Terminology linked to tone and register

Ambiguity A sentence or word can have more than one meaning: polysemic (it can be understood or interpreted in more than one way) e.g. ‘Mary had a little lamb’. This could mean Mary kept a small lamb, or Mary ate a bit of lamb. Used to express more than one meaning at once and make the audience consider different interpretations.

Allusion An indirect reference (without actually naming it) to a person, place, event, literary work or work of art, e.g. In The Simpsons when Principal Skinner is in his office, he suddenly turns to his window and looks out at an old, spooky house while he talks about a tormented relationship with his mother. This is an allusion to the Norman Bates character in the movie Psycho. An allusion can create an added dimension to an image, often by comparison to similar qualities.

Bathos Sudden change of register from the sublime to the ridiculous. Often used for a humorous effect, changing the mood of the text.

Dramatic Irony Occurs when an audience or reader is aware of something that at least one character is not aware of.  This can involve a character failing to grasp the full impact of his or her own words, or those of another character.  Dramatic irony can involve the audience/reader while creating suspense.

Emotive / Sensational language Writers use language to be dramatic or to make the reader feel a particular emotion e.g. excitement, anger or sympathy e.g. ‘the starving children wept’.

Irony - Irony of situation is the difference between what we expect to take place and what actually happens.

Parody Imitation and exaggeration of style for purpose of humour and ridicule.

Passive Voice If the passive voice is used, the emphasis shifts to the object of the verb (the person or thing to which something has been done) e.g. ‘An apology was issued by the minister’ instead of ‘The ministerissued an apology’. One reason for using the passive voice may be to avoid drawing attention to the person responsible for an action. It can also be used to make the object seem powerless, a victim of whoever or whatever is performing the action.

Rhetoric The art of persuasion, often found in advertisements and political speeches.

Rhetorical question A question which is posed with the intention of drawing attention to a dilemma, puzzle, philosophical point or anomaly with no expectation that it will be answered.  For example: Thousands of children are dying – do you care? Rhetorical questions can provoke thought, involve the audience and are a powerful way of expressing an opinion – adding weight to the point being made by implying the answer.  

Satire When a text’s aim is to amuse, criticise, or correct by means of ridicule, irony, or exaggeration.  Authors attack institutions and personalities in the hope of reform, like Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels.

Second person direct address – ‘you’ By addressing the reader directly the writer is involving them in the text creating synthetic personalisation and ‘friendliness’.

Tense English has three tenses: the present tense, the past tense and the future tense.  Using the present tense can make a description more vivid, immediate and exciting.

Third Person (‘he’, ‘she’), or omniscient (all-knowing) narrator, while perhaps unable to capture the vividness of the first-person perspective, it is much more flexible in being able to dip in and out of characters’ minds in order to see what they are thinking or feeling.  The reader can be given a more rounded view of the action and the motivation behind the behaviours.  Seeing events through an outsider’s eyes can make the tone more objective. 

Tone The overall attitude of the writing, e.g. formal, informal, playful, angry, suspicious, ironic. Used to allow the emotions of the writer to be expressed.