AP Language Rhetorical Terms Flashcards

8174405598	abstract	refers to language that describes concepts rather than concrete images (ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places). The opposite is concrete language	0
8174405599	ad hominem	In an argument, this is an attack on the person rather than on the opponent's ideas. It comes from the Latin meaning "against the man."	1
8174405600	allegory	an extended narrative in prose or verse in which characters, events, and settings represent abstract qualities and in which the writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface of the story; the underlying meaning may be moral, religious, political, social, or satiric	2
8174408327	alliteration	the practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same sound	3
8174408328	allusion	a reference to mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing in order to develop a comparison	4
8174410514	analogy	Comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or a relationship	5
8174410515	anaphora	the repetition of the same word of group of words at the beginning of successive clauses	6
8174410516	anecdote	a short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point	7
8174413476	antithesis	a direct juxtaposition of structurally parallel words, phrases, or clauses for the purpose of contrast	8
8174413477	aphorism	a short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life	9
8174416002	apostrophe	a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present and the inanimate, as if animate	10
8174416003	assonance	repetition of accented vowel sounds between different consonants in a series of words	11
8174423085	asyndeton	a deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses	12
8186047158	cacophony	harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose	13
8186047159	caricature	descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates specific features, most often of a person's appearance or a facet of personality	14
8186047160	chiasmus	A sentence arrangement in which the arrangement of ideas in the second phrase or clause is a reversal of the first (using the different words).	15
8186050399	colloquialism	a word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing	16
8186050400	conceit	an extended metaphor; it is developed throughout a piece of writing	17
8186053958	concrete	refers to language that describes specific, observable things, people, or places, rather than ideas or qualities	18
8186053959	concession	used in argument as the acknowledgement of a point made by one's opponent.	19
8186053960	connotation	implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind	20
8186054022	consonance	repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words for a harmonious effect	21
8186056669	counterargument	a response to a point of the opposition	22
8186056670	denotation	literal meaning of a word as defined	23
8186056671	diatribe	a bitter attack or criticism	24
8186059554	diction	word choice intended to convey a certain effect	25
8186059555	didactic writing	writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach. This is usually formal and focuses on moral or ethical concerns	26
8186062402	dissonance	harsh or grating sounds that do not go together	27
8186649990	emotional appeal	When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument	28
8186649991	epigraph	the use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme	29
8186649992	ethical appeal	When a writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him or her based on his/her credibility/reliability, past experiences, level of education, etc	30
8186649993	euphemism	a more acceptable and usually more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable	31
8186653334	euphony	a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose	32
8186653335	exigence	The situation (reason) that has prompted an author, speaker, etc. to produce a piece of rhetoric	33
8186657179	extended metaphor	an extended, sustained comparison, often referred to as a conceit	34
8186781197	false analogy	When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them	35
8186784143	figurative language	language that contains figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal	36
8186784144	foreshadowing	the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future actions	37
8186784145	freight-train	Sentence consisting of three or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions to make a long sequential statement	38
8186806039	generalization	When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable	39
8186806040	genre	a type of literary work	40
8187893295	homily	a "sermon"; informally it can include serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice	41
8187893296	hyperbole	deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration	42
8187893297	hypophora	when a writer poses a question and immediately follows the question with an answer	43
8187897286	imagery	words or phrases a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses	44
8187897287	inference	a conclusion one can draw from the presented details	45
8187897288	interior monologue	writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head	46
8187907686	invective	a verbally abusive attack	47
8188355472	verbal irony	when a speaker or narrator says one thing while meaning the opposite	48
8188355473	situational irony	when a situation turns out differently from what one would normally expect	49
8188357897	dramatic irony	when a character or speaker says or does something that has different meanings from what he/she thinks it means, though the audience and other characters understand the full implications of the speech or actions	50
8188357898	jargon	The special language of a profession or group	51
8188357899	juxtaposition	Normally unassociated words or phrases are placed next to one another, often creating an effect of surprise, dramatic enhancement, or wit	52
8188357900	logical fallacy	a mistake in reasoning	53
8188360601	loose sentence	Sentence makes complete sense if brought to a close before the actual ending	54
8196611671	metaphor	a comparison of two unlike things not using "like" or "as"	55
8196611672	metonymy	a figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something with which it is associated	56
8196611673	mode	the method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written	57
8196611674	mood	similar to tone, this is the atmosphere or dominant emotion in a literary work	58
8196613839	motif	main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea	59
8196613840	negative-positive	Sentence that begins by stating what is NOT true, then ending by stating what is true	60
8196616702	non-sequitur	Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another	61
8196686568	objectivity	an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement in a story	62
8196690619	onomatopoeia	imitative harmony that is the use of words that mimic the sounds they describe in order to reflect on the overall mood in a work	63
8196690620	oversimplification	When a writer obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument	64
8196692102	oxymoron	a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single, unusual expression	65
8196692103	parable	a short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory	66
8196692104	paradox	when the elements of a statement contradict each other; although the statement may appear illogical, impossible, or absurd, it turns out to have coherent meaning that reveals a hidden truth	67
8196692105	parallelism	a similarity in the way parts of a sentence or sentences are put together; this allows the author to reveal that the ideas are of equal importance	68
8196694657	parody	a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements	69
8196694658	pedantic	a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant	70
8196696431	periodic sentence	makes sense fully only when the end of the sentence is reached	71
8196696432	personification	a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics	72
8196698789	first person narrator	a narrator, referred to as "I," who is a character in the story and relates the actions through his or her own perspective, also revealing his or her own thoughts	73
8196698790	point of view	the perspective from which a narrative is told	74
8196701499	omniscient point of view	third person narrator, referred to as "he," "she," or "they," who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action	75
8196701500	limited omniscient point of view	a third person narrator who reports the thoughts of only one character and generally only what that one character sees	76
8196703323	polysyndeton	the deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis to highlight quantity of mass of detail or to create a flowing, continuous pattern	77
8196703324	protagonist	the central character of a drama, novel, short story, or narrative poem	78
8196703325	red herring	When a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue	79
8196706160	reductio ad absurdum	the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice	80
8196706161	repetition	a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and to create emphasis	81
8196706162	rhetoric	the art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse; this focuses on what is said and how it is crafted together	82
8196707728	rhetorical fragment	a sentence fragment used deliberately for a persuasive purpose or to create a desired effect	83
8196709203	rhetorical question	a question that requires no answer because the answer is implied. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience	84
8196799654	sarcasm	the use of verbal irony in which a person appears to be praising something but is actually insulting it	85
8196799655	satire	A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way	86
8196799656	simile	a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words "like" or "as"	87
8196801427	speaker	the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictitious persona	88
8196801428	stereotype	a character who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality; a conventional patter, expression or idea	89
8196801429	straw man	When a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Setting this up diverts attention from the real issues	90
8196803417	stream of consciousness	a perspective in which the reader in placed inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continuous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions in the character's mind	91
8196803418	style	a writer's characteristic manner of crafting language - his or her diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute to this	92
8196803440	subjectivity	a personal presentation of evens and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions	93
8196807079	syllogism	A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. The format of a formal argument that consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion	94
8196807080	symbol	any object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value	95
8196809147	synecdoche	a form of metaphor; a part of something is used to signify the whole	96
8196809148	syntactic fluency	Ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length	97
8196811113	syntax	the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence	98
8196811114	telegraphic sentence	short dramatic sentences, usually used in succession	99
8196811115	theme	the central idea or "message" or a literary work	100
8196813087	tone	the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience, and it is conveyed through the author's choice of words and detail	101
8196815808	understatement	the opposite of exaggeration/hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is	102