American Literature Test Vocab

Periodic Sentence

the main clause is at the end of the sentence

Loose Sentence

the main clause is first, then followed by other details.

Aphorism

A small, witty, statement of truth

Epizeuxis

Immediate repetition of a word

Anaphora

Repetition of the beginning of a sentence

Epistrophe

Repetition of the end of the sentence

Isocolon

Parallel structure with similar grammatical structure and length

Antimetabole

Reversing order of a sentence to convey a different meaning

Antithesis

Contrast ideas, but using a parallel sentence structure

Polyptoton

Repetition of root words in different forms

Polysyndeton

Excess use of conjunctions when listing

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions when listing

Empiricism

Philosophy that comes from observation and experiments

Apostrophe

talking to something that cannot respond