1 / 20

Diction — Literary Terminology

Diction — Literary Terminology. Efficient Appearance, Sound, and Meaning. Your Diction is Showing. Words have three levels to them and are selected for their efficiency in these three areas: Appearance Sound Meaning. Diction by Number. Mono-syllabic: one syllable Ex: Sad

winifred-buck
Download Presentation

Diction — Literary Terminology

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Diction — Literary Terminology Efficient Appearance, Sound, and Meaning

  2. Your Diction is Showing • Words have three levels to them and are selected for their efficiency in these three areas: • Appearance • Sound • Meaning

  3. Diction by Number • Mono-syllabic: one syllable • Ex: Sad • Poly-syllabic: multi-syllable • Ex. Disconsolate, Despondent • The higher the ratio of poly-syllabic words, the more sophisticated and complex the sentence.

  4. An Interesting Aside Flesch-Kincaid reading level calculation: • Select a few paragraphs to use as your base • Calculate the average number of words per sentence. Multiply the result by 0.39 • Calculate the average number of syllables in words (count and divide). Multiply the result by 11.8 • Add the two results together, and subtract 15.59 • The result will be a number that equates to a grade level. For example, a 6.5 is a sixth grade reading level result.

  5. Diction by Sound • Euphonious: pleasant sounding • Ex: pillow, ocean, mayonnaise • Cacophonous: harsh sounding • Ex: awkward, vomit, crash

  6. Diction by Meaning • Denotative: exact meaning • Ex: Dress, obese • Connotative: suggested, emotional meaning (+, -) • Ex: Gown, plump

  7. Diction by Perspective • Objective: impersonal, unemotional • Ex: The rat acquired the cheese. • Subjective: personal, emotional • Ex: The foul, disease-ridden beast pilfered my best Gouda from right under my nose!

  8. Diction by Action • Active: states action • Ex: The students made progress. • Passive: states being • Ex: Progress was made by the students. • Passive voice is used when an author wants to remain vague or conceal info. • (An author uses passive voice to remain vague or conceal info.)

  9. Diction by Being • Concrete: specific, tangible • Ex: Girl, flag • Abstract: conceptual, not quantifiable • Ex: Beauty, patriotism • Concrete details usually provide support, while abstract details fill in meaning.

  10. Diction by Emphasis • Hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration of facts • Ex: “The shot heard round the world” • Understatement (Litote): deliberate misrepresenting as less • Ex: “I was only doing my job” (after saving the President’s life)

  11. Diction by Pretension • Pedestrian: plain,layman’s terms • Ex: Hand me that cookie. • Pedantic: boorish, inflated language attempting to display importance for learning’s sake • Ex: Relinquish unto me the floury morsel in your possession.

  12. Diction by Pretension • Didactic: has an instructive purpose/tone; often associated with a dry, pompous presentation • Ex: Most high school lectures

  13. Nonstandard Levels of Diction • Vulgarity: language deficient in taste and refinement; course, base • Ex: @##!, !!%%^@#, and &$%^# • Slang: vernacular speech, sometimes humorous, exaggerated, or shortened for effect • Ex: chick, dude, da bomb

  14. Nonstandard Levels of Diction • Colloquial: regional, provincial; differs from formal language in connotation, pronunciation, usage; accepted in informal conversation • Ex: Ya’ll, You guys • Ex: Fixin’ to • Ex: Ain’t • Jargon: specialized or technical language specific to a profession or field of study • Ex: Chip, bite, byte, CPU, zip = computer field

  15. Nonstandard Levels of Diction • Cliché: language used so often it has lost its freshness and clarity (fig. lang. without the freshness) • Ex: As easy as pie • Ex: Raining cats and dogs • Ex: There’s no place like home

  16. Devices of Sound • Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds in closely associated words (half-rhyme) • No pain, no gain.

  17. Devices of Sound • Consonance: repetition of similar consonant sound in closely associated words • Each slow dusk is a drawing down of blinds.

  18. Devices of Sound • Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sound in closely associated words • The twisting trout twinkled below.

  19. Devices of Sound • Onomatopoeia: words whose pronunciation suggests meaning (sound words) • Buzz, sizzle, hiss

  20. Final Rules • Never are you allowed to say that “the author uses a lot of diction.” • Whenever the word “diction” is used, it must be accompanied by an adjective to describe what kind of diction.

More Related