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
