A.P. English: Literary Terms

By: Katrina Karaboghosian, Lena Nalbandian, and Aneesa Yousefi

Part 1:Modes of Discourse

0 Narration- the act of telling a story in a sequence of events

Ex.- Robinson Crusoe is a narration told by the character Robinson about his experiences.0 Exposition- background information that forms a

setting, introduces the character, and presents the basic situation.

Ex.- Bob, a hungry little orphan, was looking for food on the streets of Brooklyn.

Modes of Discourse

0 Argument- to determine something that is true or false by reasoning to make something convincing.

Ex.- In Inherit the Wind, characters like Cates and Drummond argue to get their point about evolution across.0 Definition- the meaning of a word using details

depicting a person, place, or thingEx.- The definition of slogan is a word or phrase used to promote an idea or person.

Syntax

0 The arrangement of words and phrases to create a well formed sentence

Incorrect: To your house we are going.Correct: We are going to your house.0 Examples of syntax include parallelism and anaphora.

Syntax

0 Parallelism- clauses, phrases, or words that are alike in structure

0 Parallelism takes place when two similar phrases are joined to make one sentence.

Ex.- Aneesa studies Math. Aneesa studies English.Parallelism- Aneesa studies Math and English.0 Anaphora- the repetition of the same words or group of

words at the beginning of several following sentences.Ex.- We will eat cheese. We will eat crackers. We will eat bagels.

Other Rhetorical Strategies

0 Didactic/Didactical- writing whose purpose is intended to teach or instruct

Ex.- Martha’s letter to her daughter explained how she should learn to never give up on her dreams no matter what.

Other Rhetorical Strategies

Irony- a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens1. Verbal irony- when someone says one thing but

actually means another. (usually associated with sarcasm)

Ex.- “You didn’t do that bad on your test, Johnny.” (and Johnny sees its a D)

Other Rhetorical Strategies

2. Dramatic irony- describes a situation in which the audience or reader of a play knows more about the character’s situation than he or she does.Ex.- In horror movies, we know that the character is about to be brutally murdered, but he/she does not. Instead, he/she opens the closet door and dies.

Other Rhetorical Strategies

3. Situational irony- occurs when a character or the reader expects one thing to happen, but something entirely different occursEx.- The reader thought that the princess was going to live happily ever after with her prince, but then she faced the tragedy of death by poison from the step-mother.

Epistrophe0 Words or phrases repeated at the end of various clauses.0 Examples:1. "Then I'll be all aroun' in the dark. I'll be ever'where--wherever you look.

Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. . . . . An' when our folk eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build--why, I'll be there." (Tom Joad in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, 1939)

2. "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!"

Alliteration

0 Turn of expression0 Examples1. Alice’s aunt ate apples and acorns around August2.Becky’s beagle barked and bayed, becoming

bothersome for Billy.

Antithesis

0 Exact opposite0 Examples1. "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing”2."Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody

doesn't like Sara Lee."

Assonance

0 Repetition of vowels in a clause.0 Examples1."If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . .

fleeced."

2. "It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!"

Asyndeton

0 lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

0 Examples: 1. We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any

hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. J. F. Kennedy, Inaugural

2. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Polysyndeton

0 the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses.

0 Examples: 1. We have ships and men and money and stores...

2.He ran and jumped and laughed for joy.

Vocabulary

0 Style/Stylistic Choices: The choices made by the author that ornament his/her speech or writing. It can also be referred to as the writer’s “voice”.

0 Point of View: A mental position from which things are viewed.

0 Example (1): Teaching History gave him a special point of view in current events.

0 Example (2): *third person omniscient*- As the man saw her start up the hill, he moved

quickly into the shelter of the huge old maple tree. If she saw him now, everything would be ruined.

Vocabulary

0 Mood: a distinctive emotional quality or character0 Example (1): The mood of the music was almost

suitable for a funeral. 0 Example (2): Mood is the feeling that a work of

literature evokes. Ex: sadness, joy, anger etc.

Vocabulary

0 Style/Stylistic Choices0 Tone: a particular quality, way of sounding,

modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.

0 Example (1): A Tone of Command in Literature. 0 Example (2): "All morons hate it when you call them a

moron.“ – from Catcher in the Rye.

Vocabulary

0 Personification: is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects are given human traits and characteristics to make them seem real.

0 Examples: The earth felt the wound. 0 The flowers speak to the people.

Vocabulary

• A rhetorical question is a question that is asked with no answer expected. Instead, it is just asked for effect only.

Examples: Are you gay? Are you kidding me?

Vocabulary

0 Synecdoche: A part of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole, or vice versa.

0 Examples of Synecdoche incudes,0 “A thousand eyes were upon me” and0 “I gazed upon a thousand stars”

Vocabulary

0 Chiasmus: a figure of speech in which two types of clauses are reversed in order to amplify the meaning of the term.

0 Example: While failing to prepare, your preparing to fail.

0 Man kind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to man kind.

Vocabulary

0 Isocolon: a figure of speech in which parallelism is used by members of same length

0 Example: No ifs, ands, or buts.0 Example: Many will enter, few will win

Vocabulary

0 A Transition is the when two pieces of writing are connected in order to make a point. Transitions are also used to put sentences and phrases together.

0 Example: Transitional words: Last, First, Second, next.

Vocabulary0 Repetition: is a word, phrase, or clause that is used more than once

in a short passage to prove a point and to make it more memorable.Examples:

I'm nobody! Who are You?

I'm nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody too?Then there's a pair of us-don't tell!They'd banish us you know.

How dreary to be somebody!how public, like a frog.To tell your name livelong dayTo an admiring bog!

Vocabulary

Examples:

I am hungry because I did not eat. I am hungry because I am very tired. I am hungry because I don't like a lot of food. I am hungry because I sleepy. I am hungry because I am very lazy to get up and eat. I am hungry because I have a lot of homework. I am hungry because I just went to work out. I am hungry because I just went swimming. I am hungry because no one will feed me. I am hungry because I am grounded and can't eat.

Vocabulary

• Slang is a casual language used by author’s to make the reader fell closer to them to add humor and other effects.

Examples: “Oh my gosh!” “I ain't doin that!”

Vocabulary

• Zeugma is the use of a word to modify two or more words.

• It can be grammatically or logically correct with only one.

Examples:“She was upstairs, and her children downstairs.”"Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave."

Metonymy

0 A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is attributed

0 Ex. “scepter” for “sovereignty”0 Ex. “count heads” for “count people”

Simile

0 A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared using like or as.

0 “she is like a rose.”0 “He is slow as a turtle.”

Oxymoron

0 A figure of speech that is a self contradictory phrase.0 Ex. “jumbo shrimp”0 Ex. “ The small child was found missing yesterday.”

Paradox

0 An opinion of statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion

0 Ex. “Don’t go near the water until you’ve learned to swim.”

0 Ex. “War is Peace.”

The loose Sentence

0 A long sentence that has a main idea in the beginning followed by supporting information.

0 Ex. “He went into town to buy groceries, to visit his friends, and to go to the bookstore.”

0 Ex. “I would love to buy the top, if they had my size, it was blue, and it wasn’t hand wash.

The Periodic Sentence

0 A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word – usually with an emphatic climax.

0 A sentence that, by leaving the completion of its main clause to the end, produces an effect of suspense

0 Ex: “Unable to join the others at the dance because of my sprained ankle, I went to a movie.”

0 Ex: “Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved –to write a book.”

Balanced Sentence

0 A sentence consisting of two or more clauses that are parallel in structure

0 Ex: “Control it before it controls you”0 Ex: “White chickens lay white eggs, and brown

chickens lay brown eggs; so if white cows give white milk, do brown cows give chocolate milk?”

Running Style

0 A sentence that keeps on going , only ending when there is nothing else to say

0 Ex: “And then Uncle Richard took us to the Dairy Queen and we had ice cream and I had a strawberry and the bottom of my cone fell off and there was ice cream all over the floor and Mandy laughed and then she threw up and Uncle Richard took us home and didn’t say anything.”

Jargon0 Language used by people of

a certain profession, age group, or region that only those people understand

0 Ex. 1: Did you hook up with him?

0 Ex. 2: Get me his vitals

It involves your senses (touch, smell, sound, taste, vision) and is a clear and creative description used in literatureEx. 1: He fell down like an old tree falling down in a stormEx. 2: The taste of that first defeat was bitter.

Imagery

Onomatopoeia

0 Sounds made by different objects put into wordsEx. 1: KABOOM! (explosion)Ex. 2: SWISH! (basketball)

Colloquial

The use of informal language/slang spoken at the time by a group of peopleEx. 1: in Huckleberry Finn, they use language spoken by slaves at the timeEx. 2: in to kill a mockingbird, the southerners use western language spoken by people of that region

Euphemism

0Using an inoffensive term instead of an offensive one that may be rude and harshEx. 1: passed away- diedEx. 2: You’ve got a prime figure-being fat

Invective

Using abusive language towards someoneEx. 1: how hamlet blames Gertrude for marrying Claudius, the killer of King Hamlet. He verbally abuses herEx. 2: Robinson constantly verbally and mentally abusing himself over being trapped on the island

Extended Metaphor

0 Two differing ideas that compare without using like or as that can be found in a paragraph or poems.

Example 1

"Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune--without the words,And never stops at all,

"And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.

"I've heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me."(Emily Dickinson)

Example 2

Will Ferrell's Extended Metaphor: The University of Life"I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?"(Will Ferrell, Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2003)

Hyperbole

0 An exaggeration that is used to emphasize or a effect and put a picture into the “readers” mind

• It was not a mere man he was holding, but a giant; or a block of granite. The pull was unendurable. The pain unendurable.

• The skin on her face was as thin and drawn as tight as the skin of onion and her eyes were gray and sharp like the points of two picks

Examples

Understatement

0A type of speech when the writer makes a situation a lot weaker than expected

Examples

"We've had a little rain," when the neighborhood is flooded. "It's just a scratch," when there is a huge dent.

Litotes

0A figure of speech that consists of an understatement.

Examples

She is not the friendliest person I know

“ non unattractive”

Figure of Speech

0 The use of a word or words diverging fro its usual meaning.

0 Oxymoron0 Paradox

Examples

Figurative Language

0 A description of one idea described by another idea.

0 Simile0 Metaphors

Examples

Metaphor0 A comparison of two

unlike things without using like or as.

0 Life is a waterfall0 Love is a battlefield

Examples

Concession & Deduction

0 Concession- an argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponent’s point.

0 Deduction- a conclusion reached by reasoning from general to the specific

Explaining

0 Concession is a scheme used by the author to agree by pointing out the flaw in it to attack it later.

0 Deduction is a conclusion gathered by an assumption.

For Example: Concession

0 When someone says “ I like Pinkberry, but Menchies is better”

0 Concession shows the writer to be both a logical thinker and a concerned, fair-minded person who realizes that every argument has two sides

For Example: Deduction

0 For example:0 All organisms have RNA.

(This fruit fly is an organism.)Therefore, this fruit fly has RNA.

Diction

0 Your personal way of talking or writing.0 "We throw in as many fresh words as we can get away

with.“ –Dr. Seuss wrote in a kid friendly rhyme.

Denotation and Connotation

0Denotation- the actual definition of a word in contrast with the idea of the word.

0Connotation-The feelings and ideas associated with a word.

0The denotation of this example is a red rose with a green stem. The connotation is that it is a symbol of passion and love - this is what the rose represents.

Rhetorical Strategies

0The traditional forms of composition in speech and writing: exposition, narration, persuasion, and description.

0Examples of rhetorical strategies are: 0 Analogy, Allegory, Allusion, Apostrophe,

Comparison, Concession, Deduction, Induction, Syllogism, Didactic/Didactical, Irony, Parody, Satire, Symbol.

Allegory

0Definition: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

0Examples: 0 Canterbury Tales was an allegory

Apostrophe

0The Apostrophe Literary Term is a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and was able to reply.

Comparison

0Definition: A strategy where the writer mentions the differences and the similarities between two topics.

0Examples: 0 The duck and swan both are aquatic animals.

They have feathers, and webbed feet, but they live in different parts of the world.

Induction

Definition: Induction is a strategy that reaches its conclusion by using particular, compelling evidence or facts. However, the conclusion can be false.

Examples: 1) This cat is black. That cat is black. A third cat is black. Therefore all cats are black

2) This marble from the bag is blue. That marble from the bag is blue. A third marble from the bag is blue. Therefore all the marbles in the bag are blue.

Syllogism

Definition: Syllogism is an argument for a conclusion that is supported by two premises, major and minor premises. Premise means evidence.

Examples: 1) All mammals are warm blooded. All black dogs are mammals. Therefore all black dogs are warm blooded.

2) All books from the store are new. These books are from that store. Therefore, these books are new.

Analogy

0 Comparing two things based on a similarity. 0 An example of an analogy can be:0 1. "MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken.”0 2. “Carbohydrates are to pasta as protein is to

peanuts.”

Parody0 A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic

style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.0 For example, a parody of a song may include jokes mocking

that song in the same lyrical format and same melody.0 1. There are many parodies of the song “Friday” which

include people insulting the singer to make a point about the stupidity of the song.

0 2. The parody of Lord of the Rings called “Bored of the Rings” by H. Beard criticizes the characters of the story and shows their stupidity.

Satire0 Satire is the use of irony or wit

in a literary work or even performance that attacks human vice, foolishness, or stupidity.

0 Satire is more of a lesson to be learned, while a parody is more of a joke.

0 1. The story of Canterbury Tales uses satire to criticize the church in that the clergy in the story were corrupt.

0 2. The picture shows the death penalty as a way of discouraging people to do wrong.

Symbol

0 A person, place, action, or thing that represents something other than its actual self.

0 1. A rose is a symbol of love in that it is red and a rose is used by lovers in showing each other the love they share.

0 2. Flies are a symbol of the devil or evil in that they swarm around and cultivate so one cannot escape. This shows evil as something difficult to escape from but also addicting.