"know"" could be used as a means of indicating that someone is a messy person. The term is generally synonymous with meiosis, which means to diminish the importance of something, often at the expense of something else. Litotes is a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of emphasis. However, the interpretation of negation may depend on context, including cultural context. In speech, it may also depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase ""not bad"" can be said in such a way as to mean anything from ""mediocre"" to ""excellent"". It can be used to soften"
"which statements are exaggerated or extravagant. It may be used to reflect or affect strong feelings or a strong impression. An understatement is a figure of speech in which statements are purposely understated. It may be used to indicate the speaker's nonchalance (or obliviousness) regarding an often important or otherwise remarkable situation. It often results in irony where, for instance, the speaker's response to an event does not match how the viewer expects the speaker to react. A double entendre is a spoken phrase that can be understood in either of two ways. The first, literal meaning is an innocent"
"Obscurantism Obscurantism ( and ) is the practice of deliberately presenting information in an imprecise and recondite manner, often designed to forestall further inquiry and understanding. There are two historical and intellectual denotations of ""Obscurantism"": (1) the deliberate restriction of knowledge—opposition to disseminating knowledge; and, (2) deliberate obscurity—an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness. The term ""obscurantism"" derives from the title of the 16th-century satire ""Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum"" (1515–19, ""Letters of Obscure Men""), that was based upon the intellectual dispute between the German humanist Johann Reuchlin and the monk Johannes Pfefferkorn of the Dominican Order,"
"Doublespeak Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g. ""downsizing"" for layoffs, ""servicing the target"" for bombing), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language. The term ""doublespeak"" originates in George Orwell's book ""Nineteen Eighty-Four"". Although the term is not used in the book, it is a"
"English understatement Understatement is a staple of traditional English culture. It has been exploited to humorous effect, but it is also characterised as part of the English cultural attitude to life. The stereotype of English understatement has been exploited in humour, for example in ""Monty Python's The Meaning of Life"". In one scene, a suburban dinner party is invaded by Death, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. ""Well,"" says one party guest, ""that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?"" In another scene, an Army officer has just lost his leg. When asked how"
"Obfuscation Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent usually is connoted), and is accomplished with circumlocution (talking around the subject), the use of jargon (technical language of a profession), and the use of an argot (ingroup language) of limited communicative value to outsiders. In expository writing, unintentional obfuscation usually occurs in draft documents, at the beginning of composition; such obfuscation is illuminated with critical thinking and editorial revision, either by the writer or by"
"Spite (sentiment) To spite is to intentionally annoy, hurt, or upset. ""Spiteful"" words or actions are delivered in such a way that it is clear that the person is delivering them just to annoy, hurt, or upset. When the intent to annoy, hurt, or upset is shown subtly, behavior is considered ""catty"". The Underground Man, in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella ""Notes from Underground"", is an example of spite. His motivation remains constantly spiteful, undercutting his own existence and ability to live. In his 1929 examination of emotional disturbances, ""Psychology and Morals: An Analysis of Character"", J. A. Hadfield uses deliberately spiteful"
"Hypocorrection Hypocorrection is a linguistic phenomenon which involves the purposeful addition of slang in an attempt to appear less intelligible or soften the description. It contrasts with hesitation and modulation because, rather than not having the right words to say or choosing to avoid them, the speaker uses hypocorrection as a strategy. Originally, hypocorrection or accented pronunciation of words may have arisen due to physical properties involved in sound production (such as Aerodynamics, Anatomy, Vocal Tract Shape) (page 259). However, intentional use of hypocorrection or affecting a, for instance, Southeastern US accent to sound less elitist. It involves ""...make-believe hesitations"
"obvious truths—the utter absurdity of it all being concealed through obscure and pretentious language. Moreover, independent of the hoax, as a pseudoscientific opus, the article ""Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"" is described as an exemplar ""pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense, centered on the claim that physical reality is merely a social construct."" Obscurantism Obscurantism ( and ) is the practice of deliberately presenting information in an imprecise and recondite manner, often designed to forestall further inquiry and understanding. There are two historical and intellectual denotations of ""Obscurantism"": (1) the"
"attempt to avoid saying the word ""recession"". Doublespeak, particularly when exaggerated, can be used as a device in satirical comedy and social commentary to ironically parody political or bureaucratic establishments intent on obfuscation or prevarication. The television series ""Yes Minister"" is notable for its use of this device. Oscar Wilde was an early proponent of this device and a significant influence on Orwell. Doublespeak Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g. ""downsizing"" for layoffs, ""servicing the target"" for bombing), in which case it is primarily"
"Cartoonist Bill Watterson of ""Calvin and Hobbes"" bridges into hypostasis in 1992 when Calvin, a cartoon, draws a cartoon of himself and then criticizes his own lack of ability to draw. A notable excursion into hypostasis is featured in Tom Stoppard's screenplay for the 1990 movie, ""Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"", in which two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet wrestle with the growing realization that they are undifferentiated minor characters in a work of fiction. Hypostasis (literature) Hypostasis (from Greek ""hypo-"" ""below"" + ""stasis"" ""standing"") is the essence of metafiction, a rare, literary moment when characters in fiction become aware"
"acts to illustrate the difference between disposition and sentiment. Spite (sentiment) To spite is to intentionally annoy, hurt, or upset. ""Spiteful"" words or actions are delivered in such a way that it is clear that the person is delivering them just to annoy, hurt, or upset. When the intent to annoy, hurt, or upset is shown subtly, behavior is considered ""catty"". The Underground Man, in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella ""Notes from Underground"", is an example of spite. His motivation remains constantly spiteful, undercutting his own existence and ability to live. In his 1929 examination of emotional disturbances, ""Psychology and Morals: An"
"first place. Ultimately, Derrida argued, it was not just the particular signs that were placed under erasure, but the whole system of signification. Sous rature Sous rature is a strategic philosophical device originally developed by Martin Heidegger. Usually translated as 'under erasure', it involves the crossing out of a word within a text, but allowing it to remain legible and in place. Used extensively by Jacques Derrida, it signifies that a word is ""inadequate yet necessary""; that a particular signifier is not wholly suitable for the concept it represents, but must be used as the constraints of our language offer"
"Sous rature Sous rature is a strategic philosophical device originally developed by Martin Heidegger. Usually translated as 'under erasure', it involves the crossing out of a word within a text, but allowing it to remain legible and in place. Used extensively by Jacques Derrida, it signifies that a word is ""inadequate yet necessary""; that a particular signifier is not wholly suitable for the concept it represents, but must be used as the constraints of our language offer nothing better. In the philosophy of deconstruction, ""sous rature"" has been described as the typographical expression that seeks to identify sites within texts"
"al. 1371). The Intentional Fallacy, according to Wimsatt, derives from “confusion between the poem and its origins” (""Verbal Icon"" 21) – essentially, it occurs when a critic puts too much emphasis on personal, biographical, or what he calls “external” information when analyzing a work (they note that this is essentially the same as the “Genetic fallacy” in philosophical studies; 21). Wimsatt and Beardsley consider this strategy a fallacy partly because it is impossible to determine the intention of the author — indeed, authors themselves are often unable to determine the “intention” of a poem — and partly because a poem,"
"an ""underestimated"" travel guide) to a group of contemporary American poets in Rome. The poem (originally published in McHugh's collection of poems ""Hinge & Sign"", nominee for the National Book Award, and subsequently reprinted widely) channels the very question of ars poetica, or meta-meaning itself, through the embedded narrative of the suppression of Bruno's words, silenced towards the end of his life both literally and literarily. Bruno and his theory of ""the coincidence of contraries"" (""coincidentia oppositorum"") play an important role in James Joyce's novel ""Finnegans Wake"". Joyce wrote in a letter to his patroness, Harriet Shaw Weaver, ""His philosophy"
"mannerism"" is considered by Frederick Bracher to be inherited from ""an earlier, possibly common-Germanic, poetic tradition""; he notes that understatement is also found in mediaeval German poetry and Old Norse poetry. Such understatement may have the effect of mocking irony, humour, emphasis, and the tempering of an (otherwise rather sharp) expression. English understatement Understatement is a staple of traditional English culture. It has been exploited to humorous effect, but it is also characterised as part of the English cultural attitude to life. The stereotype of English understatement has been exploited in humour, for example in ""Monty Python's The Meaning of"
"Dumbing down Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, and cinema, news, video games and culture. The term ""dumbing down"" originated in 1933, as movie-business slang used by screenplay writers, meaning: ""[to] revise so as to appeal to those of little education or intelligence"". Dumbing-down varies according to subject matter, and usually involves the diminishment of critical thought, by undermining intellectual standards within language and learning; thus trivializing meaningful information, culture, and academic standards, as in the case of popular culture. In ""Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste"" (1979), the sociologist Pierre"
"Suspension of disbelief The term suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief has been defined as a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe something surreal; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment. The term was coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a ""human interest and a semblance of truth"" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres."
"is a staple of humour in English-speaking cultures, especially in British humour. In this humorous form, the understatement is expected to not be interpreted literally. Related but separate is euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression. Redefining events to downplay their significance can be an effective way of preserving one's self-esteem. One of the problems of depression (found in those with clinical, bipolar, and chronic depressive mood disorders, as well as cyclothymia) is the tendency to do the reverse: minimising the positive, discounting praise, and dismissing one's own accomplishments. On the"
"denying intent. On a wider scale, renaming things in a more benign or neutral form—'collateral damage' for death—is a form of minimisation. Minimisation (psychology) Minimisation is a type of deception involving denial coupled with rationalisation in situations where complete denial is implausible. It is the opposite of exaggeration. Minimisation—downplaying the significance of an event or emotion—is a common strategy in dealing with feelings of guilt. Words associated with minimisation include: Minimisation may take the form of a manipulative technique: 'Typical psychological defences exhibited by stalkers and guilty criminal suspects include denial, rationalisation, minimisation and projection of blame onto the victim'."
"Affective fallacy Affective fallacy is a term from literary criticism used to refer to the supposed error of judging or evaluating a text on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader. The term was coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in 1949 as a principle of New Criticism which is often paired with their study of ""The Intentional Fallacy"". The concept of affective fallacy is an answer to the idea of impressionistic criticism, which argues that the reader's response to a poem is the ultimate indication of its value. It is the antithesis of affective criticism, which"
"Subtext Subtext or undertone is any content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by the characters or author, but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts and motives of the characters which are only covered in an aside. Subtext can also be used to imply controversial subjects without specifically alienating people from the fiction, often through use of metaphor. Especially in light of their inherently ambiguous and self-referential character, many authors have explicitly used subtexts (or subtexts about subtexts) in humor."
"Contest features purple prose, at times exhibiting bathos: Legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell was famed for his one-liners, including this example: Bathos Bathos ( ; , ""depth"") is a literary term, coined by Alexander Pope in his 1727 essay ""Peri Bathous"", to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (i.e., pathos). In particular, bathos is associated with anticlimax, an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one. This may be either accidental (through artistic ineptitude) or intentional (for comic effect). Intentional bathos appears in satirical genres such as burlesque and mock epic. ""Bathos"" or"
"Incidental neglect of an issue differs from deliberate posturing (a process) to systematically ignore (in whole or part) the issue as a matter of political or social preference. Social occultation Social occultation occurs when a particular set of cultural values and beliefs combine with the operation of personal and mass media communication functions leads to ""lacunae"", or blind spots. Intentional social occultation is the process of creating social invisibility while not completely denying the reality of a social circumstance, issue, or problem. Social occultation is a dynamic of social constructionism. For example, the recent abuses by the USA military at"
"Hypostasis (literature) Hypostasis (from Greek ""hypo-"" ""below"" + ""stasis"" ""standing"") is the essence of metafiction, a rare, literary moment when characters in fiction become aware of their own fictional nature. The debut of hypostasis in literature occurs in ""Don Quixote"", Part 2, Chapter 2, when Sancho announces to Don Quixote that a book has been written about their adventures. Thus, these literary characters become aware that they are literary characters. This scene so impressed Jorge Luis Borges that he devoted one of his most famous essays to it: ""'Partial Enchantments in the Quixote.""'"" In Disney's 1977 animated movie, ""The Many"
"selfish, and for gain, but because I am a socially aware person interested in the common good"". Minimisation may also take the form of cognitive distortion: School bullying is one form of victimisation or physical abuse which has sometimes been unofficially encouraged, ritualised or even minimised as a sort of prank by teachers or peers. The main difference between pranks and bullying is establishment of power inequity between the bully and the victim that lasts beyond the duration of the act. Understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. Understatement"
"Bathos Bathos ( ; , ""depth"") is a literary term, coined by Alexander Pope in his 1727 essay ""Peri Bathous"", to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (i.e., pathos). In particular, bathos is associated with anticlimax, an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one. This may be either accidental (through artistic ineptitude) or intentional (for comic effect). Intentional bathos appears in satirical genres such as burlesque and mock epic. ""Bathos"" or ""bathetic"" is also used for similar effects in other branches of the arts, such as musical passages marked ""ridicolosamente"". In film,"
"originally neutral ""hypokrisis."" It is this later sense of ""hypokrisis"" as ""play-acting"", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word ""hypocrisy"" its negative connotation. American historian Martin Jay in ""The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics"" (2012) explores how writers over the centuries have treated hypocrisy, deception, flattery, lying and cheating, slander, false pretenses, living on borrowed glory, masquerading, conventions of concealment, playacting before others and the arts of dissimulation. He assumes that politics is worthwhile, but since it is unavoidably linked to lying and hypocrisy, Jay concludes that lying must not be all that"
"Synchysis Synchysis is a rhetorical technique wherein words are intentionally scattered to create bewilderment, or for some other purpose. By disrupting the normal course of a sentence, it forces the audience to consider the meaning of the words and the relationship between them. That is, ""When earthquakes swallow towns to one grave, or when tempests sweep whole nations to the deep"". This poetry form was a favorite with Latin poets. It is described by the website Silva Rhetoricae as ""Hyperbaton or anastrophe taken to an obscuring extreme, either accidentally or purposefully."" It is doubtful, however, whether it could be correct"
"Minimisation (psychology) Minimisation is a type of deception involving denial coupled with rationalisation in situations where complete denial is implausible. It is the opposite of exaggeration. Minimisation—downplaying the significance of an event or emotion—is a common strategy in dealing with feelings of guilt. Words associated with minimisation include: Minimisation may take the form of a manipulative technique: 'Typical psychological defences exhibited by stalkers and guilty criminal suspects include denial, rationalisation, minimisation and projection of blame onto the victim'. A variation on minimisation as a manipulative technique is """"claiming altruistic motives"""" such as saying ""I don't do this because I am"
"Polite fiction A polite fiction is a social scenario in which all participants are aware of a truth, but pretend to believe in some alternative version of events to avoid conflict or embarrassment. Polite fictions are closely related to euphemism, in which a word or phrase that might be impolite, disagreeable, or offensive is replaced by another word or phrase that both speaker and listener understand to have the same meaning. In scholarly usage, ""polite fiction"" can be traced to at least 1953. An example would be of a man who goes out drinking, but tells his family that he"
"content to take what he says as testimony, but will scrutinize it as teaching."" Affective fallacy Affective fallacy is a term from literary criticism used to refer to the supposed error of judging or evaluating a text on the basis of its emotional effects on a reader. The term was coined by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in 1949 as a principle of New Criticism which is often paired with their study of ""The Intentional Fallacy"". The concept of affective fallacy is an answer to the idea of impressionistic criticism, which argues that the reader's response to a poem is"