AP English Language and Composition Flashcards

14251727522	allegory	The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning; usually moral truth or generalization about human existence	0
14251734590	alliteration	The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words; reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, echo the sense of passage	1
14251740799	allusion	a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place or work of art	2
14252088471	ambiguity	The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage	3
14252091365	analogy	a similar or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them; can make writing more vivid, imaginative or intellectually engaging	4
14252100700	antecedent	A word, phrase or clause to which a pronoun refers	5
14252112225	antithesis	the opposition or contrast of ideas; the direct opposite	6
14252113424	aphorism	a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle	7
14252122862	apostrophe	a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction	8
14252133249	atmosphere	the emotional nod 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	9
14252142215	caricature	a verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person's distinctive physical features or other characteristics	10
14252159039	clause	a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb	11
14252169425	independent/main clause	expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence	12
14252173300	colloquial	the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing; not acceptable for formal writing; expresses local or regional dialects	13
14252182330	colloquialism	typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation; gives a familiar tone	14
14252188632	conceit	A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects; displays intellectual cleverness as a result of unusual comparisons being made	15
14262789966	connotation	the non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning; ideas, emotions or attitudes	16
14262794515	denotation	the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude or color	17
14262802346	diction	related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness or effectiveness	18
14262898836	didactic	Greek for teaching or instructing of moral and ethical principles	19
14262911218	euphemism	Greek for "god speech"; agreeable or less offensive substitute for an unpleasant word or concept; used for ironic understatement	20
14262920581	extended metaphor	developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work	21
14262923978	figurative language	writing that is not intended to be literal; usually imaginative and vivid	22
14262926654	figure of speech	device used to produce figurative language; compared dissimilar things	23
14262932062	generic conventions	traditions and helps define for each genre	24
14262939181	genre	major category into which a literary work fits; flexible term that has many subdivisions	25
14262948456	fiction	novels and short stories	26
14262950370	nonfiction	essays and biographies	27
14262952471	poetry	divided into lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, etc.	28
14262955633	homily	term literally means "sermon"; includes serious talk, speech or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice	29
14262960816	hyperbole	Greek for "overshoot"; figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement; produces irony	30
14262966211	imagery	sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion or represent abstractions; physically, it relates to the five senses	31
14262978057	inference/infer	to draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented	32
14276734590	invective	an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using abusive language	33
14276780874	irony/ironic	the contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant; the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true; used to create poignancy or humor	34
14276803059	verbal irony	when the words literally state the writer's meaning	35
14276840651	situational irony	when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen	36
14276844414	dramatic irony	when 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	37
14276848856	litotes	a form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite	38
14276876870	non-periodic sentence	A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses	39
14276889180	loose sentence	A complex sentence in which the main clause comes first and the subordinate clause follows	40
14276891483	metaphor	a figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, suggesting some similarity; makes writing vivid, imaginative, thought provoking and meaningful	41
14276903395	meonymy	Greek for "changed label" or "substitute name"; figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it	42
14276968676	mood	the prevailing setting, tone and events that effect the atmosphere or emotional aura of a work; similar to tone and atmosphere	43
14276980550	narrative	the telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events	44
14276982036	onomatopoeia	a figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words	45
14276988456	oxymoron	Greek for "pointedly foolish"; a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox	46
14276992695	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	47
14276996273	parallelism	Greek for "beside one another"; a.k.a parallel construction or structure; refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences or graphs to give structural similarity	48
14277008292	anaphora	a sub-type of parallelism; when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences	49
14277012828	parody	a work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect or ridicule; exploits author's expression; if written poorly, it offers ineffectual imitation	50
14277023055	pedantic	an adjective that describes words, phrases or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic or bookish	51
14277027484	periodic sentence	the opposite of loose sentence, that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end; an independent clause that comes before a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone; add emphasis and structural variety	52
14277060925	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	53
14277064754	pont of view	from which the story is told; address the author's attitude; two general divisions	54
14277066738	first person narrator	tells the story with the pronoun: "I"; can be protagonist, a secondary character or observer	55
14277071512	third person narrator	relates the events with the pronoun "he", "she" and "it"; two main subdivisions	56
14277077865	third person omniscients	the narrator with godlike knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters	57
14277081991	third person limited omniscient	the narrator presents the feelings and	58
14277103321	prose	one of the major divisions of genre; refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms; the printer determines the length of the line; in poetry, the poet determines the length of the line	59
14277121542	repetition	the duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence or grammatical pattern	60
14277128132	rhetoric	Greek for "orator"; terms describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently and persuasively	61
14277131385	rhetorical modes	the flexible terms describes the variety, conventions and purpose of the major kinds of writing; four common "modes of discourse"	62
14277148200	expositions	to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence and appropriate discussion; AP language exam essay questions are expository topics	63
14277158557	argumentation	to prove the validity of an idea or point of view by presenting sound reasoning, discussion and argument that thoroughly convince the reader	64
14277163060	persuasive	is a type of argumentation having an additional aim or urging form of action	65
14277166351	description	to recreate, invent or visually present a person, place, event or action so that the reader can picture that being described; engages all five sense or may be straightforward; objective or highly emotional on subjective	66
14277173763	narration	to tell a story of an event or series of events; frequently uses the tools of descriptive writing	67
14314283464	sarcasm	Greek for "to tear flesh"; involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something; use irony as a device; can be witty and insightful but can cruel	68
14314312448	satire	targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform or ridicule; work that aims to reform human behavior; thought provoking and insightful	69
14314337659	smeantics	branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations and their relation to one another	70
14314428161	Style	evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language and other literary devices; classification comparison which reflects a historical period	71
14314559449	subject complement	word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements or completes the subject of the sentence	72
14314564470	Predicate nominative	(n.) a group of nouns or noun clause that renames the subject; follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence	73
14314571557	Predicate adjective	(adj.) a group of adjectives or clause that follows a linking verb; modifies or describes a sentence or subject	74
14314577614	subordinate cluase	word group contains both a subject and a verb, but cannot stand alone and does not express complete thoughts	75
14314699238	dependent clause	relies on the main clause to complete its meaning	76
14314701744	syllogism	Greek for "reckoning together" is a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premise that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion	77
14314784244	major premise	the first part of a syllogism, consisting of a general statement about the subject of your argument	78
14314785591	minor premise	a statement about a specific case related to the general characteristics of the major premise	79
14314852146	symbol/symbolism	generally anything that represents itself and stands for something else; usually concrete as an object, action character or scene	80
14314873016	natural symbols	objects and occurrences from nature to symbolize ideas commonly associated with them	81
14314875767	conventional symbols	have been invested with meaning by a group or religious symbols	82
14314880614	literary symbols	can be conventional in the sense that they are found in a verity or works and are more recognized	83
14314892180	Synecdoche	a figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole or occasionally the whole is used to represent a part	84
14314905691	Synesthesia	when one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another	85
14314949975	syntax	the way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses and sentences; similar to diction, but diction refer to the individual words	86
14315049013	theme	the central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers into life; usual is unstated in fictional works; non-fiction may be directly state in expository or argumentative writing	87
14315063425	thesis	expository writing; the sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning or position; usually judged by analyzing how accurately, effectively and thoroughly a writer has proven	88
14315071303	tone	similar to mood; describes the author's attitude toward his material, audience or both; easier to determine in spoken language than in one that is written	89
14315099311	transition	a word or phrase that links different ideas; especially in expository and argumentative writing; effectively signal a shift from one idea to another	90
14315104792	understatement	the ironic minimizing of fact; presents something as less significant than it is; the effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic; opposite of hyperbole	91
14315115816	witty	intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights; humorous while suggesting the speaker's verbal power; speed of understanding and quick perception	92