Untitled Flashcards Set
1. Ad Hominem: An argument based on the personal/character failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case (ex: Politician A rejects Politician B’s tax proposal because Politician B is a “liar” who “can’t be trusted”).
2. Allegory: A narrative or anecdote in which objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text (ex: Aesop’s fables).
3. Alliteration: The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
“The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,/ And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,/ When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, …” (TS Eliot – “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”)
4. Allusion: A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event—real or fictional (ex: as you are about to begin an exam, I say: “May the Force be with you.” or “May the odds be ever in your favor.” – in either case, I haven’t directly mentioned Star Wars or The Hunger Games, but I’ve used a phrase that anyone familiar with the films/books is likely to recognize.)
5. Ambiguity: The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage. Can be deliberate or unintentionally done.
6. Analogy: A comparison between two things (metaphors and similes are both types of analogies).
7. Anachronism: Something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time (ex: The sword is an anachronism in modern warfare.)
8. Antecedent: The noun or noun phrase referred to by a pronoun.
9. Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities).
10. Aphorism: A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion (ex: all those “quotable” statements you see on motivational posters – but aphorisms don’t have to be corny; some are quite wonderful).
A brief statement of a principle.
11. Assonance: The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
“on a proud round cloud in a white high night” (ee cummings, “if a cheerfulest elephantangel child should sit”)
“Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds” (James Joyce, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man).
“Fire at the private eye hired to pry in my business” (Eminem, “Criminal”)
12. Claim: An arguable statement, which may be a claim of fact, value, or policy. (Note! A true claim is debatable. “The fast food industry” is a topic. The statements “fast food is killing America” and “fast food can be a healthy lifestyle choice” are both claims that would need to be convincingly backed up with reasons and evidence in order to create convincing arguments.
13. Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.
14. Colloquial: Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.
15. Concession: An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent’s point.
16. Connotation: The emotional implication and associations that a word may carry (ex: the terms “house” and
“home” or “red” and “scarlet” may be similar in terms of their “dictionary definitions” but they carry vastly
different connotations – we think/feel different things when we hear the terms.)
17. Coordination: The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. Contrast with subordination, in which two or more ideas connected – but one is given greater emphasis and importance.are
Coordination: “The football game has been canceled, so we will have to do something else.” Or “The
football game has been canceled; we will have to do something else.” (In each case, we have two
independent clauses, each with a subject and verb, each capable of standing on its own as a sentence.
Both halves of these sentences are equally important, each contains a piece of information that is just as significant as the other.)
Subordination: “Because the football game has been canceled, we will have to do something else.”
(“Because” is a subordinating conjunction – “We will have to do something else” is an independent
clause, but “Because the football game is canceled” can’t stand on its own – so it’s a dependent clause, subordinate to the other half of the sentence. The subtle emphasis here is on the fact that we’re going to need to find something else to do – the canceled football game is just the explanation.)
18. Deduction: A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises (ex: All humans are mortal, I am a human, therefore I am mortal.)
19. Denotation: The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings (see “Connotation”).
20. Dialect: A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.
21. Epitaph: A short inscription in a prose or verse on a tombstone or monument. A statement or speech commemorating someone who has died: a funeral oration.