Language Device List
Ad Hominem
An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack.
Allegory
Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text.
Alliteration
The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
Allusion
A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional.
Ambiguity
The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage.
Analogy
Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.
Anaphora
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
Aphorism
(1) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. (2) A brief statement of a principle.
Apostrophe
A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing.
Appeal to Authority
A fallacy in which a rhetor seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous.
Appeal to Ignorance
A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness.
Argument
A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood.
Assonance
The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
Asyndeton
The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of "polysyndeton").
Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
Circular Argument
An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.
Claim
An arguable statement.
Clause
A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.
Climax
Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an
An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack.
Allegory
Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text.
Alliteration
The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
Allusion
A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event--real or fictional.
Ambiguity
The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage.
Analogy
Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.
Anaphora
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
Aphorism
(1) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. (2) A brief statement of a principle.
Apostrophe
A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing.
Appeal to Authority
A fallacy in which a rhetor seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous.
Appeal to Ignorance
A fallacy that uses an opponent's inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusion's correctness.
Argument
A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood.
Assonance
The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
Asyndeton
The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of "polysyndeton").
Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.
Circular Argument
An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.
Claim
An arguable statement.
Clause
A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.
Climax
Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an