Literary and Rhetorical Terms
Terms
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- annotation
- explanatory notes added to a text to explain, cite sources, or give bibliographic information
- common knowledge
- shared beliefs or assumptions that writers believe readers should accept
- hyperbole
- exaggeration used to heighten effect; not intended literally, often humorous "So hungry I could eat a horse"
- conventional
- following traditional techniques of writing; overreliance on this may result in a lack of originality; 5 paragraph theme is seen as this
- elliptical
- sentence structure which leaves out something in the second half; "Fire when ready" ("you are" is understood)
- Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
- a writer implies that because one thing follows another, the first caused the second
- polysyndeton
- sentence which uses "and" or another conjnuction (no comma) to separate the items in a series; X an Y and Z--stresses each item equally
- asyndeton
- commas used to separate a series of words. Parts are emphasized equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition the use of commas with no intervening conjunction speeds up the flow of a sentence "X,Y,Z"
- analogy
- comparison to a directly parallel case
- either-or reasoning
- writes reduces an argument to two polar opposies and ignores any alternatives
- emotional appeal
- often through pathos, a writer attempts to ecite and involve his/her audience in the argument
- Red Herring
- writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real issue
- explication
- act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually close reading and paying careful attention to figuartive language
- didactic
- teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking
- Litote
- expression of affirmation by negating its opposite; "She is not that unkind."
- ethical appeal
- writer tries to persuade the audience to respect and believe him/her based on a presentation of image of self through text; writer tries to gain audience's confidence in what he/she is saying
- Inversion
- variation of the normal words order (subj-verb-complement) which puts a modifier or the verb first in the sentece; element that appears first is emphasized more than subject
- verbal irony
- when the reader is aware of a discrepancy between the real meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the writer's words
- ambiguity
- event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way
- concrete language
- describes specific, observable things, people or places, rather than ideas or qualities
- apostrophe
- a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present; For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!"
- allegory
- a story in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. It is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth; the characters or ideas may be symbolic of the ideas referred to.
- non-sequitir
- one statement is not logically connected to another
- deconstruction
- critical approach that debunks definitions of meanings based on the instability of language; re-examines literary conventions
- begging the question
- often called circular reasoning, occurs when the believablity of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim
- authorial voice
- voices or speakers used by authors when they seemingly speak for themselves in a book; makes it clear in critical discussion that the narration or presentation of a story is not necessarily to be identified with the biographical and historical author
- dramatic irony
- reader is aware of an inconsistency between a character's perception of a situation and the truth of the situation
- pathetic fallacy
- to sympathize with nature as if it were human; "The wind moaned" "The trees lamented"
- periodic
- sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence
- straw man
- when a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak--it diverts attention from the real issues
- connotation
- rather than the dictionary definition, the associations suggested by a word; implied meaning rather than literal
- cumulative
- sentence which begins witht he main idea and then expands on that idea with a series of detail
- archetype
- symbol, theme, setting, or character that is thought to have some universal meaning
- generalization
- a claim based upon an isolated example or claim that something is certain rather than probable
- synecdoche
- the part stands for the whole-- "lend me your ears" ; "all eyes on me"
- anaphora
- repitition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row
- assonance
- repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity
- epigraph
- a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of theme; Sister Karen's paper for Silas Marner included this before the essay was written
- mood
- atmosphere created by a writer's diction, the details selected, and syntax (sets pace)
- chiasmus
- arrangement of repeated thoughts in the pattern of X Y Y ; "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"
- allusion
- indirect reference to something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar
- balance
- construction in which both halves of the sentence are about the same length and importance
- 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
- paradox
- seemingly contradictory statement which is actually true
- synesthesia
- crossing 2 senses; "loud color" ; "sweet sound" ; "prickly laugh"
- freight-train
- sentence consisting of one or more very short independent clauses joined by conjunctions
- syntactic fluency
- ability to create a variety of sentence structures, appropriately complex and/or simple and varied length
- dead metaphor
- through much use it has become part of the language; ex) flowerbed, run for office, to lend a hand, fishing for compliments, catch her name
- ad hominem
- "Against the man" ; when a writer personally attacks his opponent instead of their arguments
- abstract language
- describes ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places
- style
- choices in diction, tone, and syntax work together to create a manner of expression
- Logic
- implied comparison resulting when one thing is directly called another--must be appropriate
- false analogy
- when two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them; "Access to firearms should not be severely restricted, as access to kitchen knives is not severely restricted and yet, like firearms, they are sometimes used to kill innocent people"
- mixed metaphor
- leaps from one identification to a second identification that is inconsistent with the first one; ex) "He stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horns," where two commonly used metaphoric grounds for highlighting the concept of "taking action" are confused to create a nonsensical image
- antithesis
- balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses. Ex.) "To err is human; to forgive divine"
- metonymy
- object represents somebody or something; "The order came from the White House" (president)
- purple patch
- highly elaborated pieces of writing within plain text; calls attention to itself because of its ornateness
- equivocation
- writer uses the same term in two different senses in an argument; "It is wrong to kill innocent human beings"/ "Fetuses are innocent human beings."/ "Therefore, it is wrong to kill fetuses"
- anecdote
- a brief recounting of a relevant episode
- backing
- support or evidence for a claim in argument
- satire
- work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way--targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals
- diction
- word choice, particularly as an element of style
- tricolon
- sentence consisting of equal importance and length, usually three independent clauses
- example
- individual instance taken to be representative of a general pattern; best are factual as well as relevant
- syntactic permutation
- structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved; difficult for a reader to follow
- causual relationship
- writer asserts that one thing results from another
- authority
- arguments that draw on recognized experts or persons with highly relevant experience are said to rest on authoritative backing or authority
- exposition
- background information provided by a writer to enhance a reader's understanding of the context of a story
- persona
- writer adopting a fictional voice to tell a story
- tone
- writer's attitude toward his/her subject revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization on the sentence and global levels
- consonance
- repitition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity
- alliteration
- repitition of initial identical constant sounds