Rhetorical Terms

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Diction/Tropes

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word choice

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Figurative Language

Back 2

writing speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative

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Pun

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a play on the meaning of words

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Metaphor

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saying or implying one thing is the other

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Extended Metaphor/Conceit

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a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

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Simile

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comparing two things using "like" or "as"

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Personification

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attributing human qualities to inanimate objects

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Jargon

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specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group

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Verbal Irony

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what is said is the opposite of what is meant; when this said with intention to offend, it can be referred to as "sarcasm"

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Dramatic Irony

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the audience knows something that the characters do not

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Situational Irony

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what happens is the opposite of what's expected

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Hyperbole

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deliberate exaggeration: opposite of litotes

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Synecdoche

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related to classification and division; in Greek, means "understanding one thing for another, "thus a part is substituted for the whole: one word makes us think of all things in the class.

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Metonymy

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designation of one thing with something closely associated with it.

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Oxymoron

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contradiction; two contradictory terms or ideas used together

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Paradox

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a statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has same truth

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Juxtaposition

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when two contrasting things- ideas, words, or sentence elements- are placed next to each other for comparison

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Litotes

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opposite of hyperbole: understatement

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Rhetorical Questions

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those questions that do not require answers: can ask the reader to probe thought

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Onomatopoeia

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refers to the use of words whose sound reinforces their meaning; sound words

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Apostrophe

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" a turning away", you "turn away" from your audience to address someone new-God, the angels, heaven. The dead or anyone not present

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Synonym

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a word that has the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another word

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Antonym

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a word that has the opposite meaning

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Person

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describes the relationship of a writer/speaker to an audience by examining the pronouns that are use: "point-of-view"

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First Person

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I, we, us, our, me, my, mine, ours; narrator is an active participant in the story

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Second Person

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you, your, yours; narrator speaks directly to the audience

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Third Person Limited

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he, she, they, their, theirs, his, hers; narrator is outside of the story; narrator is able to "see" into the mind and feelings of one character

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Third Person Omniscient

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he, she, they, them, their, his, hers; narrator is outside of the story; narrator is able to "see" into the minds, feelings of all character; "God-like"

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Allusion/Allude

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a reference to another thing, idea or person outside of the text

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Ambiguity/Ambiguous

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uncertain, indefinite, unclear

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Antecedent

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the noun a pronoun stands for; can often be ambiguous creating a variety of effects

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Image/Imagery

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words that appeal to the senses

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Syntax/Schemes

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word order; sentence structure

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Parallelism

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expresses similar or related idea in similar grammatical structure

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Climax

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writer arranges ideas in order of importance

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Euphemism

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substituting less pungent words or harsh ones, with ironic effect

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Chiasmus

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derived from the Greek letter CHI; grammatical structure of the first clause or phrase is reserved in the second, sometimes repeating the same words

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Antithesis

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the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas

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Epistrophe

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repetition of the same word or groups of words at the end of successive clauses (opposite of anaphora)

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Epanalepsis

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repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning

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Anaphora

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the regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases clauses (opposite of epistrophe)

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Zeugma

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a breach of sense in a sentence; it occurs when a word is used with two adjacent words in the same construction, but only makes literal sense with one of them

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Anastrophe

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word order is reversed or arranged; in Greek means a "turning back", in this figure the usual word order is reserved

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Appositive Phrase/Apposition

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the placing next to a noun another noun or phrase that explains it

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Parenthesis

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the intension of words, phrases, or a sentence that is not syntactically related to the rest of the sentence. Such material is set off from the rest of the sentence in one of two ways. Either is acceptable

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Asyndeton

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conjunctions are omitted

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Polysyndenton

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the use of many conjunctions

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Alliteration

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the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of successive words

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Periodic Sentence

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long, complex, grammatically correct structure in which its central meaning is an independent clause at the end (structurally opposite of a loose sentence)

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Loose Sentence

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a type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses. A work containing many seems informal, relaxed and conversational (structure opposite of a periodic sentence)

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Assonance

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involves the repetition of sounds within words ( usually vowels)

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Consonance

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words at the ends of verses in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the words that precede them differ: sometimes called "half rhyme"

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Predicate Adjectives

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one type of subject complement- an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb (form of "to be"). It is the predicate (end) of the sentence, and modifies the subject

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Predicate Nominative

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a second type of subjective complement- a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that renames the subject; it follows a linking verb (form of "to be") is located in the predicate (end) of the sentence

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Appeal to Bathos

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false or forced emotion that is often humorous; takes emotion to such an extreme that the reader finds it humorous rather than touching

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Appeal to Ethos

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using ethics or value as a controlling principle in an argument

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Appeal to Logos

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use of reason or logic as a controlling principle in an argument

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Appeal to Pathos

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a sympathetic feeling of pity or compassion evoked by an artistic work; use of emotion as a controlling principle in an argument

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Elegy

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a work (of music, literature, dance, or art), that expresses sorrow: it mourns loss, such as the death of a loved one

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Eulogy

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a speech or written passage in phrase of a deceased person

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Epitaph

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writing in praise of a dead person, most often inscribed upon a headstone

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Foreshadowing

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a purposeful hint placed in a work of literature to suggest what occur later in the narrative; bread crumbs

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Parody

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an effort to ridicule or make fun of a literary work or an author by writing an imitation of the work or play in the author's style

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Satire

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to ridicule or mock ideas, persons, events, or doctrines, or to make fun of human foibles or weaknesses

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Syllogism

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a form of deductive in which pieces of evidence are used to create a news conclusion

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Mood

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the prevailing or dominate feeling of a work, scene, or event; atmosphere

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Tone

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attitude; the way the author presents a subject

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Anachronism

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something out of place in the time and sequence

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Archetype

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a perfect example: an original pattern or model

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Lexicon

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a book describing language with definitions: a walking dictionary

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Forensic Argument

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arguments about the past

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Deliberative Argument

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arguments about the future

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Epideictic/Ceremonial Argument

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arguments about the present

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Allegory

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the device of using character and/or story element symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. For instance, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope and freedom. Usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence may also be visual, similar to an extended metaphor but on a grander scale

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Analogy/Analogous

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a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. Can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with, or pointing out its similarity to, something more familiar. A paralleling scenario

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Aphorism

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a terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle (if the authorship is unknown the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb)

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Caricature

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a representation, especially pictorial or literally, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect; can sometimes be so exaggerated that it becomes a grotesque imitation or misrepresentation

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Colloquialism

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slang or informality in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, theses give work a conversational, familiar tone. These expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. Often would be nonsensical if literally translated into another language

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Dialect

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the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific group, region, or groups (a specific type of colloquialism)

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Connotation

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the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; that implied, suggested meaning. They may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes

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Denotation

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the strict literal, definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color

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Genre

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the majority category into which a literally work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. Also includes subdivisions; for example prose can be divided into fiction or nonfiction

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Prose

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one of the major divisions of genre: refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms, because they are written in ordinary languages and most clearly resemble everyday speech

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Homily

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literally means "sermon" but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice

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Invective

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

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Pedantic

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