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Literary Terms #3
41-61
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Onomatopoeia | the use of words that imitate sounds. Ex.: “hiss,” “buzz,” “whirr,” “sizzle,” “coo,” “cuckoo” |
Oxymoron | a figure of speech that combines two opposing or contradictory ideas. Ex.: peace force, tough love, jumbo shrimp |
Paradox | a statement that seems contradictory or absurd but that expresses the truth. Ex.: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians and “The coach considered this a good loss.” |
Parallelism | the repetition of grammatical structure. It consists of phrases or sentences of similar construction and meaning placed side by side, balancing each other. |
Personification | giving human characteristics to a nonhuman subject. Ex.: “The rock stubbornly refused to move.” |
Point of View | the perspective from which a story is told |
Pun | a play on words based on different meanings of words that sound alike. Ex.: “Son, stay out of the sun.” |
Repetition | the use, more than once, of any element of language – a sound, a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence |
Rhetorical Shift | a change from one tone, attitude, etc . . . Look for key words like but, however, even though, although, yet, etc. |
Simile | a comparison between two unlike thing using words such as “as,” “like,” “than,” or “resembles.” Ex.: “She stood in front of the altar, shaking like a freshly caught trout.” –Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings |
Situational Irony | an event occurs that directly contrasts the expectations of the characters, the reader, or the audience. Ex: The fire house burns down. |
Style | a writer’s distinctive mode of expression |
Suspense | a feeling of curiosity or uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work |
Symbol | anything that stands for or represents something else . . . An object that serves as a symbol has its own meaning, but it also represents abstract ideas. |
Syntax | the physical arrangement of words in a sentence |
Theme | a central message or insight into life revealed throughout the literary work . . . a generalization about human beings or about life that the lit. work communicates (It must be expressed in sentence form.) |
Third Peron Narrator | the narrator reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one character |
Tone | the writer’s attitude toward his/her audience and subject |
Tongue-in-Check | characterized by insincerity, irony, whimsy. If you say something tongue-in-cheek, what you have said is humorous, perhaps sarcastic, although at face value it appears to be serious. |
Understatement | (see litotes) saying less than is actually meant, generally in an ironic way. Ex.: When someone says “pretty fair” but means “splendid” |
Verbal Irony | the type of irony in which words are used to suggest the opposite of what is meant |