Cumulative Vocab Quiz Flashcards
Strawman
When someone appears to be refuting the original point made, but is actually arguing a point that wasn’t initially made/ Used to misrepresent or exaggerate an opposing argument to make it easier to attack
Begging the Question/ Circular Reasoning
When the conclusion of an argument is assumed in the phrasing of the question itself
Ex: If aliens didn’t steal my newspaper, then who did?
Bandwagon
Claiming a truth or affirming something is
good because the majority thinks so
Ex: Everyone is buying the new phone, so it
must be worth purchasing.
Ad Hominem
When someone criticizes the person making an argument rather than the argument itself
Ex: A woman argues that abortion should be legal in all cases, but an opponent says that she is not qualified to say that because she went to prison for a few weeks
No True Scotsman
Fallacy used against all clear evidence pointing toward a fact to make as if the evidence does not apply to the circumstance because of a false “truth.”
Ex: Even though male military veterans suffer from depression more frequently than normal, they must “tough it out” like “real men”
Understatement
Fielding’s description of a grossly fat and repulsively ugly Mrs. Slipslop: “She was not remarkably handsome.”
Mock Encomium
Praise which is only apparent and which suggests blame instead
Grotesque
Creating a tension between laughter and horror or revulsion; the essence of all “sick humor: or “black humor”
Comic Juxtaposition
Linking together with no commentary items which normally do not go together; Pope’s line in Rape of the Lock: “Puffs, patches, bibles, and billet-doux”
Mock Epic/Mock Heroic
Using elevated diction and devices from the epic or the heroic to deal with low or trivial subjects
Parody
Mimicking the style and/or techniques of something or someone else
Aphorism
A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief
Ex: Early to bed and early to rise/ Make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise
Zeugma
Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. The linking shows a relationship between ideas more clearly
Chiasmus
Figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel clauses is reversed in the second
Ex: “Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church”
Asyndeton
The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggests the list may be incomplete
Ex: He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing
Consonance
The repetition of two or more consonants with a change in the intervening vowels
Ex: Pitter-patter, splish-splash, and click-clack
Anadiplosis
Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause
Ex: “The crime was common, common be the pain”
Apostrophe
Words that are spoken to a person who is absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea
Allusion
A reference to a work of literature, film, etc.
Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to designate a part
Litotes
A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating it’s opposite
Allegory
A work of literature in which characters, events, and items are directly symbolic of specific social figures, themes, ideas, etc.: Young Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith
Hyperbole
A figure of speech in which deliberate exaggeration is used
Imagery
Writing that uses strong sensory detail
Conceit
A fanciful poetic image or metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different
Anaphora
The repetition of specific phrases/ parallel syntax specifically used for dramatic or emphatic effect
Onomatopoeia
A figure of speech in which words imitate sounds
Alliteration
The repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words
Antithesis
A figure of speech in which words and phrases with opposite meanings are balanced against each other
(Like a paradox)
Connotation
Associations and implications beyond the literal definition of a word (Ex: “thrifty” vs. “cheap”)
Metonymy
A type of metaphor in which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it (Ex: the Crown)
Personification
Giving a non-living thing human/active qualities
Archetype
A recurring, universal character quality/ motif in literature
Anachronistic
A person or object out of date
(Ex: A cartoon character pulling out an iPhone in the Medieval Times)
