English Lit Terms

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areguement against the man, a fallacy that discredits the person offereing the arguement or assertion

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ad-hominid

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a narrative technigque in which characters representing things or abstract ideas is used to convey a message or teach a lesson

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allegory

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an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context

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ambiguity

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something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

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anachronism

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the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the begining of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs

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anaphora

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a tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion, an adage

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aphorism

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the direct address of an absent or imaginary person

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apostrophe

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a piece of dialogue intended for the audience and supposedly not heard by the other actors on stage

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aside

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the omission of conjunctions from constructions in which they would normally be used

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asyndeton

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justification, grounds, an accepted source of expert information

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authority

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the part of a book where the pages are stitched or glued together into the binding

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backing

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a stable mental or psychological state, a state of equilibrium

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balance

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circular reasoning in which one assumes to be true what one is supposed to be proving

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begging the question

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the use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition, as for poetic effect

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cacaphony

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balanced, rhythmic flow, as of poetry or oratory

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cadence

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an inversion of the order of words or phrases, when repeated or subsequently referred to in a sentence

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chaismus

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a fanciful poeetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison

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conciet

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characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech

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colloquial/colloquialism

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precise words to convey an idea

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concrete language

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an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing

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connotation

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a philosophical movement and theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity, and truth

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deconstruction

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something signified or referred to, a particular meaning of a symbol. the most specific or direct meaning of a word

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denotation

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a minor or an inconsequential item or aspect

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detail

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inclined to teach or moralize excessively

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didactic

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when the writer reduces an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignores any alternatives

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either/or reasoning

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sentence structure, which leaves out something in the second structure

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elliptical

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when the writer appeals readers or emotions to excite and involve them

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emotional appeal

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a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought

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epigram

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a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of literature works to suggest a theme

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epigraph

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when the writer uses two different senses in an arguement

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equivocation

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when the writer ties to persuade the reader to respect him bases on presentations of image of self through text

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ethical appeal

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the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant

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euphemism

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pleasing or sweet sound, produced by words so formed or combined as to please the ear

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euphony

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the act of interrupting or discovering the meaning of a text, involves close reading and special attention to figurative speech

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explication

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background info provided by the writer to enhance the readers understanding of the context

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exposition

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when two cases are no sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection for the two

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false analogy

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sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunction

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freight train

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latin for 'in the middle of things' when literature starts in the middle of action, having to know what happened beforehand

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in medias res

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speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. it can be directed against a person, cause, idea, or system. it employs a heavy use of negative emotive language

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invective

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variation of the normal word order (subject, then verb, then complement) which puts a modifier or verb as first in the sentence. the element that appears first is emphasized more than subject

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inversion

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positive sentence that begins by stating what is not true, and then ending by stating what is true

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negative

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latin for 'it does not follow' when one statement isn't logically connected to another

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non sequitur

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third person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera and cannot enter any consciousness or relay anthing that couldn't be physically witnessed. only physical description is allowed

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objective camera eye narrator

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when a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an arguement

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oversimplification

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of, relating to, or being a literary or other artistic work that portrays or evokes rural life, usually in an idealized way

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pastoral

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a quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses, fellings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorry

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pathos

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an abrupt, unintended transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect

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bathos

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characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules

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pedantic

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a sentence in which the main clause or its predicate is withheld until the end

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periodic sentence

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an utterance of grief or sorrow, a lamentation

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plaint

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the repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect

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polysyndeton

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in or of the form of an argument in which one event is assereted to be the cause of a later event simply by virtue of having happened earlier

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post hoc

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'after this, therefore because of this.' thus mistaken reliance upon temporal succession alone as enough to establish the presene of a casual relationship between two events

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ergo propter hoc

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a predicate noun is a noun (or noun phrase) that is used to predicate a description or identification of the subject

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predicate noun

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the overthrowing of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine, or theory, by argument or countervailing proof

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refutation

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the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively

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rhetoric

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although 'rhetoric' originally referred to the art of public speaking, it has come to mean the paratcial effectiveness of verbal structures like speeches, essays, and stories. it most often refers to prose rather than poetry, poetics being its own separate branch of writing. modes are definable kinds of writing within composition and include: description, narration, illustration, comparison, contrast, persuasion, cause and effect

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rhetoric modes

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effective thinking, writing, and speaking strategies, rhetoricaians analyze and evealuate what works and what does not work in a specific context

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rhetoric strategy

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the devices used in effective or persuasive language.

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rhetorical techniques

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the meaning or the interpretatino of a word, sentence, or other language form. the study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent

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semantics

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a person who is set up as cover or a front for a questionable enterprise. a weak arguement set up to be easily refuted

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straw man

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a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. reasoning from the general to the specific, deduction

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syllogism

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three parallel elements of the same length occurring together in a series

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tri-colon

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an exaggerated or grotesque imitation, such as a parody of a literary work. a composition that imitates somebody's style in a humorous way

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travesty

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such a combination of parts as to consitute a whole, or a kind of symmetry of style and character

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unity