NCEA Level 3 Unfamiliar Text Language Features

Alliteration: Mary makes magical mud cakes.

repetition of the same letter at the beginning of words directly after each other

Allusion: Taylor swift references Romeo in one of

her hit songs.

a reference to a, usually well-known, character, person, or text

Analogy: Raising children is like tending to

sunflowers. Water them, give them

sunshine and watch them grow.

A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way

Assonance: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Repetition of vowel sounds

Cliché: Riding into the sunset.

an overused expression

Colloquialism: She'll be right...

informal, slang

Comparative Adjective: Bigger

adjectives used to compare two things

Connotation: Lanky

implication, refers to qualities

(positive or negative)

Emotive Language: Butchered

language used to stir the emotions of the audience

Euphemism: Let go (instead of fired).

a more pleasant way of saying something

uncomfortable or to hide the truth

Hyperbole: I have one million things to do.

gross exaggeration

Idiom: Over the moon.

A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally

Imperative Verb: Eat Up.

the command form of the verb

Intensifier: Very, Highly.

Increases the meaning of the following word

Irony: An English teacher who can't spell.

when statement is contradicted by the tone, voice

or context

Jargon: The cameraman chose the correct

aperture to get a long exposure.

words specific to a particular area

Litotes: She's not a bad singer.

statement using a negative to express a positive

idea

Metaphor: Life is a rollercoaster.

A comparison without using like or as

Onomatopoeia: Bang

A word that imitates the sound it represents.

Oxymoron: Grumpy Clown

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

Paradox: The beginning of the end.

a statement which seems contradictory but makes

sense

Personal Pronouns: We need you!

Used in place of a person's name

Personification: The armchair sighed underneath her.

giving inanimate objects human qualities

Pun: Curl Up and Dye (Hairdressing Salon).

a play on the double meanings of words

Rhyme: Cat, Bat, Mat.

The echo effect of sounds between words

Rhetorical Question: Are you serious?

A question asked for effect, not requiring an

answer

Sibilance: Sing a song of sixpence.

repetition of 's' sounds usually beginning of words

Simile: The moon was like a giant wheel of

cheese.

a comparison of two unlike things using like or as

Slang: Wipeout (Surfing).

words particular to a social group

Superlative Adjective: Biggest

Adjectives used to compare more than two things

Anacoluthon: It makes me - I just get so annoyed.

a speaker changing the structure of a sentence part

way

Antithesis: Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

a balanced contrast

Ellipsis: ...finished?

in a sentence, the omission of a word or words replaced by three periods

interrogative sentence: Why are you so sad?

A sentence that asks a question

Juxtaposition: It was the best of times, it was the worst

of times...

two, often contrasting, things placed side by side

for effect

Listing: She was beautiful, witty and extremely

wealthy.

a list used for effect

Minor sentence: Broken into bits.

a sentence in which either the subject or verb is

missing

Parallel Structure: It is imperative that... It is imperative that...

repeated sentence structures or patterns

Repetition: Never, never, never again.

repetition used for effect

Dissonance: The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel.

a harsh and disagreeable combination, especially of sounds

Diction: Emotions of grief, of disbelief and of hatred.

word choice

Syntax: But why does everybody hurt?

Sentence structure

Symbolism: Red - Passion, Fire, Blood.

the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities

Rhythming Couplet: Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble

a rhyming pair of successive lines of verse, typically of the same length.

Caesura: It is for you we speak, // not for ourselves.

A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. Can be marked with grammar.

Consonance: Mike likes his new bike.

Repetition of consonant sounds

Sonnet: Shakespearean - ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme

End-stopped line: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

A line that ends with a natural speech pause, usually marked by punctuation

Enjambment: We were running

to find what had happened

beyond the hills

A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next.

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem which may signify a shift in tone or mood.

Motif: Romeo and Juliet "light and dark." Throughout the play, Romeo refers to Juliet as a powerful light source. The night (moon) is no match for Juliet's beauty.

A recurring theme, subject or idea

Extended metaphor: Katy Perry, Firework lyrics.

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

Quatrains

4 line stanzas

Sestet

six line stanza

Octave

8 line stanza

Figurative Language (Simile, Metaphor, etc)

Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.

Triple construction: I came, I saw, I conquered.

Repeating three times a group of words which have the same pattern of word classes. Each group may or may not start with the same word/s.

Loosely Coordinated Sentence (I took the bus and got off at the park and waited for my friend).

sentences that ramble, often with a number of conjunctions