AP English Vocabulary Flashcards
Attitude
A speaker’s, author’s, or character’s disposition toward or opinion of a subject.
Details
Choice of Details
Details are items or parts that make up a larger picture or story.
Devices of Sound
The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry.
Diction
Word choice.
Figurative Language
Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as a metaphor, simile, or irony.
Imagery
The images of a literal work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work.
Irony
A figure of speech I which intent and actual meaning diff e characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statements of its own obvious meaning.
Metaphor
A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of comparative terms like, “like, as, or than”
Narrative technique
The methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts.
Omniscient Point of View
The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he or she chooses.
Point of View
Any of several possible vantage points for. Which a story is told.
Resource language
A general phrase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer can use.
Allusion
A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well known historical or literal event.
Rhetorical Techniques
The devices used in effective or persuasive language.
Satire
Writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by ridicule.
Setting
The background to a story;the physical location of a play, story, or novel.
Simile
A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with “like, as, or than.”
Epistle
A letter
Strategy
Rhetorical Strategy
The management of language for a specific effect
Structure
The arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work.
Style
The mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author. Many elements contribute to style: diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, and tone.
Symbol
Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.
Syntax
The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence.
Theme
The main thought expressed by a work.
Tone
The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude; intonation of the voice that expresses meaning.
Allegory
A story in which people, things, and events have another meaning.
Ex: Orwell’s “Animal Farm”
Ambiguity
Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible
Apostrophe
Directly address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keats’s “Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast” is an apostrophe to a star, and “To Autumn” is an apostrophe to a personified season.
Connotation
The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning (de notation).
Convention
A device or style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression.
