|
Tricolon
|
to use three parallel elements of similar length or structure in a series; from the Greek tri 'three' and kolon 'clause'; also known as triad
|
Examples
|
Chevrolet Slogan
Eye it, try it, buy it. Unknown Lies, damned lies and statistics P.G. Wodehouse The kid is a pest, a wart and a pot of poison. Benjamin Franklin Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Quentin Crisp If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist. |
|
Purpose
The Magic of Threes
We use the tricolon to give lists of items. Audiences expect a natural list of three items. Two is too few. Four is too many.
Tricolon has a natural up ↗, up ↗, down ↘ intonation pattern. Up ↗ means 'more information follows'. Down ↘ means 'the information is complete'.
Margaret Thatcher
Soviet Marxism is ideo↗logically, po↗litically and morally ↘bankrupt.
Soviet Marxism is ideo↗logically, po↗litically and morally ↘bankrupt.
Three is a magic number in composition. Winston Churchill loved the tricolon. He said the following in his first speech to parliament as prime minister in 1940.
Churchill in the Commons
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
But Churchill later revised this for the radio broadcast. Try reading both aloud. Three is the more natural pattern.
Churchill on the Radio
I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears.
I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears.
The reason why three items improve on two or four is because of the semiology of the numbers 1, 2 and 3.
The Semiotics of 1, 2 and 3
The numbers 1, 2 and 3 are important in thought and composition. They associate with signs, cognition and figures of speech.
|
'1' Means Superlative
the surest way
the best answer the weakest link the greatest hits the longest river the only solution the best example the main problem the richest person the meaning of life the best-selling record advertisements have a single message essays argue a single thesis statement prose and poetry have a most important message |
'2' Means Relationship
similarity to and difference from
Binaries fat-thin hot-cold up-down Us-Them rich-poor war-peace old-young past-future heaven-hell right-wrong pure-impure male-female father-mother forward-backward synonym-antonym |
'3+' Means Complexity
3 is the minimum number needed to produce a list, taxonomy or simplification of complexity.
Awards gold, silver & bronze medals first prize, second prize & runner-up Laws & Heuristics Aristotle's three appeals Newtons three laws of motion the three laws of thermodynamics the high, middle & low style in rhetoric the formal, informal & familiar registers in grammar the ideational, experiential & logical functions in systemic functional grammar |
|
'1' associates with figures of expansion and contraction.
|
'2' associates with figures of similarity and difference.
|
'3' associates with the tricolon.
|
Lists come in threes because three is the easiest way to simplify complexity. And humans want complexity simplified. People care less about top-ten selections, but they may care about first choices, and maybe top-threes. Human culture and the human mind are tuned to the strange magic and rhythm of threes:
The Three Little Pigs
The Three Musketeers
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Good visual images conform to the rule of thirds.
The wicked stepmother visited Snow White three times.
Three wise men gave Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The Three Musketeers
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Good visual images conform to the rule of thirds.
The wicked stepmother visited Snow White three times.
Three wise men gave Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The numbers '2' and '3+' are also respectively associated with structuralist and post-structuralist thought.
Usage
Predictable Patterns of Three
Use three items in lists because three is natural. Put the three items also in equivalent structures. The 'equivalent structure' rule applies also to parallelism and isocolon. Something else we can do with these figures is to pair them or combine them with other figures.
Mars
|
"A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play." This slogan combines a tricolon of three verbs with short words, assonance and rhyme.
|
|
Barack Obama
Inaugural address, 2009
|
|
"My fellow citizens, I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors." This tricolon combines adjectives with structurally different but symmetrical prepositional phrases. |
Tricola build rhetorically sophisticated structures. But tricola persuade most effectively when the three elements follow logical patterns.
General-Specific Tricolon
Use the general-specific pattern to progress from less specific to more specific; subordinate to superordinate; abstraction to concreteness. Place the longest element last.
U.S. Declaration of Independence
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
'Liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness' is less effective because it violates the general-specific pattern.
Climactic Tricolon
Use the climactic or rising tricolon (tricolon crescens) to march your items toward climax. Think of how a symphony's final movement simmers, swells and finally crescendoes. Put the most significant and emotional item last. See also climax.
|
Charles Spencer's Eulogy to his Sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, BBC, 1997
|
President Barack Obama's Second Inaugural Address, 2013
|
|
"I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock."
|
"We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm."
|
Comic Tricolon
Subvert the tricolon rules for laughter.
P.G. Wodehouse
There were three things in the world that he held in the smallest esteem: slugs, poets and caddies with hiccups.
(This amuses because it subverts the expected interrelationship of tricolon elements.)
Joke
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Rabbi walk into a bar. The Rabbi stops and says, 'Wait a minute! I'm in the wrong joke here!'
(This subverts the genre of the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman joke.)
There were three things in the world that he held in the smallest esteem: slugs, poets and caddies with hiccups.
(This amuses because it subverts the expected interrelationship of tricolon elements.)
Joke
An Englishman, an Irishman and a Rabbi walk into a bar. The Rabbi stops and says, 'Wait a minute! I'm in the wrong joke here!'
(This subverts the genre of the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman joke.)
Tricolon & Other Figures
As with parallelism, we can combine tricola with other figures for sophisticated effects.
Tony Blair
It means exposing as the rubbish it is, the propaganda about America and its allies wanting to punish Muslims or eradicate Islam. It means championing our values of freedom, tolerance and respect for others. It means explaining why the suppression of women and the disdain for democracy are wrong.
The tricolon is a persuasive and easy figure of speech to use. Barack Obama used it over twenty times in his 2008 victory speech.
Obama victory speech, Chicago, 2008