529. ENGLISH - 101 Key Terms

101 Key Terms

Glossary of Important Grammatical, Literary, and Rhetorical Terms

• Ad Hominem
  An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack.

• Adjective
  The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun.

• Adverb
  The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.

• Allegory
  Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text.

• Alliteration
  The repetition of an initial consonant sound.

• Allusion
  A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional.

• Ambiguity
  The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage.

• Analogy
  Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.

• Anaphora
  The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

• Antecedent
  The noun or noun phrase referred to by a pronoun.

• Antithesis
  The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

• Aphorism
  (1) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion.
  (2) A brief statement of a principle.

• Apostrophe
  A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing.

• Appeal to Authority
  A fallacy in which a speaker or writer seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for a famous person or institution.

• Appeal to Ignorance
  A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness.

• Argument
  A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood.

• Assonance
  The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.

• Asyndeton
  The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton).

• Character
  An individual (usually a person) in a narrative (usually a work of fiction or creative nonfiction).

• Chiasmus
  A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

• Circular Argument
  An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.

• Claim
  An arguable statement, which may be a claim of fact, value, or policy.

• Clause
  A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.

• Climax
  Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events.

• Colloquial
  Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.

• Comparison
  A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects.

• Complement
  A word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence.

• Concession
  An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent's point.

• Confirmation
  The main part of a text in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated.

• Conjunction
  The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

• Connotation
  The emotional implications and associations that a word may carry.

• Coordination
  The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. Contrast with subordination.

• Deduction
  A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises.

• Denotation
  The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.

• Dialect
  A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.

• Diction
  (1) The choice and use of words in speech or writing.
  (2) A way of speaking, usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution.

• Didactic
  Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.

• Encomium
  A tribute or eulogy in prose or verse glorifying people, objects, ideas, or events.

• Epiphora
  The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. (Also known as epistrophe.)

• Epitaph
  (1) A short inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone or monument.
  (2) A statement or speech commemorating someone who has died: a funeral oration.

• Ethos
  A persuasive appeal based on the projected character of the speaker or narrator.

• Eulogy
  A formal expression of praise for someone who has recently died.

• Euphemism
  The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

• Exposition
  A statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea.

• Extended Metaphor
  A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

• Fallacy
  An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.

• False Dilemma
  A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available.

• Figurative Language
  Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole) freely occur.

• Figures of Speech
  The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or significance.

• Flashback
  A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story.

• Genre
  A category of artistic composition, as in film or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content.

• Hasty Generalization
  A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence.

• Hyperbole
  A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement.

• Imagery
  Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses.

• Induction
  A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances.

• Invective
  Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something.

• Irony
  The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.

• Isocolon
  A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure.

• Jargon
  The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders.

• Litotes
  A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

• Loose Sentence
  A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. Contrast with periodic sentence.

• Metaphor
  A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

• Metonymy
  A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").

• Mode of Discourse
  The way in which information is presented in a text. The four traditional modes are narration, description, exposition, and argument.

• Mood
  (1) The quality of a verb that conveys the writer's attitude toward a subject.
  (2) The emotion evoked by a text.

• Narrative
  A rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in chronological order.

• Noun
  The part of speech (or word class) that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action.

• Onomatopoeia
  The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

• Oxymoron
  A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

• Paradox
  A statement that appears to contradict itself.

• Parallelism
  The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

• Parody
  A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.

• Pathos
  The means of persuasion that appeals to the audience's emotions.

• Periodic Sentence
  A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax.

• Personification
  A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

• Point of View
  The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information.

• Predicate
  One of the two main parts of a sentence or clause, modifying the subject and including the verb, objects, or phrases governed by the verb.

• Pronoun
  A word (a part of speech or word class) that takes the place of a noun.

• Prose
  Ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from verse.

• Refutation
  The part of an argument wherein a speaker or writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view.

• Repetition
  An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point.

• Rhetoric
  The study and practice of effective communication.

• Rhetorical Question
  A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.

• Running Style
  Sentence style that appears to follow the mind as it worries a problem through, mimicking the "rambling, associative syntax of conversation"--the opposite of periodic sentence style.

• Sarcasm
  A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark.

• Satire
  A text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity.

• Simile
  A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by "like" or "as."

• Style
  Narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament speech or writing; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or writing.

• Subject
  The part of a sentence or clause that indicates what it is about.

• Syllogism
  A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.

• Subordination
  Words, phrases, and clauses that make one element of a sentence dependent on (or subordinate to) another. Contrast with coordination.

• Symbol
  A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself.

• Synecdoche
  A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part.

• Syntax
  (1) The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.
  (2) The arrangement of words in a sentence.

• Thesis
  The main idea of an essay or report, often written as a single declarative sentence.

• Tone
  A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality.

• Transition
  The connection between two parts of a piece of writing, contributing to coherence.

• Understatement
  A figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.

• Verb
  The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being.

• Voice
  (1) The quality of a verb that indicates whether its subject acts (active voice) or is acted upon (passive voice).
  (2) The distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or narrator.

• Zeugma
  The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one.