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Correctio

cor-rec'-ti-o / From Latin: “correction, amendment”

The amending of a term or phrase just employed; or, a futher specifying of meaning, especially by indicating what something is not (which may occur either before or after the term or phrase used). A kind of redefinition, often employed as a parenthesis (an interruption) or as a climax.

Examples:

Hamlet employs correctio when he expresses his unhappiness at the marriage of his mother and uncle so soon after his father's death:
That it should come [to this]!
But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two.
—Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.2.137-38
I desire not your love, but your submissive obedience.

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Acknowledgement

The above information on individual rhetorical techniques is reproduced from the website “Silva Rhetoricae” (www.rhetoric.byu.edu ) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Credit for this content lies with Professor Gideon O Burton of Brigham Young University.