Terms : Hide Images
| 5958645292 | motif | A distinctive feature or dominant idea in a text; Recurring Examples: The color green in The Great Gatsby Light and darkness in The Scarlet Letter Food in Namesake | 0 | |
| 5958647186 | metonymy | Calling something by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept Examples: "Suits" for business executive "Track" for horse racing "Bedtime" for sleeping "Ham sandwich" for a diner patron | 1 | |
| 5958647187 | synecdoche | Calling something by one of its (smaller) parts Examples: "set of wheels" for a car "a hand" for help from another person (give me a hand/all hands on deck) "Kleenex" for all tissues "Coke" for all carbonated drinks | 2 | |
| 5958649407 | allusion | An indirect reference to a specific work (Bible, myth, Shakespeare, film, TV) Examples: If I say, "Take only what you need to survive!" (Spaceballs) If I say, "I'm the King of the World!" (Titanic) NON-Examples (direct reference): A text mentions the Bible (or a book within) explicitly A text includes a quote by and cites MLK. | 3 | |
| 5958649408 | analogy | A direct or indirect comparison of unlike things for the purpose of clarifying a confusing point Examples: Structure of an atom is like a solar system. Nucleus is the sun and electrons are the planets revolving around their sun. (nucleus : electrons : : sun : planets) Just as a sword is the weapon of a warrior, a pen is the weapon of a writer. (sword : warrior : : pen : writer) NON-Examples: Atoms are the building blocks of matter. (atoms = building blocks) Ogres are like onions. (ogres = onions) | 4 | |
| 5958651756 | extended metaphor | A metaphor that recurs throughout a text (figurative, not "right there" like a motif) Example: "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief." (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) | 5 | |
| 5985924656 | denotation | Literal, dictionary definition Examples: a cross is 2 intersecting lines a book is a collection of pages fastened together; contains info or story a school is a building (or organization) attended by students for the purpose of learning | 6 | |
| 5985925107 | connotation | Ideas or feelings associated with a word (NOT the dictionary definition; learned by experience) Examples: a cross represents religion, Christianity, etc. a book represents knowledge, intellect, etc. (depending of the situation/reputation) a school represents opportunity, scandal, etc. | 7 | |
| 5985926713 | wit | Intelligent humor, usually quickly delivered and clever Examples: "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for the landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children." (Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal") Tweet: "Sorry about my two week Twitter hiatus, I was trying to find the end of the plastic wrap." | 8 | |
| 5985927093 | pun | Word play, exploiting different meanings of the same word or similar-sounding words Examples: What do dogs do after they finish obedience school? They get their masters. I hired a zombie to do some work around my house. He is the working dead. Old skiers go downhill fast. I used to work at a hospital, but I got sick of it. | 9 | |
| 5985928256 | euphony/euphemism | Sounding better or more pleasant Examples of euphemism in bold: You aren't poor; you are economically disadvantaged. You're not buying a used car; you are purchasing a pre-enjoyed or pre-loved vehicle. Examples of euphony (mellifluous language): Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; ("To the Autumn" by John Keats) | 10 | |
| 5985928257 | cacophony | Unpleasant sounding Example: "I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights..." (Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels) | 11 | |
| 5985930475 | colloquial/colloquialism | Casual, everyday language; slang (speech or text) Examples: "Most of dese zigaboos is so het up over yo' business till they liable to hurry thyself to Judgment..." (Hurston TEWWG) "I think she mine. My heart say she mine. But I don't know she mine. If she mine, her name Olivia." (Alice Walker The Color Purple) | 12 | |
| 5985931061 | archaic | Language that is too old for its time period; old-fashioned or out-of-date Example: It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. 'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 1798) | 13 | |
| 5985932025 | juxtaposition | 2 ideas placed side by side for the purpose of comparing or contrasting Examples: "Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." (Dylan Thomas) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." (Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities) | 14 | |
| 6041945683 | anaphora | Repetition of the 1st part of a sentence (a type of parallel structure) Example: "We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender." - Winston Churchill, WWII speech | 15 | |
| 6041950323 | parallel structure | Balance within a sentence, having the same grammatical structure (includes anaphora and antithesis, among others) Examples: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." — Winston Churchill "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." — John F. Kennedy "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address | 16 | |
| 6041952939 | antithesis | Contrasting ideas (or juxtaposition) within a balanced sentence (a type of parallel structure) Examples: "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964) "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." (Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863) | 17 | |
| 6041956525 | asyndeton | Omitting conjunctions between compound words, phrases, or clauses (produces rhythm) Example: "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That--that's about it." (Bubba in Forrest Gump, 1994) | 18 | |
| 6041956527 | polysyndeton | Using several conjunctions in succession in one sentence Example: "By seven o'clock the orchestra has arrived, no thin five-piece affair, but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos, and low and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways, and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile." (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925) | 19 | |
| 6041959138 | inverted sentence | Reversal of normal word order Examples: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." (J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit) "There on the tiny stoop sat Pecola in a light red sweater and blue cotton dress." (Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye) "Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you." (Yoda) | 20 | |
| 8911698998 | periodic sentence | Details appear before (or between) the main sentence Examples: Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. Human beings, large terrestrial metazoans, are now in charge, running the place, for better or worse. | 21 | |
| 8911702059 | cumulative sentence | Main sentence, then details after it Examples: The women moved through the streets as winged messengers, twirling around each other in slow motion. Venture further, though, and you come to regions of the supermarket where the very notion of species seems increasingly obscure. | 22 |
