Language Features Flashcards
Personification
Gives an inanimate object a human feeling or characteristic.
E.g. The tree danced happily, The waves roared
Alliteration
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of two or more connected words.
E.g. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Onomatopoeia
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.
E.g. sizzled, cuckoo, shattered, cracked.
Simile
Describing something by using the words “like and as”
E.g. As sly as a fox, It was like a monster.
Metaphor
A figure of speech containing an implied comparison.
E.g. The snow is a white blanket, He is a shining star.
Sibilance
A figure of speech where the hissing sound is created.
E.g. Sadly, Sam sold seven venomous serpents to Sally and Cyrus in San Francisco.
Rhetorical questions.
A question that is not supposed to be answered.
E.g. How would you feel? How could you do this?
Colloquial language
Used in ordinary or familiar conversation: not formally or literally.
E.g. ain’t and gonna, truck and lorrie, football and soccer
Hyperbole
Exaggerated statements and language.
E.g. I’ve to.d you to clean your room a million times!
Imagery
Descriptive language, especially in literacy work
E.g. “The familiar tang of his grandmothers cranberry sauce.”
Collective nouns
A noun stating groups such as a team or committee, jury or squad.
E.g. Family, school of fish, a team.
Proper noun
A name of a person, place, organisation or thing.
E.g. London, The United Nations, Margret.
Abstract noun
A noun denoting an idea, quality or state.
E.g. Truth, danger, happiness, love, anger.
Pronoun
A word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself.
E.g. You and I need to stop everybody. (You, I, everybody)
Oxymoron
A figure of speech where opposite terms appear in conjunction.
E.g. Along together, Dark light, clearly confused.
Repetition
The action of repeating something that has already been said.
E.g. “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”
Adverb
A word describing a verb
E.g. He spoke so fast and ran even faster (fast, faster)
Adjective
A word describing a noun.
E.g. The soft dog loved the funny man. (Soft, funny)
Verb
A word used to describe and action
E.g. He started to run even though he wanted to walk (run, walk)
Noun
A word that is a person place or thing
E.g. Dog, London, Person
Assonance
Relatively close juxtaposition of similar sounds especially of vows
E.g. Hear the mellow wedding bells, try to light the fire.
Dialect.
A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
E.g. A northern American says “hello”, A southern American says “howdy”
Dialogue
A conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book,play or film
E.g. He said…, She said… and they responded.
Dissonance
Lack of harmony among musical votes.
E.g. Think of the baby crying, a person screaming or an alarm.
Enjambment
(In verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the ned of a line.
E.g. The good marrow poem.
Irony
The use of word to convey a meaning that is the opposite of it literal meaning.
E.g. A fire station burn down, The police station is robbed, a marriage counsellor files for divorce.
Monologue
A long speech by one actor, in a book, play or film.
E.g. Plays with monologue: charge, fourteen, faith alone.
Pathos
A quality that evokes pity or sadness
E.g. “if we don’t move now we will die!”
Rhyme
Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words.
Eg. Climb, time. Call,ball.
Rhythm
A strong repeated pattern of movement or sound
E.g. lamb, troche, spondee, anapaest.
Caesura
(In a greek or latin verse) a break between words within a metrical foot.
E.g.
Symbolism
A thing that represents something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
E.g. the dove is a symbol of peace.
Semantic fields
A lexical set of semantically related items, for example verbs of perception.
E.g. body parts, violence, nature, colours, landforms.
Preposition
Words that tells you where or when something is in relation to something else.
E.g. words like: after, before, on, under, inside and outside.
Article
Words that define a noun as specific or unspecific.
E.g. and, a, the, as.
