AP Language Multiple Choice Flashcards

13710260843	Active Voice	The subject of the sentence performs the action. This is a more direct and preferred style of writing in most cases	0
13710260844	Passive Voice	often overused, resulting in lifeless writing	1
13710260845	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 familiar	2
13710260846	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	3
13710260847	Persona	the mask of an actor, which refers to the list of characters and cast in a play or a drama	4
13710260848	Anecdote	A brief recounting of a relevant episode. Anecdotes are often inserted into fictional or non fictional texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor	5
13710260849	Antecedent	The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun	6
13710260850	Classicism	Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures (see romanticism)	7
13710260851	Comic relief	when a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story, in order to lighten the mood somewhat	8
13710260852	Diction	Word choice, particularly as an element of style. Different types of words have significant effects on meaning	9
13710260853	Colloquial	Ordinary or familiar type of conversation	10
13710260854	Connotation	Rather than the dictionary definition (denotation), the associations suggested by a word. Implied meaning rather than literal meaning	11
13710260855	Denotation	The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations	12
13710260856	Jargon	The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity	13
13710260857	Vernacular	1. Language or dialect of a particular country 2. Language or dialect of a regional clan or group 3. Plain everyday speech	14
13710260858	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	15
13710260859	Aphorism	A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle. An aphorism can be a memorable summation of the author's point	16
13710260860	Adage	A folk saying with a lesson	17
13710260861	Allegory	A story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts. The interaction of these characters, things, and events is meant to reveal an abstraction or a truth	18
13710260862	Ellipsis	The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author	19
13710260863	Euphemism	A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. Sometimes they are used for political correctness	20
13710260864	Figurative Language	A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. Sometimes they are used for political correctness	21
13710260865	Literal language	writing that makes complete sense when you take it at face value	22
13710260866	Analogy	An analogy is a comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that the relationship between the first pair of variables is the same as the relationship between the second pair of variables	23
13710260867	Hyperbole	Exagerration	24
13710260868	Idiom	A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally	25
13710260869	Metaphor	Making an implied comparison (not using "like," as," or other such words)	26
13710260870	Extended metaphor	when the metaphor is continued later in the written work	27
13710260871	Conceit	A particularly elaborate extended metaphor	28
13710260872	Metonymy	Replacing an actual word or idea, with a related word or concept	29
13710260873	Synecdoche	A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa	30
13710260874	Simile	Using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things	31
13710260875	Synesthesia	a description involving a "crossing of the senses	32
13710260876	Personification	Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human	33
13710260877	Foreshadowing	When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story	34
13710260878	Genre	The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama	35
13710260879	Gothic	Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death. Also refers to an architectural style of the middle ages, often seen in cathedrals of this period	36
13710260880	Imagery	Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind. Usually this involves the five senses. Authors often use imagery in conjunction with metaphors, similes, or figures of speech.	37
13710260881	Invective	A long, emotionally violent, attack using strong, abusive language	38
13710260882	Irony	When the opposite of what you expect to happen does	39
13710260883	Verbal irony	When you say something and mean the opposite/something different.	40
13710260884	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	41
13710260885	Situational irony	Found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie	42
13710260886	Juxtaposition	Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison	43
13710260887	Mood	The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice	44
13710260888	Motif	a recurring idea in a piece of literature	45
13710260889	Oxymoron	When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox	46
13710260890	Pacing	The speed or tempo of an author's writing	47
13710260891	Paradox	A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true	48
13710260892	Parallelism	Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns	49
13710260893	Anaphora	Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row	50
13710260894	Chiasmus	When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed	51
13710260895	Antithesis	Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure	52
13710260896	Zuegma (Syllepsis)	When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies	53
13710260897	Parenthetical Idea	Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence	54
13710260898	Parody	An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes. It borrows words or phrases from an original, and pokes fun at it	55
13710260899	Poetic device	A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines	56
13710260900	Alliteration	The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words	57
13710260901	Assonance	The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.	58
13710260902	Consonance	The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words	59
13710260903	Onomatopoeia	The use of a word which imitates or suggests the sound that the thing makes	60
13710260904	Internal rhyme	When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line	61
13710260905	Slant rhyme	When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly - they are merely similar	62
13710260906	End rhyme	When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhymn	63
13710260907	Rhyme Scheme	The pattern of a poem's end rhymes	64
13710260908	Meter	A regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poetry	65
13710260909	Free verse	Poetry that doesn't have much meter or rhyme	66
13710260910	Iambic pentameter	Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.	67
13710260911	Sonnet	A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. Usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet	68
13710260912	Polysyndeton	When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions. Normally, a conjunction is used only before the last item in a list	69
13710260913	Pun	When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way	70
13710260914	Rhetoric	The art of effective communication, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.	71
13710260915	Rhetorical Question	Question not asked for information but for effect.	72
13710260967	Romanticism		73
13710260916	Sarcasm	A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded	74
13710260917	Satire	A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect	75
13710260918	Sentence	A sentence is group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought	76
13710260919	Appositive	A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning	77
13710260920	Clause	A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb	78
13710260921	Independent clause	expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence	79
13710260922	Dependent (subordinate) clause	cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause	80
13710260923	Balanced sentence	A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale	81
13710260924	Compound sentence	Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses	82
13710260925	Complex sentence	Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause	83
13710260926	Cumulative sentence (loose sentence)	When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements	84
13710260927	Periodic sentence	When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence	85
13710260928	Simple sentence	Contains only one independent clause.	86
13710260929	Declarative sentence	States an idea. It does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question.	87
13710260930	Imperative sentence	Issues a command	88
13710260931	Interrogative sentence	Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose)	89
13710260932	Style	The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. Style may be conscious or unconscious	90
13710260933	Symbol	Anything that represents or stands for something else	91
13710260934	Syntax/sentence variety	Grammatical arrangement of words	92
13710260935	Theme	The central idea or message of a work	93
13710260936	Thesis	The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition	94
13710260937	Tone	A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization	95
13710260938	Understatement	The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is	96
13710260939	Litotes	a particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used	97
13710260940	Argument	a piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion	98
13710260941	Premises	Statements offered as reasons to support a conclusion are premises	99
13710260942	Conclusion	the end result of the argument	100
13710260943	Aristotle's appeals	The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade an audience that one's ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's.	101
13710260944	Ethos	means being convinced by the credibility of the author	102
13710260945	Pathos	means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotion	103
13710260946	Logos	means persuading by the use of reasoning, using true premises and valid arguments	104
13710260947	Concession	Accepting at least part or all of an opposing viewpoint	105
13710260948	Conditional Statement	an if-then statement and consists of two parts, an antecedent and a consequent	106
13710260949	Contradiction	A contradiction occurs when one asserts two mutually exclusive propositions	107
13710260950	Counterexample	an example that runs counter to (opposes) a generalization, thus falsifying it	108
13710260951	Deductive argument	An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion	109
13710260952	Fallacy	A fallacy is an attractive but unreliable piece of reasoning	110
13710260953	Ad hominem	Latin for "against the man". Personally attacking your opponents instead of their arguments	111
13710260954	Appeal to authority	The claim that because somebody famous supports an idea, the idea must be right	112
13710260955	Appeal to the bandwagon	The claim, as evidence for an idea, that many people believe it, or used to believe it, or do it	113
13710260956	Appeal to emotion	An attempt to replace a logical argument with an appeal to the audience's emotions	114
13710260957	Bad analogy	Claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren't.	115
13710260958	Cliche thinking	Using as evidence a well-known saying, as if it is proven, or as if it has no exceptions	116
13710260959	False cause	Assuming that because two things happened, the first one caused the second one	117
13710260960	Hasty generalization	A generalization based on too little or unrepresentative data	118
13710260961	Non Sequitur	A conclusion that does not follow from its premises; an invalid argument.	119
13710260962	Slippery slope	The assumption that once started, a situation will continue to its most extreme possible outcome	120
13710260963	Inductive argument	An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide reasons supporting the probable truth of the conclusion	121
13710260964	Sound argument	A deductive argument is said to be sound if it meets two conditions: First, that the line of reasoning from the premises to the conclusion is valid. Second, that the premises are true	122
13710260965	Unstated premises	Not every argument is fully expressed. Sometimes premises or even conclusions are left unexpressed	123
13710260966	Valid argument	An argument is valid if the conclusion logically follows from the premises	124
13710276795	Archetype	A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response	125
13710280479	Asyndeton	A construction in which elements are presented in a series without conjunctions	126
13710287112	epigram	a brief, pithy, and often paradoxical saying	127
13710300120	Epigraph	a saying or statement on the title page of a work, or used as a heading for a chapter or other section of a work	128
13710302949	Epithet	a term used to point out a characteristic of a person. Homeric epithets are often compound adjectives ("swift-footed Achilles") that become an almost formulaic part of a name. Epithets can be abusive or offensive but are not so by definition. For example, athletes may be proud of their given epithets ("The Rocket")	129
13710309903	eulogy	(n.) a formal statement of commendation; high praise	130
13710315409	homily	a sermon	131
13710315410	Hubris	excessive pride	132
13710323255	malapropism	the mistaken substitution of a word	133
13710331620	non sequitur	an inference that does not follow logically from the premises	134
13710339498	philippic	a strong verbal denunciation	135
13710346902	tautology	needless repetition	136