diner"

Figure of Speech:  perclusio (per CLOO see oh), the threat

The perclusio works especially well in concert with another figure of speech, the hyperbole.  It also makes for great adolescent banter -- a violent version of the insult game of Snaps.

Competitive discourse of this kind has a name all its own:  eristic (eh RIS tick).  Plato said its purpose is "victory in argument," rather than a search for the truth.  He was a real hoot as a teenager.

Snappy Answer:  "I'll hit you so hard you’ll have to unzip your pants to see out.”

Article originally appeared on Figures of Speech (http://inpraiseofargument.com/).
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