AP Language Terms Flashcards
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| 4424784882 | ad hominem | Latin for "against the man." Attacking the person instead of the argument proposed by that individual. An argument directed to the personality, prejudices, previous words and actions of an opponent rather than an appeal to pure reason. Example: "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot," writes left-wing comedian Al Franken. | 0 | |
| 4424784884 | allegory | A fiction or nonfiction narrative, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities, moral values, or concepts. Playing out of the narrative is designed to reveal an abstraction or truth. Characters and other elements may be symbolic of the ideas referred to in the allegory. Example: The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan or A Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. | 1 | |
| 4424784885 | Alliteration | The repetition of the same consonant sound, especially at the beginning of words. For example, "Five miles meandering with a mazy motion" Kubla Khan by S.T. Coleridge | 2 | |
| 4424784886 | allusion | A reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Generally speaking, the writer assumes the educated reader will recognize the reference. Often humorous, but not always. Establishes a connection between writer and reader, or to make a subtle point. Example: "In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings." | 3 | |
| 4424784887 | Ambiguity | Use of language where the meaning is unclear or has two or more possible interpretations or meanings. It could be created through a weakness in the way the writer has expressed himself or herself, but often it is used by writers quite deliberately to create layers of meaning in the mind of the reader. | 4 | |
| 4424784891 | analogy | A comparison to a directly parallel case, arguing that a claim reasonable for one case is reasonable for the analogous case. A comparison made between two things that may initially seem to have little in common but can offer fresh insights when compared. Used for illustration and/or argument. Example: "We advance in years somewhat in the manner of an invading army in a barren land; the age that we have reached, as the phrase goes, we but hold with an outpost, and still keep open our communications with the extreme rear and first beginnings of the march." -Robert Louis Stevenson, "On Marriage." | 5 | |
| 4424784892 | anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. Deliberate form of repetition to reinforce point or to make it more coherent. Example: In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson places the subject, "He," at the beginning of twenty accusations in a row, each as a single paragraph, to put the weight of responsibility for the problems with King George III, whom Jefferson refers to in the third person. | 6 | |
| 4424784893 | Anastrophe (Inversion) | Inversion of the normal syntactical structure of a sentence. Ex. "Ready are you?" | 7 | |
| 4424784894 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun | 8 | |
| 4424784898 | antithesis | A balancing of two opposite or contrasting words, phrases or clauses. Example: ". . .one seeing more where the other sees less, one seeing black where the other sees white, one seeing big where the other sees small. . . ." Example: Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act I, Scene I, Line 11: "Fair is foul and foul is fair." Oxymoron: rhetorical antithesis, juxtaposing two contradictory terms like "wise fool" or "eloquent silent." | 9 | |
| 4424784900 | Aphorism | A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle | 10 | |
| 4424784901 | Apostrophe | An interruption in a poem or narrative so that the speaker or writer can address a dead or absent person or particular audience or notion directly. "Oh Time thou must untangle this not I" Viola in Twelfth Night | 11 | |
| 4424784906 | asyndeton | Sentence where commas are used with no conjunctions to separate a series of words. Gives equal weight to each part. Speeds up the flow of the sentence. Formula: X, Y, Z. As opposed to X, Y, and Z. See polysyndeton for variation. | 12 | |
| 4424784920 | Clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb | 13 | |
| 4424784922 | Colloquial | Ordinary, everyday speech and language Colloquial expressions are non-standard, often regional, ways of using language appropriate to informal or conversational speech and writing. Ex. "ya'll" | 14 | |
| 4424784928 | Conceit | An elaborate, extended, and sometimes surprising comparison between things that, at first sight, do not have much in common. | 15 | |
| 4424784930 | Connotation | An implication or association attached to a word or phrase. A connotation is suggested or felt rather than being explicit. | 16 | |
| 4424784942 | didactic | Fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking. Designed to expound a branch of theoretical, moral, or practical knowledge, or else to instantiate, in an impressive and persuasive imaginative or fictional form, a moral, religious, or philosophical theme or doctrine. Example: "On the Nature of Things" by Lucretius; "Essay on Man" by Pope; "Faerie Queene" by Spencer; "The Pilgrim's Progress" by Bunyan. | 17 | |
| 4424784945 | either-or reasoning | Reducing an argument or issue to two polar opposites and ignoring any alternatives. | 18 | |
| 4424784958 | Epistrophe | The repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses; it sets up a pronounced rhythm and gains a special emphasis both by repeating the word and by putting the words in the final position. | 19 | |
| 4424784963 | euphemism | Originally in Greek meant "to speak well." Has come to mean: to speak well in the place of the blunt, disagreeable, terrifying or offensive term. Example: death becomes "to pass away." Example: "Damn it" becomes "Darn it!" Example: Victorians first used "limb" for leg or "privates" for sexual organs. | 20 | |
| 4424784987 | hyperbole | Originally in Greek meant "overshooting." A bold overstatement or extravagant expression of fact, used for serious or comic effect. Easily recognized as exaggeration for effect. Example: There must have been ten million people at our Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving. Or, Shakespeare's, Othello, Act III, Scene III, Lines 330-33 reads: Not poppy nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou ow 'dst yesterday. | 21 | |
| 4424784990 | imagery | Use of images, especially in a pattern of related images, often figurative, to create a strong, unified sensory impression. Use of sensory details to create images that support the theme of the essay. | 22 | |
| 4424784991 | Imperative Sentence | Gives a Command | 23 | |
| 4424784998 | Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. | 24 | |
| 4424785009 | Loose or Cumulative Sentence | Makes complete sense if brought to a close before the actual ending. Ex. "We reached Edmonton that morning after a turbulent flight and some exciting experiences, tired but exhilarated, full of stories to tell our friends and neighbors." The sentence could end before the modifying phrases without losing its coherence. | 25 | |
| 4424785014 | metonymy | Noun. From Greek metōnymía for "change of name." A figure of speech where the term for one thing is applied for another with which it has become closely associated in experience, or where a part represents the whole. Example: "the crown" is figuratively the king. Example: the word "petticoat" represents femininity; whereas the word "pants" represents being in control. Reminder: This is not a synecdoche; the tools are different. For one, a metonymy is used so much that it has become a figure of speech. | 26 | |
| 4424785026 | Non Sequitur | A fallacy of argument in which claims, reasons or warrants fail to connect logically; one point doesn't follow from another. | 27 | |
| 4424785032 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words whose sound copies the sound of the thing or process that they describe On a simple level, words like "bang", "hiss", and "splash" are onomatopoeic, but it also has more subtle uses | 28 | |
| 4424785033 | oxymoron | Noun. From Greek: oxi means "sharp, keen, acute, pungent, acid"; moron means "dull, stupid, foolish." A figure of speech in which two contradictory words are placed side-by-side for effect. Words are obviously opposed or markedly contradictory terms. Casually reference: contradiction of terms. Examples: "civil war," "alone together," "deafening silence," or "jumbo shrimp." | 29 | |
| 4424785035 | paradox | A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although it seems at first to be self-contradictory and untrue. Rhymes with "in your socks" Examples: Books are a poor man's wealth. Or, as Emily Dickinson writes, "Much madness is Divinest Sense." In John Donne's sonnet, "Death, Be Not Proud," he declares: One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. | 30 | |
| 4424785036 | Parallelism/parallel structure | Sentence construction which places in close proximity two or more equal grammatical constructions. Might be as simple as listing two or three modifiers in a row to describe the same noun or verb. Might be two or more of the same type of phrases (prepositional, participial, gerund, appositive). Might be two or more subordinate clauses that modify the same noun or verb. Might be a complex blend of single-word, phrase, and clause parallelism all in the same sentence. Simple Example: He lived well, and he died well. | 31 | |
| 4424785037 | parody | Imitates the serious materials and manner of a particular work, or the characteristic style of a particular author, and applies it to a lowly or grossly discordant subject. An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes. Sometimes called "burlesque" and "travesty." An English essayist of the early twentieth century, Max Beerbohm is known for his parody. James Thurber of The New Yorker magazine was an American writer also known for parody. The cartoon series The Simpsons often does a parody of a famous poem or novel. | 32 | |
| 4424785040 | Pedantic | An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish | 33 | |
| 4424785042 | Periodic sentence | Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements. | 34 | |
| 4424785044 | Personification | The attribution of human feelings, emotions, or sensations to an inanimate object Personification is a kind of metaphor where human qualities are given to things or abstract ideas, and they are described as if they were a person | 35 | |
| 4424785046 | Point of View | The perspective from which a narrative is told. 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The perspective from which a story is told (first person, third person omniscient, or third person limited omniscient) | 36 | |
| 4424785053 | pun | A play on words that are either identical in sound (homonyms) or similar in sound, but are sharply diverse in meaning. Example: "Thou art Peter (Petros) and upon this rock (petra) I will build my church." Early puns had roots in serious literature, that like Shakespeare, can also have a comical effect in a very serious situation. Example: In Romeo and Juliet, while bleeding to death, Mercutio says "Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man." By the eighteenth century and after, the literary use of puns has been almost exclusively comic. Equivoque: the use of a single word or phrase which has two disparate meanings, in a context which makes both meanings equally relevant. Example: An epitaph suggested for a bank teller, which states, "He checked his cash, cashed in his checks. And left his window. Who is next?" | 37 | |
| 4424785076 | simile | A figure of speech, comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison (like, as, or than, for example). Example: "This is the Arsenal. From the floor to ceiling, like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms." | 38 | |
| 4424785083 | straw man | Argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak. Diverts attention away from the real issues. | 39 | |
| 4424785096 | Syntax | The way in which sentences are structured Sentences can be structured in different ways to achieve different effects | 40 | |
| 4424785109 | Zeugma | A device that joins together two apparently incongruous things by applying a verb or adjective to both which only really applies to one of them "Kill the boys and the luggage" (Shakespeare's Henry V )s | 41 | |
| 4425072634 | anadiplosis | It refers to the repetition of a word or words in successive clauses in such a way that the second clause starts with the same word which marks the end of the previous clause. | 42 | |
| 4425083069 | homily | genre - the major category into which a literary work fits (eg prose, poetry, and drama) homily - literally "sermon", or any serious talk, speech, or lecture providing moral or spiritual advice. hyperbole - a figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. | 43 | |
| 4425093110 | bandwagon | a persuasive technique and a type of propaganda through which a writer persuades his readers, so that majority could agree with the argument of the writer, suggesting that since majority agrees, the readers should too, such as "Everyone is voting for David, so definitely he is the best presidential candidate." The phrase bandwagon means, "jump on the bandwagon," or to follow what others are conforming or doing. | 44 | |
| 4425124864 | false cause/causality | occurs when one cites to sequential events as evidence that the first caused the second. The argument generally looks like this: Event A happened. Event B happened after A. Therefore, A caused B. is sometimes summarized and presented under the slogans "correlation is not causation" and "sequence is not causation". | 45 | |
| 4425131840 | equivocation | Telling something that is not false, but doesn't reveal the unpleasant truth. Example = Witches telling Macbeth about becoming King, but hiding the path he would take to attain it. | 46 | |
| 4425151873 | hasty generalization | an informal fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence—essentially making a hasty conclusion without considering all of the variables. | 47 | |
| 4425155418 | Moral Equivalence | a term used in political debate, usually to criticize any denial that a moral hierarchy can be assessed of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides. | 48 | |
| 4425157691 | faulty analogy | a rhetorical fallacy that uses an analogy (comparing objects or ideas with similar characteristics) to support an argument, but the conclusion made by it is not supported by the analogy due to the differences between the two objects. | 49 |
