Literary Terms/Elements
About this set
Created by:
hpnotiqrequiem on May 16, 2008
Subjects:
ap english vocabulary terminology
Description:
Terms from the glossary and 5 Steps to a 5 book for Mrs. Murray's final exam :)
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
56 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 alliteration | The repetition of the initial sounds or stressed sylables in neighboring words (ex: "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free") |
| analogy | a similarity in certain respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar; shows relationships |
| allusion | a brief reference to a historical, mythological, or literary person, place, thing, or event |
| antonym | a word meaning the opposite of another word |
| audience | the specific person or group from whom a piece of writing, a spoken message, or a visual representation is intended |
| bias | a personal and largely unreasoned judgment either for or against a particular person, position, or thing; a prejudice |
| characterization | the representation of an individual human personality in a literary work; can be either direct or indirect |
| connotation | the implicit meaning of a word, consisting of the suggestions, associations, and emotional overtones attached to the word |
| denotation | the most specific or literal meaning of a word |
| euphemism | the substitution of a mild and pleasant expression for a harsh and blunt one (ex: "to pass away" for "to die") |
| extended metaphor | a metaphor that is carried throughout the text |
| foreshadowing | the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action |
| homonym | words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings (ex: bear, meaning an animal, and bear, meaning "to support") |
| hyperbole | overstatement; the figure of speech that is a conscious exaggeration for the purpose of making a point |
| idiom | words used in a special way that may be different from their literal meaning (ex: "it's raining cats and dogs") |
| intonation | the distinctive pattern in the pitch of the voice that contributes to the meaning of a spoken phrase or sentence (ex: "Stop!" vs. "Stop?") |
| irony | the discrepancy between what one says and what one means, what a character believes and what a reader knows, or between what occurs and what one expects to occur |
| verbal irony | a form of irony; involves a contrast between what is said or written and what is actually meant |
| situational irony | a form of irony; occurs when what happens is very different from what we expect to happen |
| dramatic irony | a form of irony; occurs when the audience or the reader knows something a character does not know |
| metaphor | a device of figurative language that direction compares two unlike things (ex: "Her anger was a storm") |
| onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning (ex: "rattle", "murmur", "crash", "bog", "buzz", "boink", "grrr") |
| oxymoron | A figure of speech that places two contradictory words together for a special effect (ex: jumbo shrimp, old news) |
| paradox | a statement that is true even thought it seems to be saying two opposite things (ex: "the more free time you have, the less you get done") |
| parallelism | the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical structures |
| personification | the figurative device in which nonhumans (animals, objects, abstractions) are represented as being human or as having human attributes |
| point of view | the perspective or vantage point from which a literary work is told |
| first person | a point of view; uses the pronoun "I" |
| third person omniscient | a point of view; a third-person narrator functioning as an all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing speaker who reads the thoughts and feelings of any and all characters |
| third person limited ominiscient | a point of view; told by a third-person narrator whose omniscience is restricted to a single character |
| repetition | the recurrence of sounds, words, phrases, lines, or stanzas used for emphasis in writing |
| setting | the time and place where the action in a literary work occurs |
| similie | a device of figurative language thta is a stated comparision between two unlike things using the words "like" or "as" |
| symbolism | the author's use of an object, person, place, or event that has both a meaning in itself and stanes for something larger than itself |
| synonym | a word whos meaning is the same or almost the same as that of another word |
| theme | the major idea of an entire work of literature; can be stated or implied |
| thesis | the subject or main argument of a piece of writing |
| tone | the writer's attitude toward a subject, character, or audience conveyed through the choice of words and details; the emotional state of mind expressed in writing |
| word choice | the effective use of words to enhance style, tone, or clarity in writing |
| argument | the logical, systematic presentation of reasoning and supporting evidence that proves the validity of a statement or position |
| dialect | a regional variety of a particular language (also called "local color") |
| flashback | the technique of disrupting the chronological flow of a narrative by interjecting events that have occurred at an earlier time |
| figurative language | the nonliteral use of language; language that must be read and interpreted beyond the literal level; figures of speech (ex: metaphors, similes, hyperboles, personification) |
| imagery | the use of language to create a sensory impression within the reader's mind; creates an "image" of something that can be percieved by one of the five senses |
| satire | the literary form that uses ridicule or scorn, often in a humorous or witty way, to expose vices and follies |
| semantics | the meaning of words or the process of interpreting the meaning of words |
| structure | the order or arrangement of the parts of a piece of writing to form a coherent, unified whole; internal, external, logical, mechanical |
| syntax | word order; the logical arrangement of words into phrases and clauses that comprise the structure of coherent sentences |
| inversion | reversal of the usual or natural order of words |
| peroration | the concluding part of writing in which the writer recapitulates the principal points and urges them with greater earnestness and force |
| periodic sentence | a sentence that leaves the completion of its main clause at the end and produces an effect of suspense |
| metonymy | consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related (ex: "scepter" for "sovereignty," "the bottle" for "strong drink," "count heads" for "count people." |
| conceit | an elaborate, fanciful metaphor, especially of a strained or far-fetched nature. |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part (ex: "ten sails" instead of "ten ships") |
| diction | style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words; the accent, inflection, intonation, and speech-sound quality manifested by an individual speaker, usually judged in terms of prevailing standards of acceptability |
| anecdote | a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.