Term
Slippery Slope Logical Fallacy
[image] |
|
Definition
Definition: suggests that one step will inevitably lead to more, eventually negative steps; descent is inevitable and unalterable.
Example: “When your cable company puts you on hold, you get angry. When you get angry, you go blow off steam. When you go blow off steam, accidents happen. When accidents happen, you get an eye patch. When you get an eye patch, people think you’re tough. When people think your tough, people wanna see how tough and when people wanna see how tough, you wake up in a roadside ditch. Don’t wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of cable and upgrade to Directv.” (Directv, commercial).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.
Example: “sleeping with the fishes” (Unknown).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: correspondence in some respects, especially in function or position, between two things otherwise dissimilar.
Example: “To hold up [I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings] as a paradigm…is akin to inviting doctors convicted of malpractice to instruct our medical students” (Francine Prose, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read”).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: a decline viewed in disappointing contrast with a previous rise.
Example: "The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money." (Mark Twain).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: direct opposition; a use of words or phrases that contrast with each other to create a balanced effect.
Example: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order.
Example: "A government that seizes control of the economy for the good of the people ends up seizing control of the people for the good of the economy." (Robert Dole, acceptance speech in San Diego). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: the manner of expression in writing.
Example: “While confined here in Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ‘unwise and untimely’. Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of a day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms” (Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: A kind of ellipsis in which one word is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs.
Ex: “You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit” (Star Trek: The Next Generation). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Ex: "I don’t want to live on in my work. I want to live on in my apartment." (Woody Allen).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: A reversal of normal word order, especially the placement of a verb ahead of the subject.
Ex: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” (J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit, 1937).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: A rhetorical term for the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
Ex: I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun” (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My lovely, 1940).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: a rhetorical term for the inversion of conventional word order.
Ex: “When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmmmm?”(Yoda).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: a self-contradictory statement.
Example: “This statement is false” (unknown).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: an account of some event.
Example: “One time at band camp….” (unknown). |
|
|
Term
Analogical Comparison
[image] |
|
Definition
Definition: a comparison based on analogy.
Example: “Violet is to flower as lion is to feline” (common expression).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: extreme exaggeration
Example: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” (Unknown).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Repetition of beginning letter sounds
Example: “Silly Sally smells like salmon steak” (Connard).
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Comparison that does not utilize like or as.
Example: “My house is a castle.” (Connard). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Sound effects
Example: Knock-knock
Who's there?
Boo
Boo who?
Don't cry, I was only joking- the kindergarteners of the world
|
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Comparison using like or as
Example: “And tear drops fell like rain” (Joseph M. Martin, Awakening). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Definition: Giving inhuman things human like qualities
Example: “The humpback whales, the orcas wrote Cetaceans history” (Nancy Telfer). |
|
|
