Icon - Lower Case

Multiple definitions and examples of the term "icon" as used in rhetoric, literature, and popular culture.

Any of the wide variety of means by which an author may establish a shared sense of values, attitudes, and interests with his or her readers.

An ideogram is a graphic symbol that represents a thing or an idea without expressing a specific word.

The distinctive speech of an individual, considered as a linguistic pattern unique among speakers of his or her language or dialect.

An idiom is an expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words.

The act of referring to oneself (often habitually) in the third person.

The quality or condition of being unable to read or write.

In speech-act theory, a speaker's intention in delivering an utterance.

The use of examples to explain, clarify, or justify.

A representation in words of a sensory experience or of an object that can be known by one or more of the senses.

Imagery is vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste).

In rhetoric and composition, imitation is a classic exercise in which students read, copy, analyze, and paraphrase the text of a major author.

The form of the verb that makes direct commands and requests.

A sentence that gives advice or instructions or that expresses a request or a command.

See "conversational implicature."

The readers or listeners imagined by a writer or speaker before and during the composition of a text.

In reading, the version of a writer that a reader constructs based on the text in its entirety.

A semantic category of noun that refers to a place, thing, or idea--not a person, animal, or other creature.

The indefinite articles "a" and "an" refer to generalized nouns.

A pronoun that refers to an unspecified person or thing.

The blank space between a margin and the beginning of a line of text.

A group of words made up of a subject and a predicate.

A construction in which the noun following the possessive form is omitted.

In pragmatics (and other branches of linguistics and philosophy), the features of a language that refer directly to the circumstances or context in which an utterance takes place.

Indian English is speech or writing in English that shows the influence of the languages and culture of India.

The mood of the verb used in ordinary objective statements.

A noun or pronoun that is indirectly affected by the action of a verb.

A sentence that reports a question and ends with a period rather than a question mark.

An indirect quotation is a paraphrase of someone else's words.

Indirect speech is a report on what someone else said or wrote without using that person's exact words.

Indo-European is a family of languages descended from a common tongue spoken in the third millennium B.C.

Method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances.

The process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.

A verbal (often preceded by "to") that functions as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.

A clause whose verb is in the infinitive form.

A verbal construction made up of the particle to and the base form of a verb, with or without qualifiers.

A word element (a type of affix) that can be inserted within the base form of a word to create a new word or intensify meaning.

A process of word formation in which items are added to the base form of a word to express grammatical meanings.

A broad term for any of the various methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments used in everyday life.

A broad term for speech or writing marked by a casual, familiar, and generally colloquial use of language.

A contemporary linguistic term for the present participle and gerund: any verb form that ends in "-ing."

The first letter of a word or name or of each word in a phrase.

An abbreviation that consists of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase.

Showy, affected, or pretentious language; an unusual, often lengthy word intended to impress readers or listeners.

Countries in which English is the first or the dominant language.

An indirect or subtle, usually derogatory implication in expression; an insinuation.

Written or spoken directions for carrying out a procedure or performing a task.

In rhetoric, a type of amplification in which an idea is emphasized or a feeling heightened through restatement, expansion, detailed illustration, or other device.

A word that emphasizes another word or phrase.

An intensive pronoun is a pronoun that serves to emphasize its antecedent.

The expression of a character's thoughts, feelings, and impressions in a narrative.

A short utterance that usually expresses emotion and is capable of standing alone. Interjections are generally considered one of the traditional parts of speech.

The type of language (or linguistic system) used by second- and foreign-language learners who are in the process of learning a target language.

A person who takes part in a conversation or dialogue.

The most widely used system for representing the sounds of any language.

A nonstandard mark of punctuation in the form of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point (sometimes appearing as ?!), used to end a rhetorical question or a simultaneous question and exclamation.

A word that functions to ask a question that can't be simply answered with yes or no.

A pronoun that introduces a question.

An interrogative sentence is a sentence that asks a question.

A word group (which may be a statement, question, or exclamation) that interrupts the flow of a sentence and is usually set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses.

The interdependent ways in which texts stand in relation to one another (as well as to the culture at large) to produce meaning.

A conversation in which one person (the interviewer) elicits information from another person (the subject or interviewee).

In linguistics, the use of changing vocal pitch to convey grammatical information or personal attitude.

A verb that does not take a direct object.

The opening of an essay (or other written work), which typically identifies the topic, arouses interest, and prepares the reader for the development of the thesis.

An introductory paragraph is the opening paragraph in a conventional essay or composition.

A verb form characteristic of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) that is used to indicate a habitual and repeatable action.

Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something.

In classical rhetoric, proofs from character that are created by a rhetor or are available by virtue of the rhetor's position on an issue.

Invention is the discovery of the resources for persuasion inherent in any given rhetorical problem.

An unconventional spelling of a word that results from an etymologically false analogy with another word

A reversal of normal word order, especially the placement of a verb ahead of the subject.

See "quotation marks."

A method of organization in which facts are presented in descending order of importance.

A variety of the English language that is used in Ireland.

A notable user of irony, especially a writer or performer.

Use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.

An informal term for the inability to recognize, comprehend, and/or utilize irony.

A verb that does not follow the general rules for verb forms.

A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure.

In morphology and verbal play, an isogram is a word with no repeating letters or, more broadly, a word in which the letters occur an equal number of times.

A style of printing or typeface in which letters are slanted to the right.

A verb or verb form indicating that an action is (or was) repeated.

A word having opposite or contradictory meanings.

Speech or writing in English that shows the influence of Japanese language and culture.

The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders.

A jeremiad is a speech or literary work expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom.

A record of incidents, experiences, and ideas.

An informal, often pejorative term for a style of writing and word choice characteristic of many newspapers and magazines.

The questions answered in the lead of a conventional newspaper article.

Speech or writing that considers the justice or injustice of a certain charge or accusation.

In typesetting and printing, the process or result of spacing text so that the lines come out even at the margins.

In composition, juxtaposition is the placing of verbal elements side by side, leaving it up to the reader to establish connections and impose a meaning.

The opportune time and/or place, the right time to say or do the right thing.

Kangaroo word is a playful term for a word that carries within it a synonym of itself.

A figurative expression, usually compound in form, that is used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English.

In transformational grammar, a simple declarative construction with only one verb. A kernel sentence is always active and affirmative.

See "family slang."

Language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.

The development of language in children.

The subjects taught in elementary and secondary schools that aim at developing students' communication skills.

Language change is the phenomenon by which permanent alterations are made in the features and the use of a language over time.

Language death is a linguistic term for the end or extinction of a language.

A language family is a set of languages deriving from a common ancestor or "parent."

An informal term, popularized by journalist William Safire, for a self-appointed authority on English usage.

Language planning refers to measures taken by official agencies to influence the use of one or more languages in a particular speech community.

In sociolinguistics, language variety is a general term for any distinctive form of linguistic expression.

Language as an abstract system of signs (the underlying structure of a language), in contrast to "parole," the individual expressions of language.

The opening sentences of a brief composition, or the first paragraph or two of a longer article or essay.

A type of question that implies or contains its own answer.

A word based on a Greek or Latin root but with a meaning that did not exist in the classical language.

The principle of least effort is the theory that the "one single primary principle" in any human action, including verbal communication, is the expenditure of the least amount of effort to accomplish a task.

A term sometimes used in linguistics to refer to any distinguishable variety of a language

Legal English is the specialized variety (or occupational register) of the English language used by lawyers and in legal documents.

An informal term for the specialized language (or social dialect) of lawyers and of legal documents.

(1) A narrative handed down from the past to explain an event, transmit a lesson, or simply entertain an audience. (2) An explanatory list of the symbols on a chart, table, or map.

Rhetorician Richard A. Lanham's term for "exhaustive rhetorical description"--a method of prose analysis that involves identifying the figures of speech in a passage and examining the patterns and effects created by those figures.

An alphabetic symbol.

A letter in which a writer evaluates the skills, work habits, and achievements of an individual applying for a job, admission to graduate school, or some other professional position.

The exchange of written or printed communications.

A lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon of a language.

The presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word.

In historical linguistics, lexical diffusion refers to the spread of sound changes through the lexicon of a language.

A group of words that share a specific form or meaning. More specifically, as defined by John C. Wells (1982), a group of words in which particular vowels are pronounced in the same way.

Any verb in English that is not an auxiliary verb.

A person who writes, compiles, or edits a dictionary.

Lexicographicolatry is a term coined by American linguist John Algeo to describe an excessive regard for the authority of a dictionary.

The process of writing, editing, and/or compiling a dictionary.

Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that studies the stock of words (the lexicon) in a given language.

(1) The collection of words--the internalized dictionary--that every speaker of the language has. (2) A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style.

A linguistic term for the vocabulary of a language.

1) In medieval education, a standard way of depicting the realms of higher learning. (2) Academic studies intended to develop general intellectual abilities as opposed to occupational skills.

A verb with no meaning of its own that serves merely to convert another word in a sentence into a verb form.

(1) An informal term for the special vocabulary of a particular group or field. (2) Language or speech that is perceived as strange or unintelligible.

A language or a mixture of languages used habitually by people whose native languages are different.

Discrimination based on language or dialect: linguistically argued racism.

A specialist in linguistics (the study of language).

The interdisciplinary study of the role of languages in the social lives of individuals and communities.

Linguistic competence is the unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use a language.

Expressions of concern regarding the perceived decline of a language.

Linguistic ecology (also known as ecolinguistics or language ecology) is the study of languages in relation to one another and to various social factors.

Linguistic imperialism is the imposition of one language on speakers of other languages.

Linguistic insecurity is the anxiety or lack of confidence experienced by speakers and writers who believe that their use of language does not conform to the principles and practices of Standard English.

Linguistic performance is the ability to produce and comprehend sentences in a language.

Regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used.

The systematic study of language.

A verb that joins the subject of a sentence to a subject complement.

A lipogram is a text that purposefully excludes a particular letter of the alphabet.

A series of particular images or details often used in essays and other works of creative nonfiction to evoke a sense of place or character.

A listeme is a word or phrase that must be memorized because its sound or meaning does not conform to some general rule.

The active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimes unspoken) messages.

In composition, a discovery strategy in which the writer develops an unordered list of ideas and images.

The ability to read and write.

The most obvious or nonfigurative sense of a word or words; language that is not perceived as metaphorical.

The use of a verb phrase in the present tense to refer to any aspect of a work of literature.

The process of reading, analyzing, evaluating, and summarizing scholarly materials about a specific topic.

Litotes is a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

A change in the meaning of an established native word to accommodate a new concept acquired from another language.

A compound in English that literally translates a foreign expression, word for word.

A loanword (or borrowed word) is a word imported into one language from another language.

In speech-act theory, the act of making a meaningful utterance.

The study of the principles of reasoning.

An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.

An argument based on inductive or deductive reasoning.

A system of punctuation determined by the grammatical structure of a sentence and its meaning.

A name, mark, or symbol that represents an idea, organization, or product.

(1) The skillful or clever use of words. (2) The arbitrary or capricious coinage of words.

A letter, symbol, or sign used to represent a word or phrase.

(1) An argument about words and their meanings. (2) A battle of words.

Strong dislike for a particular word (or type of word) based on its sound, meaning, usage, or associations. Also known as "word aversion."

A lover of words.

In classical rhetoric, the means of persuasion by demonstration of the truth, real or apparent.

A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by one or more coordinate or subordinate phrases and clauses.

In the printed alphabet, small letters (a,b,c . . .) as distinguished from capital letters (A,B,C . . . ).