| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Diction | an author's choice of words |
| Denotation | a word's dictionary definition |
| Connotation | refers to the personal and emotional meaning evoked by a word that goes beyond dictionary definitions |
| Parallelism | recurrent systematical similarity |
| Parallelism (Subjects and Modifiers) | Ferocious dragons breathing fire and wicked sorcerers casting their spells do their harm by night in the forest of Darkness. |
| Parallelism (Verbs and Adverbs) | I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door. |
| Parallelism (Verbs and Adverbs) | Quickly and happily he walked around the corner to buy the book. |
| Analogy | compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one |
| Analogy | You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. -- Samuel Johnson |
| Analogy | ...for answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. --Aristotle |
| Analogy | The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (And so forth, to the end of the chapter.) --Cor. 12:12 (NIV) |
| Syllogism | from the Greek for "reckoning together" it is a deductive system of formal logic that presents 2 premises, the first one called "major" and the second one called ",ompr" that inevitably lead to a sound concluion |
| Syllogism | Major Premise: All men are mortal Minor Premise: Socrates is a man Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal. |
| Valid | A syllogism's conclusion is only _______ if each of its 2 premises are _______. |
| Invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack that uses strong, abusive language |
| Imagery | a word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell |
| Imagery | When the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table. |
| Allusion | casual and brief reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event |
| Allusion | If you take his parking place, you can expect World War II all over again. |
| Allusion | Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noa build the ark. --Richard Cushing |
| Literature, History, Greek Myth, and Bible | The best sources of allusions are _______________________________. |
| Variety and Energy | Allusion can introduce __________________ to a limited discussion. |
| Understatement | intentionally represents something as less than it is, either for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact, usually used when the audience is expected to know the true nature of a fact that is difficult to describe in a brief space |
| Understatement | The 1906 San Fransisco earthquake interrupted business somewhat in the downtown area. |
| Understatement | Henry and Catherine were married, the bells rang, and everybody smiled...to begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well... --Jane Austen |
| Understatement | Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you were to be hit by a drunk driver at two a.m., so I hope you will be home early. |
| Egotism | When speaking about one's own accomplishments, understatement can avoid charge of ________. |
| Understatement | ________________ is useful in dealing with a hostile audience or in disagreeing with someone, because the statement, while carrying the same point, is much less offensive. |
| 1 | Which number is better? 1. The second law of thermodynamics pretty much works against the possibility of such an event. 2. The second law of thermodynamics proves conclusively that the theory is utterly false and ridiculous. |
| 2 | Which number is better? 1. Anyone who says this water is safe to drink is either stupid or foolish. The stuff is poisoned with coliform bacteria. Don't those idiots know that? 2. My opponents think this water is drinkable, but I'm not sure I would drink it. Perhaps they are not aware of the dangerous bacterial count...[and so on, explaining the basis of your opinion]. |
| Litotes | a particular form of understatement that is generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used |
| 2 | Which number uses litotes? 1. Heat waves are common in the summer. 2. Heat waves are not rare in the summer. |
| Litotes | We saw him throw the buckets of paint at his canvas in disgust, and the result did not perfectly represent his subject, Mrs. Jittery. |
| Ironic | Sometimes litotes causes an ________ meaning. |
| Litotes | Hitting that telephone pole certainly didn't do your car any good. |
| Litotes | If you can tell the fair one's mind, it will be no small proof of your art, for I dare say it is more than she herself can do. --Alexander Pope |
| Litotes | A figure lean or corpulent, tall or short, through deviating from beauty, may still have a certain union of the various parts, which may contribute to make them on the whole not unpleasing. --Sir Joshua Renyolds |
| Litotes | He who examines his own self will not long remain ignorant of his failings. |
| Litotes | Overall the flavors of the mushrooms, herbs, and spices combine to make the dish not at all disagreeable to the palate. |
| Un | When using litotes, try not to use not and then a word beginning in ___ (Not ____-). |
| Hyperbole | overstatement, the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect |
| Hyperbole | There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy. |
| Hyperbole | I said "rare," not "raw." I've seen cows hurt worse than this get up and get well. |
| Hyperbole | This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make, my love. |
| Hyperbole | If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. --Luke 14:26 (NASB) |
| Parallelism | These critics--who point out the beauties of style and ideas, who discover the faults of false constructions, and who discuss the application of the rules--usually help a lot in engendering an understanding of the writer's essay. |
| Parallelism | When, at the conclusion of a prolonged episode of agonizing thought, you decide to buy this car; when, after a hundred frantic sessions of begging stonefaced bankers for the money, you can obtain sufficient funds; and when, after two more years of impatience and frustration, you finally get a driver's license, then come see me and we will talk about a deal. |
| Parallelism | He left the engine on, idling erratically and heating rapidly. |
| Parallelism | To think accurately and to write precisely are interrelated goals. |
| Anaphora | the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and parallelism |
| Anaphora | To think on death it is a misery,/To think on life it is a vanity;/To think on the world verily it is,/To think that here ban hat no perfect bliss. --Peacham |
| Anaphora | Slowly and grimly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland. |
| Anaphora | They are the entertainment of minds unfurnished with ideas, and therefore easily susceptible of impressins; not fixed by principles, and therefore easily following the current of fance; not informed by experience, and consequently open to every false suggestion and partial account. --Samuel Johnson |
| Anaphora | Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned? |
| Anaphora | Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done. |
| Anaphora | If we can get the lantern lit, if we can find the main cave, and if we can see the stalagmites, I'll show you the one with the bat skeleton in it. |
| Anaphora | They are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. --Richard de Bury |
| Epistrophe | or antistrophe, conterpart to anaphora, repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences |
| Epistrophe | Where affections bear rule, there reason is subdued, honesty is subdued, good will is subdued, and all things else that withstand evil, for ever are subdued. --Wilson |
| Epistrophe | And all the night he did nothing but weep Philoclea, sigh Philoclea, and cry out Philoclea. --Philip Sidney |
| Epistrophe | You will find washing breakers helpful in passing this course, using the gas chromatograph desirable for passing this course, and studying hours on end essential to passing this course. |
| Epistrophe | ___________ is a good technique to use to stress a concept heavily. |
| Chiasmus | reverse parallelism, instead of an A,B structure (learned unwillingly) being followed by A,B structure (gladly forgotten), A,B structure (learned unwillingly) is followed by B,A structure (forgotten gladly) |
| Chiasmus | He labors without complaining and without bragging rests. |
| Chiasmus | Polished in courts and hardened in the field, renowned for conquest, and in council skilled. --Joseph Addison |
| Chiasmus | For the lord is a Great God...in whose hand are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the mountains are his also. --Psalm 95:4 |
| Chiasmus | If you come to them, they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them, they do not withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. --Richard de Bury |
| Climax | gradatio, consist of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis, usually involves parallelism but parallelism is not necessary |
| Climax | The concerto was applauded at the house of Baron von Schnooty, it was praised highly at court, it was voted best concerto of the year by the Academy, it was considered by Mozart the highlight of his career, and it has become known today as the best concerto in the world. |
| Climax | At 6:20 a.m. the ground began to heave. Windows rattled; then they broke. Objects started falling from shelves. Water heaters fell from their pedestals, tearing out plumbing. Outside, the road began to break up. Water mains and gas lines were wrenched apart, causing flooding and the danger of explosion. Office buildings began crackling; soon twenty, thirty, forty stories of concrete were diving at the helpless pedestrians panicking below. |
| Climax | To have faults is not good, but faults are human. Worse is to have the and not see them. Yet beyond that is to have faults, to see them, and to do nothing about them. But even tat seems mild compared to him who knows his faults, and who parades them about and encourages them as though they were virtues. |
| Parenthesis | consists of a word, phrase, or whole sentence inserted as an aside in the middle of another sentence |
| Parenthesis | But the new calculations--and here we see the value of relying upon up-to-date information--showed that man-powered flight was possible with this design. |
| Parenthesis | Every time I try to think of a good hetorical example, I rack my brains but--you guessed--nothing happens. |
| Parenthesis | As the earthy portion has its origin from earth, the watery from a different element, my breath from one source and my hot and fiery parts from another of their own elsewhere (fro nothing comes from nothing, or can return to nothing), so too there must be an origin for the mind. -- Marcus Aurelius |
| Parenthisis | But in whatever respect anyone else is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am just as bold myself, --2 Cor. 11:21b (NASB) |
| Simile | direct, expressed comparison between two things essentially unlike but resembling each other in at least one aspect (often has like or as like or as) |
| Simile | I see men, but they look like trees, walking. --Mark 8:24 |
| Simile | After such long exposure to the direct sun, the leaves of the houseplant looked like pieces of overcooked bacon. |
| Simile | THey remained constantly attentive to their goal, as a sunflower always turns and stays focused on the sun. |
| Simile | Here is your pencil and paper. I want you to compete as the greatest hero would in the race of is life. |
| Simile | The grass bends with every wind; so does Harvey. |
| Simile | The seas are quiet when the winds give o're;/So calm are we when passions are no more. --Edmund Waller |
| Simile | As wax melts before the fire,/may the wicked perish before God. --Psalm 68:2b |
| Simile | And money is like muck, not good except it be spread. --Francis Bacon |
| Simile | Fortune is like glass--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken. --Publilius Syrus |
| Simile | My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun... --Shakespeare |
| Metaphor | a comparison which imaginatively identifies one thing with another, dissimilar thing and transfers or ascribes to the first thing some of the qualities of the second, saying that one is the other |
| Metaphor | Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life." --John 6:35 |
| Metaphor | The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhaused and will produced no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with foreign matter. --Joshua Reynolds |
| Metaphor | The fountain of knowledge will dry up unless it is continuously replenished by streams of new learning. |
| Metaphor | I wonder when motor mouth is going to run out of gas. |
| Metaphor | The furnace of the affliction had softened his heart and purified his soul. |
| Synecdoche | a form of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short any portion, section or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (or vice versa) |
| Synecdoche | Farmer Jones has 200 head of cattle and three hired hands. |
| Synecdoche | If I had some wheels, I'd put on my best threads and ask for Jane's hand in marriage. |
| Synecdoche | The army included two hundred horse and three hundred foot. |
| Synecdoche | It is sure hard to earn a dollar these days. |
| Synecdoche | Get in here this instant or I'll spank your body. |
| Synecdoche | Put Beethoven on the turntable and turn up the volume. |
| Metonymy | a form of metaphor, similar to synecdoche, a closely associated object is substituted for the object or idea in mind |
| Metonymy | The orders came directly from the White House. |
| Metonymy | You can't fight city hall. |
| Metonymy | This land belongs to the crown. |
| Metonymy | Boy, I'm dying from the heat. Just look how the mercury is rising. |
| Metonymy | The checkered flag waved and victory crossed the finish line. |
| Metonymy | Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. --Psalm 100:1-2 (KJV) |
| Personification | metaphorically represents an animal, idea, abstraction, or inanimate object as having human attributes--attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, and so on |
| Personification | The ship began to creak and protest as it struggled against the rising sea. |
| Personification | We bought this house instead of the one on Maple because this one is more friendly. |
| Personification | This coffee is strong enough to get up and walk away. |
| Personification | I can't get the fuel pump back on because this bold is being uncooperative. |
| Personification | Wisdom cries aloud in the streets; in the markets she raises her voice... --Psalm 1:20 (RSV; and cf. 1:21-33) |
| Apostrophe | interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent |
| Apostrophe | "O Rose, thou art sick!" --William Blake |
| Apostrophe | O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! --Luke 13:34 (NASB) |
| Paradox | a situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not |
| Paradox | That I am rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, |
| Paradox | In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. --Oscar Wilde |
| Paradox | To be popular one must be a mediocrity. --Oscar Wilde |
| Paradox | Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. --Oscar Wilde |
| Antithesis | establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure |
| Antithesis | To err is human; to forgive, divine. --Pope |
| Antithesis | That short and easy trip made a lasting and profound change in Harold's outlook. |
| Antithesis | That's one small step for man, on giant leap for mankind. --Neil Armstrong |
| Antithesis | Though surprising, it is true; though frightening at first, it is really harmless. |
| Antithesis | If we try, we might succeed; if we do not try, we cannot succeed. |
| Antithesis | Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise. |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace