AP Vocabulary 25-48 Flashcards
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part. Distinguishing between this and metonymy often take some thoughtful consideration.
Tone
Tone, in a written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. It is something important for the reader to “sense” to determine an argument. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.
Process Analysis
A step-by-step breakdown of the phases of a process, used to covey the details of each phase of thinking, an operation, etc. It is often used to improve understanding and also to break down an argument to make it more comprehensible.
Provocative Diction
“diction” is our choice of words. Thus, “ provocative Diction” is the purposeful choice of words serving or tending to provoke, excite, or stimulate a provocative question that will frame a rhetorical argument.
Classification
The action or process of classifying something according to shared qualities or characteristics. This often is a strategy of argumentation or an argumentative response in an effort to provide the reader with structure to YOUR argument. It would be considered a support to both LOGOS and ETHOS in presenting an argument.
Understatement
For example, you win 10 million dollars in a lottery. When you tell a news reporter “ I am delighted”, you are making an understatement. Similarly, suppose a team loses to its opponent 50 to 0 in a soccer match and the captain of the team says in a post-match ceremony says, “We did not do well”, it is an understatement because he is trying to decrease the intensity of the loss. It is the opposite of HYPERBOLE or OVERSTATEMENT.
Colorful Diction
Diction is your conscious choice of words as a writer. It stands to reason that “ Colorful Diction” is a very purposeful word choice that will serve to accentuate meaning and tone.
Counterargument
An argument or set of reasons put forward to oppose an idea or theory developed in another argument. When writing in the argumentative mode, it is Mandatory that the writer acknowledge the “other” side to his or her argument. It is part of the refutation of someone else’s claim to support your own “side” of the argument that you are making.
Claim
If somebody gives an argument to support his/her position, it is called making a claim. Different reasons are usually presented to prove why a certain point should be accepted as logical.
Evidence
Evidence is a type of literary device that appears in different categories of essays and theses in the form of paraphrase and quotations. It is presented to persuade the readers and used with powerful arguments in the texts or essays. In rhetoric, when a person makes a claim or presents an argument, he needs to present evidence in support of his claim and argument in order to establish the veracity and authenticity of his claim or argument.
Warrant
A warrant is the glue that holds on argument together. It links the evidence to the claim. It says something like “ this evidence supports the claim because…” and it always in a similar form that is more of a statement of support.
Fallacy
An erroneous argument dependent upon an unsound or illogical contention. There are many fallacy examples that we can find in everyday conversations.
Syntax
“syntax” refers to how we choose to arrange our words. The choice of those specific words is called DICTION.
Logical Fallacy
In argumentation, a formal fallacy (also called deductive fallacy) is a pattern of reasoning/ thinking rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure that can neatly be expressed in a standard logic system, for example propositional logic. An argument that is formally fallacious is always considered wrong.
Prophecy
Many believe that a prediction and a prophecy are the same, but they are mistaken. It is true that both “forecast” the future, but there is a significant difference. A prophecy has all the elements of a prediction except the element of time. Without the element of time, a prophecy is hard to determine. A “prophecy” has more of a religious connotation. Since there is an element of uncertainty about time.
Prediction
A prediction is a forecast made by those who calculate the parameters of the subject involved after evaluating the odds they can predict the future. The weather forecast is a good example. A “prediction” is limited to a time element, unlike a prophesy.
Adage
An adage is a short, pointed and memorable saying based on facts, and is considered a veritable truth by the majority of people. Famous adages become popular due to their usage over a long period of time. In fact, an adage expresses a general fact or truth about life. As It becomes popular, it is then accepted as a universal truth.
Pendantic
Pendantic comes from a French word, pendant, means “to teach or to act as pedagogue.” A pendantic is someone who is concerned with precision, formalism, accuracy, minute details in order to make an arrogant and ostentatious show of learning.
Flippant
Lacking proper respect or seriousness. This is often associated with the impatience of youth. Synonyms: cute, facetious, flip, part, smart Antonym: earnest, sincere
Evocative
The use of language that “ suggests” meanings other than the denotative. Language that connects with emotions or feelings not associated with the actual meaning of a word.
Syntactical Inversion
Inversion, also called anastrophe, in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as, in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (“the form Devine”), a verb before its subject (“ came the dawn”)
Apposition
A grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to identify the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be in apposition.
Didactic
The word didactic is frequently used for these literary texts which are overloaded with informative or realistic matter and are marked by the omission of graceful and pleasing details. Didactic, therefore, becomes a derogatory term referring to the forms of literature that are ostentatiously dull and erudite. However, some literary text are entertaining as well as didactic.
Conceit
Conceit is a figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes and metaphors. Thus, conceit can have a surprising or shocking effect on the readers because they are novel comparisons unlike the conventional comparisons made in similes and metaphors.
