Ampliatio

Techniques > Use of language > Figures of speech > Ampliatio

Method | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Ampliatio involves taking something that is identified in one place and extending it elsewhere. In particular taking something in the present and extending it so it reaches into the past and/or the future.

Example

Once a fool, always a fool.

We still call him Billy the Baker, even though he's now a plumber.

She said what? Well, she probably said it before anyway.

Discussion

Stretching the meaning of something into other contexts effectively 'amplifies' it. This works by the using assumption principle, assuming that because something is true now it is also true at other times.

The stretching can be certain or it can be probabilistic, for example where it is guessed that something that happens today might happen again in the future (or might have happened before).

This effect can be stretched to assume that because something works in one context it will also work in other contexts.

Classification: Exaggeration