Which term identifies a deliberate understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its contrary?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. Litotes, such as stating 'she is not unkind' to indicate generosity
- Step 1: Litotes employs double negation or ironic understatement to convey an affirmative sentiment with subtle nuance. Step 2. It introduces modesty, ironic distance, or rhetorical restraint. Answer: Litotes, such as stating 'she is not unkind' to indicate generosity. Why not the others: Hyperbole exaggerates, and metonymy substitutes contiguous associations (e.g., 'the crown' for monarch).
Practise more Written Text Analysis (Prose, Poetry, Drama and Figurative Language).
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed National Certificate of Educational Achievement mock tests.
More Written Text Analysis (Prose, Poetry, Drama and Figurative Language) questions
- What literary device is used when an author directly compares two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'?
- In a poem, what effect does enjambment typically produce across consecutive lines?
- Which term describes the narrative technique where events are presented out of chronological sequence to depict earlier occurrences?
- When an author attributes human emotions and moods to weather conditions or external nature, which device is being used?
- In dramatic literature, what defines dramatic irony?
- In a Shakespearean sonnet, what term designates the dramatic thematic shift occurring between the octet and sestet or before the final coupl…