AP Language & Composition Vocab Week 2
Mrs. Johnson's AP Language & Composition Glossary Words Week 2 (C & D). Test Friday, August 22nd.
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Cacophony
- harsh and discordant sounds in a line or passage in a literary work
- Colloquial expressions
- the use of slang in writing, often to create local color and to provide an informal tone
- Couplet
- two related lines of poetry that often rhyme
- Comic relief
- the inclusion of a humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work, thereby intensifying the next tragic event
- Comparison/Contrast
- a rhetorical technique for pointing out similarities or differences. Writers may use a point-by-point method to interweave points of comparison or contrast between two things or a subject-by-subject method
- Definition
- a method for specifying the basic nature of any phenomenon, idea, or thing
- Doublespeak
- in general, language used to distort and manipulate rather than communicate
- Diction
- the author's choice of words that creates tone, attitude, and style, as well as meaning
- Doggerel
- verse made comic because irregular metrics are made regular by stressing normally unstressed syllables
- Didactic literature
- writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach, usually formal and focused on moral or ethical concerns
- Carpe diem
- meaning "seize the day," is a Latin phrase that has become the name for a common literary motif in lyric poetry--life is short, so make the most of present pleasures
- Conceit
- a long, complex metaphor which establishes a striking parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or situations
- Dialect
- the recreation of regional spoken language
- Characterization
- techniques a writer uses to create and reveal fictional personalities in a work of literature, by describing the character's appearance, actions, thoughts, and feelings
- Deduction
- the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example
- Denotation
- the literal or dictionary meaning of a word
- Classification and Division
- a method of sorting, grouping, collecting, and analyzing things by categories based on features shared by all members of a class or group is called classification. Division is a method of breaking down an entire whole into separate parts or sorting a group of items into non-overlapping categories
- Call to action
- writing that urges people to action or promotes change
- Connotation
- the interpretive level of a word based on its associated images rather than literal meaning
- Cliché
- overused phrases which have lost their ability to convey meaning
- Chiasmus
- a type of balance in which the second part is balanced against the first but with the part reversed (Ex: "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike")
- Compound/Complex Sentence
- a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent/subordinate clause
- Downplaying/Intensifying
- methods of drawing attention and diverting attention
- Dramatic monologue
- the speaker is usually a fictional character caught at a critical moment directing his words to a silent audience. He reveals aspects of his personality of which he is unaware (Browning's "My Last Duchess" or Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock"