Rhetorical Devices

Question 1

Tropes

Answer 1

in which MEANING is altered from the usual or expected; alterations in the usual meanings of words or phrases

Question 2

Schemes

Answer 2

in which WORD ORDER is altered from the usual or expected; gestures of language; arragnements of ideas, words, phrases that are stylistically effective

Question 3

Pun (trope)

Answer 3

play on meaning of words; 1) repetition of a single word in two different senses; 2) play on words that sound alike but are different in meaning; 3) use of a single word with two different meanings withing the context of the sentence

Question 4

Metaphor (trope)

Answer 4

implied comparison between two unlike things

Question 5

Simile (trope)

Answer 5

explicit comparison between two unlike things signaled by the use of like or as

Question 6

Personification (trope)

Answer 6

attributing human qualities to an inanimate object

Question 7

Apostrophe (trope)

Answer 7

turn away from audience to address someone or something new (anyone not present); type of personification

Question 8

Irony (trope)

Answer 8

contrast between reality and expectations

Question 9

Sarcasm (trope)

Answer 9

particularly biting irony which involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule; Greek meaning “to tear flesh”

Question 10

Hyperbole (trope)

Answer 10

exaggeration; deliberate exaggeration for emphasis

Question 11

Understatement (trope)

Answer 11

opposite of exaggeration; technique for developing irony and/or humor where the writer describes something as less than what it is

Question 12

Euphemism (trope)

Answer 12

type of understatement where you substiture less pungent words for harsh ones, sometimes with excellent ironic effect

Question 13

Synecdoche (trope)

Answer 13

related to classification and division – a part is substituted for the whole, or the species for the genus; Ex. “hands” for helpers

Question 14

Metonymy (trope)

Answer 14

designation of one things with something closely associated with it; could be personification; Ex. “White House” for president; “crown” for king

Question 15

Oxymoron (trope)

Answer 15

contradiction; two contradictory terms or ideas used together; “sweet sorrow”

Question 16

Paradox (trope)

Answer 16

statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth; “work hard at being lazy”

Question 17

Onomatopoeia (trope)

Answer 17

use of words whose sound reinforces their meaning; “drip”; “snarl”

Question 18

Rhetorical Question – 1) Asking the Reader (trope)

Answer 18

effect: way of taking counsel with reader

Question 19

Rhetorical Question – 2) Asking the Writer (trope)

Answer 19

effect: suggesting writer’s thinking process; talking through an idea with reader

Question 20

Rhetorical Question – 3) Criticizing (trope)

Answer 20

effect: making criticism in form of question

Question 21

Rhetorical Question – 4) Asking and Answering (trope)

Answer 21

effect: way of organizing paper or making writer’s method of development clear to reader

Question 22

Parallelism (scheme, balance)

Answer 22

expresses similar or related ideas in similar grammatical structures

Question 23

Antithesis (scheme, balance)

Answer 23

type of parallelism; juxtaposition of contrasting ideas; “separates as well as unites, disintegrate as well as bind”

Question 24

Chiasmus (scheme, balance)

Answer 24

grammatical structure of the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second, somethimes repeating the same words; syntactic mirro AB:BA; reversing syntactical order emphasizes reversal in meaning

Question 25

Anastrophe (scheme, word order)

Answer 25

word order reversed or rearragned; usual word order reversed; "she looked at the sky, dark and menacing"

Question 26

Apposition (scheme, addition)

Answer 26

placing next to a noun another noun or phrase that explains it; appositives

Question 27

Parenthesis (scheme, addition)

Answer 27

insertion of words, phrases, or sentence that is not syntactically related to the rest of the sentence; dashes or parentheses

Question 28

Asyndeton (scheme, omission)

Answer 28

effect: fast-paced and rapid prose; conjuctions omitted; "I came, I saw, I conquered"

Question 29

Ellipsis (scheme, omission)

Answer 29

omission of a word or whort phrase easily understood in contect; literal use of a series of three spaced periods to produce same effect

Question 30

Epanalepsis (scheme, repetition)

Answer 30

repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning

Question 31

Anaphora (scheme, repetition)

Answer 31

regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses

Question 32

Epistrophe (scheme, repetition)

Answer 32

regular repetition of same word or phrse at ends of successive phrases or clauses; opposite of anaphora)

Question 33

Polysyndeton (scheme, repetition)

Answer 33

oppostie of asyndeton; use of many conjuctions; effect; to slow pace or create childlike sense of excitement

Question 34

Alliteration (scheme, sound)

Answer 34

repetition of same initial consonant sound in nearby words; soft or harsh sounds

Question 35

Consonance (scheme, sound)

Answer 35

repetition of consonants in words stressed in same place; kind of inverted alliteration; final consonants repeat

Question 36

Assonance (scheme, sound)

Answer 36

repetition of vowel sounds withing nearby words

Question 37

Euphony (scheme, sound)

Answer 37

soft sounds; sound device produces pleasant, mellifluous sound

Question 38

Cacophony (scheme, sound)

Answer 38

sound device produces harsh, discordant sound

Question 39

Allegory

Answer 39

work that functions on symbolic level

Question 40

Allusion

Answer 40

reference contained in a work to an event in history or to another piece of literature

Question 41

Anecdote

Answer 41

short, personal story or brief episode told by a writer or character to llustrate a point

Question 42

Attitue/Tone

Answer 42

relationship an author has toward their subject/audience

Question 43

Connotation

Answer 43

interpretive level of word based on its associated images rather than literal meaning

Question 44

Denotation

Answer 44

literal or dictionary definition of a word

Question 45

Epigraph

Answer 45

use of quotation or excerpt at beginning of work or chapter that hints at its theme

Question 46

Motif

Answer 46

repetition or variations of an image or idea in a work or chapter that hints at its theme

Question 47

Satire

Answer 47

work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule

Question 48

Symbol

Answer 48

something in a literary work that stands for something else, usually something greater than the thing itself

Question 49

Litotes (trope)

Answer 49

a type of understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary