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Metaphor
Obscure Terms
Common Terms
Structure and Rhetoric
Sound
100
The aspect that "holds" the meaning.
What is "tenor"? Ex. Jen's room is a pig sty. "room" is the tenor.
100
A special type of personification in which inanimate aspects of nature are represented as having human qualities or feelings. It supposes that nature can sympathize with human moods and concerns.
What is "pathetic fallacy"?
100
Beginning the narration not in chronological order, but at some later point.
What is "in medias res"?
100
The general term for the repetition of sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables. It is used for comic exaggeration or to create unity and influence in tone.
What is "alliteration"?
200
The aspect that "conveys" the comparison.
What is "vehicle"? Ex. Jen's room is a pig sty. "sty" is the vehicle used to convey impressions upon the tenor ("room").
200
The term for part of something is used to represent the whole, or less commonly, the term for the whole is used to represent a part.
What is "synecdoche"? Ex. fleet of ships = 40 sails. manual labor = blue collar.
200
An abstract concept is presented as though it were a character who speaks and acts as an independent being. Provide 2 examples.
What is "allegory"? Jonathan Swift "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) Washington Irving "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" George Orwell "Animal Farm" (1946)
200
The essential background information that will allow the reader to understand the characters and the events that have been introduced.
What is "exposition"?
200
The repetition of consonant sounds in two or more successive words or stressed syllables that contain different vowel sounds.
What is "consonance"?
300
When two or more incongruous vehicles are applied to the same tenor. The figure confuses by linking images that clash.
What is "mixed metaphor"? See Ophelia describing Hamlet - "sucked the honey of his music vows".
300
A trope which substitutes the name of an entity with something else that is closely associated with it.
What is "metonymy"? Ex. The ruling body of Russia becomes "The Kremlin". The king becomes "the throne" (hello Game of Thrones!).
300
A trope in which a point is stated in a way that is greatly exaggerated. The effect is often to imply the intensity of a speaker's feelings or convictions by putting them in uncompromising or absolute terms.
What is "hyperbole"?
300
A brief interruption during which the character or narrator reflects on a minor point that seizes their attention.
What is "parenthetical observation"?
300
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables.
What is "assonance"?
400
A trope that is sustained through several lines, ringing changes on the multiple relevance of the vehicle to the tenor.
What is "extended metaphor"? See Polonius's advice to Ophelia regarding the burning passions of young men. See heavenly bodies in R&J.
400
A point is stated by deliberate circumlocution. The aim is to cushion the painful or embarrassing effect of the explicit term.
What is "periphrasis" (also known as euphemisms)? Ex. "died" becomes "passed away". "drunk" becomes "in his cups".
400
A statement that appears on the surface to be contradictory or impossible turns out to express an often striking truth.
What is "paradox"? Ex. "Less is more."
400
A passing reference to another work, figure, event, or literary passage. The reference is not explained, so that it can convey: 1. the flattering presumption that the reader shares the writer's erudition or inside knowledge. 2. a sense of ironic deflation
What is "allusion"? Faulkner's "Sound and the Fury" is an allusion to Shakespeare's "Macbeth". T.S. Eliot's "Prufrock" contains an allusion to John the Baptist's head on a platter. Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" is an allusion to a text in Ecclesiastes.
400
Using a word/phrase that seems to imitate the sound it denotes. Using word/phrase in such a way that they seem to exemplify what they denote, not just in terms of sound but also in pacing, force, touch, movement, and/or duration.
What is "onomatopoeia"? Ex. bang, murmur, creak, plop
500
The underlying meaning or set of meanings located primarily through implication and inference.
What is "subtext"?
500
Descriptive phrases that substitute for ordinary words which allows the narration greater variety by avoiding the repetition of common words and makes the concept more vivid by turning it into a virtual metaphor.
What is "kennings"? Ex. "sea" becomes "whale-road" and "warfare" becomes "sword-hate". Kennings are found more in Old English texts like Beowulf.
500
A point is affirmed by negating its opposite. The surface denial serves, through ironic contrast, to reinforce the underlying assertion.
What is "Litotes"? (a special form of understatement) Ex. "He's no fool."
500
The comparison of a subject to something that is similar to it in order to clarify the subject's nature, purpose, or function.
What is "analogy"? George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" uses the analogy that shooting an elephant "is comparable to destroying a hugh and costly piece of machinery."
500
The process of analyzing and marking the type and the number of feet in each line of verse.
What is "scansion"?