Pre-Ap English Rhetorical Terms

Front 1

Ad hominen argument

Back 1

From the Latin phrase meaning "to the man." It refers to an argument that attacks the opposing speaker or another person rather than addressing the issues at hand.

Hint 1

A dirty fallacy

Front 2

Absolute Certainty

Back 2

Science doesn’t provide it; scholarly research doesn’t. Mathematics has it, but only within its self-defined deductive systems. When someone asserts they know something with absolute certainty, it can really only be based on self-evidence, faith, or mythology.

Hint 2

you know it for sure

Front 3

Absolute Phrase

Back 3

A noun is immediately followed by a participle and a prepositional phrase or adjective phrase or two. Example- “Actually, he wore a clown’s tight rubber wig, painted white.” Annie Dillard

Hint 3

A sentence structure

Front 4

Allegory

Back 4

An allegory is a fictional work in which the characters represent ideas or concepts. In Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, for example, the characters named Faithful, Mercy, and Mr. Worldy Wiseman are clearly meant to represent types of people rather than to be characters in their own rights.
A modern example of political allegory is George Orwell's novel Animal Farm (1945), which, under the guise of a fable about domestic animals, expresses the author's disillusionment with the outcome of the Bolshevik Revolution and shows how one tyrannical system of government in Russia was merely replaced by another.

Hint 4

Kind of like analogy ... kind of.

Front 5

Alliteration

Back 5

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words; the repeated "t" and "c" sounds in the sentence, "The tall tamarack trees shaded the cozy cabin," are examples of alliteration.

Front 6

ambiguity, ambiguous

Back 6

When something is ambiguous, it is uncertain or indefinite; it is subject to more than one interpretation. For example, you might way, "The poet's use of the word is ambiguous," to begin to discuss the multiple meanings suggested by the use of the word and to indicate that there is an uncertainty of interpretation.

Hint 6

what do you really mean by that?

Front 7

Anadiplosis

Back 7

Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next.
(Pronounced "a na di PLO sis") [Gk. "doubling back"]
-"When I give I give myself."
(Walt Whitman)

Front 8

Anaphora

Back 8

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent.

Front 9

Antecedent

Back 9

Every pronoun refers back to a previous noun or pronoun- the antecedent; "antecedent" is the grammatical term for the noun or pronoun from which another pronoun derives its meaning. For example, in the sentence, "The car he wanted to buy was a green one," the pronoun "one" derives its meaning from the antecedent "car."

Hint 9

it refers to something that has come "antes" (before).

Front 10

Antithesis/Antithetical Structure

Back 10

is an opposition or contrast of ideas that is often expressed in balanced phrases or clauses (“see balanced sentence”). For example, "Whereas she was boisterous, I was reserved" is a sentence that balances two antithetical observations.

Front 11

Apostrophe

Back 11

An apostrophe is a figure of speech in which an absent person or personified object is addressed by a speaker. For example, "love" is personified and addressed as though present in the sentence, "Oh love, where have you gone?"

Hint 11

abstract...

Front 12

Apposition

Back 12

Placing side-by-side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first.

Hint 12

opposite of opposition

Front 13

Apotheosis

Back 13

in literature when a character or a thing is elevated to such a high status that it appears godlike.

Hint 13

think "theo"

Front 14

Argument Ad Baculum

Back 14

Threat

Front 15

Assonance

Back 15

Assonance is a type of internal rhyming in which vowel sounds are repeated. For instance, listen to the assonance caused by the repeated short "o" sounds in the phrase, "the pot's rocky, pocked surface."

Hint 15

A pattern of sounds

Front 16

Asyndeton

Back 16

Consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list of terms, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity.

Hint 16

syndeton might maybe mean "conjunctions" here...

Front 17

Balance/Balanced Structure

Back 17

Construction in which both halves/parts of the sentence are about the same structure, length, and importance. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.”

Front 18

Bathos

Back 18

Bathos is false or forced emotion that is often humorous. Whereas pathos draws upon deep emotion, bathos takes this emotion to such an extreme that the reader finds it humorous rather than touching.

Front 19

Bdelygmia

Back 19

a litany of abuse.

Hint 19

the grintch

Front 20

Chiasmus

Back 20

Arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y X. Chiasmus is often short and summarizes a main idea.

-"I flee who chases me, and chases who flees me." (Ovid)

Hint 20

more weird structures...

Front 21

Conceit

Back 21

A justaposition that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly different thigns. An elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image, such as an analogy or metaphor in which, say a beloved is compared to a ship, planet,etc. The comparison may brief or extended. For example, Eyes like stars or the sun, hair like golden wires, lips like cherries are common examples. Oxymorons are also common, such as freezing fire, burning ice.

Front 22

Consonance

Back 22

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity, especially at the end of words. This is one of those great literary terms to use when you are doing an AP write and you are trying to think of a sophisticated way to say the the words in the piece sound nice and harmonious with each other. It will come up most commonly with poetry or prose-like pieces of writing when words have a close correspondence of sounds. Example: “I listened motionless and still,

And as I mounted up the hill”

Hint 22

more word rhyming -- can you guess what it uses?

Front 23

Didactic

Back 23

A term used to describe fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

Front 24

Elegy

Back 24

An elegy is a work of music, literature, dance, or art that expresses sorrow. It mourns the loss of something, such as the death of a loved one.

Front 25

Ellipsis

Back 25

"Success comes in cans, failures in can'ts." [CA]

Hint 25

structure with oposites - very strictly similar pieces

Front 26

Epigraph

Back 26

A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of theme.