• Aposiopesis
• Argument
• Conversation Analysis
• Debate
• Doublespeak
• Non Sequitur
• Refutation
• Oratory

Examples and Observations:

• "Apoplanesis [is] a figure of argumentation that refutes an issue by evading it, as in this example from an imaginary court proceeding:

  Judge: Tell us where you were last night.
  Defense: Sir, I will answer fully as a good citizen should. I have always been a good citizen and have taken pains to do the Commonwealth great good."

  (Jack Myers and Don C. Wukasch, Dictionary of Poetic Terms. University of North Texas Press, 2003)

• Major League Baseball Manager Casey Stengel's Use of Apoplanesis
  Senator Langer: I want to know whether you intend to keep on monopolizing the world's championship in New York City?
  
  Casey Stengel: Well, I will tell you. I got a little concern yesterday in the first three innings when I saw the three players I had gotten rid of, and I said when I lost nine what am I going to do and when I had a couple of my players I thought so great of that did not do so good up to the sixth inning I was more confused but I finally had to go and call on a young man in Baltimore that we don't own and the Yankees don't own him, and he is doing pretty good, and I would actually have to tell you that I think we are more the Greta Garbo type now from success.
  
  We are being hated, I mean, from the ownership and all, we are being hated. Every sport that gets too great or one individual--but if we made 27 cents and it pays to have a winner at home, why would you have a good winner in your own park if you were an owner? That is the result of baseball. An owner gets most of the money at home, and it is up to him and his staff to do better or they ought to be discharged.
  (Exchange between U.S. Senator William Langer and New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel at a Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee hearing in 1958)

• Propositional Use of Anyway
  "The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary . . . mentions that anyway (which is considered synonymous with anyhow) is 'used when changing the subject of a conversation, ending the conversation, or returning to a subject after an interruption.'"
  (Uta Lenk, Marking Discourse Coherence: Functions of Discourse Markers in Spoken English. Gunter Narr Verlag, 1998)
• Disconfirming Responses in Conversation
  "Disconfirming behaviors . . . are the responses a listener uses to tell the other person that the listener does not value him or her as a person. . . .
  
  "Irrelevant response. When one speaker responds in a way that seems unrelated to what the other has been saying, or when one speaker introduces a new topic without warning or returns to his or her earlier topic, apparently disregarding the intervening conversation, her or his response may be called 'irrelevant.'
  
  "Tangential response. When one speaker acknowledges the other person's communication but immediately takes the conversation in another direction, his or her response may be called tangential. Occasionally, individuals exhibit what may appear to be direct responses to the other, such as 'Yes, but . . .' or 'Well, you may be right, but . . .' and then may proceed to respond with communicative content very different from or unrelated to that which preceded. Such responses may still be called tangential."
  (Steven C. Rhodes, "Listening: A Relational Process." Perspectives on Listening, ed. by Andrew D. Wolvin and Carolyn Gwynn Coakley. Ablex, 1993)
• Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
  Bob Schieffer: This is the fourth and last debate of the 2012 campaign, brought to you by the Commission on Presidential Debates. This one’s on foreign policy. I’m Bob Schieffer of CBS News. . . .
  
  Let me get back to foreign policy.
  
  Mr. Romney: Well--
  
  Bob Schieffer: Can I just get back--
  
  Mr. Romney: Well, I need to speak a moment if you’ll let me, Bob--
  
  Bob Schieffer: OK.
  
  Mr. Romney: --just about education, because I’m--I’m so proud of the state that I had the chance to be governor of. We have, every two years, tests that look at how well our kids are doing. Fourth graders and eighth graders are tested in English and math. While I was governor, I was proud that our fourth graders came out number one of all 50 states in English and then also in math, and our eighth graders number one in English and also in math--first time one state had been number one in all four measures. How did we do that?
  
  Well, Republicans and Democrats came together on a bipartisan basis to put in place education that focused on having great teachers in the classroom. And that was--
  
  President Obama: Ten years earlier.
  
  Mr. Romney: That was--that was what allowed us to become the number one state in the nation. And this is--and we were--
  
  President Obama: But that was 10 years before you took office.
  
  Mr. Romney: And we--absolutely.
  
  Bob Schieffer: Gentlemen--
  
  President Obama: And then you cut education spending when you came into office.
  (President Obama and Governor Romney in the third presidential debate of 2012, moderated by Bob Schieffer; Boca Raton, Florida, October 22, 2012. From a transcript prepared by Federal News Service)
• The Man Without a Political Party
  "Walsh forced his hands to relax. 'Here's what I think. Any man who wants to smell should be allowed to smell. Any man who doesn't want to smell should go and get his glands removed. What's the matter with that?'
  
  "'Don, you're avoiding the issue.' The robot's voice was calm, dispassionate. 'What you're saying is that neither side is right. And that's foolish, isn't it? One side must be right.'
  
  "'Why?'
  
  "'Because the two sides exhaust the practical possibilities. Your position isn't really a position . . . it's a sort of description. You see, Don, you have a psychological inability to come to grips with an issue.'"
  (Philip K. Dick, "The Chromium Piece." The Philip K. Dick Reader. Citadel Press, 1987)