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| 269062392 | Abstract | the designating qualities or characteristics apart from specific objects or events: it is opposite of concrete. | 0 | |
| 269062393 | Allegory | a narrative, either in verse or prose, in which character, action, and sometimes setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. The underlying meaning usually has a moral, social, religious, or political significance, and the characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as charity, hope, greed, and so on. The Scarlet Letter is an example, as in Animal Farm | 1 | |
| 269062394 | Alliteration | the repetition of initial identical consonant sounds or any vowel sounds in successive or closely associated syllables, especially stressed syllables. A good example of consonantal "this" is Coleridge's lines: The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free. Vowel "this" is shown in the sentence: "Apt alliteration's artful aid is often an occasion ornament in prose." "this" of sounds within words appears in Tennyson's lines: The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees. | 2 | |
| 269062395 | Allusion | a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art. | 3 | |
| 269062396 | Analogy | a process of reasoning that assumes if tow subjects share a number of specific observable qualities then they mat be expected to share qualities that have not been observed; the process of drawing a comparison between two things based on a partial similarity of like features. | 4 | |
| 269062397 | Anaphora | one of the devices of repetition in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. It is one of the most obvious of the devices used in the poetry of Walt Whitman, as these opening lines from one of his poem shown: As I ebb'd with the ocean of life. As I wended the shores I know, As I walk'd where the ripples continually wash you Paumanok | 5 | |
| 269062398 | Anastrophe | the inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. It is deliberate rather than accidental and is used to secure rhythm or to gain emphasis or euphony. Anything in language capable of assuming a usual order can be inverted. It can apply to the usual order of adjectives in English, so that Arnold's "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar," Eliot's "one-night cheap hotels," and Yeats's "terrified vague fingers" all depart from the customary sequence (presumably "long, withdrawing melancholy roar," "cheap one-night hotels," and "vague terrified fingers"). Other common patterns affect the adjective-noun succession (inverted in many places in poetry, such as Poe's "midnight dreary") and the standard subject-verb-object order of syntax. For example, the prodigious opening strophe of Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is a single sentence twenty-two lines long marked by extreme inversion: twenty substantial lines of adverbial and adjectival matter (showing much anaphora), then the main subject, "I," then some protracted adjectival matter, then the object, "a reminiscence," and, finally, after some two hundred preliminary words, the main verb, "sing." | 6 | |
| 269062399 | Antecedent | The word to which a pronoun refers (whose place it takes) is the "this" of the pronoun. For example: Mrs. Rice is my English teacher this year; I hope that she won't give the class too much work | 7 | |
| 269062400 | Anticipating Audience Response | a rhetorical technique often used to convince an audience is that of anticipating and stating the arguments that one's opponent is likely to give and then answering theses arguments even before the opponent has had a chance to voice them. | 8 | |
| 269062401 | Antithesis | A figure of speech characterized by strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, as in "Man proposes, God disposes." It is a balancing of one term against another fro emphasis. True structure demands that there be not only an opposition of idea. But that the opposition in different parts is manifested through similar grammatical structure. | 9 | |
| 269062402 | Aphorism | a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words. The term was first used by Hippocrates, whose were tersely worded medical precepts, synthesized from experience. It was later applied to statements of general principle briefly given in a variety of practical fields, such as law, politics and art. The opening sentence of Hippocrates' book is a justly famous example: "Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult." The term usually implies specific authorship and compact, telling expression | 10 | |
| 269062403 | Apostrophe | a figure of speech in which someone (usually, but not always absent), some abstract, or a nonexistent personage is directly addressed as through present. Characteristics instances are found in invocations: And chiefly, Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st. Or an address to God, as in Emily Dickinson's: Papa Above! Regard a Mouse. Early in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius, who is actually talking to Brutus, exclaims, "Age, thou art sham'd! / Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!" The form is frequently used in patriotic oratory, the speaker addressing some glorious leader of the past and invoking his or her aid in the present, as in Wordsworth's lines: Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee.... | 11 | |
| 269062404 | Appositive Phrase | type of noun phrase that follows the noun or pronoun it modifies and amplifies or restricts its meaning. For example: Our department head, a careful reader and outspoken critic, will review the memo before it is circulated. | 12 | |
| 269062405 | Attitude | The author's closely linked with the tone of a piece, can also be the underlying feeling behind a tone. For example: A tone might be one of anger, but "this" behind the tone would be one of concern or fear of a situation. The mother screams at the child, "Don't touch the hot stove!" | 13 | |
| 269062406 | Call to action | writing that urges people to take action or promotes change. | 14 | |
| 269062407 | Characterization | the techniques a write uses to create and reveal fictional personalities in a work of literature, by describing the character's appearance, actions, thoughts, and feelings. | 15 | |
| 269062408 | Chiasmus | type of balance in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the part reversed, as in Coleridge's line, "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike." | 16 | |
| 269062409 | Classification and division | the first is a method of sorting, grouping, collecting, and analyzing things by categories based on features shared by all members of a class or group. The opposite is a method of breaking down of an entire whole into separate parts or sorting a group of items into non-overlapping categories. | 17 | |
| 269062410 | Cliche | a timeworn expression that through overuse has lost its power to evoke concrete images. For Example: "gentle as a lamb," smart as a whip" and "please as punch." | 18 | |
| 269062411 | Coinage | a word or phrase made, invented or fabricated. For example: Bushonomics; gynormous; man-crush | 19 | |
| 269062412 | Colloquial Expression | they are words or phrases, characteristics or appropriate ordinary or familiar conversations rather than formal speech writing | 20 | |
| 269062413 | Comparison/Contrast | a rhetorical technique for pointing out similarities or differences. Writers may use a point by-point method to interweave points of comparison or contrast between two things or a subject-by-subject method to discuss similarities and differences. | 21 | |
| 269062414 | Compound/Complex Sentences | sentence that contains two or more independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause. | 22 | |
| 269062415 | Conceit | an elaborate and surprising figure of speech comparing two very dissimilar things. It usually involves intellectual cleverness and ingenuity | 23 | |
| 269062416 | Concrete | pertains to actual things, instances, or experiences: opposite of abstract | 24 | |
| 269062417 | Defensive, Offensive | a method of argument in which the speaker or write defends her own views and/ or attacks the views of others | 25 | |
| 269062418 | Definition | a method of specifying the basic nature of any phenomenon, idea, or things. Dictionaries place the subject to be defined in the context of the general class to which it belongs and gives distinguishing features that differentiate it from other things in its class | 26 | |
| 269062419 | Denotation, Connotation | The first is the specific, exact meaning of a word, independent of its emotion coloration or association. The opposite is the emotions implications that words may carry, as distinguished from their denotative meanings. This may be (1) private and personal, the result of individual experience, (2) group (national, linguistic, racial), (3) general or universal, held by all or most people. It depends on usage in a particular linguistic community and climate. A purely private and personal one cannot be communicated; the it must be shared to be intelligible to others. | 27 | |
| 269062420 | Diction | the choice of words in a work of literature and an element of style important to the work's effectiveness. | 28 | |
| 269062421 | Doublespeak | Language use to distort and manipulate rather than to communicate. | 29 | |
| 269062422 | Downplaying/Intensifying | are methods of drawing attention and diversion to the work's effectiveness | 30 | |
| 269062423 | Ellipsis | the omission of a word or words necessary for complete construction, but understood in the context. (I love English as much as she.) The word does is understood, hence the nominative she is correct! It can include the omission of a noun, verb, etc | 31 | |
| 269062424 | Emotional Appeal | exploiting readers' feelings of pity or fear to make a case: this fallacy draws solely on the readers' pathos and not on logic. A case may be made that appealing to one's audience's emotions is the most legitimate or logically sound of all the fallacies | 32 | |
| 269062425 | Ethical Appeal | the most subtle and often the most powerful because it comes from character and reputation, not words. As a writer your this stems from your ability to convince your readers that you are a reliable, intelligent person who knows what you're talking about and cares about the issues. Building this kind of appeal into your argument isn't easy. You have to know your readers and respect them, and you have to show that you've done your homework. | 33 | |
| 269062426 | Ehtnocentricity | the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own group and culture. | 34 | |
| 269062427 | Euphemism | from the Greek word meaning to speak well of: the substitutions of an inoffensive, indirect, or agreeable expression for a word or phrase perceived as socially unacceptable or unnecessarily harsh. For example: "private parts" for sexual organs, "slumber robe" for shroud, and "disadvantage" for poor | 35 | |
| 269062428 | Exposition | writing that seeks to clarify, explain, or inform using one or several of the following methods: process analysis, definition, classification and division, comparison and contrast, and cause-and-effect analysis | 36 | |
| 269062429 | Figurative Language | the use of words outside their literal or usual meanings, used to add freshness and suggest associations and comparisons that create effective images: includes elements of speech such as hyperbole, irony, metaphor, personification, and simile | 37 | |
| 269062430 | Hyperbole | FIGURE OF SPEECH in which conscious exaggeration is used without the intent of literal persuasion. It may be used to heighten effect, or it may be used to produce comic effect. Macbeth is using this in the following lines: No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine Making the green one red | 38 | |
| 269062431 | Imagery | the use of language to convey sensory experience, most often through the creation of pictorial images through figurative language. For example, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day." | 39 | |
| 269062432 | Idiom | a use of words, a grammatical construction peculiar to a given language, or an expression that cannot be translated literally into a second language. "To carry out" may be taken as an example. Literally it means, or course, to carry out something out (of a room perhaps), but this way it means to see that something is done, as "to carry out of a command." | 40 | |
| 269062433 | Irony | a mode of speech in which words express a meaning opposite to the intended meaning. | 41 | |
| 269062434 | Jargon | from the fifteenth-century French term meaning twittering or jibberish: usually refers to a specialized language providing a shorthand method of quick communication between people in the same field. Often used to disguise the inner working of a particular trade or profession from public scrutiny. | 42 | |
| 269062435 | Juxtapose | placing two ideas side by side or close together. Sometimes the two ideas are completely different. | 43 | |
| 269062436 | Lending Credence | in arguing her point, a writer or speaker should always lend her opponent some credit for the opponent's ideas. In this way the writer or speaker persuades her audience that she is fair and has done her homework, thereby strengthening her own argument. | 44 | |
| 269062437 | Litotes | a form of UNDERSTATEMENT in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite. To say "She was not unmindful" when one means that "She gave careful attention" is to employ litotes. Although a common device in ironic expression, litotes was also one of the characteristic FIGURES OF SPEECH of OLD ENGLISH POETRY. In Tennyson's "Ulysses," the heroic speaker resorts to these several times, with an effect of stoic restraint and (this is still the crafty warrior) subtlety: "little profits" for "profits not at all," "not least" for "great," "not to fail" for "succeed splendidly," and "not unbecoming" for "thoroughly appropriate." | 45 | |
| 269062438 | Logical Fallacies | methods of pseudoreasoning that may occur accidentally or may be intentionally contrived to lend plausibility to an unsound argument. These include: A Shift in Definition Ad Hominem: an attack against the character of the person instead of the issue. Begging the Question: assuming something to be true that really need proof. False Analogy: an argument based on misleading, superficial, or implausible comparisons. Non Sequitur: LATIN for "It does not follow;" where the conclusion does not follow its premise. Red Herring: use of an irrelevant point to divert attention from the real issue. Slippery Slope: failure to provide evidence showing that one event will lead to a chain of events of a catastrophic nature. Straw Man: where an opponent takes original argument of his adversary and then offers a close imitation of it and knocks down that argument | 46 | |
| 269062439 | Logical Reasoning | the idea that there are principles governing correct or reliable inferences. Examples include facts, reasons, and expert opinion. | 47 | |
| 269062440 | Loose Sentence | a sentence grammatically complete at some point (or points) before the end; the opposite of a PERIDODIC SENTENCE. A complex one consists of an independent clause followed by a dependent clause. Most of the complex sentences we use are "this" (the term implies no fault in structure), the PERIODIC SENTENCE being usually reserved for emphasis | 48 | |
| 269062441 | Lyrical Drama | a term used for a dramatic poem in which the form of drama is used to express lyric themes (author's own emotions or ideas of life) instead of relying on a story as the bases of the action. | 49 | |
| 269062442 | Metaphor | a figure of speech involving an implied comparison. For example: "She is a rose!" A comparison that is developed throughout a work. In this example of a rose, the extended "this" would be the rose-like characteristics throughout the poem. A controlling "this" would be the rose as the main idea around which the entire poem revolves. The poem about a rose might represent the entire female body and attitude | 50 | |
| 269062443 | Metonymy | a figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself. In this way we commonly speak of the king as "the crown," an object closely associated with kingship thus being made to stand for "king". | 51 | |
| 269062444 | Mood | the overall atmosphere of a work. The tone may change from paragraph to paragraph or page to page, etc. the "this" of The Fall of the House of Usher is gloomy and depressing, and the tone mirrors this overall atmosphere with shadings of gloom and depression. One paragraph might include fear and another includes irritation | 52 | |
| 269062445 | Motif | in literature, recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work are called "this". Nabokov's Lolita, for example, is saturated by a light-dark "this" that is found in the names of PROTAGONIST and ANTAGONIST (Humbert Humbert and Claire Quilty); patterns of day and night, blonde and brunette, summer and winter, north and south, white and black; and the game of chess. | 53 | |
| 269062446 | Narration | the story of events and/or experiences that tell what happened. | 54 | |
| 269062447 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words that by their sound suggest their meaning. Words include "hiss" "buzz" "sizzle" and "whirr." However it in the hands of a poet become a much more subtle device than simply the use of such words when , in an effort to suit sound to sense, the poet creates versus that themselves carry their meaning in their sounds. A notable example is The Princess by Tennyson. The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And the murmuring of innumerable bees | 55 | |
| 269062448 | Oxymoron | A self contradictory combination of words or smaller verbal units: usually noun-noun, adjective-adjective, noun-adjective, adverb-adverb, adverb-verb. (jumbo shrimp, pianoforte, bittersweet) | 56 | |
| 269062449 | Paradox | a phrase or statement that while seemly is contradictory or absurd may actually be well-founded or true. It is a rhetorical device used to secure attention and secure emphasis. | 57 | |
| 269062450 | Parallelism | the arrangement of parts of a sentence, sentences, paragraphs, and larger units of composition that one element of with another is similarly developed and phrased. The principal dictates that coordinate ideas should have coordinate presentation. For example, "I like to fish and swim," is not parallel. The sentence should read "I like to fish and to swim." Another correct construction would be, "I like fishing and swimming," | 58 | |
| 269062451 | Periodic Sentence | a sentence that is not grammatically correct before its end; the opposite of a LOOSE SENTENCE. The characteristic of it is that its construction is such as to constantly throw the mind foreword to the idea that will complete the meaning. It is effective when it is designed to arouse interest and curiosity, to hold an idea in suspense before its final revelation is made. It is accomplished by the use of parallel phrases or clauses in the opening, by the uses of dependent clauses preceding the independent clause, and by the use of such correlatives as neither...nor, not only...but also, and both...and. The first stanza of Longfellow's "Snowflakes" is one, beginning with a succession of adverbial phrases and not grammatically complete until the very last word, which is the subject: Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow, Descends the snow. | 59 | |
| 269062452 | Personification | attributing human characteristics to nonhuman things. For example: "The poor desk hurt himself." | 60 | |
| 269062453 | Point of View | a term used in ANALYSIS and CRITICISM for fiction to describe the way in which the reader is presented with the materials of the STORY or, regarded from another angle, the vantage point from which the author presents the ACTIONS of the STORY. | 61 | |
| 269062454 | Polysyndeton | the repetition of conjunctions in close succession for rhetorical effect: "Here and there and everywhere." | 62 | |
| 269062455 | Process Analysis | its a method of clarifying the nature of something by explaining how it works in separate, easy-to-understand steps. (Hirschberg) Giving a class directions to baking a pie or to fixing an air conditioning system would be an example | 63 | |
| 269062456 | Repetition | a rhetorical device reiterating a word or phrase, or rewording the same idea, to secure emphasis. | 64 | |
| 269062457 | Rhetorical Question | A question is asked solely to produce an effect and not to elicit a reply, such as "When will genetic engineering fulfill its promise?" | 65 | |
| 269062458 | Rhetorical Strategies | They, as far as the directions on the AP tests are concerned, have two meanings: If the prompt directs the students to mention those and literary devices and imagery in analyzing a piece, then the term means compare/contrast, process analysis, definition, narration, cause/effect, or argumentation/persuasion. If the prompt asks students to discuss the it in a piece and does not mention other terms, the student should include everything that he or she knows about analysis: literary devices, imagery, compare/contrast, process analysis, definition, narration, cause/effect, and argumentation/persuasion | 66 | |
| 269062459 | Satire | a technique that ridicules both people and societal institutions, using iron wit, and exaggeration. | 67 | |
| 269062460 | Simile | a figure of speech involving a comparison using like or as. For example: "She is as lovely as a summer's day." | 68 | |
| 269062461 | Simple Sentence | a complete sentence that is neither compound nor complex. Refer to your grammar text! | 69 | |
| 269062462 | Spin | In politics, harmful situations are sometimes plated in the media as philanthropic endeavors. Instead of labeling the war on Iraq as "Murdering an Evil Leader" or "The War on Iraq", President Bush's "**** doctors" have coined the title, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" | 70 | |
| 269062463 | Style | the author's characteristic manner of expression. It includes the types of words used, their placement, and distinctive features of tone, imagery, figurative language, sound, and rhythm. | 71 | |
| 269062464 | Syllogism | a formula for presenting an argument logically. It affords a method of demonstrating the logic of an argument through analysis. in its simplest form, it consists of three divisions: a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Major Premise: All public libraries should serve the people. Minor Premise: This is a public library. Conclusion: Therefore, this library should serve the people. | 72 | |
| 269062465 | Symbol | something concrete (such as an object, person, place, or event that stands for or represents something abstract (such as an idea, quality, concepts, or condition. | 73 | |
| 269062466 | Synecdoche | a type of figurative language in which the whole is used for the part of the part used for the whole. In "the dying year," the whole is used to stand for a part, "autumn," the use of "Wall Street" to refer the money market or financial affairs to the entire U.S. is an example of the second - using a part to stand for the whole (or the specific to stand for the general). | 74 | |
| 269062467 | Syntax | the pattern or structure of the word order in a sentence or phrase: the study of grammatical structure. | 75 | |
| 269062468 | Tone | the voice the writer has chosen to project to relate to readers. For example, serious, lighthearted, etc. It is produced by the combined effect of word choice, sentence structure, and purpose, and reflects the writer's attitude toward the subject. | 76 | |
| 269062469 | Voice | the implied personality the author chooses to adopt. In fiction, it may reflect a persona who projects views quite a different from the author's. | 77 |
