Language devices Flashcards

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1
Q

Statistics

A

A statistic is numerical data

  • Numerical data can be used like facts to emphasise and demonstrate the point of the writer
  • For example, ‘1 in 4 people’ or ‘50% chance of rain’
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2
Q

Rhetorical questions

A

A question that does not require an answer

  • Rhetorical questions are used to engage and involve the reader by making them think. These are typically used to make a text more persuasive.
  • For example, ‘How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?’
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3
Q

Emotive language

A

Emotive language is designed to make the reader feel something and have an emotional response to the text.

  • This helps involve the reader and keeps them interested in reading on.
  • For example, ‘A distressing and harrowing example of cruelty’
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4
Q

Power of three

A

Three words or reasons put together in a list

  • This technique helps emphasise the point of the text and involves the reader by giving a variation in sentence structures
  • For example, ‘This is a great, adaptable and fun language device’.
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5
Q

Simile

A

A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with ‘like’ or ‘as’)

  • This helps create an image within the reader’s mind, which helps interest them in the text
  • For example, ‘Cold as snow’
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6
Q

Metaphor

A

A figure of speech in which an expression is used to compare one thing to another by saying it ‘is’ that other thing

  • This helps create an image within the reader’s mind, which helps interest them in the text
  • For example, ‘The world is your oyster’
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7
Q

Personification

A

Personification is used to give human qualities or characteristics to animals or objects

  • This gives a more detailed image in the mind of the reader much like a simile or metaphor whilst keeping the reader interested through varied devices
  • For example, ‘The pipes screeched in the night’
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8
Q

First person narration

A

A narrative mode that involves one narrator speaking of and about themselves

  • This makes the text more personal, which interests the reader as they may feel like they can ‘relate’ to the writer or that they ‘know’ them somehow
  • For example, ‘I wrote a letter and I sent it to the North Pole’.
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9
Q

Alliteration

A

The repetition of initial consonant sounds at the start of two or more words

  • Alliteration gives variation in sentences, which interests the reader. It can also be used to make a particular point ‘stand out’.
  • For example, “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
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10
Q

Short sentences

A

A short sentence is one clause. It is not lengthy.

  • Short sentences make information snappy and quick, which can make certain points ‘stand out’ more or give variation within the text to keep the reader interested
  • For example, ‘Stop. Look. Listen. Live’.
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11
Q

Direct address

A

Direct address is when the text addresses the reader. This can be done through second person narration ‘You’.

  • Directly addressing the reader involves them in the text and makes them think harder about what the text is ‘saying’.
  • For example, ‘You should consider how these revision cards will help you in your exam’.
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12
Q

Repetition

A

Repetition is the repeated use of the same word or phrases

  • Repetition is used to emphasise a certain point and usually makes a text more powerful
  • For example, ‘‘Tis a lesson you should heed, try, try again. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’.
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13
Q

Sibilance

A

A type of alliteration in which the “s” sound is repeated.

  • Sibilance gives variation in sentences, which interests the reader. It can also be used to make a particular point ‘stand out’ or for a select purpose such as the sound of water.
  • For example, ‘Seven sly sea-serpents swimming in the sea’.
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14
Q

Punctuation

A

The use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phrases

  • Punctuation helps structure sentences as well as intonation clues. These variations keeps the reader interested and engaged.
  • For example, rising intonation in questions ‘Are you well?’ or a sense of emergency in exclamatory statements ‘HELP!’
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15
Q

Hyperbole

A

A hyperbole is a literary device where the author uses specific words and phrases that exaggerate and overemphasize something in order to produce a grander, more noticeable effect. The purpose of hyperbole is to create a larger-than-life effect and overly stress a specific point. Such sentences usually convey an action or sentiment that is generally not practically/ realistically possible or plausible but helps emphasize an emotion.
- For example, ‘I am so tired I cannot walk another inch’ or ‘I’m so sleepy I might fall asleep standing here’

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16
Q

Pun

A

A pun is a play on words. Puns usually use words that have a double meaning or that sounds the same but have different meanings

  • Puns are often considered witty and are used to engage the reader by making them laugh. It is a clever use of language.
  • For example, ‘Shoes have souls’, which is a joke as shoes actually have soles not souls.
17
Q

Irony

A

Irony is saying one thing when the opposite is actually meant.

  • Irony can be used, much like a pun, to create humour. Ironic statements engage the reader and make them think about the expectations of certain statements.
  • For example, ‘Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop To Drink’ (‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge). This is situational irony as there is water everywhere, which is presumed to be drinkable, but he says there isn’t a drop to drink (opposing the assumption).
18
Q

Colloquial language

A

Ordinary, informal, everyday manner of speaking

- For example, ‘innit’, ‘you’re doing my head in’ and ‘i reckon’

19
Q

Oxymoron

A

Deliberate combination of seemingly contradictory words

- For example, ‘bittersweet’, ‘deafening silence’ and ‘pretty ugly’

20
Q

Assonance

A

Recurrent vowel sounds

- For example, ‘sweet’, ‘sleeps’ and ‘creature’