Rhetorical Terms Flashcards
(39 cards)
Hyperbole
An exaggeration for effect
Personification
The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects
Aphorism
A brief statement of a principle; and adage (“The early bird gets the worm”)
Oxymoron
Juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings
Colloquialism
Word or phrase characteristics of or appropriate to familiar conversations rather than formal speech or writing
Allegory
A representation of abstract or spiritual meaning in concrete or material forms; A symbolic narrative (Animal Farm, The Pilgrim’s Progress)
Euphemism
An indirect expression of unpleasant information in such a way as to lessen its impact – for example, saying a person’s position was eliminated, rather than saying that the person was fired
Apostrophe
Digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea (“Oh death, where is they staying?”)
Invective
Vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach
Paradox
A statement then seems untrue on the surface, but is true nevertheless. (“Self impose limits are the way to experience freedom.” , “To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.”)
Irony
Writing or speaking that implies the contrary of what is actually written or spoken
Types: situational, dramatic, verbal
Onomatopoeia
A literary device in which the sound of the word is related to its meaning (“buzz” , “moan”)
Figure of speech
An expression that uses language in a non-literal way, such as a metaphor, simile, synecdoche, or in a structured or unusual way, such as anaphora or chaismus, or that employs sounds, such as alliteration or assonance, to achieve a rhetorical effect
Genre
A piece of writing classified by type - for example, letter, narrative, editorial, or eulogy
Rhetorical modes
Describe the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing. Four of the most common rhetorical modes and their purposes are exposition, argumentation, description, and narration
Allusion
A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or particular body of knowledge
Imagery
Language that evokes particular sensations (the five senses) or emotionally rich experiences in a reader
Syntax
The order of words in a sentence
Types of sentences
Simple, compound, complex, compound – complex
Style
The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect
Antecedent
A word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by pronoun or other substitute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or another, usually subsequent, sentence.
In “Jane lost a glove and she can’t find it”, “Jane” is the antecedent of “she”, and “glove” is the antecedent of “it”
Clause
A syntactic construction containing a subject and a predicate and forming a part of a sentence or constituting a whole, simple sentence
Loose sentence
Ascendance the ads modifying elements after the subject, verb, and complement.
“She struck the ball extremely high and very far.”
Periodic sentence
A sentence with modifying elements included before the verb and/or complement.
“Into the great heavens of the sky, extremely high and far, she struck the ball.”
