Glossary Of Terms

Front 1

from the latin meaning "to or against the man" this is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason; mud-slinging; attacking the man rather than the issue.

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Ad hominem argument

Front 2

the device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human exsistence. Animal Farm is an example.

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Allegory

Front 3

the multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.

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Ambiguity

Front 4

a comparasion between two different things. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar.

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Analogy

Front 5

repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry.

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Anaphora

Front 6

repetition of the words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. The difference between antimetabole and chiasmus is that the chiasmus reverses grammatical order but not the same words. Example: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country"

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Antimetabole

Front 7

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases. "We shall support any friend, oppose any foe." or "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."

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Antithesis

Front 8

A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle.

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Aphorism

Front 9

breaking off discourse to address some absent, person or thing, some abstract quality, or a non-existent character. Ex: "Age (abstract quality), thou art sham'd/ Rome (the old democractic Rome is non-existent), thou has lost the breed of noble bloods!"

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Apostrophe

Front 10

Ommision of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. It tends to speed up the flow of the sentence. Ex: "...government of the people, by the people, for the people..."

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Asyndeton

Front 11

A verbal pattern in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
Example from Frederick Douglass, “An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage”
“If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites
can have none in the eyes of the blacks.”

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Chiasmus

Front 12

– a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. There are independent, or
main, clauses which can stand alone as a sentence, and there are subordinate (dependent)
clauses which must be accompanied by an independent clause.
Example with independent clause in parenthesis and the subordinate clause in italics:
Because I worked hard every day in class, (my AP score was high.)

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Clause

Front 13

– an expression used in informal conversation but not accepted
universally in formal speech or writing. These expressions include local or regional
dialects.

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Colloquial/colloquialism

Front 14

a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising
analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. For example, in love poems, poets may
compare their love to some object, such as a rose, a ship, a garden.

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Conceit

Front 15

where a speaker/writer agrees that a point given by the opposition may, in fact, be
true.

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Concession

Front 16

– the non-literal meaning of a word. Connotations may involve ideas, emotion, or
attitudes.

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Connotation

Front 17

an anticipation of the opposing sides views and an argument where the
validity of all or part of the argument is accurate or true.

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Counterargument

Front 18

dissuasive advice given with authority. Language that urges or calls to action.
Example from JFK, “Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science . . .”

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Dehortatio

Front 19

refers to the speaker/writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their correctness,
clearness, or effectiveness

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Diction

Front 20

this type of work has the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the
teaching of moral or ethical principles.

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Didactic

Front 21

omission of one or more words, which must be supplied by the listener or reader.
Example: Sharon was the first-born; Phil the second.

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Ellipsis

Front 22

an informally stated syllogism with an implied premise.
Example: Children should be seen and not heard. Be quiet, John.
The minor premise – that John is a child – is left to the reader to add.

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Enthymeme

Front 23

– any witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed.
Example from Oscar Wilde, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

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Epigram

Front 24

a metaphor developed at great length over several lines.

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Extended metaphor

Front 25

– an adjective used to point out a characteristic of a person or thing, and may be
complimentary or not.
Examples: heartfelt thanks, blood-red sky, stone-cold heart

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Epithet

Front 26

persuasive appeal to character used by speakers and writers to demonstrate that they are
credible and trustworthy

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Ethos

Front 27

substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
Example: calling one a senior citizen rather than an old person

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Euphemism

Front 28

– a device used to produce figurative language; they include apostrophe,
hyperbole, irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, simile among others.

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Figure of speech

Front 29

the major category in which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are
prose, poetry, and drama. Other divisions within prose are autobiography, biography,
diary, criticism, essay, and journalistic, political, scientific, and nature writing.

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Genre

Front 30

any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice; a sermon

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Homily

Front 31

a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.
Example: There were a million people in the cafeteria!!

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Hyperbole

Front 32

raising questions and answering them.
Example from The Wizard of Oz,
“What makes a King out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to
wave? Courage!”

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Hypophora

Front 33

– the sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or
represent abstractions, usually using terms related to the five senses.

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Imagery

Front 34

– to draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented.

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Inference/Infer

Front 35

an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language.

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Invective

Front 36

– the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. There are three
major types of irony: (1)verbal irony in which the words literally state the opposite of the
writer’s/speaker’s true meaning; (2)situational irony in which the events turn out the
opposite of what was expected; (3)dramatic irony in which the facts or events are
unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or
other characters in the work

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Irony

Front 37

the special language of a profession or group, like lawyers or computer technicians

Back 37

Jargon

Front 38

an appeal to reason using clear, rational ideas, usually with specific details, examples,
facts, statistical data, or expert testimony as support.

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Logos

Front 39

sentence in which the main idea comes in the beginning of the sentence.
Example: The weather was hot even though we had a little rain.

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Loose sentence

Front 40

a figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things

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Metaphor

Front 41

substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is meant.
Example: The White House helped free the reporters held captive in North Korea.
The suits make all the money these days!

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Metonymy

Front 42

the prevailing atmosphere of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood.

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Mood

Front 43

a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words,
such as buzz, hiss, hum.

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Onomatopoeia

Front 44

the narrator of the story knows what is in the minds of all the
characters.

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Omniscient point of view

Front 45

– a self-contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units.
Example: bittersweet, jumbo shrimp, guest host, pianoforte.

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Oxymoron

Front 46

a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, but
upon closer inspection or thought contains some degree of truth or validity.
Example: 2 Corinthians “For when I am weak, then I am strong”
"War is peace.", "Freedom is slavery," "Ignorance is strength."
(George Orwell, 1984)

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Paradox

Front 47

where structures within sentences or parts of a sentence (word, phrase, or clause)
take the same form. This structure acts to attract the reader’s attention, ad emphasis and
organization or simply to provide a rhythm.
Example from JFK speech
“Let both sides explore . . . Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious
and precise proposals. . . Let both sides seek to invoke . . .”

Back 47

Parallelism

Front 48

– a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of
comic effect and/or ridicule.
Example: Saturday Night Live

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Parody

Front 49

a persuasive appeal to emotions.
Example: a photo of a lonely and homeless puppy

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Pathos

Front 50

an adjective that describes words, phrases or general tone that is overly scholarly,
academic or bookish

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Pedantic

Front 51

a sentence which builds up, often through two or more parallel constructions,
to a climactic statement in the main clause.
Example: From breakfast to lunch, from lunch to dinner, from dinner to midnight snack, he is thinking of only one thing – the next meal.

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Periodic sentence

Front 52

the character the speaker creates when he or she writes or speaks, depending on the
context, purpose, subject, and audience.

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Persona

Front 53

a figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals,
or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.

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Personification

Front 54

the perspective from which the story is told. The two general divisions are first
person narrator or third person narrator.

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Point of view

Front 55

a style that employs a great many conjunctions. This usually slows down the
flow of the sentence and creates a piling on effect.
Example: I love the trees and the birds, and the flowers, and the many, many aspects of nature

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Polysyndeton

Front 56

the part of a discourse wherein a speaker/writer anticipates opposing arguments and answers them.

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Refutation

Front 57

the duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as
sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.
Example from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech
“I have a dream

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Repetition

Front 58

– the principle governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently and persuasively; the
skillful use of language to secure the acceptance or agreement of the reader.

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Rhetoric

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describes the variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of
writing: (1) exposition is to explain and analyze information (2) argumentation is to
prove the validity of an idea (3) description is to re-create, invent, or visually present a
person, place, event, or action (4) narration is to tell a story or narrate an event.

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Rhetorical modes

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– the choices a speaker/writer makes in order to achieve their purpose

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Rhetorical strategy

Front 61

a question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply.

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Rhetorical question

Front 62

involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something.

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Sarcasm

Front 63

a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for
reform or ridicule

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Satire

Front 64

syntax where only the shape of a phrase is changed.
Examples: anaphora, chiasmus, ellipses, parallelism, polysyndeton, antithesis

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Schemes

Front 65

comparison of two things using like, as, or if.

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Simile

Front 66

the way an author uses language to convey his/her ideas; includes diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, selection of detail, and tone.

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Style

Front 67

a group of words containing a subject and verb, but is unable to stand alone
as a sentence.

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Subordinate clause

Front 68

a trope in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part.
Example: “wheels” when referring to a car

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Synecdoche

Front 69

the arrangement of words by a speaker/writer

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Syntax

Front 70

a word or phrase that links different ideas

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Transition

Front 71

a sentence with three clearly defined parts of equal length, usually independent clauses and of increasing power.
Example: “A happy life is one spent in learning, earning, and yearning.”
Lillian Gish

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Tri-colon

Front 72

a rhetorical device that produces a shift in the meaning of words..
Examples: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole

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Trope

Front 73

figure of speech in which a speaker/writer deliberately makes a situation seems
less important or serious than it is.
Example: When someone says “pretty fair” but means “splendid.”
When someone says that war is “a little messy.”

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Understatement