Rhetorical Vocab #5

Litotes

Understatement

Logic

The art of reasoning

Logos

The appeal of a text based on the logical structure of its argument

Loose Sentence

A sentence that adds modifying elements after the subject

Metonymy

An entity referred to by one of its attributes

Mnemonic Device

A systematic aid to memory

Mood

The feeling that a text is intended to produce in the audience

Narrative Intrusion

A comment that is made directly to the reader

Oxymoron

Juxtaposed words with contradictory meanings

Paradox

A statement that seems untrue on the surface but is true nevertheless

Parallelism

A set of similarly structured words that appear in a sentence

Pathos

The appeal of a text to the emotions of the audience

Periodic Sentence

A sentence with modifying elements included before the verb

Periphrasis

The substitution of an attributive word or phrase for a proper name, “Peter Rose-better known as Charlie Hustle”

Persona

The character that a writer or speaker conveys to the audience

Purpose

The goal the writer hopes to achieve with the text

Recursive

Referring to the moving back and forth from invention to revision

Refutation

The part of a speech in which the speaker would anticipate objection

Repetition

A text repeated use of sounds, words, phrases, or clauses

Rhetoric

The art of analyzing all the the choices involving language that a writer might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful

Rhetorical Choices

The particular choices a writer makes to achieve meaning

Rhetorical Question

A question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer, but to affirm a point

Rhetorical Situation

The convergence in a situation of exigency

Sarcasm

The use of mockery or bitter irony

Simile

A type of comparison that uses the words “like” or “as”

Simple Sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and dependent clause

Stance

A writer or speaker’s attitude toward the audience

Style

The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect

Subordinate Clause

A group of words that includes a subject and a verb, but cannot stand on its own a sentence

Synecdoche

A part of something used to refer to the whole, “50 head of cattle”

Syntax

The order of words in a sentence

Tone

The writer or speaker’s attitude towards the subject matter

Understatement

Deliberate playing down of a situation in order to make a point

Verisimilitude

The quality of a text that reflects the truth of the actual experience

Voice

The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure

Zeugma

A trope in which one word, usually a noun, governs two other words not related in meaning, “He maintained a business and his innocence”