ap english terms
Terms
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- Exposition
- the part of the structure that sets the scene, introduces and identifies characters, and establishes the situation at the beginning of a story or play
- Antithesis
- the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas. "To err is human, to forgive divine"
- Formal diction
- diction that is lofty, dignified, and impersonal. Often used in narrative epic poetry
- Anapestic
- metrical foot: unstressed, unstressed, stressed
- Lyric poem
- any short poem in which the speaker expresses intense personal emotion (such as a sonnet or ode) rather than describing a narrative or dramatic situation
- Analepsis
- flashback
- Caesura
- a pause in a line of verse, indicated by natural speech patterns rather than specific metrical patterns
- Meter
- the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry
- Denouement
- falling action; the part of plot structure in which the complications of the rising action are untangled
- Assonance
- a repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, usually those found in stressed syllables of close proximity. e.g. "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan..."
- Allegory
- a prose or poetic narrative in which the characters, behavior, and even the setting demonstrates multiple levels of meaning and significance. Often a universal symbol or personified abstraction
- Irony
- a situation or statement characterized by significant difference between what is expected/said and what happens/is meant. Often humorous and sarcastic
- Asyndeton
- a style in which conjunctions are omitted, usually producing a fast-paced, more rapid prose. eg. "I came, I saw, I conquered"
- Dialect
- the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group of people
- Pathos
- the quality that creates sympathy, feelings of tenderness, pity, or sorrow
- Ballad
- a narrative poem that is/was originally meant to be sung. Repetition and refrain (recurring phrase or phrases) is commonly used
- Parallel structure
- structure in which similar forms of nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts. Maintains balance. e.g. "Lilly likes reading, writing, and skiing" instead of "Lilly likes to read, write, and go skiing"
- Synesthesia
- imagery that stimulates 2 or more senses simultaneously
- Anaphora
- the regular repitition of the same work or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses
- Foil
- a character whose qualities or actions emphasize those of another character through contrast
- Hyperbole
- overstatement characterized by exaggerated language
- Iambic
- metrical foot: unstressed, stressed
- Loose sentence
- a sentence gramatically complete that usually states its main idea before the end. e.g. "the child ran as if being chased by demons"
- Motif
- a recurrent device, formula, or situation. e.g. the color green in "The Great Gatsby"
- Realism
- the form of literature that describes nature and life without idealization and with attention to detail
- Parody
- a work that imitates another work for comic effect by exaggerating the style and changing the content of the original. e.g. Weird Al Yankovic's music
- Stock character
- a character that appears in a number of stories or plays. e.g. cruel stepmother, hot-headed son, femme fatale
- Refrain
- a repeated stanza or line(s)
- Narrative structure
- structure based on sequences of connected events, usually presented in a straightforward, chronological framework
- Dactylic
- a metrical foot: stressed, stressed, unstressed
- Periodic sentence
- a sentence which is not grammatically complete until the end. e.g. "The child, who looked as if she were being chased by demons, ran"
- Paradox
- a statement that seems contradictory but may actually be true. e.g. "fight for peace"
- Conceit
- a comparison of two unlikely things that is drawn out. Also known as an extended metaphor
- Synecdoche
- when a part is used to signify a whole
- Mood
- a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of a piece as well as the writer/narrator's attitude and point of view. Usually established through descriptions of feelings
- Imagery
- any sensory detail or evocation in a work; involves any or all of the five senses
- Syntax
- the way words are put together; sentence structure and how it influences the way a reader reacts to the writing
- Farce
- a scene in a play or book that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick and physical humor
- Denotation
- dictionary meaning of a word; direct and specific meaning
- Diction
- the specific word choice used to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect
- Trochaic
- metrical foot: stressed, unstressed (the opposite of iambic)
- Jargon
- specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group
- Chiasmus
- a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. eg. "Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" --Byron
- Pathetic fallacy
- The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind.
- In medias res
- "in the midst of things"; the technique of opening a story in the middle of the action and filling in past details by exposition or flashback
- Parable
- a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through the use of analogy
- Blank verse
- the verse form that most resembles common speech. Consists of unrhymed lines in iambic pentameter
- Ode
- a long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter, and form. Typically serious poems on an exalted subject.
- Litote
- a figure of speech that emphasizes its subjet by conscious understatement. e.g. "not bad" for something very well done
- Colloquial
- ordinary language, the vernacular
- Enjambment
- the continuation of a sentence from one line or couplet of a poem to the next
- Soliloquy
- also known as dramatic monologue; a monologue set in a specific situation and spoken to an imaginary audience
- Pastoral
- a work that describes the simple life of country folk. Also known as ecologue, bucolic, or idyll
- Villanelle
- highly structured poem consisting of six stanzas: five tercets and a quatrain; first and third line are repeated throughout. e.g. Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
- Metonymy
- a figure of speech in which an attribute or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something. e.g "The White House"
- Elegy
- a poetic lament upon the death of a partucular person, usually ending in consolation
- Oxymoron
- a figure of speech that combines two contradictory elements. e.g. jumbo shrimp, deafening silence
- Apostrophe
- an address or invocation to something that is inanimate
- Baroque
- particularly ornate or euphuistic style
- Connotation
- the implied meaning of a word; what is suggested by a word, apart from what it explicitly describes.
- Quatrain
- a poetic stanza of four lines
- Consonance
- the repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowels
- Couplet
- two lines of iambic pentameter. Also known as heroic_________
- Free verse
- poetry that is characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and nonrhyming lines