Rhetorical Terms

Question 1

Hyperbole

Answer 1

An exaggeration for effect

Question 2

Personification

Answer 2

The giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects

Question 3

Aphorism

Answer 3

A brief statement of a principle; and adage (“The early bird gets the worm”)

Question 4

Oxymoron

Answer 4

Juxtaposed words with seemingly contradictory meanings

Question 5

Colloquialism

Answer 5

Word or phrase characteristics of or appropriate to familiar conversations rather than formal speech or writing

Question 6

Allegory

Answer 6

A representation of abstract or spiritual meaning in concrete or material forms; A symbolic narrative (Animal Farm, The Pilgrim’s Progress)

Question 7

Euphemism

Answer 7

An indirect expression of unpleasant information in such a way as to lessen its impact – for example, saying a person’s position was eliminated, rather than saying that the person was fired

Question 8

Apostrophe

Answer 8

Digression in the form of an address to someone not present, or to a personified object or idea (“Oh death, where is they staying?”)

Question 9

Invective

Answer 9

Vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach

Question 10

Paradox

Answer 10

A statement then seems untrue on the surface, but is true nevertheless. (“Self impose limits are the way to experience freedom.” , “To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting.”)

Question 11

Irony

Answer 11

Writing or speaking that implies the contrary of what is actually written or spoken

Types: situational, dramatic, verbal

Question 12

Onomatopoeia

Answer 12

A literary device in which the sound of the word is related to its meaning (“buzz” , “moan”)

Question 13

Figure of speech

Answer 13

An expression that uses language in a non-literal way, such as a metaphor, simile, synecdoche, or in a structured or unusual way, such as anaphora or chaismus, or that employs sounds, such as alliteration or assonance, to achieve a rhetorical effect

Question 14

Genre

Answer 14

A piece of writing classified by type - for example, letter, narrative, editorial, or eulogy

Question 15

Rhetorical modes

Answer 15

Describe the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing. Four of the most common rhetorical modes and their purposes are exposition, argumentation, description, and narration

Question 16

Allusion

Answer 16

A reference in a written or spoken text to another text or particular body of knowledge

Question 17

Imagery

Answer 17

Language that evokes particular sensations (the five senses) or emotionally rich experiences in a reader

Question 18

Syntax

Answer 18

The order of words in a sentence

Question 19

Types of sentences

Answer 19

Simple, compound, complex, compound – complex

Question 20

Style

Answer 20

The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect

Question 21

Antecedent

Answer 21

A word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by pronoun or other substitute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or another, usually subsequent, sentence.

In “Jane lost a glove and she can’t find it”, “Jane” is the antecedent of “she”, and “glove” is the antecedent of “it”

Question 22

Clause

Answer 22

A syntactic construction containing a subject and a predicate and forming a part of a sentence or constituting a whole, simple sentence

Question 23

Loose sentence

Answer 23

Ascendance the ads modifying elements after the subject, verb, and complement.

“She struck the ball extremely high and very far.”

Question 24

Periodic sentence

Answer 24

A sentence with modifying elements included before the verb and/or complement.

“Into the great heavens of the sky, extremely high and far, she struck the ball.”

Question 25

Chaismus

Answer 25

Reversal in the order of words of two otherwise parallel phrases.

“He went to the country, to the town went she.”

“One should eat to live, not live to eat.”

Question 26

Subject complement

Answer 26

A word or group of words, usually an adjective or noun, used in the predicate part of a sentence that describes or renames the subject of the sentence as “sleepy” in “the travelers became sleepy”, or “embarrassment” in “the fans were in embarrassment”.

Question 27

Predicate adjective

Answer 27

A type of subject complement that follows a linking verb and describe the subject of a sentence.

“The dancers were tall, slender, and graceful.”

Question 28

Predicate noun/ nominative

Answer 28

A type of subject complement that follows a linking verb and rename subject of the sentence.

“My favorite holidays are Christmas and Easter.”

Question 29

Didactic

Answer 29

Intended for instruction; instructive; teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson. Often taken negatively

Question 30

Metonymy

Answer 30

A figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of an object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty”, or “the bottle” for “strong drink “, or “count heads/noses” for “count people”.

Question 31

Homily

Answer 31

A sermon, or tedious moralizing lesson

Question 32

Synecdoche

Answer 32

Figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the hole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in “ten sail” for “ten ships” or “a Croesus” for “a rich man”.

Question 33

Parody

Answer 33

Humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of writing or literature:

“His hilarious parody of Hamlet’s soliloquy.”

Question 34

Sarcasm

Answer 34

The use of mockery or bitter irony

Question 35

Satire

Answer 35

The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc

Question 36

Syllogism

Answer 36

A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, minor premise, and conclusion; for example, “all humans are mortal”, being the major premise, “I am a human”, the minor premise, and “therefore, I am mortal”, the conclusion

Question 37

Connotation

Answer 37

The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning

Question 38

Denotation

Answer 38

The most specific or direct meaning of a word, in contrast with its figurative or associated meanings

Question 39

Generic conventions

Answer 39

Features shown by texts that allow them to be put in a specific genre