vocabulary list - part 4 ib english lang and lit sl

8/19/2019 Vocabulary list - Part 4 IB english lang and lit SL

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Running head: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE LIST OF LITERAY TERMS– PART 4

VOCABULARY

Glossary (1 – 10) is list in alphabetical order with questions to help you write about

author’s choices and their effects. Syntactic Structures (10-11) are listed towards the

end.

Instructions: Find examples or add notes for each of these terms from Macbeth and/or

Death of a Salesman. Use this list and your notes to prepare for your IOC.

ALLUSION: A reference to another common text (usually towards a very common

piece of literature like the Bible—a story where a jealous brother kills his other

brother alludes to the Bible story about Cain and Abel). Gives an additional layer of

meaning to a text or enlarges its frame of reference.

ANTAGONIST: character(s) in opposition of protagonist (if evil = villain).

ANTICLIMAX: Deliberate drop from the serious and elevated sense of catharsis to

the trivial and lowly in order to achieve an intended comic or satiric effect (sometimes

referred to as bathos).

"He has seen the ravages of war, he has known natural catastrophes, he has been to

singles bars." (Woody Allen, "My Speech to the Graduates")

APOSTROPHE: An exclamatory passage where the speaker or writer breaks off in

the flow of a narrative or poem to address a dead or absent person, a particular

audience, or object (often personified). Gaev in Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard addresses

a bookcase at length, symbol of his past and the family home. Or Shakespeare’s

Richard III “O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!”(5. 3. 198). Or is a

figure of speech in which animate or inanimate objects are addressed in the second

person (thou, you) as though present. e.g. Rise you rugged rocks and do battle in my

cause / The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

ASIDE: Stage device in which a character expresses thoughts directly to the audience

by breaking the fourth wall and is inaudible to the other characters on stage

ATMOSPHERE: The mood, feeling, or quality of life in a story as conveyed by the

author's choice of language and organization in describing the setting in which the

speech and activity of the characters takes place. The atmosphere in which an author

makes characters appear and events occur is often important in determining the toneof the particular work.


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LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE LIST OF LITERAY TERMS – PART 4

BATHOS: The effect resulting from an unsuccessful effort to achieve dignity or

pathos or elevation of style; an unintentional anti—climax, dropping from the sublime

to the ridiculous. If a novel or play tries to make a reader or spectator weep and

succeeds only in making him or her laugh, then the result is bathos.

CACOPHONY: Harsh sounds.

CATHARSIS: typically a dramatic term: the audience’s emotion evoked by the

performance (tragedy arouses the emotion of pity—because a tragic hero’s misfortune

is greater than he deserves—and fear—because we recognize similar possibilities in

ourselves—the audience).

CHARACTER: “persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who areinterpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional

qualities expressed in what they say and do (dialogue and action)”

(See Dynamic, Static, Flat, Round, stock/ stereotype).

Does the character grow or deteriorate? Why or why not? How complex is the

character? How important are the minor characters? Are the character’s words and

actions consistent? Is the character intelligent? Likeable? Insightful? Responsible?

Happy? Believable? How do you know?

CIRCUMLOCUTION: Use of too many words to express an idea with the effect of

evasion in speech (excessive language, surplus words to direct attention away from

the crux of the message or create a grander, yet highly ineffective, effect).

CLIMAX: (Aristotle’s term crisis) turning point, moment of greatest tension that fixes

the outcome

COLLOQUIALISM: Specific jargon/phrases for the time (snap!) typically informal,

but the deliberate use of which can be quite striking.

• CONFLICT: struggle between opposing forces, usually resolved by the end of

the story (between individuals, protagonist against fate, against the

circumstances standing between protagonist and goal, or between opposing

desires or values in the protagonist’s own temperament)

• external/internal

• protagonist vs.

o nature, society, another, or self


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CONNOTATION (ANT. DENOTATION): The associated/emotional meaning of a

word (“home” has a warmer feel than “house”) Very useful when discussing diction.

CONTRAST: The dissimilarity between two or more subjects/objects being

compared.

COUPLET: Two consecutive rhyming lines of verse typically clinching or

emphasising an idea. (In Shakespeare, it often denotes the end of a scene.)

DENOTATION (ANT. CONNOTATION): The dictionary meaning of a word

(“house” = n. A building in which one resides)

DICTION: The writer’s choice of words or vocabulary.

DIRECT (ANT. INDIRECT): author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe

and often evaluate the motives and dispositional qualities of character

How does the author characterize or reveal the characters? What do the author’s

description and POV contribute to your understanding of them?

DYNAMIC (ANT. STATIC): “undergo a radical change, either through a gradual

process of motivation and development or the result of a crisis”

To what extent does your response to the characters change? If it does, identify

where and why the change occurs?

EMPHASIZE: Words/phrases/objects which seem to stand out in comparison to other

things around it/them

EPIGRAM: A concise, pointed, witty statement in prose or poetry (typically what the

internet refers to as notable quotes—which is an ugly word since it’s the abbreviation

of quotation) “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” Oscar Wilde

EPIPHANY: A "showing forth" or sudden revelation of the true nature of a character

or situation through a specific event — a word, gesture, or other action — that causes

the reader to see the significance of that character or situation in a new light. James

Joyce first popularized the term in modern literature.

EQUIVOCATION: Using words that have at least two different definitions (puns

perhaps) for explanation or argument to create ambiguity.


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ETHOS (SEE ALSO PATHOS, LOGOS AND BATHOS): Overall

disposition/character, the sociology of the character

EUPHEMISM: A figurative expression meaning to be less offensive (he is gone now

—as opposed to “died”)

EUPHONY (ANT. CACOPHONY): Pleasant sounds

EXPOSITION: provides essential prior matters, describes setting, introduces major

characters, sets mood (describes a person’s frame of mind/state/feeling and indicate

the emotional response the author hopes to evoke in the mind of the reader).

Flashbacks are interpolated narratives (justified or naturalized as memory, reverie,

or confession) representing events that happen before the time at which the work

opened (antecedent action is a significant preceding action to the opening of thestory, likely including motivation for the conflict situation). Foreshadowing is of

course the opposite and reveals the ending through indirect, subtle clues

FALLING ACTION: events after the climax

FLASHBACK: See Exposition

FLAT (ANT. ROUND): Built around a single idea or quality and presented without

individual detail

What is the function of any minor characters in the story?

FOIL: by sharp contrast this type serves to stress and highlight the distinctive

temperament of the protagonist (originated from a thin gold leaf would be placed

under a jewel to enhance its brilliance)

GENERALIZATIONS: Hasty generalizations make assertions or conclusions drawn

on insufficient evidence; jumping to conclusions.

HAMARTIA: In a tragedy, the tragic hero will most effectively evoke pity and terror

if he is a round character, has higher than ordinary moral worth (noble), and suffers a

change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act led by his

hamartia (aka tragic flaw). Hubris or pride or an overwhelming self-confidence leads

the tragic hero to disregard a divine warning or to violate an important moral law.

HUBRIS: See Hamartia


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HYPERBOLE: Exaggerated statement (I could just die of laughter) for various effects

and emphasis

IMAGERY: Being able to picture what is described by words, involves figurative

language to be true imagery. However, is still often used to signify all the objects andqualities of sense perception in any piece of literature: concrete or abstract. The use

of words or figures of speech to create a mental picture. Imagery exploits all five

senses to produce a single powerful impression or to create a cluster of impressions

that convey a dominant mood.

Auditory imagery appeals to the sense of hearing.

Gustatory imagery appeals to the sense of taste.

Kinetic imagery conveys a sense of motion. Sometimes called KINAESTHETIC

IMAGERY.

Olfactory imagery appeals to the sense of smell.Tactile imagery appeals to the sense of touch. Sometimes called HAPTIC IMAGERY.

Verbal imagery is created with words (often with a visual analogue — a "mental

picture" is a commonly used metaphor for the operation of verbal imagery).

Visual imagery is created with pictures (often with a verbal analogue — many visual

images are pictures of things representing well—known sayings or phrases).

INDIRECT (ANT. DIRECT): showing (the dramatic method) or presenting the

characters through action and dialogue, so the reader is left to infer motivations and

dispositions

Do their names convey anything about the character? Are the characters part of an

allegory? What do the characters’ speech and behavior reveal about them?

INITIAL INCIDENT: (aka inciting incident, point of attack) first incident which

happens in the story on which the rest of the story depends introducing the main

conflict

IRONY: often used for satire, humour, contrast, moves the audience, exposeshypocrisy and lack of awareness (gap or mismatch between what is being said, and

what is intended)

Verbal: meaning differs from what is expressed (sarcasm is the crude version of praise

for dispraise)

Dramatic: the audience/reader and author are privy to information which a character

is ignorant (can be comic/tragic)

Situational: the outcome is incongruous not just opposite with the expectations set up

previously (don’t confuse with opposite expectations because set up is important. E.g.

The only thing ironic about Alanis Morisette’s song: “Ironic” is that none of theexamples are ironic.)


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Cosmic goes beyond being unfair and is morally tragic. Often so severe that it causes

characters to question God and see the universe as hostile. Such irony suggests

people are pawns to cruel forces.

JUXTAPOSITION: Strong contrasting situations or characters when placed side byside allow the observer to connect the contrasts in order to develop a point

METAPHOR: A direct comparison between two unlike things (You are the apple of

my eye.) To see such striking similarity between two normally unlike things can be

an indicator of originality, richness of sensation, depth in meaning and understanding

Implicit Metaphor (unspecified comparison like “That reed was too frail to survive the

storm of its sorrows” refers to someone’s death perhaps if the term “reed” indicates a

person, “storm” is the metaphor for death

Mixed metaphor shows layers of comparisons within text Dead metaphor has become so common that we cease to be aware of the comparison

MONOLOGUE: Lengthy speech in a play uttered by a single person at a critical

moment, but addresses and interacts with one or more people on stage (dramatic

monologue: indicative of entire poem addressing another)

Interior monologue: The character in a novel thinks to his/herself in language and

words , and s/he is conscious of those thoughts

Stream of consciousness Represents a free, random succession of thoughts and

sensations in a character’s mind especially when alone in a novel and first person “I”is not used.

MOTIF: conspicuous element occurring frequently, not as significant as themes, but

have a cumulative effect like a refrain (repetition in a work), and can assume symbolic

importance

A leitmotif (guiding/leading motif) is the frequent repetition within a single work of a

significant element pointing towards a certain theme

MOTIVATION: “grounds in the characters’ temperament, desires, and moral nature

for their speech and actions”

OUTCOME, DENOUEMENT, RESOLUTION: (Aristotle’s term catastrophe

typically applied to tragedy where the hero dies as a result of his/her actions)

Denouement is French for unknotting which ends in success or failure and all the plot

complications are sorted (another word commonly used is resolution)

OXYMORON: Two contradictory terms used together (the scene is brief yet tedious;

jumbo shrimp for sale) See also Paradox


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PARADOX: Seemingly contradictory, but on reflection, it makes sense, contains its

own resolution or truth recognizing complexity in experience. (One who loses her life

shall find it or “Nature’s first green is gold”: Robert Frost. Green can’t be gold, but

the earliest signs of life in spring are precious like gold.)

Antithesis: Contrasting ideas by balancing words of opposite meaning and idea (“Andwretches hang, that jurymen may dine”: Alexander Pope Also see Antithesis under

Syntactic Stuctures)

Contradiction: Stating or implying the opposite of what has been said or suggested.

Oxymoron: Two words of opposite meaning are joined “open secret” suggesting

something quite complex or provocative.

PATHETIC FALLACY: Attachment of human traits (especially emotions, thoughts,

sensations, feelings) to inanimate objects or nature. Often it emphasizes or expresses

the tension and emotions of the main characters and events (nature in reverse in Macbeth reflects the main plot).

PATHOS: Passions, suffering or deep feelings of a character which arouse the

audience to react

PERSONIFICATION: A type of metaphor giving an inanimate object especially

natural phenomena (or abstract idea) human qualities (The house stared ominously

over the valley.)

(Either of the personification of some non—human being or idea, or of therepresentation of an imaginary, dead, or absent person as alive and capable of speech

and hearing.)

PLAUSIBLE: expectation of “consistency”—the character shouldn’t break off and act

in a way that’s unreliable to what the author’s presented so far

To what extent do you identify with any of the characters? To what extent do you

sympathize with them or judge them harshly? Why? In the context of the story, are

their actions believable? Why or why not?

PLOT AND STUCTURE:

• Arrangement of events making up a narrative (unity of action)

• Effective plots include a sequence (often chronological, sometimes flashbacks,

or framing devices are used with parallel openings and endings, or episodic

structure or subplots are included, shedding light on the main plot) of incidents

bearing a significant and causal relationship to each other (one thing happens

as a result of something else—a.k.a. cause and effect typically).

• Plots are deliberate and chosen to create particular effects and won’tnecessarily be in chronological order. (Stories are typically events of a


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narrative in chronological order—order in which they occurred following

realistic time.)

To what extent is the plot unified? How is the story shaped, organized, or designed?

What effect does that create? What patterns can you discern in the story’s actions?To what extent are repetition, balance, and contrast important? Why?

POINT OF VIEW: (the angle from which the narrative is seen or told and can shift

within a work)

Does the point of view shift? If so, where, why, and with what implications for

meaning? Is the narrator reliable or fallible? Why or why not? How do you know?

POV FIRST PERSON:• Description is through the eyes of the character in the action a.k.a. participant;

pronouns: we, us, I, and me.

• Creates immediacy or realism. (can be a major or minor character)

• Innocent— 1st person, through the mind of a character who doesn’t fully

comprehend the situation (child, ignorant, naive, etc.)

Often creates an ironic effect because of the contrast between what the narrator

perceives and what the reader feels.

PREVARICATE: Evade the truth through omission. (similar to equivocation)

PROTAGONIST (ANT. ANTAGONIST): Chief character in a work, on whom our

interest centers

PURPOSE: What the author attempts to accomplish through his/her text

RESOLUTION: See Outcome

RHYTHM: Stressed and unstressed syllables used in a consistent pattern throughout a

poem (iambic pentameter is typically used by Shakespeare—5 stressed then

unstressed syllables in each line) However, can be distinguished from the technical,

identifiable metre and refer more generally to the flow of sound created by the

syllables (steady/irregular?)

RISING ACTION: (Aristotle’s term complication) series of intensifications of the

conflict leading to the moment of greatest tension which are usually quite suspenseful


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ROUND (ANT. FLAT): “Complex in temperament and motivation and represented

with subtle particularity; difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real

life”

SETTING: General locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which actionoccurs (general and particular settings) which can be important elements in generating

atmosphere and often interconnects with plot and character varying in complexity and

importance. The mis-en-scene denotes everything as a whole creating the atmosphere

for the text or fostering the expectations as to the course of events.

Setting may serve as a passive background; it may function as antagonist; it may be

the source of an intricate web of allusions. It is often key to characterization

Atmosphere: not to be confused with mood refers specifically to place, setting orsurroundings. (There was a Christmas atmosphere in town.)

Where and when is the action of the story set? To what extent are aspects of the

setting symbolic? How do you know and what’s the reason for it? Can you imagine

the story set in another place or time? Why or why not? Are you familiar with

cultural context? Does setting illuminate the characters and events? How?

SIMILE: A comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as” within the

comparison

SOLILOQUY: Stage device in which a character, alone on stage, reveals thoughts

aloud; used to conveniently convey character motive, state of mind, guide judgments

and responses from the audience

STATIC (ANT. DYNAMIC): characters who remain “essentially ‘stable,’ or

unchanged in outlook and disposition from beginning to end of a work”

STYLE: Difficult to pinpoint, but follows distinctive traits in an author’s workconcerning theme, attitude, speaker, tone, diction (emotional/abstract/poetic including

word length, language style, sound), syntax (sentence structure, juxtapositions,

parallelism, repetition), figurative language (aimed at gaining special effects), sound,

organization of details (note deliberate shifts), and supportive detail (data or images

used to support attitude which could be factual/opinionated, rational/irrational)

SUBPLOT: (or double plots which are familiar in Elizabethan drama) a secondary

story should serve to broaden our perspective on the main plot and enhance rather

than diffuse the overall effect of the narrative


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SUBTEXT: especially in drama, the inferences made through action and expression

of character

SYMBOL: Anything which signifies/represents/evokes a concept or idea of wider,

abstract significance; a range of reference beyond the literal understanding of theobject/subject (conventional or determined throughout the text: roses represent love,

walls divisions)

THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING: Grounded in ideas about the nature of God and

from the Greek philosophers and developed by thinkers in the age of the

Enlightenment specifically with the Elizabethan picture of the world as a gradation of

existing species in an hierarchy of status extending from the lowliest condition to God

(Alexander Pope compresses the concepts in Epistle I of his Essay on Man)

THEME: A general concept, implicit or asserted, which a text is designed to

incorporate and make persuasive to the reader revealing some truth/understanding

about/observation of life. All of the elements appear to deliberately point towards

theme(s). (Narratives may have multiple, single or no themes. Don’t confuse with a

moral or just idea in the story. Themes aren’t necessarily statements about what one

should or shouldn’t do. Also in literature, themes are not one word, but statements

about life).

Is the story optimistic or pessimistic? What universal situations and general valuesare involved? Does the narrator/main character arrive at any insights? Why or why

not? How? Does the story leave you with any insights?

TONE: The author’s attitude (reflects position/emotions regarding the matter) towards

the subject (sarcastic, matter-of-fact, sardonic, playful, formal, intimate, ironic,

condescending, etc.) largely created by diction and choice of detail. Suggesting a

“tone of voice” from the author which may not be the same as a narrator’s voice.

Tone is the author’s emotional meaning and not to be confused with speaker (invented

narrator or persona). Ambiguity: Language and tone are (deliberately) unclear and may have two or more

interpretations or meanings.

Ambivalence: The writer’s attitude to, for example, a character or event is not clear-

cut, but may seem to hold at least two responses (Marlow’s attitude to Kurtz in

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness—understanding and critical perhaps?)

Didactic: Describes the tone or intention to preach such things as morals, politics,

religious perspectives. Tendency falls towards the negative connotation.

VERISIMILITUDE: achievement of an illusion of reality in the audience (typicallydramatic term)


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SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

ANACOLUTHON: Lack of grammatical sequence; a change in the grammaticalconstruction within the same

sentence, leaving the first part broken or unfinished.

• And then the deep rumble from the explosion began to shake the very bones

of--no one had ever felt anything like it.

• Be careful with these two devices because improperly used they can--well, I

have cautioned you enough.

ANAPHORA: The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive

phrases, clauses or lines.

ANTISTROPHE: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive

clauses.

ANTITHESIS: is the placement of ideas in sharp contrast; the direct contrast of

structurally parallel word-groupings. Thus an antithetic sentence is a

balanced sentence in which ideas or words are in opposition, more strikingly so

because of the balance. e.g. To err is human, to forgive divine ; sink or swim; stand or

fall

POLYSYNDETON: The repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words,

phrases, or clauses. The rhetorical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with

that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up.

The multiple conjunctions of the polysyndetic structure call attention to themselves

and therefore add the effect of persistence or intensity or emphasis to the other effect

of multiplicity. The repeated use of "nor" or "or" emphasizes alternatives; repeated

use of "but" or "yet" stresses qualifications.

References

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms 6 th Ed. Harcourt Brace College

Publishers: 1988.

Corrigan, Timothy and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction 2nd Ed.

Bedford/ St. Martin’s: 2009.

Stephen, Elizabeth. IB Language A1 (English) (including World Literature and Oral

Assessment) Higher and Standard Level International Baccalaureate Studyand Revision guide. Oxford Study Courses: 2003.


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vocabulary list - part 4 ib english lang and lit sl

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