IB English A Lang & Lit Structural Techniques: the Patterns Key Definitions

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a series of words.

Analysis means breaking something down to explain how it works.

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words.

A pause within a line, often marked by punctuation like a comma, dash, or ellipsis.

Chiasmus is a rhetorical device where the structure of one clause is reversed in the next.

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds at the end or middle of words.

When a line ends with punctuation (., ;, !, etc.)

A line that continues onto the next without punctuation.

Gaze is the narrative vantage point: who sees the action, and how much they know. It determines what the reader experiences and whose lens we’re looking through.

The rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Common meters include iambic pentameter (five iambs: da-DUM) and trochaic tetrameter (four trochees: DA-dum).

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the sounds they describe.

Parallelism is the repetition of similar grammatical structures in a sentence or series of sentences.

A repeated line or phrase, usually at regular intervals (often at the end of stanzas).

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds, often at the end of lines. Types include perfect rhyme (day/play), slant rhyme(room/storm), and internal rhyme (rhyme within a single line).

Rhyme is the repetition of similar or identical sounds at the end of words, often used in poetry.

Literary techniques that create auditory patterns in language.

A stanza is a group of lines, like a paragraph in prose.

Subordination involves using dependent clauses to add detail or context to a main clause.

A rhetorical or thematic shift, especially in sonnets, where tone or argument changes.