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English terms Flashcards

1
Q

Alliteration

A

the repetition of initial constant sounds

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2
Q

Allusion

A

A reference within a work to something else, usually history or another artistic work.

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3
Q

Antagonist

A

A force or character who struggles against the protagonist.

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4
Q

Antithesis

A

parallelism in two adjacent phrases or clauses to emphasize their contrasting meanings

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5
Q

Apostrophe

A

A speaker or writer’s directly addressing an absent person, abstraction, or inanimate object.

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6
Q

Archetype

A

Character types, plot patterns, or images that recur throughout world literature.

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7
Q

Aside

A

A stage device in which a character briefly discloses his thoughts in the presence of other characters who by convention do not hear him.

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8
Q

Assonance

A

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a series of words.

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9
Q

Atmosphere

A

The mood or emotion that the reader is supposed to share with the characters.

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10
Q

Ballad

A

A narrative poem often derived from folk- lore and originally intended to be sung or recited.

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11
Q

Beast fable

A

animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives.

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12
Q

Blank verse

A

Unrhymediambicpentameter.

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13
Q

Cacophony

A

The use of words that are harsh or dis- sonant in sound.

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14
Q

Caesura

A

A pause in the middle of a line of poetry, usually indicated by a mark of punctuation.

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15
Q

Chiasmus

A

Two parallel phrases, clauses, or sen- tences in which the second reverses the elements of the first, inverting the parallel structure.

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16
Q

Climax

A

The point at which the plot reaches the moment of highest emotional intensity

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17
Q

Closet drama

A

A play written to be read and not performed.

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18
Q

Comedy

A

Drama that focuses on light-hearted mat- ters such as courtship and love and that may also be satirical.

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19
Q

Comic relief

A

Comic elements inserted into serious drama to relieve dramatic tension

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20
Q

Conceit

A

a type of comparison that draws a striking parallel between two seemingly dissimilar things.

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21
Q

Concrete language

A

Words that appeal to one or more of the five senses.

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22
Q

Conflict

A

The opposition of two or more charac- ters or forces;

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23
Q

Connotative language

A

The meaning of a word plus all of its implications and emotional associations.

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24
Q

Consonance

A

The repetition of terminal consonant sounds (

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25
Couplets
. A pair of rhymed lines
26
Denouement
The final outcome of a story and the last element of the plot
27
Dynamic character
A changing or developing character
28
Drama*
Literature written to be acted
29
Dramatic irony *
A type of irony in which the reader is aware of a plot development of which the characters of the story are unaware.
30
End rhyme
Rhyme that occurs at the ends of cor- responding lines of poetry.
31
English sonnet
Poetry whose thought is usually distributed over three quatrains
32
Enjambment
A poetic device in which lines flow past the end of one verse line and into the next with no punctuation at the end of the first verse line.
33
Epic
A long stylized narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a great national or ethnic hero of legend.
34
Epilogue
In drama, a short speech occurring at the end of the play in which an actor directly addresses the au- dience, often to summarize or comment on the play’s theme.
35
Euphony
The use of words whose sounds are pleas- ant and musical to the ear.
36
Eye rhyme
Word pairs that are spelled alike but pronounced differently
37
Fable
A brief fanciful story that embodies a par- ticular moral.
38
Fairy tale
A folktale set in an indefinite time and place and containing an element of the fantastic or magical.
39
Figurative language
An artful deviation from literal speech.
40
Flat character
A character with little individuality whose mindset the reader knows little about.
41
Free verse
Poetry with no set meter or rhyme
42
Foil
A character used to emphasize an- other character’s opposing traits within a work.
43
Folktale
A short tale passed along by word of mouth throughout a given culture.
44
Genre*
A type or category of literature.
45
Heroic couplet
A pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter
46
Hyperbole
A type of obvious overstatement used by writers to make a point
47
Imagery
Descriptive words or phrases that ap- peal to sense perceptions in order to create an impression.
48
Imagery
Rhyme that occurs between words within a single line of poetry.
49
Internal rhyme
Rhyme that occurs between words within a single line of poetry.
50
Italian sonnet
Poetry whose first eight lines form a distinct unit of thought and whose last six lines form another
51
Lyric poem
A brief poem expressing the personal views of a single speaker on a particular topic.
52
Metonomy
An expression in which a related thing stands for the thing itself.
53
Meter*
The regular pattern of stressed and un- stressed syllables.
54
Myth
folktale that explains a specific aspect of life or the natural world, usually in terms of su- pernatural forces or beings, and that was at one time held to be true within a certain cultural group.
55
Oxymoron
Brief phrases that combine contradic- tory elements for effect
56
Persona
The person created by the author to tell the story, affecting the way a story is told.
57
Personification
Giving human characteristics to something that is not human.
58
Plot*
A series of events arranged to produce a defi- nite sense of movement toward a specific goal.
59
Prologue
An introduction to a literary work. In drama, a short speech at the beginning of the play in which an actor directly addresses the audience, often to introduce the setting, themes, or characters.
60
Protagonist
The main character of a story.
61
Pun
A type of wordplay in which the author com- bines two word meanings within a sentence.
62
Quatrains
A stanza or poem of four lines.
63
Repartee
Besting another’s remark or turning it to one’s own advantage in a contest of wits.
64
Rhetoric
The art of public speaking.
65
Rhymed verse
Verse having end rhyme and regu- lar meter.
66
Round character
The events that follow the inciting | incident and lead up to the crisis in a story.
67
Sarcasm
A type of irony that takes the form of | mock praise.
68
Satire
Corrective ridicule of some object of scorn usually outside of the literature itself.
69
Sesets
A stanza of six lines.
70
Situational irony*
A type of irony in which a story’s | events violate normal expectations.
71
Slant rhyme
Rhyme between two words with sim- ilar but slightly mismatched sounds
72
Soliloquy
In drama, a form of speech in which a character who believes himself to be alone dis- closes his innermost thoughts.
73
Stanzas
Divisions of a poem based on thought, meter, or rhyme and usually recognized by the number of lines they contain.
74
Static character
A character who remains essen- tially the same throughout the story.
75
Structural irony *
Sustained verbal irony that gen- erates two layers of meaning, one literal and one implied, throughout the entire work.
76
Symbol*
A person, place, thing, or idea within a narrative or poem that means something in ad- dition to itself.
77
Synecdoche
Using a part of something to stand for the whole.
78
Tone
The attitude of an author toward his or her subject.
79
Tragedy
A literary work in which the flaws of the protagonist cause him tremendous suffering, eventually resulting in a catastrophe, or disas- trous conclusion.
80
Triplets
A stanza of three lines that usually share the same rhyme
81
Theme
A recurring or emerging idea in a work of literature.
82
Understatement
The representation of something as less important than it truly is.
83
Verbal irony*
Irony occurring when a speaker’s meaning differs from what he or she expresses in words.
84
Wit
A brief verbal expression that amuses listeners through a clever but unexpected turn of phrase or connection between ideas.

final english (8 decks)

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