Language Terms
Exclamatory Sentence: Stanley: Catch!
Declarative Sentence: A statement Stanley: ‘Luck is believing your lucky’
Interrogative Sentence: Eunice: ‘What’s the matter, honey? Are you lost?’
Imperative Sentence: Men [feebly]: ‘Take it easy, Stanley’
Rhetorical Questions: Blanche: ‘He did- What?’
Tricolons: Blanche: ‘Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!’
Chiasmus: a two-part sentence or phrase, where the second part is a mirror image of the first,
used to give the impression of completeness. Blanche: ‘He acts like an animal, has animal
habits!’
Asyndeton: lacking in connectives. Blanche: ‘fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it’
Polysyndeton: repetition of connectives/conjunctions in quick succession
Appositive: An appositive is a noun or pronoun — often with modifiers — set beside another
noun or pronoun to explain or identify it. Blanche: ‘my sister, Stella’
Aposiopesis: Breaking off speech because of emotion Blanche: ‘Because-as you must have
noticed-I'm-not very well...’
Parenthetical Clause: Helpful but not essential to the sentence. Blanche: ‘beauty of the mind
and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart- and I have all those things- aren’t taken
away, but grow!’
Apostrophe: a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object.
Blanche: ‘Oh- God…’
Compound Sentence: a sentence that connects two independent clauses, typically with a
coordinating conjunction. Blanche: ‘The lord and lady of the house have not yet returned, so
come in.’
Active Voice: Stella: ‘She married a boy who wrote poetry.’
Passive Voice: Stella ‘he was extremely good looking’
Anaphora: the repetition is of a word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive sentences,
phrases, or clauses. Blanche: ‘I knew you would, Stella. I knew you would take this attitude
about it!’
Anadiplosis: a device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is
repeated at the beginning of the next.
Conditional Sentence: A sentence beginning with ‘If’
Lexical Fields: Words that can be grouped under one umbrella term.
Antanaclasis: the repetition of a word within a phrase or sentence in which the second
occurrence utilizes a different and sometimes contrary meaning from the first ("We must all
hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.")
Exclamatory Sentence: Stanley: Catch!
Declarative Sentence: A statement Stanley: ‘Luck is believing your lucky’
Interrogative Sentence: Eunice: ‘What’s the matter, honey? Are you lost?’
Imperative Sentence: Men [feebly]: ‘Take it easy, Stanley’
Rhetorical Questions: Blanche: ‘He did- What?’
Tricolons: Blanche: ‘Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!’
Chiasmus: a two-part sentence or phrase, where the second part is a mirror image of the first,
used to give the impression of completeness. Blanche: ‘He acts like an animal, has animal
habits!’
Asyndeton: lacking in connectives. Blanche: ‘fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it’
Polysyndeton: repetition of connectives/conjunctions in quick succession
Appositive: An appositive is a noun or pronoun — often with modifiers — set beside another
noun or pronoun to explain or identify it. Blanche: ‘my sister, Stella’
Aposiopesis: Breaking off speech because of emotion Blanche: ‘Because-as you must have
noticed-I'm-not very well...’
Parenthetical Clause: Helpful but not essential to the sentence. Blanche: ‘beauty of the mind
and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart- and I have all those things- aren’t taken
away, but grow!’
Apostrophe: a speech or address to a person who is not present or to a personified object.
Blanche: ‘Oh- God…’
Compound Sentence: a sentence that connects two independent clauses, typically with a
coordinating conjunction. Blanche: ‘The lord and lady of the house have not yet returned, so
come in.’
Active Voice: Stella: ‘She married a boy who wrote poetry.’
Passive Voice: Stella ‘he was extremely good looking’
Anaphora: the repetition is of a word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive sentences,
phrases, or clauses. Blanche: ‘I knew you would, Stella. I knew you would take this attitude
about it!’
Anadiplosis: a device in which the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line is
repeated at the beginning of the next.
Conditional Sentence: A sentence beginning with ‘If’
Lexical Fields: Words that can be grouped under one umbrella term.
Antanaclasis: the repetition of a word within a phrase or sentence in which the second
occurrence utilizes a different and sometimes contrary meaning from the first ("We must all
hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.")
