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Sarcasm
- greek meaning "to tear flesh"
- involves bitter, caustic language that is meant too hurt or ridicule someone or something
- may us irony as a device
- not all ironic statements are sarcastic
- when well done can be witty and insightful
- when poorly done its cruel
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satire
- targets human views and follies or institution and conventions, for reform or ridicule
- best seen as a style of writing rather than a purpose for writing
- can be recognized by irony, wit, parody, caricature, hyperbole, understatement, and sarcasm
- good satire-humerous, though provoking and insightful about the human condition
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Smilie
- explicit comparison
- "like" or "as" or "if"
- "O my love is like a red rose. Thats newly sprung in June. O my love is like a melody, thats sweetly played in tune"
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Style
- consideration of style has two purposes:
- 1) evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language
- *some authors styles are so idiosyncratic that we can quickly recognize works by the same author
- *jonathan swift to george orwell, william faulkner to ernest hemingway
- *can be called flowery explicit, succinct, rambling, bombastic, commonplace
2) classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors
- one can see how an authors style reflects an helps define a historical period
- Renaissance, Victorian period
- literary movement, romantic, transcendental, realist
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Subject Compliment
- the word or clause that follows a linking verb
- complements, or completes the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it (2) describing it
- former is called a predicate nominative, latter a predicate adjective
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Subordinate Clause
- contains both a subject and a verb
- cant stand alone; does not express a complete thought
- also called a dependent clause
- depends on a main clause (independent clause) to complete its meaning
- "although", "because", "unless", "if" "since"
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syllogism
- from greek for "reckoning together"
- deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises-"major"&"minor", lead to a sound
- conclusion
- major: all men are mortal
- minor: socrates is a man
- conclusion: therefore, socrates is mortal
- only valid if each of the two premises are valid
- may also present the specific idea first and the general idea second
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Symbol/Symbolism
- anything that represents or stands for something else
- something concrete-such as an object, action, character, or scene-that represents something more abstract
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Natural Symbols
- objects and occurrences from nature to represent ideas commonly associated with them
- (dawn symbolizing hope, rose-love, tree-knowledge)
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Conventional Symbols
- have been invested with meaning by a group
- cross, star of david
- national: flag, eagle
- group: skull and cross bones for pirates
- the scales of justice for lawyers
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Literary Symbols
- found in a variety of works and are generally recognized
- whale in moby dick
- the jungle in heart of darkness
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Syntax
- way author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences
- similar to diction; differentiate by thinking of syntax as referring to groups of words, while diction refers to individual words
- length/shortness of sentences, unusual sentence construction, sentence patterns used
- exclamations, questions, rhetorical questions
- sentences may also be classified as periodic or loose, simple, compound, or complex
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Theme
- central idea or message of a work
- insight it offers into life
- unstated in fictional works
- in nonfiction directly states, especially in expository or argumentative writing
- can be states as "universal truth" a general statement about the human condition, about society, or about man's relation to the natural world
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