Language types

• Rhetorical devices


  • Rhetorical questions
  • Simile/metaphor
  • Personification
  • Semantic fields
  • Assonance-repetition of vowel sounds
  • Alliteration
  • Sibilance (alliteration with 's' at the start of words)
• Structural elements


  • Sentence types/lengths
  • Paragraphs
  • Structural focus at the start of the text
  • Structural focus at the end of the text
  • Shifts in focus throughout the text
  • Narrow focus
  • Wide focus
  • Hyperbole (over-exaggeration for effect)
  • Cyclical structure (starts and ends with the same idea/focus)
  • Juxtaposition (two things or ideas being placed closed together for contrast)
  • Rule of three/triples
  • Repetition
  • Anaphora (repetition of words/phrases at the beginning of sentences for deliberate effect)
  • Use of dialogue
  • Punctuation choices eg. Use of ellipsis...
  • Lists
  • Asyndetic list (a list separated by commas)
  • Syndetic list (a list separated by connectives eg. It was cold and grey and miserable)
• Emotive language


  Language that evokes strong feelings
• Violent/strong/powerful verbs


  Verbs that convey a sense of intensity or force
• Imperative verbs


  Verbs that give a command eg. 'stand there' 'look out'
• Interesting adjectives/adverbs


  Descriptive words that add vividness or emphasis
• Exclamatory sentences


  Sentences that end with an exclamation mark
• Declarative sentences


  Sentences that declare something - 'He was sad.'
• Oxymoron 


  Two opposing ideas next to each other
• Juxtaposions

  Two different ideas to describe something
• Zoomorphism


  A giving a human animal traits
• Pathetic fallacy 


  Giving non human things human emotions