Rhetorical Devices #5 Flashcards
Work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule
Satire
Branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another
Semantics
An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices; classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors
Style
The word or clauses that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes the sense by either renaming it or describing it
Subject complement
Word group contains both a subject and a verb, but unlike the independent clause; it not stand alone; it does not express a complete thought
Subordinate clause
From the Greek for “reckoning together”; it is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably leads to a sound conclusion
Syllogism
Anything that represents itself and stands for something else
Symbol/symbolism
The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences
Syntax
Central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life
Theme
It is the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning or position
Thesis
Similar to mood, it describes the author’s attitude toward his material, the audience or both
Tone
A word or phrase that links different ideas
Transition
Artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas; a figure of speech involving a “turn” or change of sense
Trope
Ironic minimizing of fact; it presents something as less significant than it is
Understatement
An attitude that may lie under the ostensible tone of the piece
Undertone
