English Midterm
Terms
undefined, object
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- antecedent
- a preceding occurrence or cause or event
- colloquial
- refer to types of speech or to usages not on a formal level. Colloquial is often mistakenly used with a connotation of disapproval, as if it meant "vulgar" or "bad" or "incorrect" usage, whereas it is merely a familiar style used in speaking and writing.
- apostrophe
- The direct address of a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back. Thus an apostrophe often interrupts the discussion:
- quatrain
- a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes
- epic
- An extended narrative poem recounting actions, travels, adventures, and heroic episodes and written in a high style (with ennobled diction, for example). It may be written in hexameter verse, especially dactylic hexameter, and it may have twelve books or twenty four books.
- syntax
- the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
- metaphor
- A comparison which imaginatively identifies one thing with another dissimilar thing, and transfers or ascribes to the first thing (the tenor or idea) some of the qualities of the second (the vehicle or image). Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another.
- allegory
- A form of extended metaphor in which objects and persons in a narrative, either in prose or verse, are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Many works contain allegories or are allegorical in part, but not many are entirely allegorical. A good example of a fully allegorical work is
- antithesis
- Establishing a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Human beings are inveterate systematizers and categorizers, so the mind has a natural love for antithesis, which creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas:
- tone
- The writer's attitude toward his readers and his subject; his mood or moral view. A writer can be formal, informal, playful, ironic, and especially, optimistic or pessimistic. While both Swift and Pope are satirizing much the same subjects, there is a profound difference in their tone.
- sonnet
- A fourteen line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a varied rhyme scheme. The two main types of sonnet are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean. The Petrarchan Sonnet is divided into two main sections, the octave (first eight lines) and the sestet (last six lines). The octave presents a problem or situation which is then resolved or commented on in the sestet. The most common rhyme scheme is A-B-B-A A-B-B-A C-D-E C-D-E, though there is flexibility in the sestet, such as C-D-C D-C-D.
- analogy
- The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one. While simile and analogy often overlap, the simile is generally a more artistic likening, done briefly for effect and emphasis, while analogy serves the more practical purpose of explaining a thought process or a line of reasoning or the abstract in terms of the concrete, and may therefore be more extended.
- couplet
- A unit of verse consisting of two successive lines, usually rhyming and having the same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic unit.
- allusion
- A causal and brief reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event
- enjambment
- The running over of a sentence or thought into the next couplet or line without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on line.
- rhetoric
- Skill in using language effectively and persuasively.
- didactic
- intended for instruction; instructive
- blank verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
- circumlocution
- a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
- meter
- The rhythmic pattern that emerges when words are arranged in such a way that their stressed and unstressed syllables fall into a more or less regular sequence; established by the regular or almost regular recurrence of similar accent patterns (called feet).
- juxtaposition
- the act of positioning close together (or side by side); "it is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors"
- iambic pentameter
- a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable
- zeugma
- Any of several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage (or yoking together) of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech. Thus examples of zeugmatic usage would include one subject with two (or more) verbs, a verb with tow (or more) direct objects, two (or more) subjects with one verb, and so forth. The main benefit of the linking is that it shows relationships between ideas and actions more clearly
- diction
- refer to the means and the manner of expressing ideas.
- ambiguity
- an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context
- pathetic fallacy
- the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.