AP ENGLISH language and composition rhetorical devices
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Created by:
bunnybumblebee on November 1, 2011
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37 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 anadiplosis | repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause |
| analogy | drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect |
| anaphora | repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom..." |
| anastrophe | Inversion of the natural or usual word order |
| anithesis | a contrasting claim |
| aphorism | a concise statement of a truth or principle |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech in which one directly addresses an absent or imaginary person, or some abstraction |
| apposition | the act of positioning close together (or side by side) |
| appositive | A word or phrase that follow a noun or pronoun for emphasis or clarity |
| asyndeton | the deliberate ommsions of conjunctions from a series of related independent clauses to create a forceful, concise statement. "I came, I saw, I conquered." |
| balanced sentence | One in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale. |
| chiasmus | A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." |
| clause | a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb but is not a complete sentence |
| cumulative sentence | an independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail |
| dependent clause | a clause in a complex sentence that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and that functions within the sentence as a noun or adjective or adverb |
| epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause |
| epistrophe | ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word(s) "This government of the people, by the people, and for the people..." |
| ethos | an appeal to credibility |
| euphemism | An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant |
| ellipsis | the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced for the context "Some people prefer cats; others, dogs." |
| fallacy | a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning |
| gerund phrase | Begins with noun form of verb ending in -ing, plus any modifiers or complements |
| hyperbole | extravagant exaggeration |
| independent clause | a clause in a complex sentence that can stand alone as a complete sentence |
| juxtaposition | placing two elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast |
| logos | an appeal to reason and logic |
| loose sentence | A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses. |
| parallelism | the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form |
| pathos | and appeal to emotion |
| periodic sentence | a sentence with several dependent caluses that precede the independent clause- so the main point is withheld until the PERIOD. |
| polysyndeton | consecutive coordinating conjunctions even when they are not needed- renders the reader 'breathless' "He ran and jumped and skipped and laughed for joy" |
| rhetorical question | a question asked for an effect, not actually requiring an answer |
| satire | any piece of writing designed to make its readers critical of themselves, human beings, or their society Can inspire social reform |
| simple sentence | an independent clause- subject and verb. "Jane kicked the ball." |
| syllogism | a three part argument construction in which 2 premises lead to a truth "all human begins are mortal. heather is a human being. therefore, she is mortal" |
| synecdoche | part is used for a whole. "All hands on deck" "The sad souls walked on" "He got some new wheels" |
| syntax | the study of the rules of grammar that define the formation of sentences. is critical to the analysis of all the passages on the AP TEST! |
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