Studied by 12 people
ad hominem
an argument attacking an individual’s character rather than his/her position on an issue.
Example: “You should vote against the mayor’s proposal because he uses bad grammar and kicks small dogs.”
a figure of speech
an expression in which the words are used in a non-literal sense to present a figure, picture, or image.
allusion
a reference in literature or in art to previous literature, history, mythology, current events, or the Bible. Patrick Henry urged his listeners not to be “betrayed with a kiss.”
anachronism
an element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect, but sometimes the result of poor research on the author’s part.
anadiplosis
the repetition of the last word of a sentence or clause at the beginning of the next sentence or clause.
analogy
a comparison between two different things which are similar in some way. “By comparing conducting to politics, Igor Stravinsky helped non-musicians understand his feelings about orchestra conductors.”
anaphora
the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.
anastrophe
transposition of normal word order; most often found in Latin in the case of prepositions and the words they control. It is a form of hyperbaton.
“The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew.” -- Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
antistrophe
repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
aporia
expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, or do.
apostrophe
is the act of speaking directly to someone or something or an abstraction usually not present, as though it/they were present.
“Captain, My Captain! A fearful trip is done.” — Walt Whitman
archaism
use of an older or obsolete form.
Pipit sate upright in her chair
Some distance from where I was sitting (T. S. Eliot, "A Cooking Egg")
archetype
a character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore.
asyndeton
lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.
“We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural. “But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.” Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address”
catachresis
the use of a word in a way that is not correct; for example: "'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse" — Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.
chiasmus
two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels (a-b-a-b) but in inverted order (a-b-b-a); from shape of the Greek letter chi (X), or a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed.
“Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.” Mac Arthur, and “Renown'd for conquest, and in council skill'd.” Addison
colloquialism
informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing. Huck Finn says “I got the fantods” to describe his nervousness.
conceit
“A figurative comparison of two strikingly dissimilar entities...,” or a fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor.
metaphysical conceit
“found in the poems of John Donne and his imitators are often described as ‘a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances.’ They are likely to be more unexpected and more original than a Petrarchan conceit. A marriage bed may be compared to a grave, the union of two lovers to an alchemist’s mixture, and the parting of friends to the eclipse of the sun. They do not normally idealize women and love; they attempt to define attitudes toward particular women. (“A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” in which Donne compares himself and his wife to the two legs of a compass, one staying in place while the other circles around and eventually joins it.). Sometimes the speaker argues ingeniously in defense of an outrageous position.” (Poems 4thed.)
petrarchan conceit
stock comparisons so named for the conceits created by _______ where the speaker is a worshiper of his lady’s beauty and virtue. Regardless of what the lady does, the lover suffers. Such images, poorly used, are usually far-fetched and foolish. Well used, they are more meaningful.
connotation
implied or associative meaning of a word—what a word suggests beyond its basic definition.
“Odor and fragrance literally mean the same thing, but good things have fragrance, while bad things have odor.”
denotation
the most specific, direct, or literal meaning of a word.
“Although the word home may suggest safety and comfort, it’s really simply ‘one’s residence.’”
deus ex machina
In some ancient Greek drama, an apparently insoluble crisis was solved by the intervention of a god, often brought on stage by an elaborate piece of equipment.
This “god from the machine” was literally a ________. For example, the end of the Odyssey when Athena intervenes on behalf of Odysseus.
Few modern works feature deities suspended from wires from the ceiling, but the term is still used for cases where an author uses some improbable (and sometimes clumsy) plot device to work his or her way out of a difficult situation. When the cavalry comes charging over the hill or when the impoverished hero is relieved by an unexpected inheritance, it is often called ___________.
diction
having to do with the word choices made by a writer.
didactic
something which has teaching or instruction as its primary purpose. Aesop’s Fables present morals.
ellipsis
the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context.
Example: “Kathleen wants to be a firefighter; Sara, a nurse.”
epiphany
a moment of sudden revelation of insight.
Example: “Toward the end of the play Othello suddenly realizes that he has been misled.”
euphemism
The substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as in the use of "pass away" instead of "die." The basic psychology of ______ language is the desire to put something bad or embarrassing in a positive (or at least neutral light). Thus many terms referring to death, sex, crime, and excremental functions are _________s.
hamartia
“There remains, then, the intermediate kind of personage, a man not preeminently virtuous or just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgment (__________).” Aristotle’s Poetics
hendiadys
The expression of a single idea expressed by two words and then joined with “and.” (“We drink from cups and gold” instead of “We drink from golden cups.”)
hyperbole
exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect. It can be used for purposes of persuasion or humor.
Examples—“There were at least a million people at the mall yesterday.” “I have a million things to do today.”
overstatement
an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis and is not to be taken literally.
“rivers of blood” “sweat to death.”
imagery
anything that affects or appeals to the reader’s senses: sight (visual), sound (auditory), touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), or smell (olfactory).
invective
an intensely vehement, highly emotional verbal attack. Speech or writing that abuses, denounces, or attacks. It can be directed against a person, cause, idea, or system. It employs a heavy use of negative emotive language.
Example: “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.” –Jonathan Swift.
irony
A mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (irony of situation), conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation. A writer may say the opposite of what he means, create a reversal between expectation and its fulfillment, or give the audience knowledge that a character lacks, making the character's words have meaning to the audience not perceived by the character.
verbal irony
in this, the writer's meaning or even his attitude may be different from what he says: "Why, no one would dare argue that there could be anything more important in choosing a college than its proximity to the beach." In this case the author is pointing out the disparity between how students should and how they really do choose colleges.
situational irony
An example of this would occur if a professional pickpocket had his own pocket picked just as he was in the act of picking someone else's pocket. The irony is generated by the surprise recognition by the audience of a reality in contrast with expectation or appearance, while another audience, victim, or character puts confidence in the appearance as reality (in this case, the pickpocket doesn't expect his own pocket to be picked). The surprise recognition by the audience often produces a comic effect, making irony often funny.
dramatic irony
a device by which the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker in a literary work. An incongruity or discrepancy between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive.
An example of where the audience has knowledge that gives additional meaning to a character's words) would be when King Oedipus, who has unknowingly killed his father, says that he will banish his father's killer when he finds him.
litotes
a type of understatement in which something affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
Example: “My parents were not overjoyed when I came home three hours past my curfew.” See understatement.
metaphor
an implied comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a likeness or analogy between attributes found in both things.This, unlike a simile, does not use like or as to indicate the comparison.
“Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” Shakespeare, Macbeth
metonymy
the substitution of a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it.
“Pay tribute to the crown.” “The White House has decided.” “He is a man of the cloth.” “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
motif
recurrent image, a standard theme or dramatic situation which recurs in works of literature or poetry. In Shakespeare’s plays mistaken identity and the fall of the might occur with great regularity. In Macbeth, Shakespeare’s clothing motif helps to define Macbeth’s status in the play. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses resurrection as a _____.
non sequitur
an inference that does not logically follow from the premise(s).
Example: Richard Nixon said it should be obvious that he was honest because his wife wore a simple cloth coat.
oxymoron
a compact paradox—a figure of speech that combines two contradictory words, placed side by side: bitter sweet, wise fool, living death.
“I must be cruel only to be kind.” Shakespeare, Hamlet
paradox
a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, that contain truth in it.
“What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.” George Bernard Shaw
pathos
the quality of a literary work or passage which appeals to the reader’s or viewer’s emotions—especially pity, compassion, and sympathy. This is different from the pity one feels for a tragic hero in that the pathetic figure seems to suffer through no fault of his or her own.
Example: Acknowledging how he has wronged the faithful, gentle Joe, Pip tearfully asks his forgiveness.
pedantic
an excessive display of learning or scholarship.
persona
The person created by the author to tell a story. Whether the story is told by an omniscient narrator or by a character in it, the actual author of the work often distances himself from what is said or told by adopting a this—a personality different from his real one. Thus, the attitudes, beliefs, and degree of understanding expressed by the ______ may not be the same as those of the actual author.
Example: Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
personification
the giving of human qualities or characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.
“The wind whistled.” “Her heart cried out.”
pleonasm
use of superfluous or redundant words, often enriching the thought.
No one, rich or poor, will be excepted.
Ears pierced while you wait!
I have seen no stranger sight since I was born.
polysyndeton
the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses. “I said, ‘Who killed him?’ and he said, ‘I don't know who killed him, but he's dead all right,’ and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and 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 Bay and she was all right only she was full of water.” Hemingway, After the Storm
simile
a direct or explicit comparison between two usually unrelated things indicating a likeness or similarity between some attribute found in both things. This uses like or as to introduce the comparison. In the expression “John swims like a fish,” the grace and naturalism with which John swims is compared with the grace and naturalness with which a fish swims. Literally, it would be impossible for John to swim like a fish because of his human nature. However, we can imagine the figure or image of a very skilled and graceful swimmer beneath the surface. “Let us go then, you and I,/ While the evening is spread out against the sky,/Like a patient etherized upon a table...” T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
style
the overall manner in which an individual writer expresses ideas.
syllepsis
a construction in which a single word governs two or more other words but agrees in number, gender, or case with only one of the words, or has a different meaning when applied to each.
“We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.” -- Benjamin Franklin. “He has lost his coat and his temper.”
Zeugma
also known as syllepsis, but there is actually a slight difference: it consists of two different words linked to a verb or an adjective which is strictly appropriate to only one of them.
“Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn/The living record of your memory.”
syllogism
a logical argument in which a conclusion is based on a major premise and a minor premise.
“We get paid every Friday. Tomorrow is Friday; therefore, we will get paid tomorrow.”
symbol
a word or image that signifies something other than what it literally represents.
The cross is a _____ of Christianity. The donkey and the elephant are _____ of the two American political organizations. There are two general types of _____s: universal ______s that embody universally recognizable meanings wherever used (light to symbolize knowledge, a skull to symbolize death, etc.) and constructed ______s that are given symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work (the white whale becomes a ______ of evil in Moby Dick).
synecdoche
the technique of mentioning a part of something to represent the whole.
“All hands on deck!” and “I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” or “Sam finally traded in his old jalopy and got himself a new set of wheels.”
syntax
the manner in which words are arranged by a writer into sentences.
tautology
needless repetition which adds no meaning or understanding.
Examples: “widow woman, free gift, or close proximity” See Repetition.
tone
The writer's attitude, usually implied, toward his readers or his subject. For example, a writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, apologetic, light-hearted, somber, etc..
topos
a traditional theme or formula in literature.
Describing someone from head to toe is a _____, as is a “carpe diem” theme.
understatement
this consists of saying less than one means (“This is quite a shower we’re having,” said Noah, poking his head out the door of the ark.), or of saying what one means with less force than the occasion warrants.
Litotes
understatement, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the thing being affirmed. Sometimes used synonymously with meiosis.
“A few unannounced quizzes are not inconceivable” and “War is not healthy for children and other living things.”
Verisimilitude
How fully the characters and actions in a work of fiction conform to our sense of reality. To say that a work has a high degree of ______ means that the work is very realistic and believable--it is "true to life."
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