AP Lang - AP Terms #1 (allegory-connotation) Flashcards
figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures, and events.
ex. “Animal Farm” and “1984” by George Orwell
allegory
stylistic device in which a number of words, having the same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.
ex. “but a better butter makes a batter better”
alliteration
a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.
ex. “don’t act like a Romeo in front of her”
allusion
word, phrase, or statement which contains more than one meaning; lead to vagueness and confusion, shape the basis for instances of unintentional humor.
ex. “John took off his trousers by the bank”
ambiguity
comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it.
ex. “life is like a race”
analogy
the word that the pronoun refers to or replaces.
ex. “Suzy bit her lip, who bit their lip? Suzy!”
antecedent
a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner; necessary for this statement to contain a truth revealed in a terse (short) manner, carries the message of a universal (sometimes stern) truth.
ex. “You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.”
aphorism
figure of speech referring to something or someone that is not physically present in the setting; speaking to/of something that cannot answer.
ex. “Oh! Stars and clouds and winds, ye are all about to mock me;”
apostrophe
refers to the feeling, emotion, or mood a writer conveys to a reader through the description of setting and objects.
atmosphere
the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition, typically consists of a subject and a predicate (predicate is typically a verb phrase).
clause
word or phrase that is used mostly in informal speech; local or regional dialect expression.
ex. “I didn’t want to go back no more. I had stopped cussing, because the widow didn’t like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn’t no objections…”
colloquial/colloquialism
figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors; develops a comparison which is exceedingly unlikely but is intellectually imaginative; a sophisticated, extended metaphor.
ex. “the broken heart is a damaged china pot”
conceit
a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly; words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.
connotation
