Rhet Terms Allegory - Predicate Nominative

Allegory

The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning.

Alliteration

The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants or more neighboring words.

Allusion

A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art.

Analogy

A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.

Anecdote

A short, simple narrative of an incident; it is often used for humorous effect or to make a point.

Connotation

The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning.

Denotation

The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion attitude, or color.

Diction

Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

Extended metaphor

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

Figurative language

Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning to achieve a special effect or meaning.

Flashback

A device by which the writer presents scenes or incidents that occurred prior to the opening scene of the work.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

Imagery

The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions.

Irony/ironic

The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant.

Metaphor

A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other.

Mood (atmosphere)

The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases.

Personification

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

Point of view

In literature, the perspective from which a story is told.

Pun

A play on words.

Repetition

The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in a sequence of words.

Consonance

Repetition of identical consonant sounds in proximity.

Symbol

An object representing another idea or concept.

Tone

Author's attitude toward subject and audience.

Ambiguity

Multiple meanings of a word or phrase.

Anaphora

Repetition at the beginning of lines or clauses.

Anastrophe

Reversal of word order for stylistic effect.

Antecedent

Word or phrase referred to by a pronoun.

Antiphrasis

Using a word contrary to its normal meaning.

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in parallel structure.

Appeal

Persuasive strategy targeting logic, emotion, or character.

Aphorism

Witty statement expressing a principle or truth.

Apostrophe

Direct address to an absent or imaginary entity.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions for emphasis in lists.

Atmosphere

Emotional mood created by a literary work.

Avant-garde

Innovative art or writing challenging tradition.

Bombast

Overly rhetorical language considered pompous.

Chiasmus

Parallel phrases reversing order of analogous words.

Clause

Grammatical unit with a subject and verb.

Colloquialism

Use of informal language or slang in writing.

Colloquial/colloquialism

The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone.

Coherence

The quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle.

Conceit

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

Diacope

Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase: word/phrase X, . . ., word/phrase X.

Deduction

The process of logic in which a thinker takes a rule for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting within that general category obey the same rule.

Dialect

The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons.

Dystopia

An imaginary society in fictional writing that represents a very unpleasant imaginary world in which ominous tendencies of our present social, political, and technological order are projected in some disastrous future culmination.

Eclipsis

A type of enallage in which an author or poet omits essential grammatical elements to create a poetic or artful effect.

Ellipsis

In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis refers to the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause.

Enallage

The intentional misuse of grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase.

Enumeration

Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept.

Epitaph

An epitaph refers literally to an inscription carved on a gravestone.

Exposition

In essays, one of the four chief types of composition, the others being argumentation, description, and narration.

Figure of speech

A device used to produce figurate language.

Generalization

A claim based upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits.

Homily

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

Hypophora

Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then answered, often at length, by one and the same speaker; raising and responding to one's own question(s).

Inference/infer

To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented.

Induction

The reasoning process that moves from a given series of specifics to derive a general rule.

Invective

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

Inversion (anastrophe)

A reversal of the customary order of elements (subject, verb, complement) in a sentence or phrase.

Jargon

The special language of a profession or group, often with pejorative associations.

Juxtaposition

When two words, phrases, images, ideas are placed close together or side by side for comparison or contrast.

Litotes

A figure of thought in which a point is affirmed by negating its opposite, serving to reinforce the underlying assertion.

Loose sentence (cumulative sentence)

A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.

Narrative

The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.

Oversimplification

A logical fallacy by which the reasoned obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument.

Paradox

A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but contains some degree of truth or validity.

Parallelism

The grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity.

Parody

A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements.

Pedantic

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

Periodic sentence

A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end.

Phallic

A phallic symbol or phallus is a sexualized representation of male potency, power, or domination.

Picaresque novel

A humorous novel in which the plot consists of a young knave's misadventures and escapades narrated in comic or satiric scenes.

Polysyndeton

Figure of addition and emphasis which intentionally employs a series of conjunctions not normally found in successive words, phrases or clauses.

Predicate adjective

An adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb and modifies the subject.

Predicate nominative

A noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that names the subject and follows a linking verb.