Editing Figure of speech (section)

== Four rhetorical operations ==
{{Main|Rhetorical operations}}

[[Classical rhetoric]]ians classified figures of speech into [[rhetorical operations|four categories]] or {{Lang|la|quadripita ratio}}:<ref name="Jansen">Jansen, Jeroen (2008) ''[http://www.verloren.nl/boeken/2086/263/2126/renaissance/imitatio Imitatio] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714140654/http://www.verloren.nl/boeken/2086/263/2126/renaissance/imitatio |date=2015-07-14 }}'' {{ISBN|978-90-8704-027-7}} [http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.jansen/page1.html Summary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205211147/http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.jansen/page1.html |date=2008-12-05 }} translated to English by Kristine Steenbergh. Quote from the summary: <blockquote>Using these formulas, a pupil could render the same subject or theme in a myriad of ways. For the mature author, this principle offered a set of tools to rework source texts into a new creation. In short, the quadripartita ratio offered the student or author a ready-made framework, whether for changing words or the transformation of entire texts. Since it concerned relatively mechanical procedures of adaptation that for the most part could be learned, the techniques concerned could be taught at school at a relatively early age, for example in the improvement of pupils' own writing.</blockquote></ref>

* addition ({{Lang|la|adiectio}}), also called repetition/expansion/superabundance
* omission ({{Lang|la|detractio}}), also called subtraction/abridgement/lack
* transposition ({{Lang|la|transmutatio}}), also called transferring
* permutation ({{Langx|la|immutatio|label=none}}), also called switching/interchange/substitution/transmutation

These categories are often still used. The earliest known text listing them, though not explicitly as a system, is the ''[[Rhetorica ad Herennium]]'', of unknown authorship, where they are called {{Lang|grc|πλεονασμός (|size=95%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|pleonasmos}}—addition), {{Lang|grc|ἔνδεια (|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|endeia}}{{Lang|en|—omission)}}{{Lang|grc|, μετάθεσις (|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|metathesis}}{{Lang|en|—transposition) and}}{{Sp}}{{Lang|grc|ἐναλλαγή (|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|enallage}}—permutation).<ref>Book IV, 21.29, pp.303–5</ref> Quintillian then mentioned them in ''[[Institutio Oratoria]]''.<ref>Institutio Oratoria, Vol. I, Book I, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/1B*.html Chapter 5], paragraphs 6 and 38–41. And also in Book VI [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/6C*.html Chapter 3]</ref> [[Philo of Alexandria]] also listed them as addition ({{Lang|grc|πρόσθεσις—|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|prosthesis}}{{Lang|en|), subtraction (}}{{Lang|grc|ἀφαίρεσις—|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|afairesis}}{{Lang|en|), transposition (}}{{Lang|grc|μετάθεσις—|size=90%}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|metathesis}}{{Lang|en|), and transmutation (}}{{Lang|grc|ἀλλοίωσις—}}{{Lang|grc-Latn|alloiosis}}).<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rhetorica_ad_Herennium/4B*.html Rhetorica ad Herennium]</ref>