subject terminology

• Hyperbole

  Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
• Sibilance

  figure of speech wherein a hissing sound is created in a group of words through the repetition of 's' sounds.
• pun

  make a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word.
• metaphor

  a figure of speech that implicitly compares two unrelated things, typically by stating that one thing is another
• assonance

  resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words, arising particularly from the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels, but not consonants 
• Pathetic Fallacy

  the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature. e.g. the weather.
• allegory

  a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
• rhyme

  correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words
• anaphora

  the use of a word referring back to a word used earlier in a text or conversation, to avoid repetition, for example the pronouns he, she, it, and they and the verb do in I like it and so do they.
• simile

  a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind
• motif

  a decorative image or design, especially a repeated one forming a pattern.
• personification

  the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
• idiom

  a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words e.g. over the moon.
• irony

  the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
• harmartia

  a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
• alliteration

  the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
• pathos

  a quality that evokes pity or sadness.
• anecdote

  a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
• colloquialism

  a word or phrase that is not formal or literary and is used in ordinary or familiar conversation
• onomatopoeia

  the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named e.g. pop
• oxymoron

  a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction e.g. happy rain
• semantic / lexical field

  a group of words or expressions that are related in meaning
• repetition

  the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
• euphemism

  a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant  or embarrassing.
• paradox

  a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation.
• syntactic parallelism

  Usage of the same verb form in each clause e.g. She wants to sing, she wants to act, she wants to dance.
• juxtaposition

  the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
• rhetorical devises

  a linguistic tool that employs a particular type of sentence structure, sound, or pattern of meaning in order to evoke a particular reaction from an audience.
• evocative verbs

  tending to evoke a reaction or response e.g. squash