Grammatical Devices Flashcards
Alliteration
Definition: Repetition of the same consonant or vowel sound at the beginning of each word in a sentence
Effect: Beauty of sound, emphasis
Allusion
Definition: Making a reference to a generally familiar person, place, real or fictional
Effect: Imply a whole story by only using one of two words
Ambiguity
Definition: Purposely making a passage with double meaning
Effect: Humor or irony, suggests complexities and uncertainties
Ex: “He left his book on the piano,” it is unclear if the book was about the piano, or if the book was lying on top of the piano
Antithesis, Antithetical
Balancing opposite or contrasting words, phrases, clauses, paragraphs, etc
Effect: Are often memorable and aid in development by contrast
Ex: “God is Love, dare I say. But what a mischievous devil Love is”
Assonance
Repetition of a vowel inside a word
Effect: Creates mood and rhythm
Ex: “A deep green stream”
Balance
Two separate parts of a sentence, each about equal in length and importance
Effect: To weigh two ideas equally
Ex: “There’s never a time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it over”
Colloquialism, Colloquial
Language that is seen more often in speech than in literature (Slang)
Effect: Makes the text more informal and entertaining
Ex: “He revered the dignity of her face and the quiet beauty of her smile; in sum, he thought that she was pretty cute”
Complex sentence
A sentence that has at least one independent, and dependent clause
Effect: Adds depth and meaning to the sentence
Ex: “Fifty years ago, when all type was set by hand, the labor of several men was required to print, fold, and arrange in piles the signature of a book”
Connotation
Favorable or unfavorable feelings or moods that surround certain words
Effect: Evokes emotion, creates a mood
Consonance
Repetition of a consonant sound inside the words of a sentence
Effect: Creates rhythm
Ex: “A pale gold cloud”
Cumulative sentencew
Starts of general, and adds more details to become more specific (often used in description)
Effect: Builds depth/complexity to the writing
Ex: “The geriatric section is always the most unattractive, poorly lighted, no brightness, no pictures, no laughter. Just long green corridors, lined by doors; white-gowned nurse, moving silently”
Image, Imagery
Authors use words to give the reader a specific visual
Effect: Help the reader connect more with the text
Ex: “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”
Interrupted movement (MUST USE)
Main clause in the sentence is interrupted by a comma, dash, or bracket
Effect: More informal to the reader, connects them to the author
Ex: “The Renaissance, as we have seen, has not yet reached Norther Europe”
Irony, Ironic, Ironically
When the writer uses their words to say something that differs from what is actually being written
Effect: Emphasizes a point, forces reader to contemplate between two things
Ex: “Thus a terrible stench may be called a perfume; a stupid man a genius”
Metaphor
Compares two unlike things without saying “like” or “as”
Effect: Help provide a visual or clarify something
Ex: “All the world’s a stage, and we are merely actors”
Parallel, Parallelism, Parallel Construction
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related
words, phrases, or clauses.
Effect: Rhythm and flow, emphasis on certain things
Example: ““Not only was he brave, but he was also compassionate and wise.” (“he was” followed by an adjective)
Periodic sentence
A sentence that delays the full thought until the very end
Effect: Demands more attention from the reader, creates more and more suspense and emphasis as the sentence goes on
Ex: If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people reading for the love of reading, slowly and unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might not this improve the quality of his work?”
Personification
Giving human traits to a non-human thing
Effect: Enhance understanding, sometimes creates imagery
Ex: “The trees danced in the breeze, their leaves whispering secrets to one another as they swayed.”
Symbol
A person, place, or thing that exists as something that is also greater than itself, symbols can also be loosely tied to an object
Effect: Universal understanding
Ex: The Canadian flag is a symbol of Canada
Tone
Writer’s attitude towards the subject, and attitude towards the reader
Effect: Creates understanding and depth
Ex: An author could love or hate their subject, be angry with or proud of their readers, etc
Understatement
Play down or soften something that is usually terrible, horrifying, and deserving of more emotion and attention
Effect: Emphasis, relive the writer of the cause of exaggeration
Ex: “A hurricane just a bit of wind and rain”
