Ap English Terms

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Alliteration

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the recurrence of initial consonant sounds. The repetition can be juxtaposed (side by side) (and then it is usually limited to two words):

* Ah, what a delicious day!
* Yes, I have read that little bundle of pernicious prose, but I have no comment to make upon it.
* Done well, alliteration is a satisfying sensation.

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Allusion

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a short, informal reference to a famous person or event:

* You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first. 'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size. --Shakespeare
* If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again.
* Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. --Richard Cushing

Notice in these examples that the allusions are to very well known characters or events, not to obscure ones. (The best sources for allusions are literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible.) Note also that the reference serves to explain or clarify or enhance whatever subject is under discussion, without sidetracking the reader.

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Amplification

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involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. In other words, amplification allows you to call attention to, emphasize, and expand a word or idea to make sure the reader realizes its importance or centrality in the discussion.

* In my hunger after ten days of rigorous dieting I saw visions of ice cream--mountains of creamy, luscious ice cream, dripping with gooey syrup and calories.
* This orchard, this lovely, shady orchard, is the main reason I bought this property.
But amplification can overlap with or include a repetitive device like anaphora when the repeated word gains further definition or detail:

* The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,/ A refuge in times of trouble. --Psalm 9:9 (KJV)

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Anacoluthon

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finishing a sentence with a different grammatical structure from that with which it began:

* And then the deep rumble from the explosion began to shake the very bones of--no one had ever felt anything like it.
* Be careful with these two devices because improperly used they can--well, I have cautioned you enough.

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Anadiplosis

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repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next. it can be generated in series for the sake of beauty or to give a sense of logical progression:

* Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,/ Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain . . . . --Philip Sidney

Most commonly, though, anadiplosis is used for emphasis of the repeated word or idea, since repetition has a reinforcing effect: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --John 1:1
Notice how the main point of the sentence becomes immediately clear by repeating the same word twice in close succession. There can be no doubt about the focus of your thought when you use anadiplosis.

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Analogy

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compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical end of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.

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Anaphora

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is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with parallelism:

* To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. --Peacham
* In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace. --Richard de BuryAnaphora can be used with questions, negations, hypotheses, conclusions, and subordinating conjunctions, although care must be taken not to become affected or to sound rhetorical and bombastic. Consider these selections:

* Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned?
* Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done.

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Antanagoge

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placing a good point or benefit next to a fault criticism, or problem in order to reduce the impact or significance of the negative point:

* True, he always forgets my birthday, but he buys me presents all year round.
* The new anti-pollution equipment will increase the price of the product slightly, I am aware; but the effluent water from the plant will be actually cleaner than the water coming in.

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Antimetabole

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reversing the order of repeated words or phrases (a loosely chiastic structure, AB-BA) to intensify the final formulation, to present alternatives, or to show contrast:

* All work and no play is as harmful to mental health as all play and no work.
* Ask not what you can do for rhetoric, but what rhetoric can do for you.

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Antiphrasis

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one word irony, established by context:

* "Come here, Tiny," he said to the fat man.
* It was a cool 115 degrees in the shade.

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Antithesis

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establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. * That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong

Antithesis can convey some sense of complexity in a person or idea by admitting opposite or nearly opposite truths:

* Though surprising, it is true; though frightening at first, it is really harmless.
* If we try, we might succeed; if we do not try, we cannot succeed.

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Apophasis

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(also called praeteritio or occupatio) asserts or emphasizes something by pointedly seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it. This device has both legitimate and illegitimate uses. Legitimately, a writer uses it to call attention to sensitive or inflammatory facts or statements while he remains apparently detached from them:

* We will not bring up the matter of the budget deficit here, or how programs like the one under consideration have nearly pushed us into bankruptcy, because other reasons clearly enough show . . . .Does the first example above make you feel a little uneasy? That can be a clue to the legitimacy (or lack of it) of usage. If apophasis is employed to bring in irrelevant statements while it supplies a screen to hide behind, then it is not being used rightly:

* I pass over the fact that Jenkins beats his wife, is an alcoholic, and sells dope to kids, because we will not allow personal matters to enter into our political discussion.Apophasis is handy for reminding people of something in a polite way:

* Of course, I do not need to mention that you should bring a No. 2 pencil to the exam.

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Aporia

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expresses doubt about an idea or conclusion. Among its several uses are the suggesting of alternatives without making a commitment to either or any:

* I am not sure whether to side with those who say that higher taxes reduce inflation or with those who say that higher taxes increase inflation.
* I have never been able to decide whether I really approve of dress codes, because extremism seems to reign both with them and without them.

Such a statement of uncertainty can tie off a piece of discussion you do not have time to pursue, or it could begin an examination of the issue, and lead you into a conclusion resolving your doubt.

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Aposiopesis

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stopping abruptly and leaving a statement unfinished:

* If they use that section of the desert for bombing practice, the rock hunters will--.
* I've got to make the team or I'll--.

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Apostrophe

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interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back:

* O value of wisdom that fadeth not away with time, virtue ever flourishing, that cleanseth its possessor from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty, descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest exalt the rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of the intellect . . . . --Richard de BuryApostrophe does not appear very often in argumentative writing because formal argument is by its nature fairly restrained and intellectual rather than emotional; but under the right circumstances an apostrophe could be useful:

* But all such reasons notwithstanding, dear reader, does not the cost in lives persuade you by itself that we must do something immediately about the situation?

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Appositive

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a noun or noun substitute placed next to (in apposition to) another noun to be described or defined by the appositive. The appositive can be placed before or after the noun:

* Henry Jameson, the boss of the operation, always wore a red baseball cap.
* A notorious annual feast, the picnic was well attended.
* That evening we were all at the concert, a really elaborate and exciting affair.

With very short appositives, the commas setting off the second noun from the first are often omitted:

* That afternoon Kathy Todd the pianist met the poet Thompson.

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Assonance

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similar vowel sounds repeated in successive or proximate words containing different consonants:

* A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

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Asyndeton

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consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account:

* On his return he received medals, honors, treasures, titles, fame.

The lack of the "and" conjunction gives the impression that the list is perhaps not complete. Compare:

* She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels.

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Catachresis

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s an extravagant, implied metaphor using words in an alien or unusual way. While difficult to invent, it can be wonderfully effective:

* I will speak daggers to her. --Hamlet [In a more futuristic metaphor, we might say, "I will laser-tongue her." Or as a more romantic student suggested, "I will speak flowers to her."]

One way to write catachresis is to substitute an associated idea for the intended one (as Hamlet did, using "daggers" instead of "angry words"):

* "It's a dentured lake," he said, pointing at the dam. "Break a tooth out of that grin and she will spit all the way to Duganville."

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Chiasmus

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might be called "reverse parallelism," since the second part of a grammatical construction is balanced or paralleled by the first part, only in reverse order. Instead of an A,B structure (e.g., "learned unwillingly") paralleled by another A,B structure ("forgotten gladly"), the A,B will be followed by B,A ("gladly forgotten"). So instead of writing, "What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly," you could write, "What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten." Similarly, the parallel sentence, "What is now great was at first little," could be written chiastically as, "What is now great was little at first." Here are some examples:

* He labors without complaining and without bragging rests.