Chapter 6-8: Rhetorical Devices---AP Lang

Simile

• Figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words “like” and “as”

Analogy

• Compares two different things by identifying points of similarity 

  • Used to explain a complex idea or concept by highlighting their similarities 

Metaphor

• Figure of speech that implicit compares two unrelated things, typically by stating that one thing is another 

  • NOT USE “like” or “as”

Catachresis

• A striking, even extreme, implied metaphor that often makes use of a grammatical misconstruction
  

Metonymy

• A type of metaphor in which something closely associated with another thing is named instead of the other thing

Synecdoche

• A metaphor of substitution; when a part of the subject is substituted for the whole, or the whole for a part

Personification

• Using non-literal language (human qualities, actions, or emotions) to give to inanimate objects, animals or abstract ideas to make them seem more relatable and vivid 

Allusion

• A short, informal reference to a famous person or event

Eponym

• A specific type of allusion, substitution the name of a person famous for some attribute in place of the attribute itself

  • Person can be a historical, mythological, literary or Biblical figure 

Apostrophe

• A direct address to someone, whether present or absent, and whether real, imaginary, or personified 

Transferred Epithet 

• An adjective modifying a noun that it cannot normally modify but that makes figurative sense