AP Language and Composition Terms Flashcards

13535463897	Allegory	The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. i.e. Animal Farm characters; The Crucible	0
13535463898	Alliteration	The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words	1
13535463899	Allusion	A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work or art purpose: writer does not have to elaborate	2
13535463901	Analogy	A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them; using something well known to help explain something not as well known. (similar to simile)	3
13535463903	Aphorism	A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or moral principle; a memorable summation of the author's point	4
13535463905	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.	5
13535463906	Clause	A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.	6
13535463914	Extended metaphor	A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work	7
13535463915	Figurative language	Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid	8
13535463916	Figure of speech	A device used to produce figurative language, Many compare dissimilar things	9
13535463917	Generic conventions	This term describes traditions for each genre and helps define each genre. For example, they differentiate between an essay and journalistic writing and an autobiography and political writing	10
13535463918	Genre	The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry , and drama	11
13535463920	Hyperbole	A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis	12
13535463921	Imagery	The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, uses terms related to the five senses	13
13535463925	Verbal irony	The words literally state the opposite of the writers or speakers true meaning	14
13535463926	Situational irony	Events turn out the opposite of what was expected	15
13535463927	Dramatic 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	16
13535463929	Metaphor	A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other	17
13535463936	Onomatopoeia	A figure of speech in which natural sounds are imitated in the sounds of words	18
13535463937	Oxymoron	From the Greek for "pointedly foolish" a figure of speech wherein the author groups apparently contradictory terms to suggest a paradox. Example: Jumbo Shrimp	19
13535463940	Parody	A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule. It distorts or exaggerates distinctive features of the original	20
13535463943	Point of view	The perspective from which a story is told	21
13535463944	First-person narrator	Tells the story with the first-person pronoun "I" and is a character in the story.	22
13535463945	Third person narrator	Relates the events with the third person pronouns, "he, she it"	23
13535463946	Third person omniscient	the narrator, with god-like knowledge, presents the thoughts and actions of any or all characters	24
13535463947	Third person limited omniscient	Presents the feelings and thoughts of only the actions of all remaining characters	25
13535463948	Predicate adjectives	One type of subject complement- an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clauses that follows a linking verb Example: My boyfriend is tall, dark, and handsome. Tall, dark and handsome is describing boyfriend	26
13535463950	Prose	One of the major divisions of genre, refers to fiction and nonfiction, because they are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech	27
13535463951	Repetition	The duplication, either exact or approximate of any element of language	28
13535463952	Rhetoric	From the Greek "orator" describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively	29
13535463959	Subject complement	The word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by renaming it or describing it	30
13535463960	Subordinate clause	Contains a subject and a verb but can not stand alone	31
13535463962	Symbol	Anything that represents or stands for something else	32
13535463963	Natural symbols	Use objects and occurrences from nature to represent ideas commonly associated with them I.e. Dawn and new beginnings	33
13535463964	Conventional symbols	Those that have been invested with meaning by a group i.e. Star of David	34
13535463965	Literary symbols	They are found in a variety of literature and are generally recognized i.e. whale in Moby Dick	35
13535463967	Theme	The central idea or message of a work, the insight it offers to life	36
13535463969	Tone	Describes the author's attitude toward his or her material or the audience	37
13535463970	Transition	A word or phrase that links different ideas	38
13535463971	Understatement	The ironic minimalizing of fact, presenting something less significant than it actually is. Makes a work humorous and emphatic;A statement that lacks emphasis and is given less force than normal.	39
13535463972	Wit	intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights	40
13535463973	Attitude	A writer's intellectual position or emotion regarding the subject of the writing (related to tone)	41
13535463974	Concrete detail	A non abstract detail asked on essay portion	42
13535463975	Descriptive detail	Detail appealing to the visual sense of the reader	43
13535463976	Devices	The figures of speech, syntax, diction, and other stylistic elements that collectively produce a particular artistic effect	44
13535463977	Language	how the elements of this combine to form a whole (diction, syntax, figurative language, etc)	45
13535463978	Narrative devices	The tools of the storyteller such as ordering events so that they build to a climactic moment or withholding information until a crucial time	46
13535463979	Narrative technique	The style of telling the story, especially the order of events and their detail	47
13535463980	Persuasive devices	The words in the passage that have strong connotations hint at this. Words that intensify the emotional effect	48
13535463981	Persuasive essay	An essay that leads to appeal to the audience's emotion or ethical standards to make them feel or support the author's position	49
13535463982	Resources of language	All the devices of composition available to a writer such as diction, syntax, sentence structure, etc	50
13535463983	Rhetorical features	Refers to how a passage is constructed. Look at the passage's organization and how the writer combines images, details, or arguments	51
13535463984	Sentence structure	The type of sentences the author uses; the simple, compound, complex types of this	52
13535463986	Hyperbole	A non-literal exaggeration to emphasize something.	53
13535463991	Procatalepsis	(Form of hypophora) Eliminates an objection without asking any questions.	54
13535463992	Distinctio	Giving the definition of a word so that the word isn't taken the wrong way.	55
13535463993	Simile	A figure of speech using "like" or "as" to compare two thing somewhat alike.	56
13535463994	Metaphor	(Similar to simile) Speaking of something as though it were another.	57
13535463995	Eponym	(Similar to allusion) Linking the attributes of a well known person to another person.	58
13535463997	Exemplum	Providing the reader with an example to illustrate what the author means. Fictional examples need to be hypothetical.	59
13535463998	Climax	Organizing ideas in writing from least to most important.	60
13535464000	Chiasmus	(Form of parallelism) The structure of two lines are crisscrossed. The beginning of the first is at the end of the second and vice versa.	61
13535464001	Anadiplosis	(Form of repetition) Repeating the last word of a phrase or sentence near the beginning of the next.	62
13535464002	Conduplicatio	(Form of repetition) Take an important word in the previous sentence or phrase and repeats it at the beginning of the next.	63
13535464003	Metabasis	A summary of a previous body of work that allows the reader to move on to a new point.	64
13535464004	Parenthesis	A device that is used to insert additional information into the main body of the writing.Equivalent to the spoken aside.	65
13535464005	Enumeratio	A list of details about something that is supplied.	66
13535464006	Antanagoge	Making negative things seem not as bad so the reader doesn't feel as strongly about them.	67
13535464007	Epithet	Adding a descriptive adjective to a noun to evoke an idea or emotion.	68
13535464012	Hyperbaton	Purposely arranging words in an unexpected order.	69
13535464013	Aporia	Used to express doubt about an idea.	70
13535464015	Epistrophe	(Similar to anaphora) The use of the same word or phrase at the end of each phrase or sentence.	71
13535464016	Symploce	(Form of parallelism) A combination of using a word or phrase repeatedly at the beginning or end of a phrase or sentence.	72
13535464017	Amplification	Repeating something just said but adding more detail to it.	73
13535464018	Personification	Giving human-like traits to something not human.	74
13535464024	Phronesis	Effects Ethos in making it seem the speaker has the wisdom to judge right from wrong.	75
13535464026	Straw Man	A fallacy that attacks the weaker side of the argument and not the issue at hand.	76
13535464029	Absolute	A word free from limitations or qualifications	77
13535464031	Archetype	A detail, image, or character type that appears frequently in literature and is thought to appeal in a universal way	78
13535464032	Balanced sentence	A sentence in which words, phrases, or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast	79
13535464033	Cliche'	An expression that has been overused to the extent that its freshness has worn off	80
13535464034	Colloquialism	A word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't)	81
13535464035	Complex sentence	A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause	82
13535464038	Declarative sentence	A sentence that makes a statement or declaration	83
13535464039	Dialect	A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.	84
13535464040	Dilemma	a difficult or perplexing situation or problem requiring a person to decide between two equally attractive or unattractive alternatives	85
13535464041	Dissonance	harsh, inharmonious sounds	86
13535464042	Elegy	a sorrowful formal poem or speech about death or another solemn theme	87
13535464043	Ellipsis	Indicated by a series of three periods, the __ indicates that some material has been omitted from a given text.	88
13535464045	Epigram	A brief witty poem, often satirical.	89
13535464046	Epigraph	a saying or statement on a title page of a work, or used as a heading for a chapter or other section of a work	90
13535464047	Epiphany	A moment of sudden revelation or insight	91
13535464048	Epitaph	a brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone	92
13535464049	Eulogy	a speech honoring the dead	93
13535464050	Exclamatory sentence	A sentence expressing strong feeling, usually punctuated with an exclamation mark	94
13535464051	Expletive	an interjection to lend emphasis; often a profanity	95
13535464052	Fable	A brief story that leads to a moral, often using animals as characters	96
13535464053	Fantasy	A story including elements that are impossible or make-believe.	97
13535464054	Flashback	A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events	98
13535464055	Flat character	A character who is not well-developed, but rather one-dimensional ; he/she has only one or two personality traits	99
13535464056	Foreshadowing	A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.	100
13535464059	Hypothetical question	a question that asks how a respondent might react in a given situation	101
13535464060	Idiom	A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally.	102
13535464061	Implication	A suggestion an author or speaker makes (implies) without stating it directly. NOTE: the author/sender implies; the reader/audience infers.	103
13535464064	Legend	A narrative story about mythical or supernatural beings or events handed down from the past	104
13535464065	Limerick	A five line poem in which lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.	105
13535464066	Literary license	deviating from normal rules or methods in order to achieve a certain effect	106
13535464069	Motif	A recurring element, such as an image, theme, or type of incident.	107
13535464070	Motivation	A character's incentive or reason for behaving in a certain manner; that which impels a character to act	108
13535464071	Myth	a traditional story where supernatural characters and events are used to explain a natural event	109
13535464073	Parenthetical	a comment that interrupts the immediate subject, often to qualify or explain	110
13535464074	Pathos	Appeal to emotion	111
13535464075	Logos	Appeal to logic; facts	112
13535464076	Ethos	Appeal to ethics; credibility	113
13535464079	Resolution	Also called the denouement, this is the final stage in the plot of a drama or work of fiction. Here the action comes to an end and remaining loose ends are tied up.	114
13535464080	Round character	A character who demonstrates some complexity and who develops or changes in the course of a work	115
13535464081	Romantic	19th century artistic movement that appealed to emotion rather than reason	116
13535464082	Scapegoat	a person or thing carrying the blame for others	117
13535464083	Simple sentence	A sentence consisting of one independent clause and no dependent clause	118
13535464084	Solecism	Nonstandard grammatical usage; a violation of grammatical rules	119
13535464085	Structure	Arrangement of parts	120
13535464086	Surrealism	An artistic movement that displayed vivid dream worlds and fantastic unreal images	121
13535464087	Syllepsis	A construction in which one word is used in two different senses ("After he threw the ball, he threw a fit.")	122
13535464088	Synesthesia	describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")	123
13535464090	Trilogy	A group of three literary or musical works that have a related theme	124
13535464091	Trite	commonplace; overused, stale	125
13535464092	Vernacular	Everyday language used in a country or region.	126
13535464093	Archaism	A word, expression, spelling, or phrase that is out of date in the common speech of an era, but still deliberately used by a writer, poet, or playwright for artistic purposes	127
13535464094	Authorial intrusion	literary device wherein the author penning the story, poem or prose steps away from the text and speaks out to the reader.	128
13535464095	Idyll	A scene or event of a simple and tranquil nature	129
13535464096	Socratic irony	someone pretends to be ignorant to expose the ignorance or inconsistency of someone else.	130
13535464097	Ironic overstatement	when a person exaggerates the character of something.	131
13535464098	Ironic understatement	when a person undermines the character of something.	132
13535464099	Melodrama	a play interspersed with songs and orchestral music accompanying the action	133
13535464100	Absolute metaphor	a metaphor (or figurative comparison) in which one of the terms (the tenor) can't be readily distinguished from the other (the vehicle).Example: "We are the eyelids of defeated caves."	134
13535464101	Active metaphor	one which is relatively new and has not become part of everyday linguistic usage. The audience knows that a metaphor has been used.	135
13535464102	Dead metaphor	metaphors that normally go unnoticed or that are cliché	136
13535464103	Mixed metaphor	a metaphor that combines different images or ideas in a way that is foolish or illogical	137
13535464104	Submerged metaphor	one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one aspect. Example: "my winged thought". Here, the audience must supply the image of the bird.	138
13535464105	Neoclassical drama	Neoclassicism covers the period from the end of the English Renaissance in 1642 to the culmination of the French Revolution and the beheading of Louis the XVI in 1793 - in this type of drama, there were either comedies or tragedies - no combination of the two.	139
13535464106	Implied metaphor	one in which the tenor is not specified but implied. Example: "Shut your trap!" Here, the mouth of the listener is the unspecified tenor.	140
13535464107	undertone	an attitude that may lie under the ostensible tone of the piece. Under the surface, for example, a work may have threatening undertones	141
13535464108	anecdote	a short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event.	142