Language Devices and Textual Analysis Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes about Language Devices and Textual Analysis for Paper 1.

Lexical Choice

Refers to the complexity, sentence length, register, and tone of the language used in a text.

Diction

The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

Tense and Pronoun Use

The strategic selection of verb tenses and pronouns to convey specific meanings or perspectives.

Imperatives

Commands or requests used to instruct or influence the audience.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'.

Metaphor

A figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Symbol

Something that represents or stands for something else.

Motif

A recurring element or idea in a literary work.

Juxtaposition

The placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect rather than requiring an answer.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt.

Dysphemism

A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a neutral or positive one.

Parallelism

The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.

Foreshadowing

A warning or indication of a future event.

Situational Irony

Irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended.

Verbal Irony

Irony in which a person says or writes one thing but means another.

Portmanteau

A word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two other words.

Negation

The contradiction or denial of something.

Synaesthesia

The production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

Equivocation

The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or avoid committing to a position.

Circumlocution

The use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive.

Periphrasis

The use of indirect and circumlocutory speech or writing.

Double Entendre

A word or phrase open to two interpretations, one of which is usually risqué or indecent.

Semantic Pleonasm

The use of more words than are necessary to convey an idea; redundancy in meaning.

Allegory

A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Allusion

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

Horatian Satire

Satire in which the voice is indulgent, tolerant, amused, and witty.

Juvenalian Satire

Satire in which the voice is bitter, angry, and attacking.

Menippean Satire

Satire that is a mixture of different forms, using parody, allegory, and learned displays.

Narrator

A person who narrates something, especially a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem.

Author

A writer of a book, article, or report.

Personification

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Pathos

A quality that evokes pity or sadness.

Zoomorphism

The attribution of animal characteristics or qualities to a god, human, or object.

Objectification

The action of treating someone as an object rather than a person.

Reification

The act of regarding an abstract concept as a material thing.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.

Hubris

Excessive pride or self-confidence.

Epithet

An adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.

Free Indirect Speech

A style of narrative which presents a character's thoughts or feelings as if from their own point of view, but without quotation marks.

Repetition

The action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Caesura

A pause or break within a line of verse.

Anaphora

The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

Symploce

The simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe.

Asyndeton

The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

Polysyndeton

The use of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural.

Isocolon

A succession of sentences, phrases or clauses of grammatically equal length.