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Oxymorons in the narrow sense are a rhetorical device used deliberately by the speaker and intended to be understood as such by the listener. In a more extended sense, the term "oxymoron" has also been applied to inadvertent or incidental contradictions, as in the case of "dead metaphors" ("barely clothed" or "terribly good").
An oxymoron refers to a word, phrase, or use of language that seems to directly contradict itself, and it is believed to come from the Greek oxý (s), “sharp,” and mōrós, “dull.”
The use of tautologies, however, is usually unintentional. For example, the phrases "mental telepathy", "planned conspiracies", and "small dwarfs" imply that there are such things as physical telepathy, spontaneous conspiracies, and giant dwarfs, which are oxymorons. [8] Parallelism is not tautology, but rather a particular stylistic device.
Epithet – a term used as a descriptive and qualifying substitute for the name of a person, place or thing. Epizeuxis – emphasizing an idea by repeating a single word. Eristic – communicating with the aim of winning the argument regardless of truth. Erotema – rhetorical question; a question is asked to which an answer is not expected. [1]
Rhetorical question: asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question that already has the answer hidden in it, or asking a question not to get an answer, but to assert something (or to create a poetic effect). Satire: humoristic criticism of society. Sesquipedalianism: use of long and obscure words.
The use of a MacGuffin as a plot device predates the name MacGuffin. The Holy Grail of Arthurian legend has been cited as an early example of a MacGuffin. The Holy Grail is the desired object that is essential to initiate and advance the plot, but the final disposition of the Grail is never revealed, suggesting that the object is not of significance in itself. [8]
A video essay is an essay presented in the format of a video recording or short film rather than a conventional piece of writing; ...
Pleasingly perverse. These are some of the oxymorons that ran through my mind as I read Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh's intense, flavorful, remarkable new novel." [10] For The Guardian, Lydia Kiesling was more mixed, writing "like Eileen the woman, there are things to admire and disturb in Moshfegh’s book – the perversity, the pervading sense of ...