AICE English Language Study Guide

Alliteration

SVT: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

Ex: Let us go forth the lead the land we love.

Allusion

FOS: an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.

Ex: I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse

Anadiplosis

SVT: the repetition of a word or words in successive clauses in such a way that the second clause starts with the same word which marks the end of the previous clause

Ex: Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business

Anaphora

SVT: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines

Ex: We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans.

Antithesis (contrast)

SVT: opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction

Ex: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more

Appositive

SVT: a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it

Ex: Though her cheeks were high-colored and her teeth strong and yellow, she looked like a mechanical woman, a machine with flashing, glassy circles for eyes.

Assonance

SVT: when two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start with different consonant sounds.

Ex: Men sell the wedding bells.

Asyndeton

SVT: lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words

Ex: But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

Balanced sentence

SVT: a sentence made up of two parts that are roughly equal in length, importance, and grammatical structure

Ex: Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.

Caesura

SVT: rhythmical pause in a sentence, it often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end

Ex: To be, or not to be — that is the question.

Colloquial/colloquialism (diction)

FOS: used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literal

Ex: When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something.

Complex sentence

SVT: a sentence containing a subordinate clause or clauses

Ex: If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer

Compound sentence

SVT: a sentence with more than one subject or predicate

Ex: Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Compound-complex sentence

SVT: a sentence having two or more coordinate independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

Ex: His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-mooned spectacles, and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.

Consonance

SVT: the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighbouring words whose vowel sounds are different

Ex: Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile

Cumulative sentence

SVT: an independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea

Ex: He dipped his hands in the bichloride solution and shook them--a quick shake, fingers down, like the fingers of a pianist above the keys.

Diction

SVT: the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing

Ex: And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don't know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn't the best. We complained about it. So we've got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we've got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.

**the ____ creates a somber mood

Didactic tone

SVT: a tone that is intended to teach people a moral lesson

Ex: All animals are equal, but a few are more equal than others

Dramatic Irony

FOS: plot device for creating situations in which the audience knows more about the situations, the causes of conflicts, and their resolutions before the leading characters or actors

Ex: He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust.

- from Macbeth, King Duncan trusts Macbeth completely, but Macbeth is plotting to kill Duncan

Ethos

FOS: the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations

Ex: Our expertise in roofing contracting is evidenced, not only by our 100 years in the business and our staff of qualified technicians, but in the decades of satisfied customers who have come to expect nothing but the best.

Euphemism

FOS: polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite, or which suggest something unpleasant

Ex: You are becoming a little thin on top (bald).

Epiphora

SVT: a word or a phrase is repeated at the ends of successive clauses (could be in one sentence or multiple sentences)

Ex: I am an American, he is an American, and everybody here is an American.

Formal diction

FOS: Contains language that creates an elevated tone

Ex: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on.

Hyperbole

FOS: exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect

Ex: My vegetable love should grow vaster than empires, and more slow.

Hypophora

FOS: a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and then answers the question

Ex: What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured." - Kurt Vonnegut

Idiom

FOS: a set expression or phrase, the phrase is understood to mean something quite different from what individual words of the phrase would imply

Ex: If we play our cards right, we may be able to find out when those whales are being released.

Imagery

FOS: the use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds by appealing to the five senses

Ex: The wild gusts of cold wind pierced her body.

Invective

FOS: insulting, abusive, or highly critical language.

Ex: I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.

Inverted syntax

SVT: a change in the pattern of words in the formation of a sentence

Ex: Wept the bird, in the golden cage.

Jargon

FOS: the use of specific phrases and words in a particular situation, profession, or trade

Ex: Musical jargon:

Allegro- Cheerful or brisk tempo.

Coda- Ending section of music.

Piano vs. forte- Quiet vs. loud.

Juxtaposition

FOS: the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

Ex: I thoroughly hate loving you. Your heart is a perfectly-carved stone; Set deep into your chest, soft as granite.

Logos

FOS: the rhetoric attempts to persuade the audience by the use of arguments that they will perceive as logical

Ex: All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, Socrates is mortal."

Loose sentence

SVT: a type of sentence in which the main idea is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases

Ex: We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as change.

Metaphor

FOS: implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words; the word is used not in its literal sense, but in one analogous to it

Ex: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

Onomatopoeia

FOS: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named

Ex: Buzz, sizzle, cuckoo.

Oxymoron

FOS: apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another

Ex: I must be cruel only to be kind.

Paradox

FOS: an assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it

Ex: What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.

Parallelism

SVT: the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning

Ex: My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

Pathos

FOS: a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response to an impassioned plea or a convincing story

Ex: But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens up his throat to sing.

Pedantic tone

FOS: A tone concerned with precision, formalism, accuracy, and minute details in order to make an arrogant and ostentatious show of learning

Ex: You boldly look forward, isn't it because you cannot foresee or expect anything terrible, because so far life has been hidden from your young eyes?

Periodic Sentence

SVT: Has the main clause or predicate at the end

Ex: To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius.

Personification

FOS: Attribution of personality to an impersonal thing

Ex: England expects every man to do his duty.

Polemical tone

FOS: A tone that has a strong attack or argument against something

Ex: Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another. Masses of laborers, crowded into the factory, are organized like soldiers. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.

Polysyndeton

SVT: The repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses

Ex: It was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was right only she was full of water.

Pun

FOS: A form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect

Ex: The pigs were a squeal.

Repetition

SVT: Repeating the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable

Ex: The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster...lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master though it may look like disaster.

Rhetorical question

SVT: Asked just for effect, or to lay emphasis on some point being discussed, when no real answer is expected

Ex: If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

Semantic

SVT: Interpretation and meaning of the words, sentence structure, and symbols

Ex: When we have shuffled off this mortal coil... (carries a connotative meaning that suggests life)

Similie

FOS: An explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'

Ex: My love is as a fever.

Simple Sentence

SVT: A sentence consisting of only one clause, with a single subject and predicate

Ex: Have fun storming the castle!

Situational Irony

FOS: When incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead

Ex: Story of an Hour

Symbolism

FOS: The use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense

Ex: The group was as if a shattered mirror.

Tricolon

SVT: Consists of three parallel causes, phrases, or words, which happen to come in quick succession without any interruption

Ex: And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, when our best-laid plans seem beyond our reach.

Understatement

FOS: A figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is

Ex: I have to have this operation. It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.

Verbal Irony

FOS: When words express something contrary to truth or someone says the opposite of what they really feel or mean; often sarcastic

Ex: She is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me.

**from Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy says this about Elizabeth, but he ends up falling in love with her. He is tempted, indeed.

Auspicious (adj.)

favorable; successful

Disgruntled (adj.)

unhappy

Ebullient (adj.)

cheerful, enthusiastic, lively

Mercurial (adj.)

(of a person) volatile; erratic; changeable

Novel (adj.)

strikingly new or different

Prolific (adj.)

productive, producing abundant works or results

Prosaic (adj.)

ordinary; lacking in imagination

Resolute (adj.)

firm or determined

Revere (v.)

to respect, honor or admire

Smug (adj.)

self-satisfied (especially in a mocking way)

Altruistic (adj.)

unselfishly concerned for the welfare of others, generous

Astute (adj.)

having sharp judgment, clever, intelligent

Avarice (n.)

greed, materialism

Beguile (v.)

charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way

Cantankerous (adj.)

bad-tempered, argumentative

Covet (v.)

to wish for what others have, yearn to possess something

Decry (v.)

to condemn openly, criticize, attack

Feasible (adj.)

practical; able to be done or paid for

Gratuitous (adj.)

unnecessary, uncalled for, unwarranted

Innocuous (adj.)

not harmful or offensive

Inundate (v.)

overwhelm; flood; submerge

Precipitous (adj.)

(of an action) done suddenly and without consideration

Prodigal (adj.)

spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant

Repudiate (v.)

refuse to accept or be associated with

Sanguine (adj.)

cheerful; optimistic

Solicitous (adj.)

characterized by or showing interest or concern; eager or anxious to do something

Steadfast (adj.)

firm and dependable, committed, loyal

Taciturn (adj.)

(of a person) reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little

Unequivocal (adj.)

certain; absolute

Vindictive (adj.)

seeking revenge, resentful, unforgiving

Pragmatic (adj.)

practical, useful

Ubiquitous (adj.)

being everywhere at once

Malaise (n.)

a feeling of melancholy, uneasiness, or discomfort

Awry (adj.)

away from the appropriate, planned, or expected course; amiss.

Patronize (v.)

treat in a way that is apparently kind or helpful but that betrays a feeling of superiority (condescending)

Destitute (adj.)

extremely poor; lacking necessities like food and shelter

Ephemeral (adj.)

lasting a very short time

Conducive (adj.)

able to bring about or be suitable for

Malleable (adj.)

capable of being changed; easily shaped

Legacy (n.)

an inheritance; something handed down from an ancestor or from the past

Discriminate (adj.)

to differentiate; to make a clear distinction; to see the difference

Monolithic (adj.)

exactly the same throughout; lacking any diversity; rigid uniformity

Abject (adj.)

degraded; base, bad; severe; cast down in spirit

Nuance (n.)

a subtle difference in meaning

Omnipotent (adj.)

almighty and all powerful