LINGUISTICS



Main article: Scheme (linguistics)
  • accumulation: Summary of previous arguments in a forceful manner
  • adnomination: Repetition of a word with a change in letter or sound
  • alliteration: Series of words that begin with the same consonant or sound alike
  • adynaton: hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility.
  • anacoluthon: Change in the syntax within a sentence
  • anadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the end of a clause at the beginning of another
  • anaphora: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses
  • anastrophe: Inversion of the usual word order
  • anticlimax: Arrangement of words in order of decreasing importance
  • antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse order
  • antistrophe: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses (see epistrophe)
  • antithesis: Juxtaposition of opposing or contrasting ideas
  • aphorismus: Statement that calls into question the definition of a word
  • aposiopesis: Breaking off or pausing speech for dramatic or emotional effect
  • apostrophe: Directing the attention away from the audience and to a personified abstraction
  • apposition: Placing of two elements side by side, in which the second defines the first
  • assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
  • asteismus: Facetious or mocking answer that plays on a word
  • asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions between related clauses
  • cacophony: Juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound
  • cataphora: Co-reference of one expression with another expression which follows it (example: If you need one, there's a towel in the top drawer.)
  • classification (literature & grammar): Linking a proper noun and a common noun with an article
  • chiasmus: Word order in one clause is inverted in the other (inverted parallelism).
  • climax: Arrangement of words in order of increasing importance
  • commoratio: Repetition of an idea, re-worded
  • consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds, most commonly within a short passage of verse
  • dystmesis: A synonym for tmesis
  • ellipsis: Omission of words
  • enallage: Substitution of forms that are grammatically different, but have the same meaning
  • enjambment: Breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses
  • enthymeme: Informal method of presenting a syllogism
  • epanalepsis: Repetition of the initial word or words of a clause or sentence at the end of the clause or sentence
  • epistrophe: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses. The counterpart of anaphora (also known as antistrophe)
  • euphony: Opposite of cacophony - i.e. pleasant sounding
  • hendiadys: Use of two nouns to express an idea when the normal structure would be a noun and a modifier
  • hendiatris: Use of three nouns to express one idea
  • homeoptoton: in a flexive language the use the first and last words of a sentence in the same forms
  • homographs: Words that are identical in spelling but different in origin and meaning
  • homonyms: Words that are identical with each other in pronunciation and spelling, but differing in origin and meaning
  • homophones:Words that are identical with each other in pronunciation but differing in origin and meaning
  • hypallage: Changing the order of words so that they are associated with words normally associated with others
  • hyperbaton: Schemes featuring unusual or inverted word order
  • hyperbole: Exaggeration of a statement
  • hysteron proteron: The inversion of the usual temporal or causal order between two elements
  • isocolon: Use of parallel structures of the same length in successive clauses
  • internal rhyme: Using two or more rhyming words in the same sentence
  • kenning: A metonymic compound where the terms together form a sort of anecdote
  • merism: Referring to a whole by enumerating some of its parts
  • non sequitur: Statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding
  • onomatopoeia: Word that imitates a real sound (e.g. tick-tock or boom)
  • paradiastole: Repetition of the disjunctive pair "neither" and "nor"
  • parallelism: The use of similar structures in two or more clauses
  • paraprosdokian: Unexpected ending or truncation of a clause
  • parenthesis: Insertion of a clause or sentence in a place where it interrupts the natural flow of the sentence
  • paroemion: Resolute alliteration in which every word in a sentence or phrase begins with the same letter
  • parrhesia: Speaking openly or boldly, or apologizing for doing so (declaring to do so)
  • perissologia: The fault of wordiness
  • pleonasm: Use of superfluous or redundant words
  • polyptoton: Repetition of words derived from the same root
  • polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions
  • pun: When a word or phrase is used in two different senses
  • sibilance: Repetition of letter 's', it is a form of alliteration
  • sine dicendo: A statement that is so obvious it need not be stated, and if stated, it seems almost pointless (e.g. 'It's always in the last place you look.')
  • superlative: Declaring something the best within its class i.e. the ugliest,the most precious
  • spoonerism: Interchanging of (usually initial) letters of words with amusing effect
  • symploce: Simultaneous use of anaphora and epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning and the end of successive clauses
  • synchysis: Interlocked word order
  • synesis: Agreement of words according to the sense, and not the grammatical form
  • synizesis: Pronunciation of two juxtaposed vowels or diphthongs as a single sound
  • synonymia: Use of two or more synonyms in the same clause or sentence
  • tautology: Redundancy due to superfluous qualification; saying the same thing twice
  • tmesis: Division of the elements of a compound word
  • zeugma: The using of one verb for two actions
Tropes
Main article: Trope (linguistics)
  • allegory: Extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject
  • alliteration: Repetition of the first consonant sound in a phrase.
  • allusion: Indirect reference to another work of literature or art
  • anacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker
  • antanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses
  • anthimeria: Substitution of one part of speech for another, often turning a noun into a verb
  • anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism)
  • antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order
  • antiphrasis: Word or words used contradictory to their usual meaning, often with irony
  • antonomasia: Substitution of a phrase for a proper name or vice versa
  • aphorism: Tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion, an adage
  • apophasis: Invoking an idea by denying its invocation
  • apostrophe: Addressing a thing, an abstraction or a person not present
  • archaism: Use of an obsolete, archaic, word (a word used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language)
  • auxesis: Form of hyperbole, in which a more important sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive term
  • catachresis: Mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)
  • circumlocution: "Talking around" a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasis
  • commiseration: Evoking pity in the audience
  • correctio: Linguistic device used for correcting one's mistakes, a form of which is epanorthosis
  • denominatio: Another word for metonymy
  • double negative: Grammar construction that can be used as an expression and it is the repetition of negative words
  • dysphemism: Substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism
  • epanorthosis: Immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue
  • enumeratio: A form of amplification in which a subject is divided, detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly
  • epanados: Repetition in a sentence with a reversal of words. Example: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath
  • erotema: Synonym for rhetorical question
  • euphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another
  • exclamation: An emphatic parenthetic addition that is complete in itself, exclamation differs from interjection in that it usually involves an emotional response.
  • hermeneia: Repetition for the purpose of interpreting what has already been said
  • hyperbaton: Words that naturally belong together are separated from each other for emphasis or effect
  • hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
  • hypocatastasis: An implication or declaration of resemblance that does not directly name both terms
  • hypophora: Answering one's own rhetorical question at length
  • hysteron proteron: Reversal of anticipated order of events; a form of hyperbaton
  • innuendo: Having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not
  • inversion: A reversal of normal word order, especially the placement of a verb ahead of the subject (subject-verb inversion).
  • invocation: Apostrophe to a god or muse
  • irony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning
  • kataphora: Repetition of a cohesive device at the end
  • litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite
  • malapropism: Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar
  • meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
  • merism: Statement of opposites to indicate reality
  • metalepsis: Referring to something through reference to another thing to which it is remotely related
  • metaphor: Stating one entity is another for the purpose of comparing them in quality
  • metonymy: Substitution of an associated word to suggest what is really meant
  • neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time. Opposite of archaism
  • onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
  • oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
  • parable: Extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson
  • paradox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth
  • paradiastole: Extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe
  • paraprosdokian: Phrase in which the latter part causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning
  • parallel irony: An ironic juxtaposition of sentences or situations (informal)
  • paralipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over
  • paronomasia: A form of pun, in which words similar in sound but with different meanings are used
  • pathetic fallacy: Using a word that refers to a human action on something non-human
  • periphrasis: Using several words instead of few
  • personification/prosopopoeia/anthropomorphism: Attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena
  • praeteritio: Another word for paralipsis
  • procatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument
  • prolepsis: Another word for procatalepsis
  • proslepsis: Extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic
  • proverb: Succinct or pithy expression of what is commonly observed and believed to be true
  • pun: Play on words that will have two meanings
  • repetition: Repeated usage of word(s)/group of words in the same sentence to create a poetic/rhythmic effect
  • rhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question which already has the answer hidden in it. Or asking a question not for the sake of getting an answer but for asserting something (or as in a poem for creating a poetic effect)
  • satire: Use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. A literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule. A literary genre comprising such compositions
  • simile: Comparison between two things using like or as
  • snowclone: Quoted or misquoted cliché or phrasal template
  • superlative: Saying that something is the best of something or has the most of some quality, e.g. the ugliest, the most precious etc.
  • syllepsis: Form of pun, in which a single word is used to modify two other words, with which it normally would have differing meanings
  • syncatabasis (condescension, accommodation): adaptation of style to the level of the audience
  • synecdoche: Form of metonymy, in which a part stands for the whole
  • synesthesia: Description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
  • tautology: Needless repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle
  • transferred epithet: Placing of an adjective with what appears to be the incorrect noun
  • truism: a self-evident statement
  • tricolon diminuens: Combination of three elements, each decreasing in size
  • tricolon crescens: Combination of three elements, each increasing in size
  • zeugma: A figure of speech related to syllepsis, but different in that the word used as a modifier is not compatible with one of the two words it modifies
  • zoomorphism: Applying animal characteristics to humans or gods

Comments

  1. Hi Vengatesan,

    This post would've been of great help if I'd read it a few years ago (at the university for my linguistics course:) Great post!

    Please see my last post about my advice to ESL teachers: http://elicincanan.edublogs.org/

    thanks

    ReplyDelete

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