Pre-AP English II Terminology

Literary Elements and Figurative Language

archetype - the term applied to an image, descriptive detail, a plot pattern, or a character type that occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore; a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable. Two common types of archetypes involve character and setting.

  • character - archetypal characters are those who embody a certain kind of universal experience. Examples include the hero, the damsel in distress, the siren, and the mentor
  • hero’s journey - a set of steps taken by the protagonist leading him to the fulfillment of a quest
  • setting - Archetypal settings are symbolic and carry meaning. Some archetypal settings are the desert which represents sterility and barrenness, or the forest which represents fertility and life

character - a person or an animal who takes part in the action of a literary work

  • protagonist - main character in a literary work
  • antagonist - a character or force in conflict with a protagonist
  • dynamic - a character who develops or changes as a result of the actions of the plot
  • static - a character who changes little, if at all; things happen to static characters without modifying their interior selves
  • epiphany - a sudden insight; designates an event in which the essential nature of something – a person, a situation, an object – was suddenly perceived
  • round - a character sufficiently complex to be able to surprise the reader without losing credibility
  • foil - applies to any character who through contrast underscores the distinctive characteristics of another
  • stock - conventional or typical character types

details – the facts, revealed by the author or speaker, facts that support the attitude or tone in a piece of poetry or prose

diction – the word or words the author chooses to create a desired effect

  • connotation – feelings and attitudes associated with a word
  • denotation – the literal or dictionary meaning of a word
  • dialect - the form of language spoken by people in a particular region or group
  • euphemism - the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, blunt, or harsh
  • idiom - a use of words peculiar to a given language; an expression that cannot be translated literally

imagery - the descriptive or figurative language used in literature to create word pictures for the reader

mood - the feeling created in the reader by a literary work or passage

plot - the sequence of events in a literary work

conflict - struggle between opposing forces

  • man vs. man – person in opposition with another person
  • man vs. fate – person opposing fate
  • man vs. himself – internal battle involving contradictory forces within a character
  • man vs. nature – person fighting against the forces of nature
  • man vs. society – person in opposition to some aspect of his or her society

flashback - a scene that interrupts the present action in a literary work in order to depict some earlier event

foreshadowing - the use of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur

suspense - a feeling of curiosity or uncertainty about the outcome of events in a literary work

Freytag’s Pyramid – describes the typical pattern of a dramatic or fictional work

climax

rising action falling action

exposition denouement

point of view - the perspective from which a narrative is told

  • 1st person point of view - the author tells the story through a character who refers to himself or herself as “I”
  • 3rd person point of view – person outside the story is the narrator
  • 3rd person limited - narrator who sees the world through one character’s eyes and reveals only that characters thoughts and feelings
  • 3rd person omniscient - all-knowing narrator that can tell the reader what any character thinks or feels

setting - the time and place of action in a story

style - combines the two elements of the idea to be expressed and the individuality of the author

theme - the central message or insight to life revealed through a literary work; may be stated or implied and can be stated in one sentence

tone - the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his audience and subject; a writer or speaker manipulates the language (through diction, imagery, detail, point of view, & syntax) in order to show how he/she feels about what he/she is saying

  • tone shift/multiple tones – reveal changes in attitude or create new attitudes

apostrophe - the speaker directly and often emotionally addresses a person who is dead or otherwise not physically present, an imaginary person or entity, something inhuman, or a place or concept (usually an abstract idea or ideal)

metaphor - an implied or direct comparison in which one thing is spoken as though it were something else

  • extended (controlling) metaphor – a metaphor that is continued throughout the sentences that follow; also a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently throughout a literary work

oxymoron - the combination of two contradictory words

paradox - a statement that seems contradictory or absurd, but that may actually be true (example: “Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth”—Pablo Picasso)

personification - giving a nonhuman subject human characteristics

syllepsis- the use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs (example- “The ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen.”)

pun - a play on words that capitalizes on a similarity of spelling and/or pronunciation between words that have different meanings

synecdoche- a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole (example: “The crown has been plagued by scandal.”)

metonymy- the substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant (example: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”—Winston Churchill)

simile - a comparison of two basically unlike things using “like” or “as”

  • epic (Homeric) simile - an elaborate comparison of unlike subject

alliteration - the repetition of initial consonant sounds

assonance - the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds

consonance - the repetition of a consonant sound within or at the end of a series of words to produce a harmonious effect

meter - the rhythmic pattern in a poem

onomatopoeia - the use of words to imitate sounds

rhyme - repetition of sounds in two or more words or phrases that appear close to each other in a poem

rhythm - the pattern of beats, or stresses, in spoken or written language

dialogue - conversation between characters

hyperbole - an exaggeration

litotes- the deliberate use of understatement (example: “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”)

symbolism - the use of symbols to represent or suggest other things or ideas

allusion - a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art; the purpose of an allusion is to bring deeper meaning without having to explain; the most common allusions are historical, literary, biblical, & mythological

  • historical - a brief reference to a person, event, or object that is well-known in history
  • literary - a brief reference to a work of literature
  • biblical – a brief reference to a person, event, or object related to the bible
  • mythological - a brief reference to a mythological character or event

characterization - the act of creating and developing a character

  • direct characterization - the author directly states a character’s traits
  • indirect characterization - the author tells what a character looks like, does, and says, as well as how other characters react to him or her

irony - the difference between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or meaning and intention

  • dramatic - a character thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better
  • situational - a discrepancy between what is expected to happen or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen
  • verbal - when one thing is said, but something else is meant by it; sarcasm

Literary Forms

drama - a story written to be performed by actors

  • Aristotle’s rules for tragedy - a dramatic imitation of a serious, complete action of some magnitude that evokes both fear and pity in the audience and thereby allows a catharsis to occur

catharsis - the release of emotion (pity and fear) from the audience’s perspective; an emotional cleansing

dramatic unities - rules for drama

  1. unity of action – a play should have one main action that it follows, with subplots
  2. unity of place – a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place
  3. unity of time – the action in a play should take place within no more than 24 hours

hamartia – character weakness; flaw in the tragic hero

hubris - overbearing pride or self-confidence

recognition (anagnorisis) - a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate

reversal (perepeteia) - occurs when a situation seems to be developing in one direction, then suddenly “reverses” to another

prose - the ordinary form of written language; most writing that is not poetry or drama

  • fiction - prose writing that tells about imaginary characters and events
  • nonfiction - prose writing that presents and explains ideas or that tells about real people, places, objects, or events

verse - poetry or a unit of poetry

Rhetorical Devices

pathos- the speaker or writer appeals to the audience’s emotions by stirring strong feelings (methods used: connotative diction, imagery, personal anecdotes, carefully-crafted syntax)

logos- the speaker or writer appeals to the audience’s logic by constructing a well-reasoned argument (methods used: facts, statistics, research, cause and effect, referring to experts)

ethos- the speaker or writer appeals to the audience’s trust by establishing his credibility or authority (methods used: stating qualifications for expertise, using first person plural pronouns, citing relevant authority and allusions)

argument- spoken, written, or visual text that expresses a point of view; the use of evidence and reason to discover some version of the truth

persuasion- the act of seeking to change someone else’s point of view

rhetoric- the art of persuasion

rhetorical analysis- an examination of how well the components of an argument work together to persuade or move an audience

inductive reasoning- moves from specific to a general conclusion; involves examining the specific devices and examples in a text to detect patterns and contrasts that lead to a conclusion about the writer’s purpose or position

deductive reasoning- moves from a generalization to a specific conclusion; this method involves beginning with a theory about the writer’s purpose or position and then finding devices, examples, patterns, and contrasts to support that theory

claim- the thesis or assertion about a topic; a debatable or controversial statement the speaker or writer intends to prove with evidence

concession- respectfully acknowledging the opposition by recognizing and fairly summarizing an opposing viewpoint; the writer or speaker is seen as logical and fair-minded

counterargument- refuting the evidence of the opposition

rebuttal- proving the opposing argument to be weak or wrong

call to action- the action the writer wants to convince the reader to take

unspoken assumptions- the writer’s attitude about certain suppositions about certain attitudes, values, or knowledge possessed by readers

qualifiers- words or phrases that place limits on claims (example: usually, sometimes, in many cases, in few cases, etc.)

transitions- elements that move the reader smoothly from one idea to another (example: still, again, although, finally, next)

analogy- drawing extended comparison

anecdote- brief narrative or story

cause-and-effect- identifying a result of an action

comparison/contrast- placing different points of an issue side-by-side

examples- details supporting the claim

definitions- extended explanation of meaning

facts and statistics- indisputable evidence supporting the claim

reference to authority- quoting well-respected experts

Syntax Techniques

syntax – the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence

juxtaposition - normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another

omission - the act of leaving something out

ellipsis - the deliberate omission of a word or words (example: And he to England shall along with you. – Shakespeare, Hamlet)

antithesis-is the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure. The contrast may be in words or in ideas or both.

When used well, antithesis can be very effective, even witty.

(example: What if I am rich, and another is poor; strong, and he is weak; intelligent, and he is benighted; elevated, and he is depraved? Have wenot one Father? Hath not one God created us? – William Lloyd Garrison, "No Compromise with Slavery").

asyndeton-is the deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses. The effect of this device is to produce ahurried rhythm in the sentence. (example: I came, I saw, I conquered. – Julius Caesar.)

parallelism- involves the similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. This basic principle of

grammar and rhetoric demands that equivalent things be set forth in coordinate grammatical structures: nouns with nouns, infinitiveswith infinitives, and adverb clauses with adverb clauses. (example: “So Juaney waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time”. – Zora Neale Hurtson, Their Eyes Were Watching God.)

polysyndeton- is the deliberate use of many conjunctions. The effect of polysyndeton is to slow down the rhythm of the sentence. (example: “On and on she went, across Piccadilly, and up Regent Street, ahead of him , her cloak, her gloves, her shoulders combining with thefringes and the laces and the feather boas in the windows to make the spirit of finery and whimsy which dwindled out of the shops onto the pavement, as the light of a lamp goes wavering at night over hedges in the darkness.”– Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.)

anadiplosis-(“doubling back”is the repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. (example: “The crime was common, common be the pain.”– Alexander Pope, "Eloise and Abelard".)

anaphora- is the repetition of the same word or groups of words at the beginnings of successive clauses. This device produces astrong emotional effect, especially in speech. It also establishes a marked change in rhythm. (example: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fights on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight inthe hills.” – Winston Churchill)

epanalepsis- is the repetition at the end of a clause the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. Like other schemes of

repetition, Epanalepsis often produces or expresses strong emotion. (example: “Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows: / Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power.” –Shakespeare, King John.)

epistrophe- is the repetition of the same word or group of words at ends of successive clauses. Like anaphora, epistrophe produces astrong rhythm and emphasis. (example: “When you first came we were very many and you were very few. Now you are many and we are getting very few.” – Red Cloud)

antimetabole- is the repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse syntactic order. (example: “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” – Moliere, L'Avare.)

inversion- (inverted order) constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject

anastrophe- is the inversion of the natural or usual word order. This deviation can emphasize a point or it can just sound awkward. Itis most effective if the author rarely write awkwardly, because then it draws special attention to they inverted phrase. (example: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address.)

parenthesis- is the insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence. One obviousway to use parenthesis is to use the punctuation, parentheses. However, there are other ways to insert a comment into a sentence. Onemight use commas, or dashes, for example. The parenthetical remark, however, is off on a tangent, cut off from the thrust of thesentence and grammatically unrelated to the sentence.

(example: “Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization—pardon me, our whole culture ( an important distinction, I'veheard) which might sound like a hoax, or a contradiction, but that (by contradiction, I mean) is how the world moves: not like anarrow, but a boomerang.” – Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.)

chiasmus- is the reversal of syntactic structures in successive phrases or clauses. Chiasmus is similar but unlike anitmetabloe in thatit does not involve a repetition of words. (example: “Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys.” – John Dryden, "Absalom and Achitophel".)

A rhetorical question is asked not for the purpose of eliciting an answer, but for the purpose of asserting or denying somethingobliquely. (example: “Isn't it interesting that this person to whom you set on your knees in your most private sessions at night and you pray, doesn't evenlook like you?” – Malcolm X.)

Grammar Terms

declarative sentence – makes a statement

exclamatory sentence – provides emphasis or expresses strong emotions

imperative sentence – gives a command

interrogative sentence – asks a question

complex sentence – contains an independent clause and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses

compound sentence – contains two independent clauses joined by a semicolon or by a coordinating conjunction preceded by a comma

compound-complex sentence – contains two or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate (dependent) clauses

loose (cumulative) sentence – has its main clause at the beginning of the sentence

periodic sentence – has its main clause at the end of the sentence

simple sentence – contains one independent clause

antithetical sentence- contains two statements that are balanced, but opposite

balanced sentence- the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness of structure, meaning, or length