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Literary Terms. English Set 2. dialect. Speech that reflects pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar typical of a geographical region. simile. comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as,” e.g. “Her smile was as cold as ice.”. metaphor.
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Literary Terms English Set 2
dialect Speech that reflects pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar typical of a geographical region.
simile comparison of two things using the words “like” or “as,” e.g. “Her smile was as cold as ice.”
metaphor comparison of two things essentially different but with some commonalities; does not use “like” or “as,” e.g. “Her smile was ice.”
hyperbole a purposeful exaggeration for emphasis or humor.
personification human qualities attributed to an animal, object, or idea, e.g. “The wind exhaled.”
irony A technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts. Verbal irony occurs when words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning. An irony of situation is when an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations.
onomatopoeia The use of words that imitate sounds. Examples would be hiss, buzz, swish, and crunch.
satire Writing that comments humorously on human flaws, ideas, social customs, or institutions in order to change them.
anecdote Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual.
antagonist Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story.
aphorism brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram.
cliché is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.)
couplet two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.
epithet an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great Emancipator” are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing: “swift-footed Achilles”; “rosy-fingered dawn.”
litotes is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne--- “...the wearers of petticoat and farthingale...stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng...”
metonymy \mə-ˈtä-nə-mē\ a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. “We requested from the crown support for our petition.” The crown is used to represent the monarch.
motif a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme. Ellen White uses “God is love” throughout The Conflict of the Ages to remind the reader of the real issue of the conflict.
paradox A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.
refrain a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem.
rhetoric The art of speaking with propriety, elegance and force. 2. The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms. We speak of the rhetoric of the tongue, and the rhetoric of the heart or eyes.Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes.
rhetorical question a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.
synecdoche \sə-ˈnek-də-(ˌ)kē\ In rhetoric, a figure by which the whole of a thing is put for a part, or a part for the whole; as the genus for the species, or the species for the genus, etc.
