Questions tagged [literary-techniques]
The literary-techniques tag has no usage guidance.
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What is the meaning of "Wa’al"?
What is the meaning of "Wa’al"?
Here is a quote from Charles Dickens' A Message from the Sea:
“Wa’al, my good sir,” said the captain cordially, “the present question is, and will be long, I ...
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What is this way of speaking called?
I was having a conversation with my friend the other day. At one point, we were talking about a very wealthy individual that has amassed a significant amount of wealth. I told my friend that this ...
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Polysyndeton or another term? [duplicate]
After searching for "English phrase where you list a lot of things" I came upon Polysyndeton which is defined as:
Polysyndeton is a list or series of words, phrases, or clauses that
is ...
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How is death "romanticized"? [closed]
Many times in question papers we can see that there's a question on "how death is romanticized in xxxx poem/ story?"
My question is how do we determine that the writer has romanticized death ...
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What is the term for using a word to portray a particular idea outside of but close to the context of the original meaning?
What is the term for using a word to portray a particular idea outside of but close to the context of the original meaning? Here is an example of what I mean. Someone may use the word “mercenary” in a ...
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What poetic device describes describes two (nearly) identical words together? [duplicate]
Examples I could think of:
achieve achievement
traditional traditions
work of work
Would this be classified as a pun even if the subject isn't humorous? If not, how do I describe this word play?
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Is freak of nature an oxymoron?
My question is, is the term "freak of nature" a oxymoron?
I feel as if it is a oxymoron due to freak and nature being contradictions of each other, but I am not sure.
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Reader, when did non-fiction writers start breaking the fourth wall? [closed]
Breaking the fourth wall is usually considered a theatrical concept, but Wikipedia notes that it can also occur in literature (ie. fiction).
Use of the fourth wall in literature can be traced back as ...
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Is chremamorphism the literary technique for objectification? [closed]
So I was hoping if someone could support that chremamorphism is the literary technique term for objectification. Specifically, I am looking at the phrase "the pushing of your sadness". ...
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Is there a technique for when a verb is used to conjure up a distinct image? [closed]
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller describes the love between John Proctor and Elizabeth Proctor as an "emotion flowing between them". In my interpretation, the verb
"flowing" connotes ...
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What is the technique to make something normal appear abnormal?
I was wondering about the name of the literary/poetic technique where, through examination of tiny details, ordinary actions become abnormal and strange.
For example describing eating as 'the ...
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What is the name of the literary technique for this?
So the common adage is "The apple never falls far from the tree."
So what would you call: "Sometimes the apple falls very far from the tree."
It points out an exception to the rule....
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Understanding 'rather do we'
I came across a peculiar sentence structure today:
Rather do we do A; but B.
I think this is an archaic grammatica structure. What is the meaning of the above structure?
The full phrase is given ...
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Usage of we instead of us [duplicate]
Lest they do anything before we.
Lest they do anything before us.
One of my students, for their creative writing coursework, phrased his sentence as shown in quote 1, but I have a confusion as to ...
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Name for a conversation where two people are talking about two things, without their knowledge [duplicate]
The show Arrested Development uses a writing technique I haven't seen very often, but I find very interesting. The idea is that two people will have a conversation where they are both talking from two ...
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What Literary device is in use, when the tone/pronunciation/intonation/delivery of a word or phrase gives its double meaning
What is the literary device used in the above scenario called?
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What are the literary devices that appear in these two quotes?
Majestic and minute, remote and magically near, frank and divinely enigmatic.
It's a polysyndeton but since antonyms are used there would it be juxtaposition? I thought it wouldn't be oxymoron or ...
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Looking for Literary technique's name
What is it when an author starts the book with a future event, goes on for maybe a paragraph or a page, then stops and returns to the present?
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What type of literary technique is the phrase 'star-crossed lovers' in 'Romeo and Juliet'?
My child has been asked this at school, and I suspect the teachers want the students to answer that it's a metaphor.
However, I don't think it's a metaphor: surely Shakespeare, or at least the people ...
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Is 'Rumbling' an example of an onomatopoeia?
Is the word 'Rumbling' considered to be an example of onomatopoeia?
I know that the word 'rumble' is an onomatopoeia, but I am not sure if that applies to 'rumbling' as well.
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Is there a literary technique for when someone knows what will happen even though he has never experienced it?
For example, I have never experienced this myself but I thought if a potato chip was squished/pressed under a metal surface and a plastic surface, it is more likely to stick to the metal rather than ...
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Word for stating something as fact when narrator and audience knows it is untrue?
I am looking for a literary term that is similar to irony. Basically, the narrator say something in an almost sarcastic way by stating something that everyone knows is untrue. The quote I am going off ...
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Is derogatory language a technique?
Is the use of swear words in a narrative piece considered a language technique? If so what would the technique be?
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What kind of literacy device is "“Amen” stuck in my throat."?
So what kind of literacy device is "“Amen” stuck in my throat"? This quote is found in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Macbeth says:
But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of ...
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Why do depictions of foreigners in English media compulsively insert foreign words from their mother tongue?
There is something that has been bugging me about depiction of foreigners in various English media (that doesn't occur, say, in Polish media).
The "foreigner" characters keep replacing common English ...
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'She looked incredible. Then she looked at me'
Am I correct in saying that the verb 'looked' is intransitive in the first phrase, transitive in the second phrase? Is there a name for this type of rhetorical technique playing on the two senses of ...
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A literary structure
Prais’d be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious,
Does the first sentence means "praise is for fathomless universe"? Is it an old structure?
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Seeking a name for literary device/technique involving denial and hypothetical dialogue
Preface
To properly frame this question, I should note that I recently have been studying formal rhetoric according to the five canons (inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and actio), and paying ...
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What is the name of the literary technique/device used where the reader is only shown one side of a dialogue?
What is the literary device used when there is a dialogue but only one speaker's side is heard/shown to the reader/audience. And how can I write this in a way that it is clear that although this ...
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What type of literary device is referring to a famous quote in a song?
In his song Land of the Free, the artist, Joey B., sings:
And everything I do or say today that's worthwhile
Will for sure inspire actions in your first child.
is similar to this quote by Marcus ...
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Is there a literary device to show how a character or interactions with a character changes as the story goes on?
I'm trying to break down Wilfred Owen's Disabled, and I feel like there should be a device for describing his condition before and after the war. Girls treat him so differently. He used to be a ...
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Word for kind of descriptive/metaphoric style
On a web-show called Bravest Warriors there is a character called Paralyzed Horse. He has a tendency to make these interesting monologues and I was curious if there was a name for the kind of language ...
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Is there a technique used when someone splits a compound noun into two parts?
My student has asked whether the splitting of the compound word keyhole into key hole is a particular literary technique. I didn't know!
It's relevant to the text, as it is about disconnection and ...
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Referring to a character by a trait rather than name/title/pronoun
This is really driving me insane. What is it called when instead of referring to a character by their name, title, or pronoun you use a short description. For example, "the cruel man spoke", "the ...
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What language techniques are used in this well-known quote from Macbeth? [closed]
What language techniques are used in this famous quote by the Witches from Macbeth:
'Fair is foul, and foul is fair'
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What is an "indirect dialogue/discourse"?
I came upon this paragraph during my practice for a literature test.
"...Lin stood in the yard facing the front wall while flipping over a dozen mildewed books he had left to be sunned on a stack of ...
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Name for a set of clauses that can be split into sentences multiple ways
I'm a big fan of music with clever lyrics, and there's a particular bit of wordplay that I've come across in several songs and I've always wondered if it has a specific name. As the title says, it's ...
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Term for when a reader strongly predicts an outcome simply because the story would seemingly fail if it went differently
When discussing, say, predictions for the ending of a novel, I've often heard logic along the lines of:
This character must survive, because if (s)he doesn't, the story would be [depressing/...
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Using 'a' with an uncountable entity
The sentence goes like this:
Sometimes, it is just a friction that can ignite an entire forest.
My editor asked me to remove 'a' because friction is uncountable noun. However, I am trying to portray ...
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What is this language technique called? Example: I don't think we don't love each other [duplicate]
I don't think that I don't, is this sort of like a double negative? Repetition? Obviously used for emphasis of confusion.
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Name of device for when a verb ESPECIALLY matches the rest of the sentence
The other day, I was reading an article about an individual who used to become pen pals with murderers in order to gain information about them. I believe this individual was a member of the CIA, hence ...
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What is the literary device used in “She’s not just showing you what she made. She’s showing you what she’s made of”
What is the literary device used in “She’s not just showing you what she made. She’s showing you what she’s made of”
At first, I thought it was chiasmus, but it does not really fit.
Certain that it ...
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What literary device is this? A. B. C
Asyndeton refers to a practice in literature whereby the author purposely leaves out conjunctions in the sentence, while maintaining the grammatical accuracy of the phrase.
Example:
Read, Write, ...
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What is the name of the technique used when substituting a word?
I just came out of an exam where an author used byte instead of bite in a line. The line was, "creating fake profiles, but at least she gets a byte of midnight love". It's driving me absolutely crazy ...
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Is “Love did compose” personification, or is it something else?
In Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘The Fair Singer’ he writes that love did compose:
To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
In whom both beauties to my death agree,
...
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Help finding the name of a literary device
Circumstance/Background
To express the surety of a particular outcome, a future/forecasted event is spoken of as if it has already transpired.
Question
The aforementioned literary style foreshadows ...
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Is there a term for a sentence with no (or implied) subject? If so, what?
Take this from Nick Cave's song 'Higgs Boson Blues':
She curses the queue at the Zulu. And moves on to Amazonia.
Is there a term for a sentence without a subject, or where the subject is implied ...
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Word for a phrase that by ambiguity could be accidentally self-deprecating
There is a literary technique in comedies where a person says something intending for it to be reassuring and confident, but their words are humorous because when interpreted differently, the phrase ...
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Is there a specific term for ending a rhyming line with something unexpected?
Please note that I've tried googling variations on this, but usually just end up with "words that rhyme with unexpected" which is obviously not what I'm going for.
There's a technique I've seen used ...
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Is this phrase an example of irony?
The dictionary defines irony as "the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning."
I also understand that irony is a form of humor. This phrase ...
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