French Lecture Notes Flashcards

Flashcards covering key concepts and terminology related to argumentation, figures of style, logical connectors, and rhetorical devices, as explained in the provided French lecture notes.

Argumentation

Presenting reasons or arguments for or against a thesis (opinion) to convince.

Indices of Person

Pronouns, possessive adjectives (je/me/moi, nous, vous, on) indicating the presence of the speaker, recipient, and adversaries.

Indices of Subjectivity

Terms expressing feelings and judgements of the speaker, including affective terms, meliorative terms, pejorative terms, irony and exclamations.

Modalizers

Words or phrases showing the degree of certainty or uncertainty, opinion, will, or wish of the speaker.

Modalizing Verbs

Verbs indicating certainty, uncertainty, opinion, or injunction.

Modalizing Adverbs

Adverbs expressing certainty or uncertainty.

Impersonal Phrases

Impersonal phrases expressing certainty, uncertainty, injunction, or exhortation.

Modes

Conditional present (uncertainty, probability) and future simple (certainty).

Argument Value

Justifies the author's thesis to convince the reader.

Example Value

Illustrates and gives concrete form to the preceding argument, using examples from daily life, statistics, etc.

Figures of Style (Figures of Rhetoric)

Figures of speech that aim to emphasize an idea, argument or point of view to persuade the reader.

Comparison

Compares two elements with a comparison tool (like, as, such as, etc.) to show the common link and emphasize the idea.

Metaphor

Compares without a comparison tool by using a word out of place to show the importance of the highlighted idea.

Personification

Gives a human quality to an object or idea to surprise the reader and emphasize its role.

Periphrasis

Replaces a word with a more attractive expression to avoid repetition.

Repetition

Repeats a word or expression on purpose to emphasize an important idea in the argumentation.

Anaphora

Repeats the same word or expression at the beginning of each sentence to highlight an idea or feeling.

Enumeration

Enumerates several words or expressions, separated by commas, to show the importance of the listed ideas.

Antithesis

Opposes two ideas to show the antagonism between contradictory ideas.

Irony

Makes fun of someone or the ideas of opponents by saying the opposite of what one thinks, often ending with an exclamation mark, to show that opponents are wrong.

Apostrophe

Begins with (ô) followed by personified objects or ideas, addressing nature as a human person, to show the importance of the personified idea.

Parallelism

A sentence formed of two parallel and symmetrical clauses separated by a comma, having the same structure, to show the importance of two similar or opposing ideas.

Logical Connectors

Words or phrases that connect ideas and arguments.

Addition

Adding information (et, aussi).

Enumeration (Connectors)

Listing items (tout d'abord, ensuite).

Illustration (Connectors)

Introducing examples (comme, notamment).

Opposition (Connectors)

Expressing contrast (mais, en revanche).

Concession (Connectors)

Accepting part of an idea but rejecting the rest (cependant, pourtant).

Cause (Connectors)

Explaining why (car, en effet).

Consequence (Connectors)

Showing a result (donc, ainsi).

But (Connectors)

Expressing a purpose (pour, afin de).

Condition (Connectors)

Presenting a hypothesis (si, au cas où).

Comparison (Connectors)

Making a comparison (comme, tel que).

Conclusion (Connectors)

Summarizing (bref, finalement).

Interrogation in Argumentative Text

Poses the problem to be answered in the text. (Beginning of text)

Rhetorical Question

Question that incite reflection (Middle of text)

Question of Opening

Opens to other perspectives (End of text)

Exclamation in Argumentative Text

Expresses irony, express sentiments, express an injunction.

Quotation Marks in Argumentative Text

Highlighted word is borrowed (Encadre un mot).

Argument of Authority

Reinforce the argument. (Encadre une citation).

Illustrative example

Testimony that illustrates arguments. (Encadrent un témoignage).

Colon in Argumentative Text

To introduce a causal explanation, enumeration, opposition, or direct quote. (Introduction expliquer/énumérer/opposer/discours direct).