Language analysis terms Flashcards
Soliloquy and Monologue + effect?
When a character speaks to oneself and no other character can hear even if they are on stage
Effect: can be comical, allows the audience to see inside the mind of the character
Dramatic irony
When the audience is aware of something that the characters aren’t
Effect: can be comical
recurring imagery
Imagery that comes up time after time
Effect: allows the audience to tie two things together
Asides
When a character speaks to oneself and other characters can’t hear them - addressing audience usually
Effect: Comical- inside the mind of the character
Rhetoric questions
When characters ask questions that aren’t to be answered
Blason
a poetic term in which a character uses similes/metaphors etc to describe their adoration for another character
eg. “my mistress’s hair was like a fire”
Clíche
Phrases that are so overused and create a sense of cringe
Bathos
when writers tone goes from high to low- when one assumes they are talking intellectually and then the phrase flops
used for comedic effect
Apostrophe
When there is a comma in a sentence
or when a character addresses something that isn’t actually real or there
eg- O, spirit
Allusion
When the text your reading makes reference to something outside of the text itself
Aphorism
A little phrase that teaches a life lesson
eg: take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves
Epithet
when a series of adjectives or one adjective describes someone’s characteristics or personality
eg Romeo and Juliet are ‘star crossed lovers’
Metaphor
a description of something in a figurative way
‘life is a box of chocolates’
Simile
when you use like or as to describe something
Hyperbole
when you describe something unrealistically
She is as big as a house
Symbolism
When something represents something else
it is symbolic of it
Personification
When objects/nonhuman things are described using human nature/aspects
‘the trees whispered’
Pathetic fallacy
When the weather described sets the mood for the scene/influences/resembles the scene/mood
Sibilance/alliteration/assonance/fricative
the repetition of a certain letter at the beginning of a word
‘andy ate ants all afternoon’
Anaphora
The repetition of the same phrase over and over at the beginning of a clause
“it was dark, it was dull, it was grey, it was glooomy”
Antistrophe
A rhetorical device that means you repeat the same word at the end of the clause
“i wanted to go out, but he didn’t want to go out, in the end we all want to go out”
Anecdote
A short story within a story that helps the author get their point across
Synaesthesia
The language that makes you hear music and see colours in your mind from objects that don’t necessarily make sounds
Eg. “his loud Hawian shirt”
