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| 10599491649 | Alliteration | The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words. "Gnats never know pneumonia" is an example of this because despite the spellings, all four words begin with "n" sound | 0 | |
| 10599491650 | Assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "A land laid waste with all its young men slain" repeats the same long "a" sound in "laid," "waste," and "slain." | 1 | |
| 10599491651 | Ballad | A simple narrative poem written in quatrains, originally meant to be sung | 2 | |
| 10599491652 | ballad meter | a four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines 1&3 & three feet in lines 2 and4 O mother my mother makes my bed. O make it soft and narrow. since my love died for me today. I'll die for him tomorrow | 3 | |
| 10599491653 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter. men called him Mulicber; and now he fell from heaven the fabled thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements from morn to noon he fell from moon to dewy eve. blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare's plays as well as Milton's Paradise lost. some poets (Woodsworth, browning, frost) use this form to get closer and closer to colloquial speech | 4 | |
| 10599491654 | Caesura | A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line of poetry. A poet can draw attention to a word by placing it just before or just after a caesura. The symbol // marks the caesuras in the following lines. There is a fish,// that quivers in the pool, Itself a shadow,// but its shadow, clear. Catch it again and again,// it still is there | 5 | |
| 10599491655 | Consonance | The repetition of two or more consonant sounds in stressed syllables containing dissimilar vowel sounds, usually within the same line. (Note the consonance of a the italicized words "hot" & "heat" in the excerpt below; also, the assonance of the parenthesized vowels in "snake" & "came," as well as the short "a" in "water" & "pajamas." A sn(a)ke c(a)me to my w(a)ter-trough On a hot, hot, day, and I in p(a)j(a)m(a)s for the heat To drink there. when used at the ends of lines _________________ can create approximate or slant rhyme | 6 | |
| 10599491656 | Dactyl | A metrical foot of three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. In the following, "Half a league" serves as an example of a __________ "(Half) a League, (Half) a League, (Half) a League, (on)ward." --Tennyson | 7 | |
| 10599491657 | Dramatic Monologue | A lyric poem in which the speaker tells the silent reader about a dramatic moment in his life (usually at a moment of crisis) and reveals his character in the process s | 8 | |
| 10599491658 | Elegy | A solemn and formal lyric poem about death. It may mourn a particular person or reflect on a serious or tragic theme, such as passing of youth, beauty or a way of life. | 9 | |
| 10599491659 | End-stopped | A line with a pause at the end that concludes with a break in the meter and in the meaning. It is often signified by a period, comma, dash, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark. A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardon'd and some punished. -- Romeo and Juliet | 10 | |
| 10599491660 | Enjambment | The breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause or sentence) by the end of the line or between two verses. Its opposite is end-stopping, where each linguistic unit corresponds with a single line I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are' the warm of which vain dew Perchance shall dry your pities, but I have That honorable grief lodged here which burns Worse than tears drown. -- A winter's tale Meaning flows as the lines progress and the reader's eye is forced to go on. It can also make the reader feel uncomfortable. ______________ breaks up lines and refuses to allow the reader easy access to the ideas conveyed, making a poem a challenge to read as it mirrors the speaker's difficulties or disorder. However, this device may also give a poem a "flow-of-thought" feeling with a sensation of urgency. __________ may also be used to delay the intention of the line until the following line and thus play on the expectation of the reader and surprise them. It may also serve to emphasize the last word in the enjambed line | 11 | |
| 10599491661 | free verse | Poetry that is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical, seeking to capture the rhythms of modern speech. The poetry of Walk Whitman is perhaps the best-known example of ________. | 12 | |
| 10599491662 | Heroic couplet | two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit. When those fair sums shall set, as set they must And all those tresses shall be laid in the dust. This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame, And 'midst the stars inscribe the Belinda's name. | 13 | |
| 10599491663 | Iamb | A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. It is the most common foot in English poetry. | 14 | |
| 10599491664 | Internal Rhyme | Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end. From the friends, that plague thee thus! Why look'st thou so?"-- With my crossbow The second line contains the internal rhyme of "so" and "bow" | 15 | |
| 10599491665 | Lyric | A poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker. Unlike a narrative, it presents an experience or a single effect, but it does not tell a full story. Types of lyrics include the elegy, the ode, and the sonnet. | 16 | |
| 10599491666 | Meter | Poetry's rhythm, or its pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables. __________ is measured in units of feet (usually two syllables, one stressed and the other unstressed). _________ units are the building blocks of lines of verse; lines are named according to the number of feet they contain. | 17 | |
| 10599491667 | Trimeter | A line of three feet. (six syllables) | 18 | |
| 10599491668 | Tetrameter | A line of four feet. (eight syllables) | 19 | |
| 10599491669 | Pentameter | A line containing five feet. The iambic ___________ is the most common line in English verse written before 1950 (10 syllables) | 20 | |
| 10599491670 | Hexameter | A line containing six feet (12 syllables) | 21 | |
| 10599491671 | Ode | A lyric or poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure. Odes often honor people, commemorate events, respond to natural scenes, or consider serious human problems. | 22 | |
| 10599491672 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sounds suggests their meaning, e.g., "buzz," "hiss," or "honk." | 23 | |
| 10599491673 | Parallelism | A parallel arrangement of parts of speech in successive lines of verse (or prose) ordered to build rhythm and momentum. This repetition of a grammatical pattern emphasizes and links related ideas. Is it wise To hug misery To make a song of Melancholy To weave a garland of sighs To abandon hope wholly? No, it is not wise. -Stevie Smith | 24 | |
| 10599491674 | Pastoral | A poem set in a tranquil, natural environment that deals with the pleasures of a simple rural life (even more specifically, one about shepherds). | 25 | |
| 10599491675 | Refrain | A recurring phrase, stanza, or chorus in a poem | 26 | |
| 10599491676 | Sestina | A verse form consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy (a short closing stanza). The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas, and they also recur in the envoy. | 27 | |
| 10599491677 | Slant Rhyme | Nearly rhyming words that have similar vowel sounds or similar consonants but not both, e.g. prove and glove. When the reader expects to encounter an exact rhyme and instead gets a ______ rhyme, this effect can be disappointing, creating in the reader a sense that something's wrong not only with the structure of the poem but also with the structure of the universe. | 28 | |
| 10599491678 | Sonnet | Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem. Typically, the ninth line initiates what is called the "turn," or "Volta," which signals the move from proposition to resolution. Even in sonnets that don't strictly follow the problem/resolution structure, the ninth line still often marks a "turn" by signaling a change in the tone, mood, or stance of the poem. The conventional Italian or Petrachan sonnet is rhyed abba, abba, cde, cde, with an octave and sestet, between which a break in thought occurs. The English or Shakespearean sonnet is ryhmed abab, cdcd, efef, gg with three quatrains and a concluding couplet. | 29 | |
| 10599491679 | Stanza | The grouping of lines in a poem comparable to a paragraph in a narrative. _________ are identified by the number of lines they contain; | 30 | |
| 10599491680 | Tercet | three lines | 31 | |
| 10599491681 | Quatrain | four lines | 32 | |
| 10599491682 | Sestet | six lines | 33 | |
| 10599491683 | Septet | seven lines | 34 | |
| 10599491684 | Cinquain | five lines | 35 | |
| 10599491685 | Octet/Octave | eight lines | 36 | |
| 10599491686 | Villanelle | A 19-line poem composed of five three-line stanzas and concluding with a quatrain. Each stanza has a rhyme scheme of aba, with the last stanza rhyming abaa. The poem has two refrains formed by the repeating of line 1 in lines 6,12, and 18 and by the repeating of line 3 in lines 9,15, and 19. | 37 | |
| 10599491687 | Allusion | A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work. Ex: In Hamlet, Horatio says, "ere the mightiest Julius fell,". | 38 | |
| 10599491688 | Attitude | A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject. Example: Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice combines respect for his wit and intelligence with disapproval of his failure to take sufficient responsibility for the rearing of all his daughters | 39 | |
| 10599491689 | Details | (choice of) Items or parts that make up a larger picture or story. Unlike diction, it doesn't involve a word's connotation Chaucer's "Prologue" to The Canterbury's tale is celebrated for its use of a few details to bring the characters to life. The Miller, for example, is described as being brawny and big-boned, able to win wrestling contests or to break a door with his head, and having a wart on his nose on which grew a "tuft of hairs as the bristles of a sow's ears." | 40 | |
| 10599491690 | Devices of Sound | Techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry. Among the devices of sound are rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. These devices are used for many reasons, including creating a general effect of pleasant or of discordant sound, imitating another sound, or reflecting a meaning. | 41 | |
| 10599491691 | Diction | Word choice. Nearly all essay questions on a passage of prose or a poem will ask you about this or about "techniques" that include it. Any word that affects the meaning of a passage can be used in your essay. Whether to use wept or cried is a question of _______ and connotation. | 42 | |
| 10599491692 | Figurative Language | Writing that uses figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, and irony. _________ uses words to suggest something other than their meaning. Ex: "The black bat night has flown" is __________, with the metaphor comparing night and a bat. "Night is over" says the same thing but without ________, but the night is like a bat because it is dark. (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) | 43 | |
| 10599491693 | imagery | The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. ______ has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When an AP question asks you to discuss this of a work, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction is also _________, but not all diction evokes sensory responses. | 44 | |
| 10599491694 | Irony | A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning. The term implies a discrepancy. Sometimes it says the opposite of what one means: verbal ______. Even understates, as in "Men have died from time to time..." simply saying the opposite of what one means is sarcasm. The hallmark of this word is an undertow of meaning, sliding against the literal meaning of the words. _____ insinuates. It whispers underneath the explicit statement, "Do you understand what I really mean?" | 45 | |
| 10599491695 | Metaphor | A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like "as," "like," or "than." When Romeo says, "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun," this compares her window to the east and Juliet to the sun. When a specific version of this term is overused and it has lost it's significance it is known as a dead ______; "The leg of a chair." "The heart of the matter." | 46 | |
| 10599491696 | Narrative techniques | The methods involved in telling a story. It is a general term ( like "devices," or "resources of language") that asks you to discuss the procedures used in the telling of a story. Examples: point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue | 47 | |
| 10599491697 | Point of View | Any of the several possible vantage points from which a story is told. Examples: first person third-person omniscient third-person limited third-person objective And many other possibilities, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying uses this on all of the members of the Bundren Family and others as well in the first person, while in Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood tells us the story that Nelly Dean tells him, a first-person narration reported reported by a second first-person narrator. Some narrators can be unreliable | 48 | |
| 10599491698 | first person | The narrator is a character in the story and the reader's hears and sees everything from that character's experience and nothing more | 49 | |
| 10599491699 | third-person limited | the narrator is outside the story but tells it from the vantage point of only one character and cannot tell us what any other character is thinking except through direct observation | 50 | |
| 10599491700 | third-person omniscient | the narrator is outside the story and can tell us what all the characters are thinking and feeling. | 51 | |
| 10599491701 | third person objective | the narrator is outside the story and can only report through direct observation what the characters are saying and doing, NOT what they're thinking | 52 | |
| 10599491702 | Resources of Language | a general phase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer can use. A question calling for this invites a student to discuss the style and rhetoric of a passage. Such tops as diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery are all examples of _____________________. | 53 | |
| 10599491703 | Rhetorical strategy | the management of language for a specific effect. The __________ ____________ of a poem is the planned placing placing of elements to achieve an effect. For example, Shakespeare's sonnet 29, "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes," spends the first nine lines describing the speaker's discontent, then three describing the happiness the thought of the loved-one brings, all in a single sentence. The effect of this contrast is to intensify the feelings of the relief and joy in lines 10-12. In most love poems this is deployed to convince the loved-one to return the speaker's love. By appealing to the loved-one's sympathy ("if you don't return my love, my heart will break."),or by flattery ("How could I not love someone as beautiful as you?"), or by threat ("When you're old you'll be sorry you refused me."), the lover attempts to persuade the loved-one to love in return. | 54 | |
| 10599491704 | Rhetorical techniques | devices used in effective or persuasive language. The number of ___________ __________ runs from apostrophe to zeugma. The more common examples include devices like contrast, repetitions, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question. | 55 | |
| 10599491705 | Satire | writing that seeks to arouse a reader's disapproval of an object by ridicule. Usually, comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly. Great subjects of this are hypocrisy, vanity, and greed, especially when those all too common characteristics have become institutionalized in society. | 56 | |
| 10599491706 | Setting | The background to a story; the physical location of a play, story, or novel. The ______ of a narrative will normally involve both time and place. The _______ of A Tale of Two Cities is London and Paris at the time of the French Revolution, but the setting of Waiting for Godot is intentionally vague and impossible to pin down specifically. | 57 | |
| 10599491707 | Simile | A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with "like," "as," or "than." It is easier to recognize than a metaphor because the comparison is explicit; my love is like a fever; my love runs deeper than a well; my love is as dead as a doornail | 58 | |
| 10599491708 | Structure | The arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work. The most common principles of this are series (A, B, C, D, E), contrast (A v. B, C v. D, E v. A), and repetition (AA, BB). The most common units: scene, act; novel: chapter; poem: line, stanza. | 59 | |
| 10599491709 | Style | The mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author. Many elements contribute to this, and if a question calls for a discussion of this or of "______istic techniques" you can discuss diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone, using the ones are appropriate. Notice that there are several phrases used in the essay questions that invite you to choose among several possible topics: "devices of ______," "narrative techniques," "rhetorical techniques," "_______ techniques" and "resources of language" are all phrases that call for a consideration of more than one technique but do not specify what techiniques you must discuss. Usuaully one of the two essay questions on a set passage will use of one of these phrases, while the other question will specify the tasks by asking for "diction, imagery, and syntax" or a similar three or four topics. | 60 | |
| 10599491710 | Symbol | Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else. Winter, darkness, and cold are real things, but in literature, they are also likely to be used to represent death. A paper lantern and a light bulb are real things, but in a Streetcar Named Desire, they are also _____ of Blanche's attempt to escape from reality itself. | 61 | |
| 10599491711 | Syntax | The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. A discussion of _____ in your essay could include such considerations as the length or brevity of the sentences, the kinds of sentences (questions, exclamations, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions--or periodic or loose; simple, complex, or compound). Whether to say: The pizza was smothered in cheese and pepperoni. I devoured it greedily or Greedily, I devoured the cheese-and-pepperoni-smothered pizza, is a question of this. | 62 | |
| 10599491712 | Theme | The main thought expressed by a work. Essay questions ask for discussion of the theme or theme of a work or may use the words "meaning" or "meanings." The open question frequently asks you to relate a discussion on one subject to a "meaning of the work as a whole." When preparing the novels and plays you might use on the open question, be sure to consider what ________ or _______s you would write about if you are asked to talk about a "meaning of the work." The question is much harder to answer for some works than others. | 63 | |
| 10599491713 | Tone | The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; the intonation of the voice that expresses meaning. It is described by adjectives and the possibilities are nearly endless. Often a single adjective will not be enough, and _____ may change from chapter to chapter to chapter or even line to line. It is the result of allusion, diction, figurative language, imagery, irony, symbol, syntax, and style to cite only the relevant words on this list. In the Wordsworth passage on the 1992 exam, the ____ moves from quiet to apprehensive to confident to exuberant to terrified to panicked to uncertain to restive in only twenty-five lines. Know adjectives like flippant, elegiac, pedantic, reproachful, self-effacing, whimsical, pretentious, etc. just in case they're offered as choices. | 64 | |
| 10599491714 | Allegory | A story that can be taken on a literal as well as a symbolic level to make a moral, religious or a political point, e.g., Geoge Orwell's Animal Farm. | 65 | |
| 10599491715 | Ambiguity | Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incomparable | 66 | |
| 10599491716 | Anachronism | Something presented out of its actual chronological time in regards to the setting of a literary work, e.g. having a fire alarm go off in Macbeth | 67 | |
| 10599491717 | Analogy | A comparison based on dissimlar things that have something in common | 68 | |
| 10599491718 | Animism | The belief that natural objects and phenomena possess souls or consciousness | 69 | |
| 10599491719 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying, such as: "A classic? That's a book that people praise and don't read." | 70 | |
| 10599491720 | Apostrophe | Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keats "Bright star! Would I were steadfast" is __________ to a star, and "To Autumn" is an _________ to a personified season. | 71 | |
| 10599491721 | Pathos | When the writing of a scene evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy | 72 | |
| 10599491722 | Bathos | When the writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to jerk tears from every little hiccup. Think Schmaltz! | 73 | |
| 10599491723 | Bombast | This is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. . When one tries to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words, one falls into this. | 74 | |
| 10599491724 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality | 75 | |
| 10599491725 | Catharsis | The "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage | 76 | |
| 10599491726 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" or formal English e.g. Step and take it like a man | 77 | |
| 10599491727 | Conceit/ Controlling image | In poetry, a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed or expanded upon over several lines. When the image dominates or shapes the entire work, it's called a __________________ | 78 | |
| 10599491728 | Connotation | The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exacting meaning (denotation). While "big-boned" and "vuluptuous" suggest being overweight, their associations are quite different. | 79 | |
| 10599491729 | Convention | A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression. Example: lover observing the literary love ___________ cannot eat or sleep and grows pale and lean. Romeo, at the beginning of the play, is a ______________ lover, while an overweight lover in Chaucer is consciously mocking the ___________ | 80 | |
| 10599491730 | Denotation | The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation | 81 | |
| 10599491731 | Didactic | Explicitly instructive in telling the reader what is correct or how to live. A ______ poem or novel may be good or bad, depending on the skill of the writer | 82 | |
| 10599491732 | Digression | The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work. The interpolated narrations in the novels of Cervantes or Fielding may be called this. | 83 | |
| 10599491733 | Epigram | A pithy saying, often using contrast. An epigram is also a verse form, usually brief and pointed. It is often witty, paradoxical, and/or satirical in nature, and it is cleverly and neatly phrased. In his _____, Samuel Johnson called remarriage a "triumph of hope over experience." | 84 | |
| 10599491734 | Euphemism | A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as "deceased" for "dead" or "remains" for corpse | 85 | |
| 10599491735 | Foil | a character who provides a contrast to another character within a work. Think Homer and Flanders in The Simpsons | 86 | |
| 10599491736 | Grotesque | Characterized by distortions or incongruities. It refers principally to deformity and distortion that approach the point of caricature or even absurdity. The fiction of Poe or Flannery O' Connor is often described as _____________ | 87 | |
| 10599491737 | Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration, over-statement. As a rule, it is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally, "the strongest man in the world" and " a diamond as big as the Ritz" are examples of this | 88 | |
| 10599491738 | In medias res | Latin for "intro the middle of things" It describes a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle--usually at some crucial point in the action. | 89 | |
| 10599491739 | Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. When done badly, it can give a stilted, artificial, look-at-me-I'm-poetry feel to the verse. This type of messing with syntax is called poetic license. I'll have one large pizza with all the fixin's--presto change-o instant poetry-- a pizza large I'll have, one with the fixin's all. This is called _____ syntax | 90 | |
| 10599491740 | Jargon | The special language of a profession or group. The term usually has pejorative associations, with the impllication that it is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to ______. | 91 | |
| 10599491741 | Literal | not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete. | 92 | |
| 10599491742 | Lyrical | Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination | 93 | |
| 10599491743 | Melodrama | a form of cheesy drama characterized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters, interpersonal conflicts | 94 | |
| 10599491744 | Metonymy | A figure of speech that substitutes something closely related for the thing actually meant Example: Washington for the US government or big guns for military power | 95 | |
| 10599491745 | Objectivity | an _______ treatment of subject matter is an impersonal or outside view of events | 96 | |
| 10599491746 | Subjectivity | A ______ treatment uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional response | 97 | |
| 10599491747 | Oxymoron | A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms. Romeo's line, "feather of lead bright smoke, cold fire, sick health" has four examples of this device. | 98 | |
| 10599491748 | Parable | A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. They are allegorical stories | 99 | |
| 10599491749 | Persona | It was a mask worn by an actor in Greek drama. In literary context, it is the character of the first-person narrator in verse or prose narratives and the speaker in lyric poetry. The use of the term stresses that the speaker is part of a fictional creation, invented for the author's particular purposes in a given literary work-- a mood or attitude adopted for the puposes of a particular work that subtle or drastically from one work to another | 100 | |
| 10599491750 | personification | a figurative use of language that endows the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics. Keats ______ the nightingale, the Gercian urn, and the autumn in his major poems | 101 | |
| 10599491751 | picaresque | of or involving clever rogues or adventures; of or relating to a genre of usu. satiric fiction that originated | 102 | |
| 10599491752 | reliability | a quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust. There are both reliable and unreliable narrators, that is, tellers of a story who should or should not be trusted. Most narrators are this (Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway, Conrad's Marlow), but some are clearly not to be trusted (Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart," several novels by Nabokov). And there are some about whom readers have been unable to decide (Jame's governess in the Turn of the Screw). | 103 | |
| 10599491753 | Rhetorical Question | A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply. No reply is expected because the question presupposes only one possible answer. The lover of Suckling's "Shall I wasting in despair/ Die because of a lady's fair?" has already decoded the answer is no. | 104 | |
| 10599491754 | Soliloquy | A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud. A monologue also has a single speaker, but the monologuist speaks to others who do no interrupt. Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" | 105 | |
| 10599491755 | Stereotype | A conventional pattern, expression, character or idea. In literature, a _______ could apply to the unvarying plot and characters of some works of popular fiction or to the stock characters (e.g., the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl) and plots of many of the greatest stage comedies | 106 | |
| 10599491756 | stream of consciousness | a form of narration similar to the first except that instead of the character telling the story, the author places the reader inside the main character's head and makes the reader privy to all of the character's thoughts as they scroll through her consciousness | 107 | |
| 10599491757 | Syllogism | a form of deductive reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them, e.g. if A=B and B=C, then A=C. A ________ begins with a major premise ("All tragedies end unhappily.") followed by a minor premise ("Hamlet is a tragedy.") and a conclusion (Therefore, "Hamlet ends unhappily"). | 108 | |
| 10599491758 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor) the whole for a part (as the law for police officer) the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword) | 109 | |
| 10599491759 | Thesis | The theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support | 110 | |
| 10599491760 | Tragic Flaw | In a tragedy, this is the weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. In Macbeth, it is his ambition | 111 | |
| 10599491761 | Understatement | Restraint or intentional lack of emphasis in expression for rhetorical effect, e.g. , Saying that you're feeling a bit under the weather when you have a terminal illness | 112 | |
| 10599491762 | Antecedent | That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause, to which a pronoun refers. In the sentence "The witches cast their spells," the antecedent of the pronoun "their" is the noun "witches" | 113 | |
| 10599491763 | Clause | A group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence. In the sentence "When you are old, you will be beautiful," the first ______ ("When you are old") is a dependent ______ and not a complete sentence. "You will be beautiful" is an independent ______ and could stand by itself | 114 | |
| 10599491764 | Ellipsis | The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable. "If rainy, bring an umbrella" is clear though the words "it is" and "you" have been left out. When leaving out a part of a quote you need to insert this (...) to make this ommission clear to the reader. | 115 | |
| 10599491765 | Imperative | The mood of a verb that gives an order or command. "Eat your spinach" use an ________ verb. | 116 | |
| 10599491766 | Loose sentence | it is complete before its end and puts the important idea first. Jack loved Barbara despite her snorting laugh, her complaining, and her terrible taste in clothes. Neither of these sentences are inherently better. Good writers employ both types to great effect. | 117 | |
| 10599491767 | Periodic sentence | a sentence that is not grammatically complete until it has reached it final phrase because it completes the important idea at the end. Despite Jack's habit of picking his toes while watching MTV, Barbara adored him. Neither of these sentences are inherently better. Good writers employ both types to great effect. | 118 | |
| 10599491768 | Modify | To restrict or limit in meaning. In the phrase "large, shaggy dog" the two adjectives modify the noun; in the phrase, "very shaggy dog," the adverb "very" modifies the adjective "shaggy," which modifies the noun "dog" | 119 | |
| 10599491769 | Parallel Structure | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures | 120 | |
| 10599491770 | Anaphora | The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses. "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills." Winston Churchill | 121 | |
| 10599491771 | Antithesis | The juxtaposition of contrasting or paradoxical ideas presented in parallel form From Pope's An Essay on Criticism "Some praise at morning what they blame at night" & "To err is human, to forgive, divine." "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil Armstrong | 122 | |
| 10599491772 | Chiasmus | A phrase reversal in which the second half of a sentence reverses the order of the first "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." | 123 | |
| 10599491773 | Zeugma | The use of a word that is grammatically or idiomatically linked with another member or a pair. Often, the words are grammatically parallel but strikingly different idiomatically--which creates the desired effect, "...stain her honour or her new brocade"--Alexander Pope I can always count on Aunt Myrtle to offer me hher strong tea and even stronger opinions. | 124 |
