Before revision: Ancient rhetorical theory distinguished between form and content.As Gordon Williams states in introducing his study Figures of Thought in Roman Poetry (1980): " Language was subject to ordering by exhaustive description of vocabulary, syntax, and figures.
After revision: A figure of thought (, ) is a rhetorical device sometimes distinguished from figure of speech.Gideon O. Burton, "Figures of speech/figures of thought", Silva Rhetoricae, Brigham Young University In another sense the term has been used in the study of diagrams and drawings.Gerhard Dirmoser, " Language was subject to ordering by exhaustive description of vocabulary, syntax, and figures.