Diction Handouts

Low or informal diction:

Example of Jargon: awash

Elevated language or formal diction:

1.a).phosphorescent: of or relating to a type of light that glows softly in the dark and that does not produce heat

• "Before I could form a guess, a faint flash of glowing light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the naked body of an, flickered.."

b).cadaverous: looking very thin & pale; resembling a corpse

•"...a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish pale glow." 

c).elusive: hard to find or capture; hard to understand, define, or remember 

•"...flickered in the sleeping water with the incomprehensible, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky." 

2. Elevated language makes the text & time more formal. Paraphrasing the passage makes the passage shorter and less formal.

Abstract & concrete diction:

4.a).saw

b).climbed 

c).clutched 

d).stare

5.The authors chose to leave the captain, ship, & crew nameless to creat a mysterious tone, where the reader can look for, create, or ponder the names.

Denotation & connotation: 

6. The Denotation of the title "The Secret Sharer" is that the sharer is secretive in a sense that the person says, or in this case, shares something that is not mean for everyone to hear or see.

Chart:

Word: 

1.cadaverous:

Denotation- looking very thing or pale

Connotation- 

2.darkling:

D-in the dark

C- someone or something that is dark

3.pale:

D-light skinned

C-

4.phosphorescence:

D-luminescence that is caused by the absorption of radiations

C-

5.ghastly:

D-very shocking or horrible

C-

6.headless:

D-having no head

C-mindless or can't think 

7.fishlike:

D-acting or feeling like the characteristics of a fish

C-something or something underwater