Rhetorical Terms and Definitions for Mrs. Martenson's AP Language and Composition Class.
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| 5185550383 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom, usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence. | 0 | |
| 5185561883 | Abstract Diction | Diction describing concepts/ ideas rather than specifics. Ex: Love, guilt, freedom, intelligence. ex. 'the large gorilla' opposed to 'the 420' male gorilla' | 1 | |
| 5185574287 | Absolutes | a nonfinite verb or no verb at all. (the clause is missing "was" or "were" or it is replaced by a verbal, making it dependent. ex. the prisoners marched past, their hands above their heads (their hands were above their heads) | 2 | |
| 5185595472 | Academic Diction | the use of scholarly words or terms. ex. kennedy uses rhetorical strategies such as chaismus, allusion, and pathos | 3 | |
| 5185634426 | Active Voice | Describes a sentence where the subject performs the action stated by the verb. ex. the dog bit the boy | 4 | |
| 5185648068 | Ad Hominem Fallacy | A fallacy of logic in which a person's character or motive is attacked instead of the person's argument. ex. jack is wrong when he says there is no god because he is a convicted felon | 5 | |
| 5185663562 | Ad Populum Fallacy | when we attempt to persuade people by arguing our position is reasonable because so many other people are doing it or agree with it. ex. gods must exist because every culture believes in a higher being | 6 | |
| 5185687372 | Adjective | A word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it, use when looking at diction. ex. the stupid girl fell for the abusive criminal | 7 | |
| 5185700159 | Adverb | A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, typically ending in -ly ex. she is extremely pale | 8 | |
| 5185710502 | Adverbial | A phrase that is optionally included in a sentence, which gives more information about time, place, manner, frequency. Eg. "the dog bit the man on Wednesday" or "After the football match" | 9 | |
| 5185720534 | Adverbial Clause | dependent clause that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, adverb like function. ex. I saw the movie before I left for Europe | 10 | |
| 5185550384 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in "she sells sea shells"). | 11 | |
| 5185550385 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art; can be historical (like referring to Hitler), literary (like referring to Kurtz in Heart of Darkness), religious (like referring to Noah and the flood). | 12 | |
| 5185550386 | Ambiguity | The Multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, or a word, phrase, sentence or passage. | 13 | |
| 5185550387 | Anadiplosis | The repetition of a key word, especially the last one, at the beginning of the next sentence or clause. For example, "He gave his life; life was all he could give." | 14 | |
| 5185550388 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between tow different things or the relationship between them; can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. | 15 | |
| 5185550389 | Anaphora | The rhetorical device of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences for emphasis and rhythm. | 16 | |
| 5185550390 | Anathema | A thing or person accursed or damned; a thing or person greatly detested; a formal curse or condemnation excommunicating a person from a church or damning something; any strong curse. | 17 | |
| 5185728054 | Anastrophe | Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. violates normal syntax. ex. it only stand/ our lives upon/ to use our strongest hands | 18 | |
| 5185762013 | Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point or trait may add humor. ex. gates frequently played poker till daybreak. he did not graduate | 19 | |
| 5185794398 | Annotation | a critical or explanatory note or comment, especially for a literary work | 20 | |
| 5185797221 | Anticipating and addressing counter arguments | When making the argument, the author, aware of what points his or her opponents will likely take exception to, anticipates these objections and then addresses them in his or her argument, thus strengthening his or her position. Refutation and concession are examples of this type of organizational strategy. ex. while I realize your sales representation is new I feel that she has been unhelpful | 21 | |
| 5185550392 | Anticlimax | Using a sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of a sentence, generally for satirical effect. | 22 | |
| 5185550391 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. The AP language exam occasionally asks for one of a given pronoun in a long complex sentence or in a group of sentences. ex. one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it | 23 | |
| 5185550393 | Antimetabole | Repeating words in reverse order for surprise and emphasis. Same as Chiasmus. | 24 | |
| 5185550394 | Antithesis | A contrast or opposition of thoughts, usually in two phrases, clauses, or sentences. For example, You are going; I am staying. The exact opposite (Joy is the antithesis of sorrow). | 25 | |
| 5185550395 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. (If the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb). | 26 | |
| 5185550396 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity. William Wordsworth addresses John Milton as he writes, "Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee. | 27 | |
| 5185856655 | Appeal to authority | In a text, the reference to words, action, or beliefs of a person in authority as a means of supporting a claim, generalization, or conclusion. ex. as Mick Jagger said, you can't always get what you want | 28 | |
| 5185872554 | Apposotive | a noun or pronoun that identifies or explains another noun or pronoun in the sentence. ex. the raccoon, a scavenger, enjoys eating turtle eggs. | 29 | |
| 5185550397 | Archetype | The original pattern, or model from which all other things of the same kind of thing are made; a perfect example of a type or group. | 30 | |
| 5185885659 | Argument | the logical and non-logical ideas or reasons a person uses to convince a specific audience | 31 | |
| 5185897800 | Argumentation | writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments; persuasive writing is a form of argumentation | 32 | |
| 5185908909 | Aristotelian Logic | A formal logical system using syllogism in which propositions are given to support a conclusion that can be proven by either deduction or induction. ex. all penguins are birds, no birds are mammals, therefore no penguins are mammals | 33 | |
| 5185920692 | Assertion | a rhetorical stance and starting point of an argument that can be supported with specific evidence. ex. racists use the press skillfully to depict black men as dangerous | 34 | |
| 5185550398 | Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words; e.g., the words "cry and "side" have the same vowel sound and so are said to be in assonance. | 35 | |
| 5185941273 | Assumption | an inference or conclusion possibly based on some evidence. ex. she is a successful american, which is to say, an american | 36 | |
| 5185550399 | Asyndeton | The practice of leaving out the usual conjunctions between coordinate sentence elements. For example: smile, shake hands, part. | 37 | |
| 5185550400 | Atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of the literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described. Even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to the atmosphere. Frequently, atmosphere foreshadows events. | 38 | |
| 5185550401 | Attitude | The position or posture assumed in connection with an action, feeling, mood. For example, to kneel in an attitude of prayer. Also a manner of acting, feeling or thinking that shows one's disposition, opinion or mental set, etc. | 39 | |
| 5185550402 | Balanced Sentence | The phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness in structure, meaning, or length: e.g., He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. | 40 | |
| 5185550403 | Bathos | An abrupt change from the lofty to the ordinary or trivial in writing or speech; anticlimax. | 41 | |
| 5185957436 | Bangwagon | saying a specific stance would cause the rejection of peers, using a popular stance to persuade others to support it as well. ex. if you don't drink no one will invite you to anything | 42 | |
| 5185977862 | Begging the question | A logical fallacy in which the claim that is made is based on grounds that are in doubt. (Example: An accused felon makes the argument "I can't be guilty of embezzlement; I'm an honest person." Fallacy: How can the accused felon defend himself on the grounds of honesty when that honesty is now suspect?) | 43 | |
| 5185986451 | Binary Classification | the task of classifying the members of a given set of objects into two groups on the basis of whether they have some property or not. ex. testing a patient for a disease | 44 | |
| 5185550404 | Cacophony | Harsh sounding, jarring sound; dissonance. ex. my stick fingers clicked with a snicker | 45 | |
| 5186013117 | Caricatura | writing that exaggerates a specific trait. ex. with bulges like cabbages in the middle of the sleeves | 46 | |
| 5186032610 | Cause and Effect | examination of the causes and/or effects of a situation, can be an organizational strategy. ex. the erosion of the middle of the labor market is easy to misinterpret because its roots are multiple | 47 | |
| 5186071246 | Challenge | the author disagrees with a given assertion | 48 | |
| 5186075706 | Charts/ graphs/ diagrams | visual representation of data | 49 | |
| 5186086087 | Chiasmus | the order of terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. ex. Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you | 50 | |
| 5186091297 | Chronological ordering | events are organized according to the order of their occurrence | 51 | |
| 5186106086 | Circular logic/ thinking/ reasoning | a fallacy which involves repeating assertions endlessly with no support. ex. the bible is the infallible word of god, the bible says god exists, therefore god exists | 52 | |
| 5186129361 | Classification as a mean of ordering | organizational strategy where objects are arranged by their class. ex. media arranged by print, television, amd radio | 53 | |
| 5185550406 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. | 54 | |
| 5186147845 | Coherence | all parts of the piece of writing contribute to the central idea, shows quality | 55 | |
| 5185550408 | Colloquial Diction | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing,; give a work a conversational, familiar tone; expressions in writing include local and regional dialects. | 56 | |
| 5186444166 | Comparison | showing the similarities of two or more things | 57 | |
| 5186456777 | Complement | a sentence element required by the verb to complete the sentence. ex. I am now living 'in manhatten', he seems 'satisfied' | 58 | |
| 5185550409 | Complex Sentence | contains one principal clauses and one subordinate clause: e.g., although canada is a rich country, it still has many poor people | 59 | |
| 5185550410 | Compound Sentence | sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction (and, but, or) or by a semicolon: e.g., The singer bowed to the audience, but she sang no encores. | 60 | |
| 5185550412 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, sometimes an oxymoron(freezing fire, burning ice) usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy or juxtaposition between seemingly dissimilar objects. ex. comparing a loved one to a ship or planet | 61 | |
| 5186531840 | Concrete Diction | Words that specifically name or describe things or persons, what we can immediately perceive with our senses. ex. 'the 420 pound gorilla' opposed to 'the large gorilla' | 62 | |
| 5185550413 | Connotation | The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. ex. infatuation compared to love | 63 | |
| 5185550414 | Consonance | The repetition of a constant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect: e.g., And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. can also be found in compound words. ex. fulfill, pingpong | 64 | |
| 5186583407 | Contrast | showing the differences of two or more things | 65 | |
| 5186610105 | Conundrum | a paradox or difficult problem. ex. what came first, the chicken or the egg? | 66 | |
| 5186622667 | Convoluted Sentences | long complicated sentences that are hard to follow, involve too many ideas and are too wordy | 67 | |
| 5186639496 | Coordinating Conjunction | words that can, with a comma, link two independent clauses . ex. but, and , yet, nor, or, so | 68 | |
| 5185550415 | Cumulative/ loose sentence | a simpple sentence with a string of details about a person, place, event, or idea. ex. bells rang, filling the air with their clamor, startling pigeons to flight, causing people to fill the streets | 69 | |
| 5186696988 | Damning with faint praise | intentionally making a positive statement have a negative implication. ex. your new hairdo is so... interesting | 70 | |
| 5185550416 | Declarative Sentence | A sentence that makes a statement, structured subject/verb/object. ex. Sandra is on the radio | 71 | |
| 5186716561 | Deduction | reasoning using a syllogism, starts with the general and moves to the specific. ex. if a=b and b=c then a=c | 72 | |
| 5185550417 | Denotation | The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color. | 73 | |
| 5186759166 | Dependent clause | a group of words that contains a subject and a verb but cannot be a grammatical sentence. ex. because I can't wait for the bus | 74 | |
| 5186778460 | Determiner | words that introduce noun phrases. ex. an, these, your, what, some, etc. ex. you may borrow 'this' pencil | 75 | |
| 5185550418 | Diction | Related to style, refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. An author's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning and tone. ex. to the police an "accident", to an employer an "oversight" | 76 | |
| 5185550419 | Didactic | From the Greek, didactic literally means "teaching" Intended to instruct; teaching , or teaching a moral lesson, fiction or nonfiction. ex. "a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice" | 77 | |
| 5186806492 | Digression | temporary departure from main subject of speaking or writing | 78 | |
| 5186814859 | Dilemma | a conflict where both choices are negative | 79 | |
| 5186827822 | Diversion | used to distract or divert attention from the main issue to unrelated or trivial topics | 80 | |
| 5186836162 | Economy | a style of writing characterized by its brevity | 81 | |
| 5185550420 | Ellipsis | The omission of a word or words necessary for complete grammatical construction but understood in the context. | 82 | |
| 5185550421 | Epanalepsis | Opening and closing a sentence with the same word or praise for surprise and emphasis. For example, Buster is deeply concerned to promote the health and well being of Buster. | 83 | |
| 5186857263 | Epigram | A brief, clever, and memorable statement. ex. often it does seem a pity that noah and his party did not miss the boat | 84 | |
| 5186874734 | Epistrophe | the repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of phrases, clauses, or sentences. ex. when i was a child, i spoke as a child, i understood as a child, i thought as a child | 85 | |
| 5186932355 | Ethos | appeal to character and values | 86 | |
| 5185550424 | Euphemism | Form the Greek for "good speech," a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. | 87 | |
| 5185550425 | Euphony | The quality of having a pleasant sound; pleasant combination of agreeable sounds. | 88 | |
| 5186944153 | Exclamatory Sentences | sentences used to express great emotion, begin with what or how. ex. what a good time we had! | 89 | |
| 5187002560 | Explication | the art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text | 90 | |
| 5187009117 | Explicit | Clearly and openly stated; leaving nothing to the interpretation | 91 | |
| 5187014028 | Exposition | designed to convey information through the use of facts, reasons, examples | 92 | |
| 5185550426 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length , occurring frequently in or throughout a work. | 93 | |
| 5185550427 | Figurative Language | Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include, for example, apostrophe, hyperbole. Irony, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia etc. | 94 | |
| 5185550428 | Genre | Kinds of types of literature. For example, poetry, drama, novel, short story, nonfiction, etc. | 95 | |
| 5185550429 | Homily | A solemn, moralizing talk or writing; a sermon | 96 | |
| 5185550430 | Hortative Sentence | A sentence meant to encourage | 97 | |
| 5185550431 | Hyperbole | An overstatement or exaggerated way of saying something. Example: "This book weighs a ton." | 98 | |
| 5185550432 | Imagery | Anything in a literary work that calls up sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing. | 99 | |
| 5185550433 | Infer/Inference | To conclude or decide from something known or assumed; derive by reasoning. | 100 | |
| 5185550434 | Invective | A violent verbal attack; strong criticism, curses; an abusive term. | 101 | |
| 5185550435 | Inverted order of a sentence | This involves constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject: e.g., In California grow oranges. This is a device in which normal sentence patterns are reversed to create an emphatic or rhythmic effect. | 102 | |
| 5185550436 | Imperative sentence | A sentence that commands | 103 | |
| 5185550437 | Irony | In general, an implied contrast. | 104 | |
| 5185550438 | Juxtaposition | a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit: e.g., "The apparition of these face sin the crowd;/petals on a wet, black bough." | 105 | |
| 5185550439 | Litotes | Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary | 106 | |
| 5185550440 | Loose Sentence | makes sense if brought to a close before the actual ending: e.g., We reached Edmonton/ that morning/ after a turbulent flight/ and some exciting experiences | 107 | |
| 5185550441 | Metaphor | A comparison, like a simile but usually implied and without a comparative word such as like or as. Example: "My heart is a singing bird"; "He wolfed his food" | 108 | |
| 5185550442 | Metonymy | The use of the name of one thing for that of another associated with or suggested by it. For example "the White House" of the "President." | 109 | |
| 5185550443 | Mood | The atmosphere of the literary work. In verbs, an expression of the manner in which the action is done. The three in English are indicative, the most common, which states the action is an actual fact ("Tony hit the ball"), imperative, stating a command ("Tony, hit the ball!"). A third, the subjunctive, is now rare in English. It is used to express a wish or a conditional statement: "If I were you...", "It is required that the applicant be under twenty-one." | 110 | |
| 5185550444 | Motif | A main theme or subject. | 111 | |
| 5185550445 | Narrative | The telling of any story, or the story itself, the plot. | 112 | |
| 5185550446 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like what they mean. Buzz, clang, and hiss are onomatopoeia. | 113 | |
| 5185550447 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined; for example: thunderous silence, sweet sorrow and jumbo shrimp are oxymorons. | 114 | |
| 5185550448 | Parable | A brief story, usually with human characters, that teaches a moral lesson. The most famous parables are those told by Christ in the Bible. | 115 | |
| 5185550449 | Paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact. | 116 | |
| 5185550450 | Parallelism | refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence. It involves an arrangement of words, phrase, sentences, and paragraphs so that elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased: e.g., He was walking, running, and jumping for joy. I learned to swim, to play tennis, and to ride a horse. | 117 | |
| 5185550451 | Parody | A literary that imitates and makes fun of another type of work, or specific author. | 118 | |
| 5185550452 | Pedantic | An unnecessary display of scholarship lacking in judgment or sense of proportion. | 119 | |
| 5185550453 | Periodic Sentence | makes sense only hen the end of the sentence is reached. E.g., that morning, after a turbulent flight and some exciting experiences, we reached Edmonton. | 120 | |
| 5185550454 | Personification | The treatment of an object or an abstract idea as if it were a person, as in Tennyson's "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white," and Shakespeare's "Time's cruel hand." | 121 | |
| 5185550455 | Point of View | In fiction, is the first person, second, or third the writer creates to tell the story to the reader. | 122 | |
| 5185550456 | Prose | The ordinary form of written or spoken language, without rhyme or meter; speech or writing that is not poetry. | 123 | |
| 5185550457 | Prosody | The science or art of versification, including the study of metrical structure, rhyme, stanza forms, etc. | 124 | |
| 5185550458 | Pun | play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings.ccan have serious as well as humorous uses: e.g., When Mercutio is bleeding to death in Romeo and Juliet, he says to his friends, "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me grave man." | 125 | |
| 5185550459 | Repetition | A device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis: e.g., "...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall perish form the earth" | 126 | |
| 5185550460 | Rhetorical Modes | Narrative, descriptive, expository & argumentative. | 127 | |
| 5185550461 | Rhetorical Question | a question that expects no answer. It is used to draw attention as a point and is generally stronger than the direct statement: e.g., "If Mr. Ferchoff is always fair, as you have said, why did he refuse to listen to Mr. Baldwing's arguments?" | 128 | |
| 5185550462 | Sarcasm | A taunting, sneering, cutting or caustic remark; gibe or jeer. | 129 | |
| 5185550463 | Satire | A literary work that ridicules various aspects of human behavior. Its purpose is often to correct certain faults, but underneath the surface it is sometimes pure personal attack. Gulliver's Travels and Animal Farm and both satires. | 130 | |
| 5185550464 | Semantics | The nature, structure, development and changes of the meanings of speech forms with contextual meaning. | 131 | |
| 5185550465 | Sentence Structure | How a speaker or author constructs a sentence affects what the audience understands. The inverted order of an interrogative sentence cues the reader or listener to a question and creates a tension between speaker and listener. Similarly short sentences ar e often emphatic, passionate or flippant, whereas longer sentences suggest the writer's thoughtful response. | 132 | |
| 5185550466 | Shift | A change of feelings by the speaker from the beginning to the end, paying particular attention to the conclusion of the literature. (Progression) | 133 | |
| 5185550467 | Simile | The comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of words like or as. It is a definitely stated comparison in which the poet says one thing is like another; e,g,, The warrior fought like a lion. | 134 | |
| 5185550468 | Simple Sentence | a simple sentence contains one subject and one verb: e.g., The singer bowed to her adoring audience. | 135 | |
| 5185550469 | Split order of a sentence" | This divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle: e.g., In California oranges grow | 136 | |
| 5185550470 | Style | a group of different aspects of writing that have to do with the writer's way of saying something. Diction, sentence structure, figurative language, and various sound patterns all enter into style. | 137 | |
| 5185550471 | Symbol/Symbolism | A thing or action that is made to mean more than itself. A rose, for instance, is used to symbolize love. | 138 | |
| 5185550472 | Synecdoche | A form of a metaphor, In synecdoche , a part of something is used to signify the whole: e.g., All hands on deck. Also, the reverse, whereby the whole can represent a part, is synecdoche: e.g., Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals. | 139 | |
| 5185550473 | Synesthetic Imagery | Detail that moves from the simulation of one sense to a response by another sense, as a certain odor induces the visualization of a certain color. Here the act of reading, a visual stimulus, produces sound. e.g., "the cinnamon beat of the music," "yellow cocktail music," "the sparkling odor of jonquils," etc. | 140 | |
| 5185550474 | Syntax | At its simplest level, syntax consists of sentence structure and word order, but analysis of style and meaning never relies on one concept alone. Syntax should not be studied in isolation, but rather it should be examined in conjunction with other stylistic techniques that work together to develop meaning. | 141 | |
| 5185550475 | Theme | What the author is saying bout the subjects in his work. | 142 | |
| 5185550476 | Tone | The writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject and the audience. | 143 | |
| 5185550477 | Trite | is applied to something, especially a n expression or idea which through repeated use or application has lost its origin freshness. | 144 | |
| 5185550478 | Trope | A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression | 145 | |
| 5185550479 | Understatement (meiosis) | The opposite of hyperbole. It is a king of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is: e.g., I could probably manage to survive on a salary of two million dollars a year. | 146 | |
| 5185550480 | Vernacular | Using the native language of a country or place; commonly spoken by the people of a particular country or place. | 147 | |
| 5185550481 | Vignette | A short, delicate literary sketch. | 148 | |
| 5185550482 | Zeugma | Figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses | 149 |
