APLANG Rhetoric Vocab Quiz #3

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Allusion

 A reference to a person, place, or event (outside the text) meant to create an effect or enhance the meaning of an idea

Asyndeton

The omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses

Rhetorical stance

1. Language that conveys a speaker’s attitude or opinion with regard to a particular subject.

Setting(Rhe Situation)

1.  An environment that consists of time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances.

Simile

1. A figurative comparison using the words like, as, or than.

Symbolism

1. The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object. 

EXAMPLE: The American flag may symbolize freedom, the fifty states, and the American way of life, among many other things.

Synecdoche

1. A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole (fifty masts for fifty ships) or the whole signifies the part (days for life, as in “He lived his days under African skies). When the name of a material stands for the thing itself, as in pigskin for football, that, too, is synecdoche.

Theme

 The main idea or meaning, often an abstract idea, upon which an essay or other form of discourse is

Thesis/Claim

1. The main idea of a piece of discourse; the statement or proposition that a speaker or writer wishes to advance, illustrate, prove, or defend.

Tone

1. The author’s attitude towards the subject being written about. The tone is the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or part of a work--the spirit or quality of that is the work’s emotional essence.

Transition

1. A stylistic device used to create a link between ideas. Transitions often endow discourse with continuity and coherence. 

Understatement

1. A restrained statement that departs from what could be said; a studied avoidance of emphasis or exaggeration, often to create a particular effect.

Polysyndeton

The repetition of conjunctions in close succession

Euphemism

A mild or less negative usage for a harsh or blunt term.

Rhetorical Question

A question to which the audience already knows the answer; a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected

Invective

1. A direct verbal assault; a denunciation; casting blame on someone or something.