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
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
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.
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.
onomatopoeia
the use of words whose sounds copies the thing or process they describe – e.g. “bang, crash, or ping”
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)
Personification
the attribution of human feelings, emotions, or sensations to an inanimate object. Personification is a type of metaphor where human qualities are given to things of abstract ideas
plot
the sequence of events in a poem, play, novel, or short story that make up the main story line
point of view
a story can be told by one of the characters or from another point of view. The point of view can change from one part of the story to another when events are viewed through the minds of two or more characters
protagonist
the main character or speaker in a poem, monologue, play, or story.
pun
a play on words that have similar sounds but quite different meanings
- for humour, ambiguity, highlight a word, or irony.
“‘Mine is a long and a sad tale!’ said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. ‘It is a long tail, certainly,’ said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; ‘but why do you call it sad?’
rhythm
The ‘movement’ of the poem as created through the meter and the way that language is stressed within the poem
From Shakespeare’s The Tempest - read it out loud to hear the rhythm
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
satire
the highlighting or exposing of human failings or foolishness through ridiculing them
Satire can range from being gentle and light to extremely biting and bitter in tone
Eg Don Quixote by Cervantes; Catch-22 by Heller; The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
Simile
the comparison of one thing to another in order to make the description more vivid using like or as
- She dances like a dervish.*
- He stomped like a brontosaurus up the stairs.*
- They were as intelligent as smart phones, except I couldn’t switch them off…*
structure
the way a piece of writing has been put together - paragraphs, length of sentences, use of dialogue or not.
style
the individual way in which the writer has used language to express his or her ideas
narrative style
descriptive style
persuasive style
educational / expository style
reflective style
symbol
like the use of images, symbols present things which represent something else. In very simple terms, a red rose can be used to symbolisee love; distant thunder can symbolise approaching trouble.
Symbols can be very subtle and multi-layered in their significance and association for people (personal, national, cultural, religious, commercial)
syntax
the way in which sentences are structured. Sentences can be structured in different ways to achieve different effects
Theme
the central idea or ideas that a writer explores through a text
We usually ask what is the theme of this story or poem? There can be many sub-themes or alternative themes.
Eg Is the big theme of Great Expectations the life and characters of early 19thC London, or how expectations and reality can clash? There are others… role of money, class, redemption, innocence, loss, grief, friendship.
analogy
A is to B, as C is to D.
So, two unrelated objects are compared for shared qualities.
Eg
Photosynthesis is for plants what digesting food is for animls.
What gunpowder did for war the printing press has done for the mind. (Wendell Phillips, Public Opinion on the Abolition Question)
What is an adage?
cf. cliché
A brief piece of wisdom or advice
E.g.
Things are not always what they seem.
Be content with what you have.
United we stand, divided we fall
what is a cliché?
a well-known, perhaps overly used belief about life
(adage = wisdom, cliché = overly used)
e.g.,
you can’t always judge a book by its cover
the grass is always greener on the other side
play your cards right
what is an allegory?
a story within a story
E.g., Animal Farm is about a group of animals who rise up and take over a farm.
The allegory points to the Russian Revolution and how the revolution did not change the lives of most people that much and the revolutionaries ended up being like the tyrants that they had overthrown..
anachronism
when an author uses a subject or object that does not belong in the time period being used.
E.g., Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
Brutus: “Peace! Count the clock.”
Cassius: “The clock has stricken three.
Clocks were not around in Roman times!
anecdote
a short story that is appropriate for the topic being discussed.
e.g. I’m exploring the life of Thales and am explaining how he was getting excited about looking at the stars when he fell into a well. The student replies with an anecdote: “That reminds me of my dad - he was so excited about showing mum a gorgeous full moon one night that as he raced to tell her, he tripped over a ball and fell into our pond!”
antithesis
cf. juxtaposition
the opposite of an idea or statement
That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind. (Neil Armstrong, 1969)
juxtaposition
cf antithesis
deliberate use of contrasting ideas
“I can bring you in cold or I can bring you in warm” - The Mandalorian, episode 1.
Or Romeo’s juxtapositions showing his madness (he’s madly in love, but Rosaline has rejected him)
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
sick health!
apologue
a story or fable for a moral reason —
often using animal characters as symbols
Greek word: “apologos” = story
eg Aesop’s Fables
George Orwell’s Animal Farm
Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows
what is an aposiopesis?
Clue - it’s the Greek for silent…so when would it be used in speech?
when a sentence is left deliberately cut off.
Greek aposiōpan = silent
Why? It may show a speaker or writer’s desire to avoid continuing and allowing the listener or reader to finish the sentence in their own way.
“Then there was the time when we were all supposed to be ready to go to the airport, and …” Yes, we all knew what happened. It was a painful and embarrassing memory to all of us.
“Yes, I can quite imagine …” grandmother nodded with a knowing eye that made me uncomfortable. She had a way of doing that, not finishing her sentences, but the meaning would pour out nonetheless.
“Your family are just … “ she pulled a face.
“I think I’m beyond anger! I could … I could …” He grasped his hair and shook violently.
archaism
a word or phrase that was used in the past but is not so used today.
E.g., “I shan’t go to the shops!”
(instead of “I won’t go to the shops!”)
“I daresay, it will rain later.”
what is an argument?
A series of propositions (beliefs) that form a conclusion.
Eg.
The storm was gathering pace and the rain was beginning to thunder on the cabin; we were clad solely for fair wind and good weather and looking around at each other we thought our chances of survival were dim.
Propositions:
1) there is stormy weather
2) the people are in a boat and are not dressed properly
3) therefore, they held a fear that they may capsize and drown
Conclusions typically have a therefore or thus implied in the reasoning.
When the conclusion does not follow from the propositions, it’s a fallacy - an illogical argument in which the conclusion is not supported (there are many fallacies in logic!)
name some types of autobiography
traditional - telling the writer’s life
memoir - (on place, time, philosophy, job): shared snapshot and lessons from a part of a person’s life
psychological review - usually written by someone trying to gain some sense of what they have lived through (trauma, illness)
confession - writing down what the writer has done wrong (eg a murderer, or drug user - Thomas Quincy’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater); but there are also ->
spiritual confessions, such as St Augustine’s Confessions.
what is bathos?
an abrupt change in description to the surprising, silly or absurd
From Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”
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)
cacophony
series of harsh, discordant sounding words
cacophony = kako - ill; phōnos = sound
EG Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
catharsis
release of strong emotions
Gk: kathairein - to cleanse
characterisation
Characterization is the representation of the traits, motives, and psychology of a character in a narrative
so: fleshing out the details of a character
prior to the 15thC many characters in plays were ‘stock characters’ - the audience would know what they were like and what they would do; think of Punch and Judy shows!
Shakespeare began to provide a greater sense of character by allowing them to introspect, to voice their thoughts, and even change their personality! To be or not to be …
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)
consonance
a figure of speech (artistic use of language) in which the same consonant sound repeats
E.g.,
Finally, enough terrific phantoms floated around to frighten even tough Phoebe.
(/f/ sound even though with different spellings)
Consonance is repetition of consonant sounds:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. King James Bible. Psalm 23
[Assonance on the other hand is repetition of vowel sounds: “Hey, wait! Don’t blame me! Nate and James are the perpetrators!”]
connotation
vs
denotation
connotation = the array of emotions and ideas suggested by a word in addition to its dictionary definition; the array can be positive, neutral or negative.
“She is hot … (I really fancy her!)”
denotation = literal meaning of a word (not the feelings/ideas that the word suggests)
“She is hot … (Call a doctor!)”
zoomorphism
giving a human or thing animal characteristics
verb
a doing or being word
I swim in the sea in the sultry summers.
I am warm today.
Powerful verbs draw the readers into the imagery compared to weaker verbs.
Consider:
She read the paper for an hour. (weak)
She scrutinised the paper for an hour. (strong)
Verbs can thus affect:
Reader’s engagement.
Clarity or detail of what’s going in.
Tone and voice.
Help the flow of the narrative - speed it up or slow it down.
Tom sprinted down the road throwing glances behind him as he fled the gang running behind him.
Active versus passive can also have an effect on who/what is important. Look at the subject (who is person/thing doing the action):
The boy kicked the window.
The window was kicked by the boy.
Our attention shifts from the boy to the window in the second example.
asyndeton or asyndectic
lack of conjunctions between words -
eg.,
I came, I saw, I conquered.
e.g.,
An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was thick, warm, heavy, sluggish. - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
What is deitic? (adv)
Understanding the word from the context.
