Analyzing Diction, Syntax, Sound

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Analyzing Diction, Syntax, Sound

1. Read the selected scene aloud
2. Paraphrase
3. Summarize
4. Look at word meanings
5. Look at sentence structure
6. Look at sound devices
7. If I give you a photocopy of the selected scene,
   MARK IT UP!

2
Look at the order of the parts of the sentence.

• Is the sentence the usual (subject-verb-object)
  order? Hint Paraphrase the sentence to help you
  identify usual.
• If yes, skip to Rhetorical Devices Figurative
  Language
• If no, ask yourself
• How does this sentence connect its words, phrases
  and clauses?
• Analyze and answer by looking at Rhetorical
  Devices Syntax

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Rhetorical Devices Figurative Language

• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Simile
• Apostrophe
• Others?

4
Rhetorical Devices Syntax

• Chiasmus
• Polysyndeton
• Anaphora
• Antithesis
• Parenthesis
• Asyndeton
• Others?
• Continue by asking yourself.

5
Syntactic Analysis

• Does this unusual word order create rhythm?
• Does the rhythm
• Emphasize a particular word?
• If yes, is the word concrete, abstract, specific
  or general?
• If yes, what part of speech is the particular
  word?
• What does this indicate?
• Go to Rhetorical Devices Figurative Language for
  further analysis
• Does the rhythm
• Give a character his/her own speech pattern?
• If yes, what does this say about the character?

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Syntactic Analysis

• Does the rhythm
• Emphasize an important part of the sentence?
  (subject, object, etc.)
• If yes, what does this indicate?
• Does the rhythm
• Create sound?
• Alliteration
• Assonance

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Sentence Structure
What is the order of the parts of the sentence? Is it the usual (subject-verb-object), or is it inverted?
Which part of speech is more prominentnouns or verbs?
What are the sentences like? Are they periodic (moving toward something important at the end) or cumulative (adding details that support an important ideas in the beginning of the sentence)?
How do the sentences connect their words, phrases, and clauses?
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Word Meanings
Which verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs stand out in this scene? Which verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs stand out in this scene?
Which of the important words in the passage (verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs) are Examples
concrete? (Words readers can imaginatively use their senses to experience what the words represent. Ex. Dog, classroom, radio,)
and abstract? (words that create no "mental picture" or any other imagined sensations for readers. Ex. Love, hate, emotions, peace, ambition, etc.)
Which are specific? (The Saint Bernard jumped on top of the red corvette.)
and general? (The dog jumped on top of the car. )
Are some words non-literal or figurative, creating figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, irony, pun or paradox?
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Terminology, Terminology, TerminologyCan you
find examples of these?
Alliteration Repetition of the same initial consonant sound throughout a line of verse "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought...." (Sonnet XXX) Asyndeton Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words. "Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure?" (Julius Caesar, III, i)
Polysyndeton The repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses. "If there be cords, or knives, Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, I'll not endure it." (Othello, III, iii) Parenthesis Insertion of some word or clause in a position that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence (asides are rather emphatic examples of this). "...Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered." (Henry V, IV, iii)
Anaphora Repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses. "Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!" (King John, II, i) Synecdoche The use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. "Take thy face hence." (Macbeth, V, iii)
Assonance Repetition or similarity of the same internal vowel sound in words of close proximity "Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks." (Romeo and Juliet, V, iii) Antithesis Juxtaposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction. "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." (Julius Caesar, III, ii)
Chiasmus Two corresponding pairs arranged in a parallel inverse order. Metonymy Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is meant (e.g., "crown" for royalty). "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" (Julius Caesar, III, ii)