English Vocabulary Flashcards
relies more on emotional appeals than on facts.
Persuasion
a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.
Objective Point of View
The repetition of the same or similar consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of closely positioned words.
Alliteration
Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent
Anaphora
Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow.
Syntactic Permutation
a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet’s life.
Confessional Poetry
A line of poetry or verse that ends in a full pause usually indicated by a mark of punctuation.
End Stopped Line
A meter consisting of five metrical feet per line
Pentameter
story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities. Example: Animal Farm, Dante’s Inferno, and Lord of the Flies
Allegory
reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.)
Allusion
deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way– this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and detracts from the work.
Ambiguity
Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike
Analogy
Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual
Anecdote
Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story.
Antagonist
Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.
Antihero
a figure of speech in which human specific characteristics are attributed to animals other than humans.
Anthropomorphism
brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth.
Aphorism
calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation.
Apostrophe
A recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event found throughout myth and literature across different cultures and eras. In terms of structure, it merely serves as a model from which writers create different versions and copies.
Archetype
the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together.
Assonance
Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally
Asyndeton
The dominant feeling that is created by a particular setting.
Atmosphere
A German term for “novel of growth and development”. They generally depict a youth who struggles toward maturity, forming a worldview or philosophy of life and leaving behind the concerns of adolescence.
Bildungsroman
A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.
Cacophony
the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character.
Characterization
the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature.
Indirect Characterization
the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on
Direct Characterization
is one who does not change much in the course of a story.
Static Character
is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action.
Dynamic Character
has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.
Flat Character
has more dimensions to their personalities—they are complex, just as real people are.
Round Character
is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse.
Cliche
the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.
Conflict
conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society.
External Conflict
a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person’s mind.
Internal Conflict
the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.
Connotation
A more micro level variety of a language (specifically, often a spoken variety) that is characteristic of a particular area, community or group, often with relatively minor differences in vocabulary, style, spelling and pronunciation.
Dialect
a speaker or writer’s choice of words.
Diction
form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
Didactic
a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.
Colloquialism
in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters.
Comedy
a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.
Epigraph
an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality.
Epithet
a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject..
Essay
one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way.
Argumentation
form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way.
Argument
Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument.
Causal Relationship
a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion.
Description
one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or “set forth.”.
Exposition
the form of discourse that tells about a series of events..
Narrative
act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.
Explication
A great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.
Eulogy
Agreeableness of sound, pleasing effect to the ear, especially a pleasant sounding or harmonious combination or succession of words.
Euphony
A very short story told in prose or poetry that uses anthropomorphism and, or, personification to teach a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.
Fable
a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations.
Farce
Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe.
Figurative Language
a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.
Flashback
A character who acts as contrast to another character.
Foil
the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot.
Foreshadowing
A negative term that implies both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one’s abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall.
Hubris
a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect.
Hyperbole
the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience.
Imagery
a discrepancy between appearances and reality.
Irony
occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.
Verbal Irony
takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen
Situational Irony
is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better.
Dramatic Irony
is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form
Litotes
a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape.
Local Color
a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.
Metaphor
does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison
Implied Metaphor
is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it.
Extended Metaphor
is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid
Dead Metaphor
is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible.
Mixed Metaphor
