AICE Language AS- Rhetorical terms
"Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly-mostly-let them have their whiteness."
Polysyndeton
Narrative
a story, or a type of text in which related events are presented to the listeners or readers in words arranged in a logical sequence
Situational Irony
occurs when actions or events have the opposite result from what is expected or what is intended
Dramatic Irony
occurs when the audience (of a movie, play, etc.) understands something about a character's actions or an event but the characters do not.
Refutation
The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view. (Also referred to as a counterargument or counterclaim)
Point of View
The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information. The most common forms are 1st and 3rd person.
Allusion
A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional.
Logos
Employs logical reasoning, combining a clear idea (or multiple ideas) with well-‐thought-‐out and appropriate examples and details. These supports are logically presented and rationally reach the writer's conclusion in order to persuade the intended audience.
In "To Kill a Mockingbird," Scout realizes what her father had been trying to teach her throughout the novel: "Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them."
Epiphany
"For no government is better than the men who compose it, and I want the best, and we need the best, and we deserve the best."
Epistrophe
Ellipses
(1) Three dots that indicate words have been left out of a quotation; they also can be used to create suspense. (2) The omission of words in a phrase or sentence.
Extended Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.
Analogy
A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way
Understatement
A figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is
Metaphor
A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.
Personification
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement.
Simile
A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by "like" or "as."
Idiom
A figure of speech whose meaning is culturally defined and cannot be directly translated, e.g. "piece of cake"
Sarcasm
A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark. When using sarcasm, the literal meaning of a remark differs from its intended meaning.
Symbol
A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself.
Ethos
A persuasive appeal based on the credibility or character of the speaker or narrator.
Rhetorical question
A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.
Dialect
A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.
Flashback
A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story.
Anecdote
A short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event. The term most frequently refers to an incident in the life of a person and is often proposed to support or demonstrate some point.
Paradox
A statement that appears to contradict itself but actually contains a degree of truth.
Epistrophe
A type of parallel structure that involves the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. (Also known as epiphora).
Anaphora
A type of parallel structure that involves the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
Tone
A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality.
"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes" -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Alliteration
Potato chips are my diet's Achilles heel.
Allusion
At a meeting about new standards in education, the featured speaker is a college professor, who argues for the new standards.
Ethos
Repetition
An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point.
"Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream speech
Anaphora
A politician who is arguing for a different type of healthcare program includes a story about a little girl who was not able to have a transplant due to insurance.
Anecdote
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness."
Antithesis
"Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure?"
Asyndeton
The intended audience for George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is the general public, particularly the people of the former Soviet Union.
Audience
Colloquialism
Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.
"The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursues him."
Chiasmus
"This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - "I Have a Dream," Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The aforementioned line serves as the apex of the speech which criticizes and rejects racial discrimination.
Climax
From Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and it ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?"
Colloquialism
While the word "chicken" literally refers to an animal, it is a term used to describe someone who is a coward.
Connotation
Home, despite its relation to the idea of family and belonging, literally means the physical place where you live.
Denotation
"Lisa," said Kyle, "I need help moving this box for the garage sale. Will you help me?" "Sure!" Lisa moved to lift one end of the box for her brother. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "You can't give away your Harry Potter collection!"
Dialogue
In Macbeth, King Duncan says that he trusts Macbeth but the audience knows that Macbeth is plotting to kill Duncan.
Dramatic Irony
"I have a dream that one day ... the sons of former slaves ... and former slave owners will ... sit down together," from the original Text from MLK's I Have a Dream: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."
Ellipsis
"Two Sunflowers / Move in the Yellow Room. / 'Ah, William, we're weary of weather,' / said the sunflowers, shining with dew. / Our traveling habits have tired us. / Can you give us a room with a view?" -Two Sunflowers Move in a Yellow Room, William Blake
Personification
Juxtaposition
Placing dissimilar items, descriptions, or ideas close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
First Person: "I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining the conversations between my friends. We went out to the Café Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard."
Point of View
In his poem "Mother to Son," Langston Hughes compares life to a walk up a staircase: "Well, Son, I tell you / life for me ain't been no crystal stair. / It's had tacks in it, / and splinters, / And boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor-- / bare."
Extended Metaphor
Antithesis
Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through parallel structure; a contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Audience
For whom a text is written, or who is being addressed. Depending on the genre, the audience could be general or very specific.
"'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you / Till China and Africa meet, / And the river jumps over the mountain / And the salmon sing in the street, / 'I'll love you till the ocean / Is folded and hung up to dry'"
Hyperbole
This crossword is a piece of cake.
Idiom
"It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window...Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass,...On every rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-mist was so thick, that the wooden finger on the post directing people to our village...was invisible to me until I was quite close under it." -Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"
Imagery
Didactic
Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.
In "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy says of Elizabeth Bennett that she is not "handsome enough to tempt me," but he falls in love with her in spite of himself.
Irony
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Juxtaposition
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
Pathos
"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot."
Logos
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet, the sun!"
Metaphor
Charles Dickens creates a sense of calm and peacefulness in his novel Pickwick Papers: "The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on." The depiction of idyllic scenery imparts a serene and non-violent feeling to the readers.
Mood
Climax
Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events.
New situations always make me a bit nervous, and my first swimming lesson was no exception. After I changed into my bathing suit in the locker room, I stood timidly by the side of the pool waiting for the teacher and other students to show up. After a couple of minutes, the teacher came over. She smiled and introduced herself, and two more students joined us. Although they were both older than me, they didn't seem to be embarrassed about not knowing how to swim. I began to feel more at ease.
Narrative
In George Orwell's Animal Farm, one part of the cardinal rule is the statement, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Paradox
In class, at work, and on the field, Martin strives for excellence.
Parallelism
Textbooks, cookbooks, newspapers and encyclopedias are all forms written in order to provide information to the reader.
Purpose
"You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations."
Refutation
"It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know...I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love.
Repetition
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.
Rhetoric
"O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
Rhetorical question
"Good fences make good neighbors."
Sarcasm
"I would have given anything for the power to soothe her frail soul, tormenting itself in its invincible ignorance like a small bird beating about the cruel wires of a cage."
Simile
Dorothy goes to the wizard in order to find a way home, only to learn that she is capable of doing so herself. Scarecrow wished to become intelligent, but he discovers himself a perfect genius. Woodsman considers himself as not capable of love; nevertheless, he learns that he has a good heart. Lion appears as a coward, and turns out to be extremely fearless and courageous.
Situational Irony
"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it; I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary." -Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Symbol
Dialogue
The conversation between two or more speakers/characters in a text.
Allegory
The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. A story with both a literal and symbolic meaning.
Denotation
The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.
Connotation
The emotional implications and associations a word may carry; the implied or suggested meaning of a word.
Assonance
The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
Pathos
The means of persuasion that appeals to the audience's emotions.
Epiphany
The moment when there is a sudden realization that leads to a new perspective that clarifies a problem or situation.
Asyndeton
The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton).
Mood
The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work. Setting, tone, and events can affect the mood.
Purpose
The reason why an author decides to write a text. Some common examples of author's purpose include "to inform," "to entertain," and "to persuade."
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Marc Antony gives a speech in which he repeatedly refers to Brutus as "an honorable man," when Brutus just participated in murdering Caesar.
Verbal Irony
Imagery
Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses.
Parallelism
The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Involves the repetition of verb forms, parts of speech, phrases, clauses, etc.
Rhetoric
The study and practice of effective persuasion in speaking or writing.
Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
Irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. The three types are situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony.
"And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don't know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn't the best. We complained about it. So we've got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we've got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown leaves, it was depressing." -The School, Donald Barthelme (The use of the adjectives "dead" and "depressing" makes the message gloomy. As trees signify life here, their unexpected "death" from an unknown cause makes the author seem unhappy and pessimistic.)
Tone
Consonance
Typically used to refer to the repetition of ending sounds that are consonant sounds within the word as well. Often, consonance is used to create a rhyme or cadence.
On the discovery of DNA, "This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."
Understatement
Verbal Irony
is when words express something contrary to truth or someone says the opposite of what they really feel or mean. Verbal irony is often sarcastic.
Polysyndeton
literary technique in which conjunctions (e.g. and, but, or) are used repeatedly in quick succession, often with no commas, even when the conjunctions could be removed.
