Language Features

Question 1

Diction: Anachronism

Answer 1

The misplacing of any person, thing, custom or event outside of its proper historical time.

In Julius Caesar, Cassius announces “the clock hath stricken three.” During Caesar’s day, there would have been no mechanical clocks.

Question 2

Diction: Antiphrasis

Answer 2

A single word is used in a sense directly opposite to its meaning.

For example, naming a giant ‘Tiny.’

Question 3

Diction: Antonomasia

Answer 3

The replacing of a proper name with an epithet. For example, referring to Shakespeare as ‘The Bard.’

Question 4

Diction: Apophasis

Answer 4

(a) Raising an issue by refusing to discuss it;
(b) Describing something by defining what it does not have.

(a) “We shall not discuss Tom’s secret plans.”
(b) “God lacks certainty, but rather is mysterious.”

Question 5

Diction: Archaism

Answer 5

The use of a piece of language that is obsolete or has passed out of common use at the time of writing.
Examples will be dependent upon the writer’s context.

Question 6

Diction: Autological Word

Answer 6

A word that expresses a property, which it also possesses.

“Short” is a short word. “Noun” is a noun.

Question 7

Diction: Bombast

Answer 7

The use of extravagant and grandiloquent diction,
disproportionate to its subject.

“Our quivering lances… shall threat the gods more than Cyclopean wars.”

Question 8

Diction: Catachresis

Answer 8

The misapplication of a word, or the extension of a word’s meaning in a surprising and illogical way.

E.g. Replacing “disinterested” with “uninterested.”

Question 9

Diction: Colloquialism

Answer 9

The use of informal expressions appropriate to everyday speech, rather than to the formality of writing.

“When ‘Omer smote is bloomin’ lyre
He’d ‘eard men sing by land and sea.”

Question 10

Diction: Litote

Answer 10

Something is affirmed indirectly by denying its opposite.

E.g. ‘No mean feat’

Question 11

Diction: Malapropism

Answer 11

A confused, comically inaccurate use of a long word or words.

E.g. “The very pineapple of politeness” instead of “The pinnacle of politeness”

Question 12

Diction: Meosis

Answer 12

Understatement or belittling. In which something is referred to in terms less important than what it deserves. Litotes are often used for a meiotic effect.

E.g. When Mercutio refers to his stab wound as a “scratch.”

Question 13

Diction: Metonymy

Answer 13

The name of a thing is replaced with something closely associated with it.

E.g. ‘The bottle’ for an alcoholic drink; ‘skirt’ for woman.

Question 14

Diction: Neologism

Answer 14

A word or phrase newly invented or newly introduced into language.

E.g. ‘Webinar’

Question 15

Diction: Periphrasis/Euphemism

Answer 15

A roundabout way of referring to something by means of several words, instead of naming it directly.

E.g. ‘Passed away’ for died.

Question 16

Diction: Synecdoche

Answer 16

Something is referred to by naming only a part of it, or a comprehensive entity of which it is part.

E.g. ‘Hands’ for manual labourers; ‘the law’ for a police officer.

Question 17

Diction: Intensifier

Answer 17

An adjective or adverb that adds intensity to a noun or verb, adjective or adverb.

E.g. really, completely, absolutely, totally

Question 18

Diction: Modifier

Answer 18

An adjective or adverb that modifies a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

Question 19

Diction: Oxymoron

Answer 19

A self-contradictory combination of words that achieve a singular meaning when combined together.

E.g. ‘Definitely maybe’, ‘pretty ugly’

Question 20

Diction: Prepositional Phrase

Answer 20

A group of words that contain a preposition, its object and any other words it modifies.

E.g. ‘In the evening’

Question 21

Diction: Comparative

Answer 21

An adjective that compares.

E.g. ‘Better’, ‘more intelligent’

Question 22

Diction: Superlative

Answer 22

An adjective that implies a noun expresses the highest form of a quality.

E.g. ‘Best’, ‘most intelligent’

Question 23

Diction: Coordinating Conjunction

Answer 23

Any of the words ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘nor’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘yet’ or ‘so’ that joins together two clauses.

Question 24

Diction: Subordinating Conjunction

Answer 24

Any conjunction that is not a coordinating conjunction.

Question 25

Diction: Determiner

Answer 25

A word placed before a noun that implies quantity.

An Article (a/an, the)
A Demonstrative (this, that, these, those)
A Possessive (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
A Quantifier (common examples include many, much, more, most, some)

Question 26

Diction: Pejorative

Answer 26

A term with disparaging connotations.

Question 27

Diction: Synaesthesia

Answer 27

The description of a sense experience using a different sense (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell)

E.g. If music be the food of love, play on.

Question 28

Syntax: Anadiplosis

Answer 28

The repetition of a word or words in successive sentences – the last word of a sentence starts the beginning of the next.

“I beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you.”
“When I give, I give myself.”

Question 29

Syntax: Anaphora

Answer 29

The same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive lines, clauses or sentences.

“Mine – by the Right of White Election!
Mine – by the Royal Seal!
Mine – by the Sign in the Scarlet Prison.”

Question 30

Syntax: Antimetabole

Answer 30

A pair of words is repeated in reverse order.

“All for one, and one for all.”

Question 31

Syntax: Chiasmus

Answer 31

A repetition in which the order of terms in the first two parallel clauses is repeated in the second.

“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.”

Question 32

Syntax: Epanlepsis

Answer 32

The initial word or a sentence or verse line repeats at the end.

“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure.”

Question 33

Syntax: Epistrophe

Answer 33

The same word or phrase is repeated at the end of successive clauses.

“The moth and the fish-eggs are in their place,
The bright suns I see and the dark suns I cannot see are in their place
The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.”

Question 34

Syntax: Epizeuxis

Answer 34

A word is repeated for emphasis, with no other words intervening.

“Sick! Sick! Sick!”

Question 35

Syntax: Polyptoton

Answer 35

Partial repetition arises from the use in close proximity of two related words having different forms.

“Going, going, gone!”

Question 36

Syntax: Polysyndeton

Answer 36

The repetition of repeated conjunctions to link clauses together.

“And soon it dipped lightly, and rose, and sank, and dipped again.”

Question 37

Syntax: Anacoluthon

Answer 37

A change in construction of a sentence that leaves the initial construction unfinished.

“Either you go – but we’ll see.”

Question 38

Syntax: Aposiopesis

Answer 38

A sentence in which the speaker suddenly breaks off in the middle, leaving the sense unfinished.

“Get out, or else-”

Question 39

Syntax: Caesura

Answer 39

A rhythmical pause in a poetic line or sentence.

• Masculine caesura: occurs after an accented syllable;
• Feminine caesura: occurs after an unaccented syllable.

“Oh but, my friends – and ah, my foes-”

Question 40

Syntax: Asyndeton

Answer 40

A form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting word (usually conjunctions or pronouns).

“Veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw, I conquered.”

Question 41

Syntax: Inversion/Anastrophe

Answer 41

A reversal of the usually expected order of words

E.g. ‘The body electric’; ‘said she’; ‘sweetly blew the breeze’

Question 42

Syntax: Solecism

Answer 42

A grammatical error that exposes the perpetrator’s ignorance.

“I a’int got no money” (both ‘a’int’ and ‘no money’ are grammatically incorrect here)

Question 43

Syntax: Auxesis

Answer 43

Listing a series of things in ascending order of importance.

“O’erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune and thy state.”

Question 44

Syntax: Paratactic

Answer 44

The juxtaposition of clauses or sentences, without the use of connecting words.

“I’ll go; you stay here.”

Question 45

Diction: Antanaclasis

Answer 45

The repetition of a word, where it has distinct meanings in each usage.

Question 46

Rhetoric: Irony

Answer 46

A statement that expresses the contrary sentiment to its intended meaning.

Question 47

Rhetoric: Aphorism

Answer 47

A concise statement that is made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or an opinion that is generally understood to be a universal truth. They are often adages, wise sayings and maxims aimed at imparting sense and wisdom. Upon seeing the shoddy work done by the employee the boss told him to “either shape up or ship out”.