Literary Devices Flashcards
mastery
Polysyndeton
The use of numerous, closely related conjunctions or connecting words in a sentence for rhetorical effect.
“We fished and hiked and swam and took long naps in the shade”
Alliteration
The repitition of words in quick succession that begin with letters belonging to the same sound group.
Whether it is the consonant sound or a specific vowel group, the alliteration involves creating a repetition of similar sounds in the sentence.
Alliterations are also created when the words all begin with the same letter.
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
Anaphora
A rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.
In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear: — William Blake, "London"
anadiplosis
The repetition of the last word of a preceding clause at the beginning of a following clause.
“Greatness inspires admiration, admiration leads to envy, envy engenders strife, strife results in war.”
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds within a sentence or phrase.
Assonance /= alliteration
“His tender heir might bear his memory”
— William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 1”
Hyperbaton
In reference to Latin: A figure of speech where a phrase is made discontinuous by the insertion of other words.
Meo tu epistulam dedisti servo?
“You gave the letter to my slave?”
In reference to English: figures of speech that transpose the natural word order in sentences (also called anastrophe).
Aposiopesis
A figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue.
“Get out, or else—!”
This device often portrays its users as overcome with passion (fear, anger, excitement) or modesty. To mark the occurrence of aposiopesis with punctuation, an em-rule (—) or an ellipsis (…) may be used.
Synchysis
(Latin poetry) interlocked word order: ABAB
(poetics) A complicated, interlocking word-order pattern in early Latin verse, demonstrated by Virgil and his contemporaries.
(rhetoric) Confused arrangement of words in a sentence
Ellipsis
(or elliptical construction) is the omission from a clause of one or more words that are nevertheless understood in the context of the remaining elements.
Chiasmus
(in Latin poetry) ABBA word order
a reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words
“By day the frolic, and the dance by night.”— Samuel Johnson
(the two clauses display inverted parallelism)
Tmesis
a linguistic phenomenon in which a word or phrase is separated into two parts, with other words between them
circum virum dant, for circumdant virum “they surround the man”
Anastrophe
A figure of speech in which the normal word order of the subject, the verb, and the object is changed.
“The cat caught a mouse.” (subject-verb-object)
vs.
“A mouse the cat caught.” (object-subject-verb)
Anacolouthon
An abrupt change within a sentence to a second grammatical construction inconsistent with the first, sometimes used for rhetorical effect.
“I warned him that if he continues to drink, what will become of him?”
Antimetabole
the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”— Shakespeare, Macbeth 1
(two clauses form a mirror image with vocabulary grammatical structure)
