Lang Comp Terms

Front 1

allegory

Back 1

a symbolic description of deeper religious/political/abstract ideas

Front 2

fable

Back 2

animals are the prime characters of this short story with a moral

Front 3

fairy tale

Back 3

imaginary beings, events, and fairies fill these moral filled tales

Front 4

genre

Back 4

short simple story to illustrate a moral lesson

Front 5

legend

Back 5

supernatural or mythological tale passed down for generations

Front 6

motif

Back 6

reoccuring theme/idea in a work of literature; repeated design

Front 7

parable

Back 7

short simple story to illustrate a moral lesson

Front 8

satire

Back 8

wit that derides human folly or wickedness

Front 9

alliteration

Back 9

poetic effect from a repetition of similar consonant sounds

Front 10

assonance

Back 10

poetic effect from a reptition of similar vowel sounds

Front 11

onomatopoeia

Back 11

imitation of sounds in words

Front 12

refrain

Back 12

a line that recurs at regular intervals, as at the ends of verses

Front 13

allusion

Back 13

mythical/biblical/historical reference to somebody or thing

Front 14

apostrophe

Back 14

address to absent/imaginary person, an abstract/inanimate entity

Front 15

dramatic irony

Back 15

a character is unaware of sth the audience knows

Front 16

foreshadowing

Back 16

suggestion of sth that is going happen; omen

Front 17

hyperbole

Back 17

deliberate and obvious exaggeration

Front 18

imagery

Back 18

sensory details producing mental pictures in one's imagination

Front 19

metaphor

Back 19

implicit comparision

Front 20

metonymy

Back 20

an attribute of sth is used to stand for the thing itself

Front 21

oxymoron

Back 21

expression with contradictory words

Front 22

paradox

Back 22

seemingly absurd or contradictory, but in fact is or may be true

Front 23

personification

Back 23

attribution of human qualities to objects or abstract notions

Front 24

pun

Back 24

a humorous turn of word for more than one possible meaning

Front 25

simile

Back 25

comparison between two diff things, using "like" or "as"

Front 26

situational irony

Back 26

incongruity b/w what happens and what is expected to happen

Front 27

symbol

Back 27

a representation sth abstract by sth concrete

Front 28

synecdoche

Back 28

word for part of sth is used to mean the whole

Front 29

trope

Back 29

word, phrase, expression, or image that is used figuratively

Front 30

verbal irony

Back 30

means of opposite of what is actually stated on the surface

Front 31

catharsis

Back 31

purification brought about by an intense emotional experience

Front 32

denouement

Back 32

a final revelation, no questions or surprises remain;
unknotting

Front 33

analogy

Back 33

a form of logical inference

Front 34

anaphora

Back 34

use of same word/phrase in successive sentences or verses

Front 35

chiasmus

Back 35

inverted word order in phrase or cluase

Front 36

diction

Back 36

word choice

Front 37

juxtaposition

Back 37

to place two or more things together to emphasize a contrast

Front 38

litotes

Back 38

affirmative statement formed by negation of the contrary

Front 39

parallelisima membrorum

Back 39

parallel construction in 3 parts

Front 40

sarcasm

Back 40

remarks opposite of said meaning, intended to mock/deride

Front 41

structure

Back 41

order of interrelated parts that fxn as a cohesive whole

Front 42

syntax

Back 42

organization of words in sent

Front 43

thesis

Back 43

a proposition advanced as an argument

Front 44

tone

Back 44

way of speaking to indicate attitude of the speaker

Front 45

deduction

Back 45

conclusion draw from available info; reasoning from the general to the specific

Front 46

description

Back 46

written or verbal account. representation, or explanation of sth

Front 47

ethos

Back 47

appeal to fundamental and distinctive character of a group

Front 48

expository

Back 48

detailed theory, problem, or proposal discussing the issues involved, or a commentary on a written text discussing its meaning and implications

Front 49

induction

Back 49

generalization based on observed instances; a guess

Front 50

inference

Back 50

the process of reasoning from a premise to a conclusion

Front 51

logos

Back 51

appeal to logic or mental understanding

Front 52

pathos

Back 52

appeal to feelings that arouse pity

Front 53

bipolarity

Back 53

having two diff opinions

Front 54

dialectic

Back 54

debated intended to resolve a conflict b/w two contradictory ideas logically, est truths on both sides rather than disproving one argument

Front 55

imply

Back 55

to make sth understood w/o directly stating it

Front 56

non sequitur

Back 56

conclusion that does not follow from its premises; "does not follow"

Front 57

rhetoric

Back 57

ability to use lang effectively to communicate its point persuasively

Front 58

syllogism

Back 58

argument involving three propositions (all birds have feathers, penguins are birds, therefore penguins have feathers)

Front 59

synthesis

Back 59

a new unified whole resulting from the combo of diff ideas, influences, or objects

Front 60

derivative

Back 60

word whose ending changes to change grammatical form

Front 61

denotation

Back 61

dictionary meaning; literal meaning of the word

Front 62

inflection

Back 62

word altered to show change in tense, number, or degree

Front 63

meter

Back 63

arranged pattern of rhythm

Front 64

ode

Back 64

a lyric expressing exalted emotion in complex rhyme and meter

Front 65

scancion

Back 65

analysis of verse according to rules of meter

Front 66

archetype

Back 66

universal symbol observed in dreams and myths

Front 67

foible

Back 67

an idiosyncrasy or small weakness

Front 68

Fallacy

Back 68

sth that sounds reasonable or true but is deceptive and dishonest

Front 69

begging the question

Back 69

assumes in the premise what hte arguer should be trying to prove in the conclusion; asks readers to agree that certain pts are self evident when they are not

(the unfair legislation is clearly a threat to the economy)

Front 70

argument from analogy

Back 70

explains sth unfamiliar by comparing it to sth more familiar, ignores important dissimilarities b/w 2 things being compared

Front 71

personal attack; ad hominem

Back 71

divert attention from facts of an argument by attacking the motives or char of person making the argument

Front 72

hasty/sweeping generalization

Back 72

conclusion reached on the basis of too little evidence

Front 73

false dilemma; either/or fallacy

Back 73

suggest that only 2 alternatives exist even though there are others

Front 74

equivocation

Back 74

meaning of a key term changes at some point in an argument; seems as if a conclusion follows a permise when it acutally does it

Front 75

red herring

Back 75

focus of an argument is changed to divert the audience from the actual issue

Front 76

you also (tu quoque)

Back 76

asserts that the opponent's argument has no value b/c the opponent does not follow his/her own advice

Front 77

appeal to doubtful authority

Back 77

individuals cited have no expertise on the issue

Front 78

misleading statistics

Back 78

misrepresented/ distorted facts

Front 79

post hoc, ergo proper hoc (after this, because of this)

Back 79

assuming that b/c 2 events occur close together in time, the first must be the cause of the second

ex) everytime a republican is elected, a recession follows. to avoid a recession, we should elect a democrat

Front 80

non sequitur (it does not follow)

Back 80

a statement does not logically follow from a previous statement

ex) disarmament weaked the US after WWI. it weakened the US after Vietnam. For this reason, efforts to control guns will weaken the US.