VCE Latin Literary Terms

pathos

tone/mood - feelings of pity or sympathy

alliteration

the repetition of a consonant or similar sounding consonants (e.g. dentals), at the beginning of and/or within words close to each other 

assonance

the repetition of a vowel/sylabble sounds in words close to each other

onomatopoeia

a word whose sound reflects its meaning

simile

the likening of one thing to another

asyndeton

omission of conjunctions where they would naturally occur

chiasmus

use of similar pairs where second pair reverses order of first pair (ABBA)

enclosed word order

words in agreement surround a word or words

hyperbaton

intentional dislocation of word order, by delaying positioning of word or words from where they would be expected

juxtaposition

placing words next to each other to enhance effect

antithesis

contrasting words/ideas placed next to each other (ie different things) - used to present contrasting ideas or concepts (eg. to err is human, to forgive is divine)

oxymoron

contradictory words/ideas placed next to each other (ie things that oppose/ disagree w/ each other) - combines contradictory words/phrases into one (eg. deafening silence)

repetition

repetition of word or words

polyptoton

repetition of words derived from the same root (eg. bleed and blood)

anaphora

repetition of a word or related words at start of phrases or clauses

tricolon

series of three phrases, clauses or sentences on a related topic (often in increasing order)

synchisis

interlocked word order - ABAB (often nouns w/ adjectives)

enjambment

completion of a sentence at start of following line rather than within line, can create a sense of flow and continuity

caesura

break for breath within a foot (most often 3rd between — —)

hexameter

line of poetry divided into six feet

dactyl

— - - (always 5th foot)

spondee

— —

trochee

— - (6th foot only)

elision

the skipping of the last syllable of a word if it ends in a, am and the next word starts with a, ha

diairesis

when end of word coincides with end of foot

aposiopesis

speaker breaks off w/o completing sentence

apostrophe

when author directly addresses a character; when a character addresses smth not expected to hear address (eg. Turnus talks to his spear)

hyperbole

deliberate overstatement of facts to make a point

hendiadys

use of two nouns to express one idea

irony

statement of apparent fact w/ clear intention of indicating the opposite - often involves using words as the opposite of their meaning (eg. saying “brilliant” when smths bad)

litotes

understatement w/ a negative to emphasise meaning

metonymy

the use of a related word instead of the word, e.g. Mars (the god of war) instead of war

paradox

apparently contradictory statement which is making a point - may have a meaning on a deeper level (eg. the more u know the more u realise u don’t know)

personification

treating thing or idea as a person

transferred epithet (hypallage)

adjective transferred from noun to which it should apply to an accompanying noun

synecdoche

using part of a thing to represent the whole thing, e.g. ‘sail’ for ‘ship’

arsis

irregular stressed foot

hiatus

break between adjacent vowels in a word

synizesis

contracting two syllables into one by uniting adjacent vowels

hypermetric

when a line has an extra syllable at the end just to screw with us

spondee in the fifth foot

rare —> occurs when forced (eg. by a dipthong)

dipthongs

ae, au, ei, eu, oe, ui

monosyllabic line ending

when last foot is only one syllable for #effect

unfinished lines

kinda self explanatory

spondaic line

lots of long syllables to respresent smth slow

trochaic line

lots of short syllables to represent speed

allusion

a literary, historical or mythological reference

metaphor

a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that is not literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison —> when a word is not used in the literal sense

sound effects

words can be used to create sounds

imagery

the use of words which involve the senses