Language Devices and Techniques

ELISHA HAMMOND

- Allegory
• Story with a double meaning: one primary (on the surface) and one secondary.
- Alliteration
• Repetition of consonants at the start of words or in a sentence or phrase.
- Assonance
• Repetition of the vowel sound in a sentence or phrase.
- Allusion
• Allusion and symbolism are very closely linked to connotation. An allusion is when a
composer makes a reference to another text or person within their own text.

- Appropriation
• Appropriation is taking an image, character or technique from one context and placing
it in another. This happens quite a lot in many written text forms. Often the
appropriation will occur when a character is taken out of their time, such as Ruth
Park's Playing Beattie Bow, where a modern girl goes back in time and experiences
19th century Sydney. Park uses appropriation to highlight the differences between two
eras in history. Other forms of appropriation include taking a stereotyped character out
of their context and putting them in a different setting, for example, an unemployed
circus ringmaster gets a job as a call centre operator. The responder has certain
expectations about the circus ringmaster's traits, which are highlighted by the contrast
with his current occupation. Composers generally use appropriation to emphasise
difference.

- Cliché
• An over-used, common expression.
- Consonance
• Repetition of consonants throughout a sentence or phrase.
- Contrast
• Paradox, antithesis, oxymoron, juxtaposition, contrast in description etc.
- Colloquial Language
• Colloquial language is language that is informal. This can include words as well as
phrases. You might use colloquial language when messaging your friends but not in a
formal situation such as writing a letter to a business

- Didactic
• Any text that instructs the reader or is obviously delivering a moral message.
- Disjunction
 • A conjunction (e.g. ‘but’ or ‘yet’) that dramatically interrupts rhythm of sentence.
- Ellipsis
• A dramatic pause (…) creates tension or suggests words can’t be spoken.
- Emotive language
• Words that stir the readers’ emotions.
- Enjambment
• A poetic technique, when a sentence or phrase runs over more than one line (or
stanza). This assists the flow of a poem.

- Euphemism
• Mild expression used to replace a harsh one.
- Exclamation
• Exclamatory sentence ending in “!” to convey high emotion.
- Form
• Purpose and features of a text influence its construction and will suggest its structure.
- Fractured/truncated sentences
• Incomplete sentences used to increase tension or urgency, or reflect the way people
speak to each other.

- Gaps & silences

- Hyperbole
• Hyperbole (pronounced hi-per-boh-lee) is a figure of speech that uses extreme
exaggeration. An example of hyperbole is 'Flick won the 100 metre race by a mile'. If
taken literally this sentence does not make any sense. Figuratively this sentence
means that Flick won the race by a long way. Hyperbole is used by composers to
emphasise a point

- Icons
• A single person, object or image that represents complex ideas and feelings.
- Imagery
• Vivid pictures created by words. Reader visualises character/setting clearly.
- Imperative Voice
• Forceful use of the verb at the start of sentence or phrase.
- Intertextuality
• Intertextuality is the link between two texts. Many modern texts borrow from earlier
texts. This can be done in a number of different ways and serves to add weight to
meaning. Texts can be re-composed into different formats. Films such as The X-men,
Spiderman and the Batman series originated as graphic novels and have been used
to re-create the text in a different form. This is an effective form of intertextuality as it
uses the responder's expectations as a basis for meaning. When a responder views a
film adaptation of a graphic he/she knows more or less what to expect. What do you
expect to see in a graphic novel? Action, witty one-liners, good versus evil, a love
interest and eventually good overcoming evil. Texts can also be re-composed into
modern contexts. Some examples of these include the Baz Luhrmann version of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the play A West Side Story, also a modern
adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and Clueless which is a modern version of Jane
Austen's Emma. When a responder reads or views a text that has been recomposed
into modern contexts he/she will expect to see certain themes played out. The fact
that it is in a modern context has the effect of validating themes as being timeless as
well as expressing the importance of these themes in contemporary times. Finally,
intertextuality can involve allusions, where reference is made to other texts. These
may include references, symbols or icons that imply another text. Many texts use
references through similes and metaphors. Calling a person a 'Judas' is to imply that
that person is disloyal. This is an allusion the biblical Judas who betrayed Jesus in the
Christian Bible. Consider the effect of a religious allusion, implying a spiritual link to an
idea will strengthen the importance or weight of what a composer is attempting to
express. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels use a lot of intertextuality. Some examples
include Wyrd Sisters, which loosely follows Shakespeare's Macbeth, Maskerade,
based on Gaston LeRoux's The Phantom of the Opera and Carpe Jugulum, which
alluded to the narrative conventions found in vampire stories.

- Irony
• Gap between what is said and what is meant, can be verbal, dramatic or situational.
- Jargon
• Jargon is particular words that are used and understood only by people who are
experts or specifically involved in different groups.

- Juxtaposition
• Layering images/scenes to have a dramatic impact.
- Linear narrative
• Sequential – in chronological order.
- Metaphor
• Comparison of 2 objects where one becomes another – adds further layers of
meaning about object being compared.

- Metonymy
• Metonymy is a figure of speech whereby the naming of an attribute of a subject is a
reference to the whole and a concept associated with that whole.
- Modality
• The force the words are delivered at. High modality = forceful. Low modality = gentle.
- Neologism
• Neologisms are new words, invented by social or cultural groups. 'The Simpsons'
provides many examples.

- Non-linear narrative
• Non-sequential narrative, events do not occur in chronological order.
- Onomatopoeia
• A word that echoes the sound it represents. Reader hears what is happening.
- Parody
• Conscious imitation for a satiric purpose.
- Person
• First, second or third person.First person refers to the speaker himself or a group that
includes the speaker (i.e., I, me, we and us).Second person refers to the speaker’s
audience (i.e., you).Third person refers to everybody else (e.g., he, him, she, her, it,
they, them), including all other nouns (e.g. James, Swedish, fish, mice).

- Personification
• Human characteristic given to a non-human object. Inanimate objects take on a life.
- Perspective
• A particular way of looking at individuals, issues, events, texts, facts etc.
- Plosive consonants
• Harsh sounds in a sentence or phrase.
- Repetition
• Of words or syntax (order of words) for emphasis or persuasion.
- Representation
• How a composer conveys meaning through textual features.
- Rhetorical Questions
• Rhetorical questions, mostly used in speeches but occasionally in writing, are
questions where the reader is not expected to answer. They are usually questions that
make a responder think about a point, or a question that is so obvious that the
composer has asked it to make a point.

- Sarcasm
• Often referred to as the 'lowest form of wit', sarcasm is sometimes confused with
irony. Sarcasm involves a composer (most commonly a speaker) saying something
that is the opposite of what they really mean. The important difference between the
 two is that sarcasm is correctly defined as being humorous and deliberately mocking
or insulting the object or person towards whom it is directed. Sarcasm is most
commonly used in spoken texts

- Satire
• Composition which ridicules in a scornful & humorous way.
- Setting
• Location of a story – internal and external.
- Sibilance
• Repetition of ‘s’ – can sounds melodious and sweet or cold and icy.
- Simile
• Comparison of 2 objects using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
- Slang
• Slang includes informal (or casual) words that are made up and used by cultural
groups.

- Subversion
• Subverted readings and interpretations of texts involve twisting the conventions (what
usually occurs/what you expect to occur) or the stereotypes of a well-known text. A
very common variety of subverted readings are so-called fractured fairy tales. In these
fairy tales the characters or conventions are changed. The most common convention
of fairytales to be subverted is the happy ending, for example, in The Three Little Pigs
the ending could have the wolf climb down the chimney and capture the three little
pigs (Which is a happy ending for the wolf!) The Princess Bride by William Goldman is
probably the most famous example of a fractured fairy tale novel. It contains a
beautiful girl called Buttercup reluctantly betrothed (engaged to) to a prince, who is
also the villain, and the adventures of her lost lover Westley (whom she calls Farm
Boy) trying to reunite with her. Although there are a number of fairy tale elements in
the novel (a beautiful girl, a prince, the promise of marriage), these are subverted by
specifics such as the prince being the villain generally in fairy tales, a Prince is the
hero (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to name a
few)

- Synechdoche
• (Pronounced si-NECK-doh-key) This term is a figure of speech whereby the naming of
an attribute of a subject is a reference to the whole.

- Symbolism
• When an object represents one or more (often complex) ideas.
- Syntax – sentence structure
• Short, simple sentences or truncated sentences create tension, haste or urgency;
compound or complex sentences are slower, often feature in formal texts.
- Tense
• Present, past, future (events are predicted).
- Theme
• Message or moral of a story – makes us ponder bigger issues in life.
- Tone
• The way composer or character feels – conveyed by word choice.
- Word choice or Diction
• Emotive, forceful, factual, descriptive, blunt, graphic, disturbing, informative etc. E.g.
use of forceful verbs ‘insist’ & ‘demand’ can be very persuasive.