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N. M.

About these flashcards

This set of flashcards helps university-level students analyze English text by exploring rhetorical devices like juxtaposition, contrasting pairs, and hendiatris. It covers key terms such as "three-part list," "hendiatris," and "siamese twins," with examples like "content and skills" or "theory and practice." The platform supports backward learning, allowing users to reverse the learning direction from the target language to the source language. Ideal for advanced learners, this set enhances analytical skills for academic and professional communication.

Flashcards

169

Students

5

Language

German

Category

English

Level

University

Created / Updated

02.07.2014 / 17.06.2022

spick and span

- siamese twins (Fowler)

(words linked by and or or which are used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic or clichéd combinations.)

stand an deliver

- siamese twins (Fowler)

(words linked by and or or which are used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic or clichéd combinations.)

tattered and torn

- siamese twins (Fowler)

(words linked by and or or which are used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic or clichéd combinations.)

the whole kit and caboodle

- siamese twins (Fowler)

(words linked by and or or which are used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic or clichéd combinations.)

the cut and thrust of battle

- siamese twins (Fowler)

(words linked by and or or which are used to convey a single meaning in idiomatic or clichéd combinations.)

the cold and the wind blew

- hendiadys

- "one through two"

- = the cold wind blew

(expressing a single compound notion through two independent words connected by a conjunction instead of subordinating one to the other.

A method of amplification that adds force. )

They sat and talked

- hendiadys

- "one through two"

- = they sat talking

(expressing a single compound notion through two independent words connected by a conjunction instead of subordinating one to the other. A method of amplification that adds force. )

He came despite the rain and weather

- hendiadys

- "one through two"

- = he came despite the rainy weather

(expressing a single compound notion through two independent words connected by a conjunction instead of subordinating one to the other. A method of amplification that adds force. )

Duty, honor, country

- hendiatris

- "one through three"

(three words representing a central idea)

wine, woman and song

- hendiatris

- "one through three"

- = hedonism

(three words representing a central idea)

The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost

- hendiatris

- "one through three"

- = God

(three words representing a central idea)

God for Harry, England and St George

- hendiatris

- "one through three"

- = my country

(three words representing a central idea)

Every Tom, Dick and Harry

- hendiatris

- "one through three"

- = everyone

(three words representing a central idea)

Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.

- three-part lists:

- Churchill

(a list of 3 items that doesn't qualify as a tricolon on the grounds of length or syntax (or lack thereof))

Ads for the women's stuff push the mystical, the evocative and the French.

- three-part list: 1. mystical, 2. evocative, 3. French

(a list of 3 items that doesn't qualify as a tricolon on the grounds of length or syntax (or lack thereof))

Black and white

- contrasting pair

(two things contrasted in a pithy, concise manner)

theory and practice

- contrasting pair

(two things contrasted in a pithy, concise manner)

content and skills

- contrasting pair

(two things contrasted in a pithy, concise manner)

In the 20th century, all the nightmare-novels of the future imagined books would be burned. In the 21st century, our dystopias imagine a world where books are forgotten.

- juxtaposition

(a contrast of ideas without the pithiness (Prägnanz) of a contrasting pair, nor the parallel structure of antithesis)

People don't just want mental snacks for ever; they also want meals

- juxtaposition

(a contrast of ideas without the pithiness (Prägnanz) of a contrasting pair, nor the parallel structure of antithesis)

Headline:

Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit the earth

(Obama is making good his promise to welcome scientists into his administration)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- intertextuality to a biblical quote: Sermon on the Mount "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"

- the informal term "geeks" is the reference to the scientists

- not quite homophony "geekS" vs "meek"

Headline:

Qom all ye faithful

(muted dissent in Iran's holiest city)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- intertextuality: the song "Oh, come, all ye faithful" von John Wade

- homophony: "qom" + "come" = a pun based on homophony!

- Qom = propername, Iran's holiest city

- the term "faithful" is the reference to the holy city

Headline:

Kim Jong ill or Kim Jong Well

(North Korea: Fresh speculation about the Dear Leader's health)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- similar sound of his proper name "(Kim Jong) Il" and "ill", the feeling of sickness. Pun based on similar sound!

- the opposing terms "ill" and "sick" are references to his health condition

Headline:

Elizabethan Drama

(America's consumer protection agency is about to open for business. Will the president fight to put Elizabeht Warren at its head?)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- intertextuality: Shakespeare's drama in Elizabethan era

- double meaning of the terms "drama" 1. Shakespeare's play 2. the dramatic situation about who will be head of department and "Elizabethan" 1. Shakespearean era 2. reference to the candidate named Elizabeth. Pun based on double meaning!

Headline:

TB or not TB

(WHO estimates that millions may die of tuberculosis before 2020)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- intertextuality: Shakespaere - Hamlet's siloloquy "to be or not to be, that is the question"

- similar sound of the term "TB" (as an abbreviation of tuberculosis) with "to be". Pun based on similar sound

Headline:

Carmageddon

(Los Angeles: in a car culture, even the brief closure of a freeway can spell chaos)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- reference to the film "Amageddon" wich is based on the biblical meaning, namely the end of all times

- not a pun but blending of "Amageddon" and "Car"

- hyperbole

- neogolism

Headline:

Parting is such Swede sorrow...

(Henning Mankell's fictional character's final appearance as a Swedish detective)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- intertextuality: Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet "Parting is such sweet sorrow"

- the term "parting" used to refer to his retirement

- similar sound of "Swede" and "sweet". Pun based on similar sound.

Headline:

Tooth ferry fills gap in dental services

(National Health Sevice Dentistry is in such short supply on the Isle of With that a local councilor has come up with a novel idea: dental toursim across the Channel)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- similar sound of "ferry" (a ship) and "fairy" (the mystical tooth collecting person). Because the text is about the isle and using the channel this is another term used with ships. First pun based on similar sound.

- double meaning/ lexical ambiguity of the term "to fill a gap", 1. the dentist fills a tooth gap 2. shortage in dentists/ the gap in dentists needs to be filled by new service. Second pun based on double meaning or lexical ambiguity

Headline:

Fat cats prosper on the public kitty

(critical commentary on high salaries for public sector managers)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- two terms of the same label: domestic label: "cats" and "kitty"

- double meaning of the domestic label terms cats/kitty: 1. a little animal 2. the tax payers (concerning money issue). A pun based on double meaning

- the term "fat cat" is an idomatic expression: successfull businessman who is greedy for wealth (meaning: onlay the investment bankers prosper nowadays)

Headline:

Frugal Dutch take the helm as EU heads for choppy waters

(on the Dutch taking over the presidency of the EU)

Keyboard commands:

= turn,

= for-/backward,

= scroll

- (extended) metaphor: the EU as a boat and political times as the rough sea

- lexical field: ship/boat terms: helm (wheel that guides a boat), choppy waters (trouble times ahead for the boat driver)

- referring to the Dutch as the helmsman

Headline:

Stalled in motor city

(Financial emergency in Detroit)

- referring to Detroit as the "motor city" because General Motors is located there

- double meaning of the term "stalled" 1. stopping a car involutarily (because of missing power) 2. referring to the financial power of Detroit. Pun based on double meaning

Headline:

Bo bo black sheep

(power games in China: the dismissal of party chief Bo Xilai)

- intertextuality: nursery rhyhme: "Ba ba black sheep"

- referrring to the party chief as "Bo" and a "black sheep"

- the "black sheep" is the one blamed for everything, "Bo" the "black sheep" will be kicked out of her political party in China

Headline:

Dream, dare, do!

(an ad for an MBA programm)

- alliteration: all three terms beginning with "d..."

- asyndeton: the conjunction "and" is missing and producing a hurried rhythem. Normally it would be "dream, dare and do"

- three-part-list: because of the same syntax (namely three imparatives) it is even a tricolon: furthermore the three show a climax (increasing steps)

Headline:

Giving prams the push

(on the disadvantages of modern baby-buggies compared to the old-fashioned ones they have replaced)

- double meaning of the term "push" 1. to push the carriage/pram 2. to push it off the market (giving the push to sth.). A pun based on double meaning

- syllepsis

Headline:

Forget about the tortoise and the hare. The winner is a frog.

(ad for a business school in Paris)

- intertextuality: reference to the fable "the race between a rabbit and a tortoise"

- paradox: the winner is someone not mentioned before, so. unforeseen wins, namely the Frensh school

- frog is linked to the Frensh people, nevertheless it is a tabu word

Headline:

Scents and sensibility

(How the author helped Afghans build a thriving soap and body-oil business - and overcome the incompetence of America's aid establishment)

- intertextuality: referring to Jane Austen's novel "Sense and sensibility"

- homophony: "sense" and "scents". A pun based on homophones

the Titanic sank after it hit a piece of frozen water

- meosis (minimazation): a piece of frozen water = an iceberg

Britain is a giant fact, one of the world's most successful political unions, that has produced everything from an empire to a broadcasting corporation toa particularly nasty type of sherry

- three-part-list

& anticlimax (decreasing importance)

& bathos (drop vom sublime to ridiculous)

Some people probably behaved heroically, some disgracefully

- ellipses (omission of words, not only conjunctions like with the asyndeton):

"Some people probably behaved heroically, some people probably behaved disgracefuly"

There were old men leaping into the cold and the dark, and women abseiling with firehoses, and elderly couples huddling in terror in their cabins

- hendiadys (describing one through two): the cold and the dark

- polysyndeton (deliberate use of many conjunctions): There were old men leaping into the cold and the dark, and women abseiling with firehoses, and elderly couples huddling in terror in their cabins

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Flashcards

referring to the ongoing competition between video games manufacturers as console wars

- auxesis

(magnifying the importance/gravity of something by using a disproportionate term)

A small token of my esteem

- meiosis

- for a generous present

(minimization of the importance of an object, an action, a state)

That cake is not bad

- litotes

- = good

(use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to strongly affirm the positive)

He's not the brightest

- litotes

- = dumb

(use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to strongly affirm the positive)

He does not have what we consider to be an examplary attendance record

- litotes

- = only rarely attanding

(use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to strongly affirm the positive)

boom

or

cock-a-doodle-doo

or

whisper

or

crackling

- onomatopoeia

(use of words to imitate natural sounds or the thing being described [Sound effects can be used to set the emotional or ethical tone of a passage.])

cruel kindness

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

thunderous silence

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

black gold

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

old news

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

living dead

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

open secret

- oxymoron

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

Parting is such sweet sorrow

- oxymoron

- Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet

(juxtaposition of expressions which appear to be contradictory (condensed paradox) [used to produce a startling effect]

Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth

- paradox

- Picasso

(statement which appears self-contradictory but contains a measure of truth; longer than an oxymoron; a kind of riddle)

Cowards die many times before their deaths

- paradox

- Shakespeare: Julius Caesar

(statement which appears self-contradictory but contains a measure of truth; longer than an oxymoron; a kind of riddle)

Lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears.

- pleonasm

- Bible: Matthew 13: 15

(Greek = more than enough)
the using of more words than are required to give the sense intended (but not a tautology)
for rhetorical effect (often used for poetic effect)

This was the most unkindest cut of all

- pleonasm

- Shakespeare: Julius Caesar

- Brutus was Caesar's close and trusted friend. To be stabbed by him was even more hurtful than by those who he was less intimate.

(Greek = more than enough)
the using of more words than are required to give the sense intended (but not a tautology)
for rhetorical effect (often used for poetic effect)

The two twins were exactly identical.

- tautology

(saying sth twice in different ways; a useless/ineffective repetition)

The resolution was unanimously passed by the whole meeting.

- tautology

- = unanimously includes everybody

(saying sth twice in different ways; a useless/ineffective repetition)

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

- bathos

(a sudden lowering/deflation from a heightened tone to the ordinary & dull, used for ironic effect, esp. in criticism
from the sublime to the ridiculous, often unconsciously)

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

- bathos

(a sudden lowering/deflation from a heightened tone to the ordinary & dull, used for ironic effect, esp. in criticism
from the sublime to the ridiculous, often unconsciously)

I'll unhair thy head.

- anthimeria

- Shakespeare: Antony & Cleopatra II, v,64

- Although hair is normally used as a noun, in this instance it takes an -un prefix and is used as a verb

(substitution of one part of speech for another (adjective for noun; adverb for verb))

selfie

or

McJob

or

webinar

- neologism

(the coining of a completely new word (ie for a product) or giving an old word a new meaning (e.g. summit))

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour.

- apostrophe

- Wordsworth's poem: London

- The poet feels that Milton should be alive for England needs him

(Where a direct address or appeal is made to an absent person as if he were present; often used in personification.)

Full fathom five thy father lies

- alliteration

- Shakespeare

- 4x "f..."

(repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words in sequence for conspicuous effect)

sighted sub sank same

- alliteration

- 4x "s..."

(repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words in sequence for conspicuous effect)

a pack of pickled peppers

- alliteration

- 3x "p..."

(repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words in sequence for conspicuous effect)

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn

- assonance

- Wordsworth's poem

- "o"

(repetition of similar vowel sounds preceded & followed by different consonants)

It beats as it sweeps as it cleans

[ad coined by Hoover]

- assonance

- "...e..."

(repetition of similar vowel sounds preceded & followed by different consonants)

the pitter-patter of little feet

- consonance

- "...tt.."

(repetition of consonant sounds, vowels differ)

And the silken sad uncertain/rustling of each purple curtain

- consonance

- Poe

(repetition of consonant sounds, vowels differ)

We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence ...

- anaphora

- Churchill 1940

- 3x "We shall "

(repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences [a marked rhythm for a strong emotional effect] )

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up...
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia...
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi...

- anaphora

- Martin Luther King, 1963

- 3x "I have a dream that one day..."

(repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences [a marked rhythm for a strong emotional effect] )

We are born to sorrow, pass our time in sorrow, end our days in sorrow.

- epistrophe

- 3x "sorrow"

(repetition of the same word/phrase at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences [a pronounced rhythm-secures emphasis])

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.

- epistrophe

- Bible: 1 Corinthians 13, attributed to Paul the apostel (St. Paul)

- 3x "as a child"

(repetition of the same word/phrase at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences [a pronounced rhythm-secures emphasis])

Blood hath brought blood, and blows have answered blows; Strength match’d with strength, and power confronted power.

- epanalepsis

- combi of anaphora & epistrophe

- Shakespeare: King John

(repetition of the same word or phrase with others in between [rare in prose; used to produce highly emotional language] )

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius

or

Year chases year; decay pursues decay

or

The king is dead, long live the king.

or

Nothing will come of nothing. (King Lear)

- epanalepsis

- combi of anaphora & epistrophe

(repetition of the same word or phrase with others in between [rare in prose; used to produce highly emotional language] )

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

- polyptoton

- Franklin D Roosevelt

- to fear & the fear

(a kind of repetition using words with the same root)

Give life to the living.

- polyptoton

- to give life & the living

(a kind of repetition using words with the same root)

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; or bends with the remover to remove

- polyptoton

- Shakespeare

- absolute (adj) & absolutely (adv), the remover (n) & to remove (v)

(a kind of repetition using words with the same root)

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