Apostrophe (figure of speech)

An Apostrophe [ apɔstrofe ] (Greek ἀποστροφή ) is a stylistic device of rhetoric, rare literature, and expresses the turning of the author or a character in a cause or an imaginary person out.

The author supposedly changes the speech situation and puts the actual interlocutor in the position of an uninvolved listener. The sets are addressed to an imaginary object - this can be both an absent person as well as a dead or inanimate thing, which is personified by a very emphatic speech. Similarly, an apostrophe to the reader back to the position of a party who is directly addressed.

Apostrophes are often an exclamation ( Exclamatio ) or throw ( Interiectio ). Often gods or Muses are called - are widespread, for example, expressions such as " Jesse, Mary and Joseph! " Or " Oh my God! "

As a rhetorical figure, an apostrophe can be used to make a text more alive. She wants to provide a more penetrating effect has been said or bring an interesting touch in a long monologue.

Examples

• Cicero: For you, her ups and groves of Alba, yes, I beseech you now and ask for witness ...
• Bertolt Brecht: Where formerly a grass was, because now you sit, oil tank!
• Ingeborg Bachmann: Tell me, love, what I can not explain

• Rhetorical term
• Literary term