Prolepsis

__//Prolepsis//__

**Definition::** A rhetorical device by which objections are anticipated and answered in advance.

Random example of __prolepsis__:

1) Say that again and you're fired! 2) When we make our first million, we'll celebrate in style. 3) I believe you will succeed.

- Much of how we think is in anticipation of the future -- in fact neural scan studies have shown that if our brains have nothing to do, then that is what it does (the rest of us call it daydreaming). - Anticipation is thus very natural and it appears often in speech. - Anticipation is also assumptive, working on the principle that what is stated will actually come true, which is one of the methods that can be used in changing minds.

(Definition and random examples are taken from changingminds.org)


 * Examples** from text:

1) We see an example of this device in //The Marquis de Sade//, when Granwel is telling Miss Henrietta that if she tries to tick him again that he will be unable to control the repercussions of that are evident:

"But should you be so unfortunate as to decide to trick me again, then there is no more human power capable of saving you from the effects of my vengeance."

-Granwel anticipates that Henrietta may try to trick him again and responds by answering in advance to this situation. He tells her that if she should trick him that he will exact his final vengeance on her.

JB