Terms to KNOW!

1. Terms to KNOW! AP English

2. anecdote • A very short story told to make a point

3. apostrophe • After the lady’s car broke down, she shouted, “You stupid thing. I’m selling you tomorrow!”

4. archetype • A universal symbol or symbol that crosses many cultures. A universal character type. • Characters • Water • Hero • Villain • Wise old man • Mother figure • Situations • Good vs. evil • The journey • The fall

5. Dramatic irony • Situation in which the reader/viewer shares with the narrator knowledge of a situation or intention unknown to one or more of the characters. Often the reader/viewer knows the fate of a character who is ignorant of his/her own fate. • When Polonius is listening behind the curtain. We as viewers know he is listening, but Hamlet does not at first.

6. Metonomy • “The pen is mightier than the sword.” • Crown - in place of a royal person • She's planning to serve the dish early in the evening. • "Lend me your ears!“ • Hand - for help

7. Litotes (understatement) • “Not bad” when you mean “very good” • They do not seem the happiest couple around. • You are not as young as you used to be. • William Shakespeare was not a bad playwright at all. • He is not the cleverest person I have ever met.

8. oxymoron • Foolish wit • Bittersweet • Wise fool • Jumbo shrimp

9. Olfactory imagery • pungent • fragrant • sweet • dank • rich aroma • stinky • musty • rotten • odor • essence

10. Narrative Viewpoint • The stance from which a story is told.

11. Third-person omniscient • Viewing the action from a god-like stance; seeing inside of every character’s mind.

12. Third-person limited • Viewing the action primarily from one character’s angle

13. First person • Narrative viewpoint using “I”

14. euphemism • Pass away instead of die • Restroom instead of toilet • Correctional facility instead of jail • Letting someone go instead of firing someone • Put to sleep instead of euthanize • On the streets instead of homeless

15. genre • The form a text has  poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction

16. Sub-genre • Poetry (genre) • Lyric poetry • Narrative poetry • Epic poetry

17. Elegy • Poetry or speech which laments the loss of a person or sometimes of an era or aspect of culture.

18. Elegiac tone • A lamenting tone or a somewhat nostalgic tone

19. Flashback • Interrupting a narrative sequence with a recollection of an image or scene from the past

20. Parody • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNLWBr4GGPM

21. Phlegmatic • Medieval bodily humour - dull

22. Synecdoche • The word “bread” can be used to represent food in general or money • The word "head" refers to cattle • The phrase "hired hands" can be used to refer to workmen. • “All hands on deck”

23. Tone • The attitude an author expresses towards his subject and/or audience

24. Tactile imagery • Fluffy • Soft • Cold • Hard • Spiky • Smooth

25. PastoralThe Passionate Shepherd to His Loveby Christopher Marlowe

26. Allegory • A story told on two levels and intended to teach a moral lesson • “The Prodigal Son” • The Wizard of Oz, in which cowardice is embodied in the lion, thoughtless panic in the scarecrow, etc.

27. Didactic • Having a teaching purpose; The bible has didactic books in it.

28. Choleric • Medieval bodily humour - angry

29. Antithesis • Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit. • You are easy on the eyes, but hard on the heart. • Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. • Speech is silver, but Silence is Gold.

30. Conceit • An extended metaphor; a comparison extending throughout a poem, paragraph, or section of a work.

31. Irony • Having the opposite of what one expects to happen actually happen ; reversal

32. Paradox • A statement that is illogical or contradictory but nevertheless true or which has a kind of truth that it states. • Life is death. • Fair is foul and foul is fair.

33. Myth • A story that seeks to explain processes of nature, the creation of the world, and the human race, or traditional customs, political institutions, or religious rites.

34. Protagonist • The hero or heroine in a story, poem, novel, play, or film • Hamlet • Hester • Edna • Jane Eyre

35. Symbolism • The letter A representing adultery in The Scarlet Letter. • The ocean representing freedom and escape in The Awakening

36. Sanguine • Medieval bodily humour– cheerful, energetic, positive

37. Satire • It was one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who is credited with creating, and printing the first political cartoon in America. Franklin was attempting to rally support for his plan for an inter-colonial association, in order to deal with the Iraquois Indians at the Albany Congress of 1754. • Franklin’s cartoon depicts a snake, cut into pieces, with each piece representing one of the colonies. The cartoon was published in every newspaper in America, and had a major impact on the American conscience. • The words “Join, or Die” eluded to the Indian threat, but much of the effectiveness of this image was due to a commonly held belief at the time, that a dead snake could come back to life if the severed pieces were placed back together.  Franklin’s cartoon effectively grabbed the American peoples minds, and implanted an idea that endured even though the Albany Congress turned out to be a failure. • The image of the snake became the symbol for colonial unification, and was transferred to the colonial battle flag “Don’t Tread on Me”, and became part of the American spirit.

38. Syntax - Sentence structure; the phrases and clauses the together make a sentence • We can simply say “I cannot go out” to convey our incapacity to do something. On the contrary, P J Kavanagh’s in his poem ‘Beyond Decoration’ does not rely on merely stating a prosaic “I cannot go out” rather he shift the syntax and says “Go out I cannot”, which lays a much stronger emphasis on the incapability conveyed by the word “cannot”.

39. Malapropism • A child in catechism class told the nun that Joan of Arc was "burned as a steak." • In a math class, one student said that "A cute angel" was the definition of an angle less than 90 degrees.

40. Melancholy • Medieval bodily humour – sad, depressed

41. Parable - A short story with a moral message; often it is allegorical  The Parable of the Good Samaritan • 25And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” • 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a]and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

42. Rhetoric • **Rhetoric is a technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or written form. It is an art of discourse, which studies and employs various methods to convince, influence or please an audience. • John Milton, in his epic “Paradise Lost”, employs rhetoric frequently and to a great effect. To quote an example from Book V: • “advise him of his happy state—Happiness in his power left free to will,Left to his own free will, his will though freeYet mutable

43. Verbal Irony • Saying “Oh, fantastic!” when the situation is actually very poor • “Clear as mud” • I like spending time with my co-workers as much as I enjoy digging my eye out with a dull spoon.

44. Farce • low comedy; comedy which has clowning and slapstick • An election is a farce, if the outcome has been determined before the voting begins. • A class can feel like a farce if your substitute teacher knows less about the subject than you do.

45. Gustatory imagery • The rich, creamy sweetness from the homemade ice cream was an amazing treat on the hot summer day. • The perfurmey sweet flavor of the homemade juice filled her mouth.  • The lobster was melt-in-your mouth soft and had the perfect taste of delicate lobster meat. 

46. Hyperbole • I am so hungry I could eat a horse. • I have a million things to do. • He is as skinny as a toothpick. • Her brain is the size of a pea. • If I can’t buy that new game, I will die.

47. Epigram • Short, witty saying • Fish and visitors smell after three days. • "If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning." - Catherine the Great • From Poetry • "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour"

48. Antagonist • The main adversary of the hero/heroine, or protagonist • Roger Chillingworth (The Scarlet Letter) • King Claudius (Hamlet)

49. Epiphany • The appearance or manifestation of a deity (God); or a moment of understanding and sudden insight into reality or the truth

50. Auditory imagery • "....Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roarOf trees and crack of branches, common things,But nothing so like beating on a box" • (From 'An Old Mans Winter Night' by Robert Frost)