Colloquial/Colloquialism- Inference/infer

Diacope

Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase: word/ phrase X,..., word/phrase X. Ex: We will do it, I tel you; we will do it. We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks (Psalm 75:1)

Ellipsis (plural, ellipses)

1) In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis refers tot he artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause. For instance, an author might write, "The american soldiers killed eight civilians, and the French eight." The writer of the sentence has left out soldiers after French, and the word civilians after eight. However, both words are implied by the previous clause. 2) In its more modern sense, ellipsis refers to a punctuation mark indicated by three periods to indicate material missing from a quotation... like so. This mark is common in MLA format for indicating partial quotations.

Generalization

A claim based upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable. Sweeping generalizations occur when a writer asserts that a claim applies to all instances instead of some.

Figure of speech

A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things. Figures of speech include apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement.

Conceit

A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extend metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made. Ex: John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," a poem in which Donne compares two souls in love to the points on a geometer's compass. Shakespeare made liberal use of conceits in his poetry.

Eclipsis (Greek, "leaving otu")

A type of enallage in which an author or poet omits essential grammatical elements to create a poetic or artful effect. Ex: "This sentence, no verb!" In this example, the necessary verb has vanishes, but the intentional effect is to highlight its omission. This term is not to be confused with ellipsis, below.

Epitaph

An epitaph refers literally to an inscription carved on a gravestone. In a more general sense, an epitaph is the final statement spoken by a character before his death. In many of Shakespeare's plays, it is common for the last words of a character speaks to come true, especially if he utters a curse. Historical and literary examples: Epitaph for John Keats': "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." Epitaph for Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr: "Free at Last/ Free at Last / Thank God Almighty /I'm Free at Last." Epitaph on grave in The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."

Exposition

In essays, one of the four chief types of composition, the others being argumentation, description, and narration. The purpose of exposition is to explain something. In drama, the exposition is the introductory material, which creates the tone, gives the setting, and introduces the characters and conflict.

Enumeration

Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; to the listing or detailing of the parts of something. Ex: I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips. "Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? IT's chocolate; ti's peppermint; it's delicious... It's very refreshing!"- Kramer (Seinfeld).

Hypophora

Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked an then answered, often at length, by one and the same speaker; raising and responding to one's won questions (x). a common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use the paragraph to answer ti. You can use hypophora to raise questions which you think the reader obviously has on his/her mind and would like to see formulated and answered. Ex: "When the enemy struck on that June day of 1950, what did America do? It did what it always has done in all of its times of peril. It appealed to the heroism of its youth." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

Euphemism

From the Greek for "good speech," euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. The euphemism may be sued to adhere to standards or social or political correctness or to add humor or ironic understatement. Ex: "Passed" for "died".

Enallage (Greek, "interchange")

The intentional misuse of grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase. Ex: Boxing manager Joe Jacobs became immortal with the phrase, "We was robbed!" Or, the editors of Punch magazine might tell their British readers, "You pays your money, and you takes your chances." Similarly, in Shakespeare, we find "And hang more praise upon deceased I" (Sonnet 72). An intentional misuse of subject-verb agreement occurs when Falstaff asks a servant, "Is there not wars? I there not employment?" (II Henry IV, I, ii).

Dialect

The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. The term dialect encompasses the sounds, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or social. Dialect is a major technique of characterization that reveals the social or geographic status of a character. For example, Mark Twain uses exaggerated dialect in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to differentiate between characters: Ex: Jim: "We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo' heels. Dat's de good ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it." Huck: "I'll take the canoe and go see, Jim. It mightn't be you know."

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. However, genre is a flexible term; within these broad boundaries exist many subdivisions that are often called genres themselves. For example, prose can be divided into fiction (novels and short stories) or nonfiction (essays, biographies, autobiographies, etc.) ON the AP language exam, expect the majority of the passages to be from the following genres: autobiography, biography, diaries, criticism, essays, and journalistic, political, scientific, and nature writing.

Dystopia (Greek, "bad place")

The opposite of a utopia, a dystopia is an imaginary society in fictional writing that represents, as M. H. Abrams puts it, " a very unpleasant imaginary world in which ominous tendencies of our present social, political, and technological order are projected i some disastrous future culmination." For instance, while a utopia presents readers with a place where all the citizens are happy and ruled by a virtuous, efficient, rational government, a dystopia presents readers with a world where all citizens are universally unhappy, manipulated, and repressed by a sinister, sadistic totalitarian state. This government exits at best to further its own power and at worst seeks actively to destroy its own citizens' creativity, health, and happiness. Examples of fictional dystopias include Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale,

Deduction

The process of logic in which a thinker takes a rule for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting within that general category obey the same rule. For instance, a general rule might be that "Objects made or iron rust." When the logician then encounters a shovel made of iron, he can assume deductively that the shovel made of iron will also rust just as other iron objects do. This process is the opposite of induction, which calls for the thinker to fashion a large, general rule from a specific example. Deduction determines the truth about specific examples using a large general rule. Deductive thinking is also called syllogistic thinking. Ex: Everything made of copper conducts electricity. (Premise) This wire is made of copper. (Premise) This wire will conduct electricity. (Conclusion)

Coherence (unity)

The quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle. Words, phrases, clauses within the sentence; and sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in larger pieces of writing are the unit that by their progressive and logical arrangement, make for coherence.

Colloquial/colloquialism

The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. Ex: y'all, ain't "Over and over, I would read her account of the turning point in her career- the night she got her first standing ovation, hours after being dumped by her fiance because she wouldn't quit acting." K. D. Miller

Homily

This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.

Inference/infer

To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. When a multiple-choice question asks for an inference to be drawn from a passage, the most direct, most reasonable inference is the safest answer choice, If an inference is implausible, it's unlikely to be the correct answer. Note that if the answer choice is directly stated, ti is not inferred and is wrong. You must be careful to note the connotation-negative or positive-of the choices.