Language devices Flashcards
Flattery
Compliments to someone (with the possible intention of wanting something from them)
Opinion
A personal opinion that may or may not relate to reality. “I believe that the car was red.” “Students should pay more for their own books.”
fact
A sentence that is considered to be objectively true (i.e., independent of opinion).
It is a fact that Paris is the capital of France. It is a fact that King George VI died in 1952.
Philosophically, this can be more slippery than at first understood…when we begin to focus on a fact, we often find that they are based on a series of beliefs about the words and their relations. Fun games: when does a man become bald - how many hairs does he have to lose? When does a village become a town? A hill become a mountain? … Does a person really die? What is life? How long has Paris been a capital - and what defines a capital, and is France all it seems to be…?
Be aware of the fact checkers - who is checking them?
Hyperbole
Use of exaggeration; e.g., “For the millionth time stop exaggerating!”
Imperative language
Command language or orders that someone is giving to us.
“Attention!”
“Sit down!”
“Don’t laugh!”
“Get on with your work!”
“Run, now!”
“Eat your vegetables.”
Triples or the rule of three
Use of three words, ideas, or phrases to help the reader recall the information or to emphasise a point.
Churchill: “I have nothing to offer but ‘blood, sweat, and tears’”
Emotive language
Use of language designed to have an emotional impact - to make an appeal to your heart.
‘Abandoned children found in filthy, flea-infested flat…’ (bbc bitesize example, great to say out loud)
“Shame on you!”
“Why would you leave me here all alone without a friend in the world except you?” Blinkety blink…
Philosophically this is considered a fallacy - in which the conclusion does no necessarily follow from the propositions: just because someone appeals to the heart to encourage you to act in a way does not mean that the action will be good or you must send money!
Use of statistics of numbers (why?)
“The average income is £27,200 in the UK….”
- factual, sounds authoritative…backing up the article with data; use of ‘logos’ (reason, science, knowledge, data, to influence us).
- PROBLEM: statistics can be highly manipulated because it depends on how they are constructed.
- ALSO- possibly used to surprise or shock: “Teenage pregnancy rates in England and Wales have almost halved in the last eight years, plummeting to the lowest level since records began.”
Rhetorical question:
A question not expecting an answer from the audience/reader
Used to introduce a topic.
“What is a rhetorical question? Well, let me tell you…”
Personification
giving an object (or animal) human characteristics or feelings
The cat mused upon the death of the mouse.
The table waited patiently for the guests to arrive.
The mountain stared down ominously at the climbers.
Pathetic fallacy
The description of the atmosphere reflects the emotions of the characters in a story.
“It was a dark, stormy night, when the murderer entered the old castle…” [Think how this used in films…]
Oxymoron
two or more contradictory terms, e.g, “deafening silence” “lazy worker” “poor rich girl”
Setting
The context in which the story takes place:
House, fields, beach, space, sea, zoo, underground …
Settings usually change with the story or a story may take place in the same setting.
Also - what time period? contemporary, historical, future …
Mood or atmosphere
The general atmosphere that the author creates.
- suspenseful
- fearful
- calm
- mysterious
- wonderous
- exciting
- adventurous
- thrilling
- satirical
- pantomime
- dark
- lonely, bleak
- miserable
- hopeless
- chaotic or anarchic
- loving
- contented
- kind
- friendly, welcoming
- idyllic
- absurd (theatre of the absurd -post WW2 writers such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionescu)
- silly (many Monty Python sketches)
Characterisation
How an author may use traditional archetypes such as an innocent person, sly, evil, helpless, humorous, sinister, manipulating, trustworthy, untrustworthy.
Other characters are not stereotypes:, these tend to be used in more modern writings - we don’t know what’s going to happen to them! The character develops with the story line and may be said to shift between traditional stereotypes.
Other aspects:
Profession (eg Macbeth is a Thane and a soldier; Inspector Goole an apparent policeman)
Demeanour (moods) - sulky, arrogant, etc
Skills (warrior)
Ambitions
Beliefs - religious, secular
Clothing - stylish, old fashioned;
Gait (how they walk - esp. in drama!)
Comportment (how they hold themselves) - slouching, upright
Hobbies/interests
Expectation of self eg ambition, drive, or lack of; ‘great expectations’ for Pip
Expectations of others - are these demanding or encouraging?
Lifestyle
Actions and reactions
Speech - diction (word use), dialect (local phrases), melody (sounds, rhymes, sing-song, flat, nasal, piercing, commanding…)
Background - privileged, poor, educated, uneducated
Manners: ill-mannered, well-mannered; no clue on etiquetter
Egotisic drives (believing he/she is godlike …. ‘hubris’)
Responsibility - takes decisions responsibly and accepts the consequences; irresponsibly - does not recognise choosing and avoids accepting consequences
Language use in general
How the author pulls us into the atmosphere of a story or into a character’s mind.
How the author creates suspense or wonder with emotive language and imagery.
Does the author focus on details or the adventure using strong verbs, short sentences?
Is the author using dialect for characters to give a sense of locality?
Plot, story, structure
The deliberate sequencing of events in the text/play, etc.
Story = what happens. That may not be in the same sequence as the plot. E.g., Star Wars IV came first.
Structure = how a text/play/novel is divided up.
Cliff-hanger
Deliberate break or pause in the story to heighten tension - - we cannot wait to find out what happens next!
Turning points
Moments in a text which have a highly significant effect on the characters and/or the unfolding of the future (bbc bitesize)
The story usually changes at this point and may make its way to its ending -
These can be revelations of a truth, the death of someone important, the meeting of characters … Juliet realises that Romeo is her family’s enemy
Final resolution or “denouement”
“The final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved: ‘the film’s denouement was unsatisfying and ambiguous’ “
Types of narration…
~~~
First person (singular) = “I”
First person (plural) = “we”
Second person = you
(singular and plural is the same in English; but in. e.g., French it is tu and vous)
Third person single = He, she, it
Third person plural = They
NB “They” has also been used in the past to refer to a single person of unknown gender; “Someone ran across the street. They were obviously fleeing from the alarm that had gone off.”
General description of character - what to look for
Appearance: face, height, build, skin, hair, eyes…
Behaviour or actions the character takes
Interests
**Personal thoughts **
Profession/job
**Virtues and vices - **
How other characters react to this person
How the character affects other characters in the story
Alliteration
Repeated first letter or sound;
silly sounds
boutiful bargains
think thoughtfully then thank the Thuringian. (person of a German state called Thuringia)
Assonance
repeated vowel (often in the middle of word)
“I lie down by the side fo my bride”/”Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese”/”Hear the lark and harden to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground” by Pink Floyd
Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/assonance-examples.html#3H9V6xqdKz0AWMPW.99
an acrostic poem
An acrostic poem is a poem in which the letters of each line spell out a word, name, or phrase when read vertically - usually the first letter of the stanza is used but can also be the last.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “An Acrostic”:
Elizabeth it is in vain you say
“Love not”-thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe’s talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth-and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love-was cured of all beside-
His follie-pride-and passion-for he died.
allusion
a reference to another event, person, place, or work of literature.
The allusion is usually implied rather than an explicit (telling us where it comes from) and provides another layer of meaning to what is being said.
Films may refer to other films (esp. in comedies); authors may allude to other authors to make fun of them;
ambiguity
Use of language where the meaning is unclear or has two or more possible meanings or interpretations.
E.g., “Peter and Paul went into the shop and he bought a packet of crisps and a copy of Dickens’s Great Expectations.” Who was doing the buying?
It could be created by a weakness in the writer’s expression - they’re not being clear in what they mean, but it is more likely it is a deliberate device used by the writer to create layers of meaning.
Weak, or DANGLERS - when the meaning is lost accidently, such as, “The man killed the student with a book.” Hmmm?! Did he kill a student who happened to be holding a book, or did he kill the student by using a book as a weapon?
“Leaving home, the weather was bright and sunny.” I presume the weather left its home in this one…
Deliberate - when the ambiguity is used for effect as in puns, double entendre, equivocation.
Great play on words (pun) from Carry on Cleo - as Caesar is attacked, he calls out, “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!” (A phonic - sound - pun)
“Do you believe in clubs for young people?” someone asked W.C. Fields. “Only when kindness fails,” he replied.
anthropomorphism
the endowment of human characterisctics to something that is not human –
The table waited patiently for the diners to sit.
The tree sighed as the highwayman passed; it knew what was waiting the robber around the corner.
assonance
the repetition of similar vowel sounds
atmosphere
the prevailng mood created by a piece of wrtiting
colloquial
ordinary, everday speech and language
connotation
an implication or association attached to a word or phrase. It is suggested or felt rather than being explicit.
From litcharts.com:
- Words can have positive, negative or neutral connotations. For instance, the word “peace” has a positive connotation, “coffin” has a negative one, and “table” is neutral.
- The connotations a word carries are often subjective, meaning that they might change depending on an individual’s experience, geographical location, or time period. In other words, connotation is deeply dependent on context. (Table may refer back to a romantic encounter between two people or to a scene of murder and a weapon was placed on ‘the table’…-editorial addition to text)
- Writers may use connotation to evoke specific emotions in their readers without explicitly telling them what to feel. Connotation is vital to the arts, but is also extremely useful in business, advertising, and politics.
diction
the choice of words a writer uses. Another word for “vocabluary”
empathy
a feeling on the part of the reader of sharing the particular experience being described by the character or writer
end stopping
a verse line with a pause or stop at the end of it.
enjambement
a line of verse that flows on into the next line without a pause
to maintain a flow of narrative or
description.
figurative language
language that is symbolic or metaphorical and not meant to be taken literally
genre
a particular type of writing – e.g. prose, poetry, drama
imagery
the use of words to create a picture or “image” in the mind of the reader. Images can relate to any of the senses, not just sight.
internal rhyme
rhyming words within a line rather than at the end of lines
irony
at its simplist level, it means saying one thing while meaning antoher. It occurs where a word or phrase has one surface meaning but another contradictory, possibly opposite meaning is implied. Irony is often confused with sarcasm. SARCASM is spoken, relying on the tone of voice and is much more blunt than irony.
Verbal irony is when a speaker says one thing but means something entirely different. The literal meaning is at odds with the intended meaning.
Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something that the characters don’t - as in the image of Othello and Iago: we know Iago’s plotting against Othello.
Situational irony is when what happens is the opposite of what you expect.
Socratic irony is when a person feigns ignorance in order to get another to admit to knowing or doing something. It is named after Socrates, the Greek philosopher, who used this technique to tease information out of his students.
metaphor
a conparison of one thing to another to make the descrption more vivid. The metaphor actually states that one thing is another.
His face was a true harvest festival.
pathos
the effect in literature which makes the reader feel sadness or pity
(compare to logos, and ethos - logos deploys logic, reason, science; ethos appeals to character, usually trustworthy)
what is burlesque?
an absurd imitation or comic exagerration of something such as a dramatic scene
(from Italian - burlesco = to ridicule)
Types:
parody (mimicking a style) - eg The songs of Weird Al Jankovic are burlesque imitations of the originals.
mock-heroic eg Monty Python’s Holy Grail
travesty: vulgar or lewd (rude) imitation of a significant work (eg Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and the treatment of Pyramus and Thisbe)
climax
a story’s central turning point,
the moment of peak tension or conflict
the answer to a story’s mystery
the beginning of a story’s resolution
(image: Freytag’s pyramid of literary climax)
