AP English Lang. Glossary Flashcards
1
Q
Active Voice
A
The subject of the sentence performs the action.
2
Q
Allusion
A
An indirect reference to something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar.
3
Q
Alter-ego
A
When the author speaks directly to the audience through a character.
4
Q
Anecdote
A
The brief recounting of a relevant episode.
5
Q
Antecedent
A
The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.
6
Q
Classicism
A
Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world.
7
Q
Comic relief
A
When a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story.
8
Q
Diction
A
Word choice, as an element of style.
9
Q
Colloquial
A
Ordinary or familiar type of conversation.
10
Q
Connotation
A
Implied meaning rather than literal meaning.
11
Q
Denotation
A
The literal meaning of a word.
12
Q
Jargon
A
The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.
13
Q
Vernacular
A
Language that could be from a particular country, regional clan or group; pain everyday speech.
14
Q
Didactic
A
Describes fiction, nonfiction, or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral.
15
Q
Adage
A
A folk saying with a lesson.
16
Q
Allegory
A
A story (fiction or nonfiction) in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.
17
Q
Aphorism
A
A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle. Can be a memorable summation of the author’s point.
18
Q
Ellipsis
A
The deliberate omission of a world or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.
19
Q
Euphemism
A
A more agreeable or less offensive substitue for generally unpleasant words or concepts.
20
Q
Figurative Language
A
Writing that is not meant to be taken literally.
21
Q
Analogy
A
An analogy is a comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables.
22
Q
Hyperbole
A
Exaggeration
23
Q
Idiom
A
An expression that doesn’t make sense if taken literally.
24
Q
Metaphor
A
Making an implied comparison, not using “like, “as” or other such words.
25
Metonymy
Replacing an actual word or idea with a related word or concept.
26
Synecdoche
A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa.
27
Simile
Using words such as “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison between two very different things.
28
Synesthesia
A description involving a “crossing of the senses.”
29
Personification
Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human.
30
Foreshadowing
When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story.
31
Genre
The major category into which a literary work fits.
32
Gothic
Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death.
33
Imagery
Word or words that create a picture in the readers mind.
34
Invective
A long, emotionally violent, attack using strong, abusive language.
35
Irony
When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.
36
Verbal Irony
When you say something and mean the opposite/something different.
37
Dramatic Irony
When the audience knows something that the character doesn’t and would be surprised to find out.
38
Situational Irony
Found in the plot of a book, story, or movie. Sometimes it makes you laugh because it;s funny how things turn out.
39
Juxtaposition
Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison.
40
Mood
The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through diction.
41
Motif
A recurring idea in a piece of literature.
42
Oxymoron
When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox.
43
Pacing
The speed or tempo of an author’s writing.
44
Paradox
A seemingly contradictory situation a which is actually true.
45
Parallelism
Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns.
46
Anaphora
Repetition of a word, phrases or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row.
47
Chiasmus
When the same words are used twice in a succession, But the second time, the order of the words is reversed.
48
Antithesis
Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.
49
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.
50
Parenthetical Idea
Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence.
51
Parody
An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes.
52
Persona
The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story.
53
Poetic device
A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines.
54
Alliteration
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.
55
Assonance
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
56
Consonance
The repetition of the same constant sound at the end of words or within words.
57
Onomatopoeia
The use of a word which imitated or suggests the sound that the thing makes.
58
Internal rhyme
When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line.
59
Slant Rhyme
When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly.
60
End Rhyme
When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme.
61
Rhyme Scheme
The pattered of a poem’s end rhymes.
62
Stressed and unstressed syllables
In every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force that the other syllable (s).
63
Meter
A regular pattern to the syllables in the lines of poetry.
64
Free verse
Poetry that doesn’t have much meter or rhyme.
65
Iambic Pentameter
Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and I stressed syllables.
66
Sonnet
A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter.
67
Polysyndenton
When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions.
68
Pun
When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.
69
Rhetoric
The art of effective communication.
70
Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle
The relationships in writings between the writer, reader, and subject.
71
Rhetorical Question
Question not asked for information but for effect.
72
Romanticism
Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature.
73
Sarcasm
A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.
74
Satire
A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect.
75
Sentence
A group of words that expresses a complete thought.
76
Appositive
A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitue to supplement its meaning.
77
Clause
A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.
78
Independent clause
A complete though and can stand alone as a sentence.
79
Dependent/ subordinate clause
A clause that can not stand alone and depends on an independent clause.
80
Balanced sentence/parallelism
A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale.
81
Compound sentence
Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.
82
Complex sentence
Contains one one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
83
Cumulative sentence
Begins with and independent clause, then adds subordinate elements.
84
Periodic sentence
When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence.
85
Simple sentence
Contains only one independent clause.
86
Declarative sentence
States an idea.
87
Imperative sentence
Issues a command.
88
Interrogative sentence
Sentences that ask questions.
89
Style
The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.
90
Symbol
Anything that represents or stands for something else.
91
Syntax/sentence variety
Grammatical arrangements of words. The grouping of words.
92
Theme
The central idea or message of a work.
93
Thesis
The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition.
94
Tone
A writer’s attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization.
95
Understatement
The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant that’s it is.
96
Litotes
A particular form of understatement generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.
97
Argument
An argument is a piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion.
98
Premises
Statements offered as reasons to support a conclusion are premises.
99
Conclusion
The end result of the argument.
100
Aristotle’s appeals
the goal of argumentative writing is to persuade an audience that one’s ideas are valid, or more valid that someone else’s.
101
Ethos(credibility)
The writer tries to convince the audience that he or she is someone worth listening to.
102
Pathos (emotional)
Persuading by appealing to the reader’s emotions.
103
Logos (logical)
Persuading by the use of reasoning, using true premises and valid arguments.
104
Concession
Accepting at least part or all of an opposing viewpoint.
105
Conditional statement
An if-then statement and consists of two parts, and antecedent and a consequent.
106
Contradiction
Occurs when one asserts two mutually exclusive propositions.
107
Counterexample
An example that opposes a generalization thus making it false.
108
Deductive argument
An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide a guarantee of the thirty of the conclusion.
109
Fallacy
An attractive but unreliable piece of reasoning.
110
Ad hominem
Personally attacking your opponents instead of their arguments.
111
Appeal to authority
The claim that because somebody famous supports an idea, the idea must be right.
112
Appeal to the bandwagon
The claim, as evidence for an idea, that many people believe it, or used to believe im or do it.
113
Appeal to emotion
An attempt to replace a logical argument with an appeal to the audience’s emotions.
114
Bad analogy
Claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren’t.
115
Cliche thinking
Using as evidence a well-known saying, as if it is proven, or as if it has no exceptions.
116
False cause
Assuming that because two things happened, the first one caused the second one.
117
Hasty generalization
A generalization based on too little or unrepresentative data.
118
Non sequitur
A conclusion that does not follow from its premises; an invalid argument.
119
Slippery slope
The assumption that once started, a situation will continue to its most extreme outcome.
120
Inductive argument
An argument in which it is thought that the premises provide reasons supporting the probable truth of the conclusion.
121
Sound argument
An argument is said to be sound if it meets two conditions. First: the premises to the conclusion is valid; second: the premises are true.
122
Unstated premises
When a premise or conclusions are left unexpressed.
123
Valid argument
An argument is valid if the conclusions logically follows from the premises.
