Language features Flashcards
Antagonist
The villain in a story
Protagonist
The hero of the story
Mood
The emotion conveyed in a text
Tone
The general attitude of a character or a writer
Symbolism
Where an object or person is used to symbolise something wider or other.
Motif
A dominant idea of a text. Something that is used to develop a theme. It is revisited throughout a text, regularly.
Simile
Comparing two things using ‘as’ or ‘like’
Pathetic Fallacy
When the weather reflects a character’s feelings / mood
Oxymoron
When two words that have opposite meanings are put together
Metaphor
Comparing two things by saying something IS something else
Personification
Giving something something human qualities
Zoomorphism
Giving something or someone animal qualities
Onomatopoeia
When a word sounds like the noise it makes.
Repetition
When a word or phrase is repeated.
Alliteration
When consecutive words start with the same sound or letter.
Sibilance
A specific type of alliteration in which the ‘s’ sound is repeated in words.
Assonance
A specific type of alliteration in which the dominant sound of repeated words is the vowel sound
Consonance
A specific type of alliteration in which the dominant sound of repeated words is a consonant
Tricolon
Three adjectives or phrases used in a row.
Hyperbole
Exaggerating - making something seem bigger, better or worse than it really is.
Anecdote
A short, amusing or interesting story about a real or imagined person
Rhetorical Question
A question that does not need an answer.
Emotive Language
Words that make the reader feel an emotion.
Imperative
A command
Direct Address
When a writer ‘talks’ directly to the reader. Often relies on using the pronoun ‘you’
Enjambment
When there is no punctuation at the end of a line of poetry so you read straight onto the next line
Caesura
A break in the middle of a line of poetry caused by punctuation
Free Verse
Poetry with no formal structure
Rhyming Couplets
In poetry. Where two lines of the same length rhyme and complete a thought.
