| Term | Definition |
|---|
| allusion | a direct or indirect reference to something that presumably is commonly known; cane be historical (referring to the Holocaust), literary (referring to Romeo and Juliet), mythical (referring to Hercules), or Biblical (referring to Moses). |
| connotation | the nonliteral, associative meaning of a word, the implied, suggested meaning. |
| denotation | the literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion or attitude. |
| diction | the writer's word choices. Words such as formal, informal, ornate, or plain describe this. |
| syntax | the way a writer chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. It refers to groups of words, while diction refers to the individual words. |
| tone | the author's attitude toward his or her material, the audience, or both. Imagining how a work would sound if it were read aloud can help in identifying this. |
| rhetoric | from the Greek for "orator," the term refers to the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively. |
| colloquial/colloquialism | the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing which gives a work a conversational, familiar tone. Include local or regional dialects. |
| antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun |
| euphemism | a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for an unpleasant term (eg. "earthly remains" instead of "corpse") |
| oxymoron | the joining of apparently contradictory words to suggest a paradox |
| parallelism | the rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. The type which the same words are used is called anaphora. |
| analogy | a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. this helps explain the unfamiliar or makes writing more vivid and imaginative. |
| invective | an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language |
| paradox | a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity |
| parody | a work that closely imitates the style of content of another with the specific aim of comic effect or ridicule |
| symbol | anything that stands for something else |
| aphorism | a terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction |
| malapropism | a humorous confusion of words |
| metonymy | the name of one object is substituted for another closely associated with it. (The White House declares... Wall Street predicts..) |
| didactic | a term describing works that have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles |
| genre | the major category into which a literary work fits. major divisions are prose, poetry, and drama. |
| onomatopoeia | a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words. |
| litotes | steep understatement or the ironic minimizing of fact. (it was not a pretty picture.) |
| allegory | the device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. a character may represent truth or freedom. |
| anecdote | a brief recounting of a relevant episode used to develop a point or to inject humor into a text. |
| style | the choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes- may be altered to suit specific occasions |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement |
| synecdoche | a part of a thing stands for the whole. (all hands on deck. that's a great set of wheels) |
| satire | a work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule. devices used by the author include irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, litotes, and sarcasm. |
| sarcasm | from Greek "to tear flesh," it involves bitter, caustic language meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something. |
| syllogism | a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises (the first one major and the second minor) which inevitably lead to a given conclusion |
| irony | the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant. verbal- the words state the opposite of the writer's true meaning. situational- events turn out the opposite of what is expected. dramatic- facts or events are unknown to a character but known to the reader |
| ad hominem | an argument that attacks another's position is invalid or weak because of human failing that has nothing to do with the position |
| point of view | the perspective from which a story is told. 1st person- narrator tells the story with pronoun "I". 3rd person- narrator relates events with the pronoun "he, she" |
| antithesis | balancing or contrasting one word or idea against another, usually in the same sentence |
| pathos | part of a work of literature which in intended to bring out pity or sorrow from the reader. in rhetorical analysis, it represents emotional appeal |
| motif | an often-repeated character, incident, or idea in literature |
| stream of consciousness | a style of writing in which the thoughts and feelings of the writer or narrator are recorded as they occur |
| tautology | an unnecessary repetition of terms (widow woman, reason why) |
| imagery | the words or phrases which evoke a picture or image in the mind of the reader that appeal to one of the five senses |
| zeugma | a construction in which one word is placed in the same grammatical relationship to two words but in quite different senses. from Greek word for "yoke." ex. he bolted the door and his dinner |
| epiphany | literally, a manifestation or showing forth, usually of some divine being. in literature, an event in which the essential nature of something (person, object, situation) is suddenly perceived- a sudden insight |
| ellipsis | leaving something out that can be inferred |
| spoonerism | an accidental interchange of sounds in two or more words: "blushing crow" for "crushing blow." named for dr. W.A. Spooner of New College, Oxford, who one told a lazy student, "you've hissed all your mystery lectures and tasted two whole worms." |
| chiasmus | a type or balance in which the second part os balanced against the first but with parts reversed. ex. "he did, did he?" "out went the taper as she hurried in" |
| polemic | a vigorously argumentative work, setting forth its author's attitudes on a controversial subject- usually religious, political, or social issues. this can also be a tone |
| anachronism | a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other |
| tabula rasa | literally blank slate (latin); something new, fresh, unmarked or uninfluenced |
| theme | insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work. it's different from subject or thematic idea. a work's subject might be stated as "love," "growing up," or "deception." this is the statement the writer wants to make about that subject: "growing up is a process that involves the pain of achieving self-knowledge." |
| vernacular | the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality |
| conceit | an elaborate, often extravagant metaphor or simile making an analogy between totally dissimilar things. the term originally meant "concept: or "idea." the use of this is especially characteristic of the 17th-century English metaphysical poetry. an example occurs in the poem "a valediction: forbidding mourning" by the English poet John Donne, in which two lovers' souls are compared to the legs of drawing compasses |
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