Rhetorical Devices Flashcards
Bombast
High sounding language with little meaning, used to impress people
Ex: Politician, Football Coach, Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Invective
Abusive Language used to attack
Ex: Calling someone a chicken for not doing something, calling someone retarded when they are not handicapible, “A vile beastly rottenheaded foolbegotten brazenthroated pernicious piggish screaming, tearing, roaring, perplexing, splitmecrackle crashmecriggle insane ass of a woman is practicing howling below-stairs with a brute of a singingmaster so horribly, that my head is nearly off.”(Edward Lear, “Letter to Lady Strachey”)
Synecdoche
A larger group represents a smaller group or a smaller group on represents a larger group
A person calling someone out on their characteristics (grey hair, boots) (small group representing a large group)
Tmesis
Separating a compound word by putting a word or words in between them
“A whole other story”
“Another story”
Asyndeton
When you take out conjunctions from a sentence
The tragic events left the man hurt, confused, disoriencted
Pedantic
Someone who is really concerned with a subject while flaunting their knowledge in a boring way
A person at a party boring people by taking about poetry
Metaplasmus
the deliberate misspelling of a word
Elizabeth, Liz
Litotes
Employs an understatement by using double negatives for a positive statement
“not too bad” for “very good”
Climax
Figure of repetition in which words or phrases or sentences are arranged in order of increasing intensity or importantance
Apostrophe
imaginary idea, occurs when a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience
“Like a diamond in the sky”
Zeugma
Figure of speech where a word, usually a verb or adjective, to blend two or more ideas together
“Conner hurt his feelings and his face”
Epistrophe
Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses
An that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”
Bathos
Hyping a story up and just letting it die at the end
“I had the best day but idk what happened”
Antithesis
Two oppisote ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting statement
I small step for man, one big step for man kind”
Anthimeria
Involves using one part of speech as another part of speech, such as a noun as a verb
turtling
Aposiopesis
The device of suddenly breaking off in speech
Dont go there or else
Epanalepisis
Repeating the first word at the end of the sentence
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering
Ellipsis
the omission of one or more words, which must be supplied by the listener or reader
EX: So…what happened?
Aporia
The expression of doubt
Who is the true animal?
Anastrophe
literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter.
Strong in the force you are
Juxaposition
literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side for comparisons and contrasts.
EX: Better late than never
Polysyndeton
when conjunctions are used over and over; often without commas, even when the conjunctions could be taken out
EX: “And Joshua, and all of Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and
Anaphora
Replacing a word in a sentence to avoid repetition
Diacope
Literary device that repeats a phrase or word but is separated by other words
William Shakespeare’ Hamlet, “to be, or not to be!”
Synesthesia
refers to a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one senses like hearing, seeing, smell etc. at a given time.
is a figurative use of words that intends to draw out a response from readers stimulating multiple senses
Alliosis
-While such a structure often results in the logical fallacy of the false dichotomy or the either/or fallacy, it can create a cleverly balanced and artistic sentence
My definition- using a either/or between two decisions
“You can eat well or you can sleep well.”
Metonymy
The substitution of a name for the thing it meant
Ex: track for horse racing
Anapodoton
An incomplete sentence
EX: Molehill
Antimetabole
A phrase is repeated but in reverse order
EX: Fair is foul and foul is fair
