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.
Denotation
The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to a connotation.
Didactic
Explicitly instructive. A didactic poem or novel may be good or bad.
Ex: Pope’s “Essay on Man”
Digression
The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work. The interpolated narrations in the novels of Cervantes or Fielding may called digressions, and Tristram Shandy includes a digression and digressions.
Epigram
A pithy saying, often using contrast the epigram is also a verse form, usually brief and pointed.
Euphemism
A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as “deceased” for “dead.”
Grotesque
Characterized by distortions or incongruities. The fiction of Poe is grotesque.
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration, over-statement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally.
Jargon
The special language of a profession or group.
Literal
Not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete
Lyrical
Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination.
Oxymoron
A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.
Parable
A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. (Allegorical stories)
Paradox
A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.
Parody
A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect.
Personification
A figurative use of language that endows the nonhumans with human characteristics.
Reliability
A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust.
Rhetorical Question
A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply.
Soliloquy
A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud.
Stereotype
A conventional patten, expression, character, or idea.
Syllogism
A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them.
Thesis
The theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support.
Alliteration
The repetition of identical or similar sounds, normally at the beginning of words.
Assonance
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
Ballad Meter
A four lined stanza rhymed by “ABCB” with four feet in lines one and three and three feet in lines two and four.
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Dactyl
A metric foot of three syllables, an accent syllable followed by two unaffected syllables
End-Stopped
A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark.
Free Verse
Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is rhythmical.
Heroic Couplet
Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed AA, BB, CC with the thought usually completed in the two line unit.
Hexameter
A line containing six feet
Iamb
A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.
Internal Rhyme
Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.
onomatopoeia
The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning.
Pentameter
A line containing five feet. The iambic pentameter is the most common line in English verse written before 1950.
Rhyme Royal
A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ABABBCC, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.
Sonnet
Normally a fourteen line iambic pentameter poem. Italian Sonnet Rhymed ABBA ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
Shakespearian Sonnet Rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Stanza
Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme
Terms rims
A three lines stanza rhymed ABA BCB CDC
Ex: Dante’s Inferno
Tetrameter
A line of four feet
Antecedent
That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.
Clause
A group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence.
Ellipsis
The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable.
Imperative
The mood of a verb that gives an order. “Eat your vegetables”
Modify
To restrict or limit its meaning. In the phrase “large, shaggy dog,” the two adjectives modify the noun. In the phrase “very shaggy dog” the adverb “very” modifies the adjective “shaggy” which modifies the noun “dog”
Parallel Structure
A similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph.
Periodic Sentence
A sentence grammatically complete only at the end. A loose sentence is grammatically complete before the period. The following are (1) periodic, and (2) loose.
1) When conquering love did first my heart assail, / Unto mine aid I summoned every sense
2) Fair is my love, and cruel as she’s fair.
