A morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word
General truth (moral principle) or observation about life/usually concise/'Actions speak louder than words.'/'The early bird gets the worm.'
The repetition of a similar phrase throughout a passage/“My life is my purpose. My life is my goal. My life is my inspiration.”
Ascribes human traits, ambition, or emotions to animals, natural phenomena, or objects to make it behave & appear like it is human/the animals in Animal Farm/'My father was a St Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian.' ~Twain from A Dog's Tale
Typical character or situation that represents universal patterns of human nature/The Hero (like Beowulf)/The Mentor (like Gandalf)/The Villain (like Long John Silver)
A scheme in which conjunctions are omitted for effect/'I came. I saw. I conquered.'/'An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest.'
Term coined by Pope in 1727 for failed attempt at artistic greatness/abrupt transition from lofty style to vulgar (from very high to very low)
Purification of the spirit by the emotions of pity and terror in witness to a tragedy
The literal definition of a word
Use of negative or disparaging expressions to speak of things that anger or annoy them in an effort to humiliate or degrade/call someone a 'snake' or 'rat'/
A short witty saying or poem/generally satirical/'I don't approve of political jokes; I've seen too many get elected.'/'If we don't end war, war will end us.'
Poem, quotation or sentence at the beginning of a piece written by a different author/The Brothers Karamazov begins with John 12:24 Verily, verilly I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit./Hemingway begins The Sun Also Rises with 'You are all a lost generation.' ~Gertrude Stein
The moment in the story when a character has a sudden realization that changes the way they see things/an 'aha!' moment
Brief writing inscribed on a gravestone/Shakespeare, Plath, Wilde & Frost all wrote their own/Shakespeare's puts a curse on anyone who moves his bones
Description that expresses a quality characteristic of the person or thing described/'the Lion-Hearted' for King Richard I/'man's best friend' for dog/can also be used as a term of of abuse or contempt/kennings are a subcategory of this type of device
Inversion of the normal order of words in a sentence for the sake of emphasis/'This I must see.'/'Women & men (both little and small) cared for anyone not at all' ~cummings (anyone lived in a pretty how town)/Master Yoda, “Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you.”
Associated w/Old Norse, Icelandic, & Anglo-Saxon poetry/replacement of a single noun with a figure of speech (generally two words)/(i.e. blood = battle-sweat, death = sword sleep)
Dramatic understatement that implies something is much smaller or less significant than it actually is/belittles person or event/'a scratch, a scratch' ~Mercutio upon receiving his death wound/calling the Atlantic Ocean 'the Pond'/'It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.' ~Holden Caulfield
Point of view which describes the narrator as 'all knowing'
Statement that seems contradictory but presents a truth/'I can resist anything but temptation.' ~Wilde/'What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.' ~Shaw
Kind of fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is introduced within a work specifically to distract from a different topic/often used in detective or suspense writings to mislead or confuse readers
Speech error in which beginnings of 2 words are switched in such a way that the statement while nonsensical is still comprehensible/named for Brit minister/'3 cheers for our Queer old Dean.'/Britains farmers called 'ye noble Tons of Soil'/upon soldiers returning 'we will have the Hags Flung out.'
Style that presents thoughts as though they are flowing directly from the character's mind
So similar to a zeugma that no one can clearly state the difference/may be a type of zeugma
Statement of deductive logic that moves from general argument to specific conclusion/used by Aristotle/'All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal.'
Presentation that appeals to more than one sense at same time/'Back to the region where the sun is silent.' ~Dante (Inferno)/'warm colors'/'bitter cold'/also refers to medical condition in which stimulation of one sense triggers another
Figure of speech used to express meaning different from actual meaning of words used/includes irony, hyperbole, metaphor, litotes, metonymy, synecdoche
Writing that shows a likeness to the truth or reality even though far-fetched or fantasy/Gulliver's Travels though fantastic has resemblance to reality of Brit politics
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