AP Language Terms Flashcards

4964691027	active voice	the subject of the sentence performs the action; a more direct and preferred style of writing in most cases	0
4964700328	allusion	an indirect reference to something (usually a literary text, although it can be other things commonly known, such as plays, songs, historical events) with which the reader is supposed to be familar	1
4964709082	alter-ego	a character that is used by the author to speak the author's own thoughts; when an author speaks directly to the audience through a character	2
4964722012	anecdote	a brief recounting of a relevant episode	3
4964724757	antecedent	the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun	4
4964727943	classicism	art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people atnd the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures	5
4964735290	comic relief	when a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story, in order to lighten the mood somewhat	6
4964739830	diction	word choice, particularly as an element of style	7
4964745950	colloquial	ordinary or familiar type of conversation	8
4964748543	connotation	rather than the dictionary definition (denotation), the associations suggested by a word	9
4964763916	denotation	the literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations	10
4964765777	jargon	the diction used by a group which practice a similar profession or activity	11
4964768923	vernacular	1. language or dialect of a particular country 2. language or dialect of a regional clan or group 3. plain everyday speech	12
4964777865	didactic	a term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking	13
4964788676	adage	a folk saying with a lesson (similar to aphorism and colloquialism)	14
4964793822	allegory	a story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts	15
4964798957	aphorism	a terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle	16
4964803102	ellipsis	the deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author	17
4964806586	euphemism	a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts	18
4964812932	figurative language	writing that is not meant to be take literally	19
4964816634	analogy	an analogy is a comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables	20
4964820702	hyperbole	exaggeration	21
4964822829	idiom	a common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally	22
4964831193	metaphor	making an implied comparison, not using "like," "as," or other such words	23
4964835099	metonymy	replacing an actual word or idea, with a related word or concept	24
4964837638	synecdoche	a kind of metonymy when a whole is presented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa	25
4964845447	simile	using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things	26
4964852622	synethesia	a description involving a "crossing of the sense"	27
4964858603	personification	giving human-like qualities to something that is not human	28
4964861675	foreshadowing	when an author giver hints about what will occur later in a story	29
4964865647	genre	the major category into which a literary work fits; the basic division of literature are prose, poetry, and drama	30
4964875900	gothic	writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death	31
4964881278	imagery	word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind; usually involves the five sense	32
4964886398	invective	a long, emotionally violent, attach using strong, abusive language	33
4964892600	irony	when the opposite of what you expect to happen does	34
4964897282	verbal irony	when you say something and mean the opposite/something different	35
4964900105	dramatic irony	when the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out	36
4964907693	situational irony	found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie; sometimes it makes you laugh because it's funny how things turn out	37
4964920448	juxtaposition	placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison	38
4964924129	mood	the atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction)	39
4964932550	motif	a recurring idea in a piece of literature	40
4964935218	oxymoron	when apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox	41
4964942018	pacing	the speed or tempo of an author's writing	42
4964948178	paradox	a seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true	43
4964952058	parallelism	(also known as parallel structure or balanced sentences) sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns	44
4964982444	anaphora	repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row	45
4964987310	chiasmus	when the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed	46
4964993445	antithesis	two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or eves ideas, with parallel structure	47
4965004265	zuegma (syllepsis)	when a single word governs or modifies two or more others words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies	48
4965012306	parenthetical idea	parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence	49
4965016752	parody	an exaggerated imitation of a serious word for humorous purpose	50
4965020516	persona	the fictional mask or narrator that tells a story	51
4965025597	poetic device	a device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines	52
4965030876	alliteration	the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words	53
4965036183	assonance	the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds	54
4965040371	consonance	the repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words	55
4965043877	onomatopoeia	the use of a word which imitates or suggest the sound that the thing makes	56
4965049072	internal rhyme	when a line of poetry contains a rhyme withing a single line	57
4965062086	slant rhyme	when a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words no not rhyme exactly, they are merely similar	58
4965065787	end rhyme	when the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme	59
4965070081	rhyme scheme	the pattern of a poem's end rhymes	60
4965075405	stressed and unstressed syllables	in every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force than the other syllable(s)	61
4965081774	meter	a regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poety	62
4965084035	free verse	poetry that doesn't have much meter or rhyme	63
4965086617	iambic pentameter	poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables	64
4965095403	sonnet	a 14 line poem written in iambic pentatmeter	65
4965099348	polysyndeton	when a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions	66
4965104958	pun	when a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way	67
4965113123	rhetoric	the art of effective communication	68
4965118819	Aristotle's rhetorical triangle	the relationships, in any piece of writing, between the writer, the audience, and the subject	69
4965124892	rhetorical question	question not asked for information but for effect	70
4965130222	romanticism	art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people the the world, and an emphasis on nauture; does not rely on traditional themes and structures	71
4965148128	sarcasm	a generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded	72
4965153357	satire	a work that reveals a critical attitude towards some element of life to a humorous effect	73
4965159889	sentence	a sentence is a group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought	74
4965165652	appositive	a word or group of words places beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its menaing	75
4965176458	clause	a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb (and independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; a dependent, or subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause)	76
4965192903	balanced sentence	a sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale	77
4965200312	compound snetence	contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses	78
4965209899	complex snetence	contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause	79
4965216021	cumulative sentence	(also called a loose sentence) when the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements	80
4965229148	periodic sentence	when the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence; the writer begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause (the opposite construction is called a cumulative sentence)	81
4965239908	simple sentence	contains only one independent clause	82
4965243853	declarative sentence	states an idea; it does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question	83
4965254148	imperative sentence	issues a command	84
4965254149	interrogative sentence	sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose)	85
4965283378	style	the choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes; style may be conscious or unconscious	86
4965292431	symbol	anything that represents or stands for something else	87
4965296545	syntax/sentence variety	grammatical arrangement of words (syntax is the grouping of words, while diction refers tot he selection of individual words)	88
4965314271	theme	the central idea or message of a work; the theme may be directly states in nonfiction works, although not necessarily; it is rarely states directly in fiction	89
4965324883	thesis	the sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition	90
4965338417	tone	a writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization	91
4965343188	understatement	the ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is; can frequently be humorous	92
4965352662	litotes	a particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used; depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement or becomes an intensifying expression	93