AP Language and Composition Terms Flashcards

6550899539	Ad hominem	1. Appealing to prejudice and emotion rather than to reason. 2. Attacking the character, motives, etc. of an opponent rather than debating the issue on logical grounds.	0
6550902315	Allegory	1. A story in which people, things, and happenings have a hidden or symbolic meaning. 2. The presenting of ideas by means of such stories. 3. Any symbol or emblem.	1
6550918410	Alliteration	The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words.	2
6550924618	Allusion	A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work or art.	3
6550929192	Ambiguity	The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.	4
6550934783	Analogy	A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.	5
6550940272	Antecedent	The word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.	6
6550946859	Antithesis	An opposition or contrast of ideas that is often expressed in balanced phrases or clauses.	7
6550948348	Aphorism	A terse statement of known authorship, which expresses a general truth or moral principle (If the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb).	8
6550955399	Apostrophe	A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.	9
6550961185	Apotheosis	Occurs in literature when a character or a thing is elevated to such a high status that it appears godlike.	10
6550964834	Appositive	A word or phrase that follows a noun or pronoun for emphasis or clarity.	11
6550970724	Assonance	A type of internal rhyming in which vowel sounds are repeated.	12
6550972989	Asyndeton	Occurs when the conjunctions (such as and or but) that would normally connect a string of words, phrases, or clauses are omitted from a sentence.	13
6550975689	Atmosphere	The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described.	14
6550978564	Attitude	The feeling of a particular speaker or a piece of writing toward a subject, person, or idea.	15
6564422610	Bathos	False or forced emotion that is often humorous.	16
6564423771	Clause	A grammatical unit that contains a subject and a verb.	17
6564423958	Connotation	The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning.	18
6564424652	Contrast	Writers often use these oppositions to elaborate ideas.	19
6564425375	Denotation	The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude or color.	20
6564426396	Diction	Related to style, it refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.	21
6564426603	Didactic	These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.	22
6564428159	Elegiac	Work (of music, literature, dance, or art) that expresses sorrow.	23
6564428489	Ethos	Characteristic spirit or ideal that informs a work.	24
6564429145	Euphemism	A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.	25
6564430257	Extended Metaphor	A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.	26
6564430474	Exposition	Refers to writing or speech that is organized to explain.	27
6564431042	Fiction	Works of these can be based on actual occurrences, but their status as this means that something has been imagined or invented in the telling of the occurrence.	28
6564432293	Figurative language	Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid.	29
6564434086	Figure of speech	A device used to produce figurative language.	30
6564434516	Foreshadowing	A purposeful hint placed in a work of literature to suggest what may occur later in the narrative.	31
6564435503	Genre	The major category into which a literary work fits.	32
6564435643	Grammar	A set of rules that specify how a given language is used effectively.	33
6564435952	Hyperbole	A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.	34
6564436270	Imagery	The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions.	35
6564436625	Irony/ironic	The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant.	36
6564437294	Verbal irony	In this irony, the words literally state the opposite of the writer's (or speaker's) true meaning.	37
6564437604	Situational irony	In this irony, events turn out the opposite of what was expected.	38
6564437943	Dramatic irony	In this irony, facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work.	39
6564438811	Juxtaposition	When two contrasting things—ideas, words, or sentence elements—are placed next to each other for comparison, this occurs.	40
6564439439	Logos	Refers to the use of reason as a controlling principle in an argument.	41
6564439644	Metaphor	A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity.	42
6564440010	Metonymy	A figure of speech, which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.	43
6564440552	Mood	The first meaning is grammatical and deals with verbal units and a speaker's attitude. The second meaning is literary, meaning the prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work.	44
6564442449	Onomatopoeia	A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words.	45
6564442635	Overview	A brief summary of a whole work.	46
6564442894	Oxymoron	A figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest paradox.	47
6564443437	Pacing	A speed of a story's action, dialogue, or narration.	48
6564443646	Paradox	A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense, but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity.	49
6564444209	Parallelism	It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity.	50
6564444408	Parody	A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.	51
6564445254	Pathos	A sympathetic feeling of pity or compassion evoked by an artistic work.	52
6564445930	Person	A grammatical term that describes the relationship of a writer or speaker to an audience by examining the pronouns that are used.	53
6564446083	Persona	Character created by the voice and narration of the speaker of a text.	54
6564446719	Personification	A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.	55
6564447180	Point of View	In literature, the perspective from which a story is told.	56
6564448063	First-person narrator	A point of view in which tells the story with the pronoun, "I," and is a character in the story.	57
6564450193	Third-person omnipotent	In this point of view the narrator, with godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts or actions of any or all characters.	58
6564451085	Third-person limited	This point of view presents the feelings and thoughts of only one character, presenting only the actions of all remaining characters.	59
6564452285	Pun	A play on words	60
6564452731	Repetition	The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.	61
6564453050	Rhetoric	This term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively.	62
6564453736	Rhetorical, or stylistic, devices	The specific language tools that an author uses to carry out a strategy, and thus achieve a purpose for writing.	63
6564454484	Rhetoric modes	The variety, the conventions, and the purposes of the major kinds of writing.	64
6564460093	Exposition	The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion.	65
6564461197	Argumentation	The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to prove the validity of and idea, or point of view, by presenting sound reasoning, discussion, and argument that thoroughly convince the reader.	66
6564461577	Description	The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to re-create, invent or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that being described.	67
6564463237	Narration	The purpose of this rhetorical mode is to tell a story or narrate an event or series of events.	68
6564464239	Rhetorical question	A question that is asked merely for effect and does not expect a reply.	69
6564465324	Rhetorical strategy	A strategy is a plan of action or movement to achieve a goal.	70
6564465325	Satire	A work that targets human vices and follies, or social institutions and conventions, for reform or ridicule.	71
6564465852	Selection of detail	The specific words, incidents, images, or events the author uses to create a scene or narrative.	72
6564466744	Similie	An explicit comparison, normally using like, as, or if.	73
6564467025	Speaker	The narrator of the story, poem, or drama.	74
6564467255	Style	1. An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. 2. Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors.	75
6564468073	Strategy	A plan of action, or movement to achieve a goal.	76
6564468542	Syllogism	A deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises-the first one called "major" and the second "minor"- that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion.	77
6564469801	Symbol/symbolism	Generally, anything that represents or stands for something else.	78
6564471770	Natural symbols	These symbols use objects and occurrences from nature to represent ideas commonly associated with them (dawn symbolizing hope or a new beginning, a rose symbolizing love, a tree symbolizing knowledge).	79
6564472459	Conventional symbols	These symbols are those that have been invested with meaning by a group (religious symbols, such as a cross or Star of David; national symbols, such as a flag or an eagle; or group symbols, such as skull and crossbones for pirates or the scales of justice for lawyers).	80
6564473251	Literary symbols	These symbols are sometimes conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works and are generally recognized. However, a work's symbols may be more complicated as is the whale in Moby Dick and the jungle in Heart of Darkness.	81
6564474444	Synonym	A word that has the same, or nearly the same meaning as another word.	82
6564474734	Syntax	The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.	83
6564475016	Tension	A feeling of excitement and expectation the reader or the audience feels because of conflict, mood, or atmosphere.	84
6564475830	Texture	Describes the way the elements of a work of prose or poetry are joined together.	85
6564476240	Theme	The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life.	86
6564476580	Thesis	1. A proposition maintained or defended in argument. 2. An unproved statement assumed as a premise.	87
6564477218	Tone	Similar to mood, describes the author's attitude toward his or her material, the audience, or both.	88
6564477881	Understatement	The ironic minimalizing of fact, it presents something as less significant than it is.	89
6564478470	Voice	How the speaker of literary work presents him or herself to the reader.	90
6564478884	Zeugma	A particular breech of sense in a sentence.	91