AP LANGUAGEFINAL PREP
RHETORICAL TERMINOLOGY
I told you a million times to clean your
room!
Hyperbole/Overstatement: A
figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or
effect; an extravagant statement.
My love is a red rose.
Metaphor: A figure of speech in which an
implied comparison is made between two
unlike things that actually have
something important in common.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within
us.
Epistrophe: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses.
Romeo tells Mercutio he can’t dance because
he has a “soul of lead”.
Pun: A humorous play on words, using
similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different
meanings.
The wind stood up and gave a shout.
Anthropomorphism/Personification: The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.
Francine’s love of sweets was her Achilles heel.
Allusion: A brief, usually indirect
reference to a person, place, or event that
can be real or fictional.
Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
Simile: A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by
"like" or "as."
Chicken for dinner? Dinner will be ruined!
Anadiplosis: the repetition of the final words of a
sentence or line at the beginning of the
next.
Instead of saying that you feel sad, you say
“I feel blue”.
Idiom: An expression that, while an odd or incorrect use of the
language, has a meaning that is
understood even though it is not clearly
derived from the words that form it.
Appointing a Wall Street insider to
direct the Securities and Exchange
commission is like telling Rush Limbaugh to make sure no one
eats all the Halloween candy.
Analogy: A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship
between them.
Hello darkness, my old friend.
I've come to talk with you again.
Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent
or imaginary person or of a personified
abstraction, especially as a
digression in the course of a speech or
composition.
The doctor turned to the nurse and said “Get me his vitals,
STAT!”
Jargon: The specialized language of a professional,
occupational, or other group, often
meaningless to outsiders.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all
Extended Metaphor: A comparison between two
unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines
in a poem.
The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in
The Great Gatsby.
Symbol: A person, place, action, or thing that (by association,
resemblance, or convention) represents something other than
itself.
She was upstairs, and her children downstairs.
Zeugma (zoog-mah): 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.
If he cuts off your leg, it might hurt a
little.
Understatement: A figure of speech in
which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious
than it is.
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,
characters refer to clocks, which did not exist in ancient Rome.
Anachronism: A person, scene, event, or other element in a work of literature that fails to correspond with the time or era in which
the work is set.
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of
men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick
on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his
comrades home.
Invocation: A prayer or statement that
calls for help from a god or goddess.
One thousand sails pursued Paris as he fled Troy with Helen
by his side.
Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a
part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part.
He’s not unfriendly.
Litotes (lie-toe-tez): A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in
which an affirmative is expressed by
negating its opposite.
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats;
a base, proud, shallow, beggarly,
three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-
stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-
taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave!
Invective: Denunciatory or
abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or
something.
The only thing I know is that I know
nothing.
Paradox: A statement that appears to
contradict itself.
We saw her duck.
Ambiguity: Multiple meanings, intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence
or passage.
If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against
me?
Double Entendre: A corruption of a French phrase meaning "double meaning,” the term is used to indicate a
word or phrase that is deliberately
ambiguous, especially when one of the
meanings is risqué or improper.
Oh, you are a real genius, that’s what
you are!
Melodramatic Redundancy: An
unnecessary repetition that is exaggerated,
sensational and overly dramatic.
I am not young enough to know everything.
Epigram: A concise, witty, and thoughtful statement meant to
both amuse and provoke further thought.
The good guys wear white hats, the bad
guys wear black hats.
Archetype: A theme, motif, symbol, or
stock character that holds a familiar place
in a culture’s consciousness.
The critics had a tremendous thirst to
view his latest paintings.
Synesthesia: A psychological process whereby one kind of sensory stimulus
evokes the subjective experience of another.
Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a
pleasure.
Chiasmus: A figure of speech in which the
order of the terms in the first of two
parallel clauses is reversed in the second
I knew enough to realize that the
alligators were in the swamp and that it was time to circle the
wagons.
Mixed Metaphor: A figure of speech
combining inconsistent or incongruous metaphors.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall
fight in the fields and in the streets, we
shall fight in the hills.
Anaphora: The repetition of the same word or phrase at the
beginning of successive clauses or
verses.
Saying “big boned” instead of “fat”
Euphemism: The substitution of an
inoffensive term for one considered
offensively explicit.
Save me a sniff of that sweet scented
stuff.
Alliteration: The repetition of an initial consonant
sound.
The crown carries many responsibilities.
Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for
another with which it is closely associated.
Jumbo shrimp
Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which incongruous or
contradictory terms appear side by side.
Next time, there won’t be a next time.
Epanalepsis: The repetition at the end of a clause of the
word that occurred at the beginning of the clause; it tends to make the sentence or clause in which it occurs stand apart
from its surroundings.
In The Scarlet Letter, characters, objects
and events often serve as references to the conflict between the world of man and the
world of God.
Allegory: Extending a metaphor so that
objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the
text.
A cruel wind blew through the town.
Pathetic Fallacy: Ascribes human
feelings to nature or nonhuman objects.
Live and learn.
Cliché: A phrase, idea, or image that
has been used so much that it has lost much
of its original meaning, impact, and
freshness.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise.
Aphorism: A terse statement which
expresses a general truth or moral principle.
TYPES OF SENTENCES/WRITING
STYLES
Come up to my desk, please.
Imperative Sentence: A sentence that gives a command or makes a
request. Usually ends with a period.
He pulled the plastic tarp off the chairs and folded it and
carried it out to the garage and put it in
his car.
Polysyndeton: The repetition of
conjunctions in close succession for
rhetorical effect.
It is not that today’s artists cannot paint, it is that today’s
critics cannot see..
Balanced Sentence: Characterized by
parallel structure, two or more parts of the sentence have the same form, emphasizing
similarities or differences.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Antithesis: The juxtaposition of
contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a
look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the
foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt,
tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was
neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care
who knew it.
Running Style: A type of sentence that
appears to follow the inner working of the mind by mimicking the rambling, associative syntax of thought.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
Asyndeton: The omission of
conjunctions between words, phrases, or
clauses.
Romeo loves Juliet and Juliet, Romeo.
Elliptical Construction: A
sentence containing a deliberate omission of
words.
At the risk of being redundant and repetitive and
redundant, let me say that hearing the same thing over and over
and over again is the last thing children
need from their parents.
Tautology: The repetition, within the immediate context, of
the same word or phrase or the same
meaning in different words; usually as a
fault of style.
Another possible adjustment relates to the
age at which Social Security and Medicare
benefits will be provided. Under current law, and even with the so-called
normal retirement age for Social Security slated to move up to 67 over the next two decades, the ratio of the number of years that the typical worker will spend in
retirement to the number of years he or she works will rise in the long
term.
Circumlocution: To write evasively; to
discuss a topic without saying
anything concrete about it.
Do you want me to hit you?
Rhetorical Question: A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women,
French to men, and German to my horse.
Isocolon/Parallel Structure: A
succession of phrases of approximately equal
length and corresponding structure.
Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi.
Anastrophe: Inversion of the normal
syntactical structure of a sentence.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true
place for a just man is also a prison.
Periodic Sentence: A type of sentence in
which the main idea is expressed at the end.
The cat sat on the mat, purring softly
and licking his paws.
Loose Sentence: The most common sentence
in modern usage, begins with the main point (an independent clause), followed by
one or more subordinate clauses.
SOUNDS
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though.
End Rhyme: Rhyme of the terminal syllables of lines of poetry.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Euphony: A pleasing arrangement of sounds.
Bam! Boom! Crash!
Onomatopoeia: The formation or use of
words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions to which they refer.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
pondered weak and weary.
Internal Rhyme: Rhyme that occurs within a
line of verse
I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and
restless.
Assonance: Repetition of vowels without
repetition of consonants used as an alternative to rhyme
in verse.
First and last, odds and ends, short and
sweet
Consonance: Recurrence or repetition of
consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondence
of vowels
The claws that catch and kick and crash against the crammed
cabin.
Cacophony: Harsh or discordant sounds within a literary
work.
TYPES OF LOGIC/ARGUMENT
You're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong.
ad hominem: Latin for "against the man.”
Attacking the person instead of the
argument proposed by that individual. An argument directed to
the personality, prejudices, previous words and actions of an opponent rather
than an appeal to pure reason.
We have to stop the tuition increase! The next thing you know, they'll be charging $40,000 a semester!
Slippery Slope: A claim that a small concession is total
surrender.
There has to be life on other planets
because as of today no one has been able to conclusively prove
that there is no life.
Appeal to Ignorance: When one is persuaded to agree to another’s opinion because he/she
can't prove the contrary.
God exists because I know he exists.
Begging the Question/Circular
Reasoning: A logical fallacy that assumes
as true the very thing that one is trying to
prove
A historian, wishing to understand the
origins and development of
California’s Latino community, bases his research largely on interviews conducted with local Latino
residents.
Anecdotal Evidence: Based on casual observations or
indications rather than rigorous or
scientific analysis
All citizens must obey the law. Mike is a
citizen. Mike must obey the
law.
Syllogism/Deductive Reasoning: A form of
argument or reasoning, consisting of two premises and a conclusion.
Joan is scratched by a cat while visiting her friend. Two days later she comes down with a fever. Joan concludes that the cat's scratch must be the cause of
her illness.
post hoc, ergo propter hoc: Latin for "after
this, therefore because of this.” When a writer implies that
because one thing follows another, the
first caused the second.
Jim: “I see that John’s cancer is in
remission.”Bill: “Yes, our
prayers have been answered!”
Jim: “But didn’t you pray for Susan, too,
and look what happened to her.”
Bill: “I’m sure God had a special reason for taking her.”
ad hoc argument: An argument where after-the-fact explanations
are given for conclusions, rather
than presenting premises and
inferences that lead to those conclusions.
Many extremists follow Islam. Therefore,
Islam is a religion that propagates
extremism.
False Analogy: The two objects or events being compared are
relevantly dissimilar.
You must believe that God exists. After all, if you do not accept the existence of God, then you will face the
horrors of hell.
Appeal to Fear: A logical fallacy in
which a person attempts to create
support for his or her idea by using deception and
propaganda in attempts to increase fear and prejudice toward a
competitor.
The question of funding Medicare comes down to this: do we
want our grandparents to die?
Oversimplification: When a writer obscures
or denies the complexity of issues
in an argument.
Either we eat the food in this house or we starve to death.
either-or reasoning /also referred to as Reductio ad Absurdum (Latin for “to reduce
to the absurd”): Reducing an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignoring
any alternatives.
I took a course with this professor last
year and it was good. You should take his course this year
because it will be good again.
Inductive Reasoning: A conclusion reached by
deriving general principles from
particular facts or instances.
We should continue observing Columbus Day
because there are plenty of people in
this country who have ancestors that did not
torture Native Americans.
Straw Man: Argues against a claim that nobody actually holds
or is universally considered weak.
Diverts attention away from the real issues.
While censorship is dangerous to a free society, some of the
concerned citizens who are in favor of
censorship may have valid points when they object that children should not be exposed
to television violence.
Concession: An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent's point.