1.
ad hominem attacks: making personal attacks instead of sticking to the argument
2.
allegory: narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly to symbolic meaning
3.
alliteration: the reoccurance of intial constant sounds
4.
anachronism: something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time
5.
anacoluthon: an abrupt change within a sentence from one syntactic structure to another
6.
anadiplosis: repetition of the final words of a sentence or line at the beginning of the next
7.
anapest: Two short syllables followed by a long one; two unstressed and a stressed
8.
anaphora: repetition of word(s) for meaning at the beginning of consecutive sentences
9.
anastrophe: the reversal of the normal order of words
10.
anthimeria: type of pun in which one part of speech is substituted for another
"The thunder would not peace at my bidding" (King Lear)
11.
antistrophe/epistrophe: A repetition of a word or phrases at the end of a line
12.
antithesis: the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to give a feeling of balance
13.
aphorism: concise statement of insight or wisdom
"Early to bed, early to rise"
14.
aposiopesis: when the speaker or writer deliberately stops short and leaves something unexpressed, but yet obvious, to be supplied by the imagination
15.
apostrophe: Addressing something that cannot answer, eg tombstone
16.
archaism: The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.
17.
assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sequence of nearby words
18.
asyndenton: conjunctions are omitted, producing a fast paced and rapid prose
19.
Atanaclasis: pun in which one word is repeated in two different senses
"Argument is sound, all sound"
20.
bildungsroman: A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character.
21.
cacophony: the clash of discordant or harsh sounds within a sentence or phrase
22.
chiasmus: a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary.")
23.
conceit: a fanciful, particularly clever extended metaphor
24.
consonance: repetition of consonant sounds
25.
diazeugma: a single subject governs several verbs or verbal constructions (opposite of zeugma)
26.
direct address: speaking directly to the audience
27.
ellipses: shows that words have been omitted (...)
28.
epanalepsis: repeats the beginning word of a clause or sentence at the end
"To each the boulders that have fallen to each" (Robert Frost)
29.
epithet: phrase describing a prominent feature of a person or thing. "Lying, dark sea"
30.
ethos: The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator
31.
euphemism: the substitution of a mild or less negative word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one
32.
euphony: any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sounds
33.
hasty generalization: drawing conclusions based on insufficient or unrepresentative evidence
34.
Irony - dramatic: the audience or reader knows something that the characters do not
35.
Irony - situational: what is expected to happen is different than the outcome
36.
Irony - verbal: use of a statement that, by context, implies its opposite
37.
isocolon: corresponding clauses are exactly equal in length
"I think your wife be honest and thinks she is not, and thou art just when thou thinks you are not"
38.
juxtaposition: place two items side by side to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish a purpose
39.
litotes: a form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite
40.
logos: an appeal based on logic or reason
41.
metonymy: the substitution of one term for another that is generally associated with it
42.
mixed metaphor: combination of metaphors producing contradictory images
"The company left mountains of debt in its wake"
43.
paraprosdokian: surprise or unexpected ending of a phrase or series.
44.
Parison: correspondence of words within successes or
45.
pathos: quality in literature that evokes high emotion, sorrow, pity
46.
polysyndenton: Lots of conjunctions
47.
post hoc reasoning: because one event follows another, the first must be the cause of the second
or
assuming that one event was caused by another simply because the events were close to each other in time
48.
prolepsis: the anticipation, in adjectives or nouns, of the result of the action of a verb; also, the positioning of a relative clause before its antecedent
49.
red herring: any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue
50.
syllepsis: a construction in which one word is used in two different senses
51.
syllogism: deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises
52.
synaesthesia: the use of one kind of sensory experience to describe another
"Thirst for viewing paintings"
"Heard melodies are sweet" (John Keats)
53.
syncrisis: reframes/redefines argument (It's not this, it's that)
54.
synecdoche: a form of metonymy in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole, eg wheels to a car, sails to a boat, suits to businessmen
55.
syntax: the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
56.
tautology: needless repetition of an idea by using different but equivalent words; a redundancy
57.
tragic flaw: the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall
58.
zeugma: When a word is used with two adjacent words in the same construction, but only makes literal sense with one of them
