AS English II Devices Test

Theme

A main idea or point of a literary work.

Thematic Statement

A sentence that expresses the thematic subject in its fullest form.

Motif

A repeated element in a text.

Tone

The speaker’s attitude or author’s attitude toward a subject.

Mood

The situation’s atmosphere or the reader’s feelings.

Connotation

The associations or ideas evoked by a word.

Diction

The choice of words that establish a tone, register, purpose, and relationship.

Syntax

The order in which words appear to form phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Characterization – The ways that an author develops a character’s personality, traits, and significance.

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things.

Simile

an explicit comparison between two unlike things.

Personification

giving abstractions or inanimate objects human qualities.

Pathetic Fallacy

giving inanimate objects human emotions.

Metonymy

Metaphorical language in which an associated thing stands in for another thing.

Synecdoche

Metaphorical language in which a part of something stands in for the whole thing.

Lexical Ambiguity

a word that has more than one meaning, such as a pun, double entendre, or layered connotation.

Antithesis

opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

Apostrophe

a direct address to some absent or nonexistent person or thing as if present and capable of understanding.

Juxtaposition

putting two ideas, characters, actions side by side to make a point.

Imagery

vivid pictures that can be “seen” with the mind’s eye.

Symbol

a tangible object an author uses to represent an abstract concept, theme, or motif.

Paradox

A statement or situation that uses the impossible to make a point.

Oxymoron

A statement or phrase that uses words of opposite meanings to offer a complex or deeper understanding.

Understatement

Phrases or statements that purposefully make or describe a situation seem less important or serious than it is.

Allusion

a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.

Verbal Irony

The real truth is revealed as when a speaker’s words are an intentional twist on what is meant.

Authorial Verbal Irony

A character is not entirely aware of the disconnect between what he/she is saying and their meaning.

Sarcasm

This form of verbal irony is intended to actively hurt another person.

Dramatic Irony

A tension arises when the audience knows something a character does not.

Situational Irony

A deeper meaning emerges when the reality of a situation contrasts or distorts the expectation.

Alliteration

the repetition of initial consonant sounds, or simply the repetition of sounds in words.

Assonance

the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds, often at the end.

Sibilance

the repetition of a hissing sound, as in s-sounds.

Onomatopoeia

the use of words which sound like the sound of the thing they are.

Repetition

the use, more than once, of any element of language.

Parallelism

Agreement in direction, tendency, or character.

Chiasmus

repetition of words or ideas in inverted order.

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of every clause.

Epistrophe

repetition of a word or phrase at the end of every clause.

Polysyndeton

abundant use of conjunctions, often to convey an extensive or exhaustive list for rhetorical effect.

Asyndeton

a list or sequence of words without conjunctions.

Isocolon

Parallelism through the same structure.

Tricolon

Series of three items.

Stanza

a grouping of two or more lines within a poem.

2 line stanza

couplet

3 line stanza

triplet or tercet

4 line stanza

quatrain

5 line stanza

cinquain or quintet

6 line stanza

sestet or sextet

7 line stanza

septet

8 line stanza

octave

Enjambment

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

Rhyme

the repetition of similar sounds in two or more lines.

Rhyme Scheme

the patterning of the rhyme.

Simple rhyme

AABB CCDD; ABCB DEFE

Alternate rhyme

ABAB CDCD EFEF

Enclosed line

ABBA CDDC EFFE

End Rhyme

rhyme occurs at the end of the lines; most common type.

True rhyme is what most people think of as rhyme; sounds are essentially identical.

Single Rhyme

When the rhyme is in the last syllable of the words rhyming.

Double Rhyme

When the rhyme is in the second to last syllable and the last syllable.

Slant rhyme involves consonance and assonance in the final syllables of words, but not the exact match of the syllable

Eye rhyme occurs when words look alike but don't sound alike.

Internal Rhyme

a rhyme occurs in the middle of a line.