Literary Terms pt. 2

Question 1

Eulogy

Answer 1

A speech or piece of writing praising someone’s life. Typically read at a funeral.

Question 2

Euphemism

Answer 2

A word that replaces another that is deemed as offensive or harsh.

Question 3

Exclamation

Answer 3

A sudden turn from the audience. It does not refer to anything (like apostrophe does).

Question 4

Extended metaphor

Answer 4

Extends over multiple lines.

Question 5

Eye rhyme

Answer 5

Words similar in spelling but not in pronunciation.

Question 6

Feminine rhyme

Answer 6

Also called double rhyme. A rhyme involving two (or three) syllables.
“Motion, ocean.”
“Stocking, shocking.”
“Glamorous, amorous.”

Question 7

Grotesque

Answer 7

Comically ugly.

Question 8

Haiku

Answer 8

Japanese poem. 17 syllables, lines usually follow 3-7-5 pattern. Depicting imagery from nature.

Question 9

Homeric simile

Answer 9

Subcategory of simile. Used by Homer in Iliad. Often starts with “like a _ when it _”.

Question 10

Hyperbaton

Answer 10

Inversion of normal word order for emphasis. “This I must see.”

Question 11

Hyperbole

Answer 11

Exaggeration that shouldn’t be taken literally. “These shoes are killing me” or “This is taking forever”.

Question 12

Iamb

Answer 12

Metric foot. Unstressed-stressed.

Question 13

Idiom

Answer 13

A sentence which has a figurative meaning that has nothing to do with the literal one. “Over the moon.”

Question 14

Interpretive communities

Answer 14

Theory by Stanley Fish. The reader’s (and the author’s opinions) create the perception and meaning of the text.

Question 15

Irony

Answer 15

Communicating the opposite of what is said.

Question 16

Jargon

Answer 16

Words/expressions used in a certain branch of activities.

Question 17

Legend

Answer 17

A story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but not authenticated.

Question 18

Litotes

Answer 18

Understatement. A point is emphasized by stating a negative to further affirm a positive.
“She’s not a terrible wife.”

Question 19

Macrostructure

Answer 19

Analyzing the structure and putting it into a bigger context.

Question 20

Masculine rhyme

Answer 20

A rhyme involving one syllable. “Blow, flow”.

Question 21

Meiosis

Answer 21

Expressing that something is unimportant when it is actually important.

Question 22

Metaphor

Answer 22

A word is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them. “Love is a battlefield”. “Your cheeks are roses” is a metaphor, “your cheeks are LIKE roses” is a simile.

Question 23

Metonymy

Answer 23

Referring to a thing by calling it by something that is closely connected to it.
President of the USA - “The White House”
American film industry - “Hollywood”

Question 24

Microstructure

Answer 24

Analyzing specific parts of text (stylistic figures, figures of speech, tropes, schemes).

Question 25

Near rhyme

Answer 25

The vowels and consonants in the rhyme are approximately the same.

Question 26

Novel

Answer 26

A long work of fiction written in prose. It involves characters and actions.

Question 27

Novella

Answer 27

A short novel or a long short story.

Question 28

Ode

Answer 28

A poem dedicated to a person or personified entity.

Question 29

Olfactory imagery

Answer 29

Words used to describe a certain smell.

Question 30

Oxymoron

Answer 30

Contradictory terms appear in conjunction. “Falsely true” or “cruel kindness”.

Question 31

Paradox

Answer 31

Considered as the extended layer of oxymoron. It is contradictory, but could be true if investigated (it has a deeper meaning). “Less is more” or “the only constant is change”.

Question 32

Parallelism

Answer 32

Use of corresponding verbal phrases.

“She likes cooking, jogging and reading.”

Question 33

Paralipsis

Answer 33

An idea is deliberately suggested through a brief treatment of a subject, while most of the significant points are omitted.

Question 34

Paronomasia

Answer 34

A pun. Uses words with multiple meanings or those that sound alike but mean different things. “Horse lovers are stable people.”

Question 35

Pastoral

Answer 35

A poem about simple values and rural life. Features shepherds.

Question 36

Pattern poetry

Answer 36

Poetry in which the lines are arranged to connote a meaning (Zdravljica).

Question 37

Periphrasis

Answer 37

A word replaced by multiple words, but the meaning stays the same. “More intelligent” instead of “smarter”.

Question 38

Personification

Answer 38

Human characteristics given to something non-human.

Question 39

Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 39

The original type of sonnet. 14 lines divided into 8 and 6 lines. In the 1st part the problem is presented, in the 2nd it is resolved. Imported in England during the Renaissance.

Question 40

Pleonasm

Answer 40

Unnecessary repetition. “It’s deja vu all over again” or “hear with my own ears” or “free gift”.

Question 41

Poetic diction

Answer 41

Developed heavily by William Wordsworth. He defines poetic diction as the language of common men. It must be instinctive and spontaneous.

Question 42

Polyptoton

Answer 42

Repetition of a word derived from the same root, but in different cases or inflections. “Rest, restless” or “bed, bedridden”.

Question 43

Polysyndeton

Answer 43

It uses many conjunctions. Opposite of asyndeton.

Question 44

Purple prose

Answer 44

A text that uses excessive amount of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors.

Question 45

Quantitative verse

Answer 45

A metrical system where the number of syllables and accents doesn’t matter. What matters is the duration of syllables.