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English > IB English Glossary > Flashcards

IB English Glossary Flashcards

1
Q

Alienation

A

Suggests that under Capitalism we live estranged from our true human nature

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2
Q

Allegory

A

A story of some complexity that corresponds to another situation on a deeper level

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3
Q

Alliteration

A

Repetition of an identical consonant sound at the beginning of stressed words, usually close together

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4
Q

Allusion

A

A reference to an event, person, place, work of literature, etc. that gives additional layers of meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference

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5
Q

Ambivalence

A

Where the writer’s attitude to, for example, a character or event is not clear-cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses

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6
Q

Antithesis

A

Contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning an idea

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7
Q

Apostrophe

A

An exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in the flow to address a dead or absent person, a particular audience, or object

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8
Q

Assonance

A

Repetition of similar vowel sounds close to one another

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9
Q

Atmosphere

A

Refers specifically to PLACE, a SETTING, or SURROUNDINGS

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10
Q

Bathos

A

A sudden descent from the sublime or serious, to the ridiculous or trivial

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11
Q

Bildungsroman

A

German term for a novel focusing on the development of a character from youth to maturity

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12
Q

Blank Verse

A

Unrhymed poetry not broken into stanzas, keeping a strict pattern in each line, usually in iambic pentameter

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13
Q

Caesura

A

A break or pause WITHIN A LINE of poetry by comma or full stop or unmarked pause, used for emphasis, or to change direction or pace

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14
Q

Caricature

A

An exaggerated representation of a character by emphasizing a small number of features, usually for comic and satiric purposes

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15
Q

Colloquial

A

Everyday speech (ain’t) and language as opposed to literary or formal register

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16
Q

Conceit

A

A witty thought or idea or image, a fanciful or deliberately far-fetched comparison (16th and 17th century English poetry)

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17
Q

Concrete

A

(As in concrete detail) Refers to objects or aspects that may be perceived by the senses

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18
Q

Connotation

A

An association that a word may suggest

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19
Q

Consonance

A

Where the final consonants are the same in two or more words close together

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20
Q

Contradiction

A

Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested

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21
Q

Couplet (rhyming couplet)

A

Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse

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22
Q

Defamiliarization

A

The technique of making the familiar seem new and strange

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23
Q

Denouement

A

How the plot is unraveled or revealed

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24
Q

Diction

A

The writer’s choice of words or vocabulary

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25
Q

Didactic

A

Describes the tone or intention to preach a (usually) moral, political, or religious point

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26
Q

Dramatic Irony

A

Where a character is unaware of something that the audience/reader and possibly the other characters on state are aware of

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27
Q

Elegy

A

Describes a meditative mood in prose or verse, reflecting on the past

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28
Q

End-stopped line (opposite of enjambment)

A

A line of poetry where the meaning pauses or stops at the end of a line

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29
Q

Enjambment (opposite of end-stopped line)

A

The meaning flows over from one line to another; can reflect a build-up of emotion or create a dramatic effect

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30
Q

Epigram

A

A concise, pointed, witty statement

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31
Q

Form

A

The shape of a work, the arrangement of its parts, he patterns, divisions, and structures used

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32
Q

Free Verse

A

Verse written without any fixed or traditional structure in meter or rhyme (early 20th century)

33
Q

Genre

A

A specific type or kind of literature, such as drama, prose, poetry, essay, autobiography

34
Q

Grain

A

(“Reading against the grain”); Resisting and questioning values and assumptions in that text

35
Q

Hyperbole

A

A deliberate exaggeration for various effects, comic, tragic, etc.

36
Q

Iambic

A

A metrical measure, or foot, in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable

37
Q

Idyll/Idyllic

A

Refers to innocent simple life in idealized rural setting

38
Q

Imagery

A

Concrete descriptions (images) we can see and sense in works of literature

39
Q

Interior Monologue

A

The character is thinking to him/herself in language, in words, conscious of what he/she is thinking

40
Q

Internal Rhyme

A

Where there are rhymes within a line instead of, or as well as, at the end of lines

41
Q

Irony

A

A gap or mismatch between what is being said, and what is intended

42
Q

Lyric

A

A songlike poem expressing personal feeling

43
Q

Metaphor

A

A comparison of two things without using a comparing word such as “like” or “as”

44
Q

Meter

A

The organization of lines of verse into regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to achieve a RHYTHMIC EFFECT

45
Q

Mimesis

A

The use of words that suggest movement, shape, size, texture

46
Q

Mood

A

Describes a person’s (a character or the narrator’s) frame of mind or state of feeling

47
Q

Monologue

A

Speech, usually of some length, by a single speaker

48
Q

Motif

A

Recurrent elements (images, ideas) in a work

49
Q

Omniscient Narrator

A

It literally means ‘all-knowing’

50
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

The effect of words that imitate the sound of things (‘hiss,’ ‘crash.’)

51
Q

Oxymoron

A

Where two words of opposite meaning are joined - “an open secret”

52
Q

Paradox

A

Seemingly contradictory statement, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains it’s own resolution or truth (“Nature’s first green is gold:”)

53
Q

Parody

A

Usually comic imitation of another work

54
Q

Pastiche

A

A literary work composed in the style of a well-known author

55
Q

Persona

A

The identity or character assumed by the author in a work of literature

56
Q

Personification

A

Where human feelings or sensations are attributed to an inanimate object

57
Q

Plot

A

Refers to the events of a narrative in the order the author has chosen to present them

58
Q

Point of View

A

It is the angle from which the narrative is seen or told

59
Q

Protagonist

A

Main character in a work

60
Q

Quatrain

A

Stanza or group of four lines that can have different rhyme schemes

61
Q

Refrain

A

Repitition in a work of literature of a phrase or lines

62
Q

Rhythm

A

The flow of sound created by stressed and unstressed syllables

63
Q

Satire

A

Exposing and ridiculing of human follies in a society, sometimes with the aim to reform, sometimes predominantly to deflate

64
Q

Setting

A

Context in which a work of literature takes place

65
Q

Simile

A

Where a comparison is made explicit with ‘as’ or ‘like’

66
Q

Skaz

A

A technique of narration that mirrors oral narration with its hesitations, corrections, grammatical mistakes, interactions, etc.

67
Q

Soliloquy

A

A speech by a character alone on stage, thinking aloud, revealing thoughts and emotions, or communicating directly with the audience

68
Q

Sonnet

A

A fourteen-line rhyming poem often in iambic pentameter

69
Q

Stanza

A

The blocks of lines into which a poem is organized

70
Q

Story

A

The events of a narrative in the chronological order in which they actually happened (think time line)

71
Q

Stream of consciousness

A

The impression of a random stream of thoughts; this is the representation of a random succession of thoughts and sensations in a character’s mind, especially when alone

72
Q

Style

A

The distinctive traits in an author’s work, the ‘how’ of writing. It concerns theme, diction, sentence construction, imagery, sound, etc.

73
Q

Subtext

A

Ideas, feelings, thoughts, not dealt with directly in the text but existing underneath

74
Q

Symbol

A

Objects that represent or evoke an idea or concept of wider, abstract significance (as roses represent love)

75
Q

Syntax

A

The grammatical structure of words in a sentence

76
Q

Theme

A

Central ideas or issues, often abstract explored or illustrated ina text

77
Q

Tone

A

Conveys the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject

78
Q

Trochee/trochaic

A

May be used as a contrast within an iambic line, to stress an idea

English (12 decks)

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