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Harlan High School English II Literary Terms 2015-2016
abstract language
language that refers to things that are
intangible (i.e. which are perceived not
through the senses but by the mind: truth,
God, education, vice, transportation,
poetry, war, love.)
ad hominem argument
appealing to personal interests, prejudices,
or emotions rather than to reason
allegory
a form of extended metaphor in which
objects, persons, and actions in a narrative,
are equated with the meanings that lie
outside the narrative itself. The underlying
meaning has moral, social, religious, or
political significance, and characters are
often personifications of abstract ideas as
charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is
a story with two meanings, a literal
meaning and a symbolic meaning.
alliteration
the repetition of initial consonant sounds
in neighboring words. Example: In cliches:
sweet smell of success, a dime a dozen,
bigger and better, jump for joy
Wordsworth: "And sings a solitary song/
That whistles in the wind."
allusion
a brief reference to a person, event, or
place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art.
Casual reference to a famous historical or
literary figure or event. An allusion may be
drawn from history, geography, literature,
or religion. Example: Stephen Vincent
Benet's story "By the Waters of Babylon"
contains a direct reference to Psalm 137 in
the Bible.
anachronisms
the representation of something as existing
or happening at other than its proper or
historical time
analogy
the comparison of two pairs that have the
same relationship. The key is to ascertain
the relationship between the first so you
can choose the correct second pair. Part to
whole, opposites, results of are types of
relationships you should find. Example:
hot is to cold as fire is to ice OR
hot::cold::fire:ice
analogous
comparable
anecdote
a short account of an incident
anaphora
the deliberate repetition of a word or
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11. antonym
12. aphorisms
13. assonance
14. apostrophe
15. asyndeton
16. chiasmus
17. chronological order
18. cognate
19. concrete language
20. conceit
phrase at the beginning of several
successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs.
Example: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have
a dream that."
a word having a meaning opposite to that
of another word. Example: The word wet is
an antonym of the word dry
a brief saying embodying a moral, a
concise statement of a principle or precept
given in pointed words. Example:
Pope: "Some praise at morning what they
blame at night." Franklin: "Lost Time is
never Found again."
the repetition of vowel sounds in a
sequence of nearby words. “The monster
spoke in a low mellow tone” has assonance
in its repetition of the “o” sound.
an absent person, an abstract concept, or
an important object is directly addressed.
Example: “With how sad steps, O moon,
thou climbest the skies. Busy old fool,
unruly sun.”
the omission of a conjunction from a list
Example: 'chips, beans, peas, vinegar, salt,
pepper'.
a type of rhetoric in which the second part
is syntactically balanced against the first.
(Greek X ) Example: "There's a bridge to
cross the great divide. There's a cross to
bridge the great divide. "
a sequence of events arranged in the order
in which they occurred
descended from or related to a common
ancestor. (Said of words or languages:
derived from the same original form.)
Synonyms for "cognate": alike, similar,
related, kindred, analogous, allied,
associated, affiliated, matching, parallel;
Antonyms for "cognate": disparate,
unconnected.
language that describes specific, generally
observable, persons, places, or things; in
contrast to abstract language
an elaborate, usually intellectually
ingenious, poetic comparison or image,
such as an analogy or metaphor in which,
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21. connotation
22. consonance
23. denotation
24. dialect
25. diction
26. ellipses
27. euphemism
28. figurative language
29. generalization
30. homily
31. hyperbole
for example, a beloved is compared to a
ship, planet, etc. The comparison may be
brief or extended.
additional, suggested meaning of a word
as opposed to its literal, direct meaning
a repetition of consonants, especially those
after a stressed vowel (e.g., march, lurch)
the literal, dictionary definition of a word
a regional or social variety of a language
distinguished by pronunciation, grammar,
or vocabulary, especially a variety of
speech differing from the standard literary
language or speech pattern of the culture
in which it exists. Cockney is a dialect of
English.
the selection and arrangement of words in
a literary work. Either or both may vary
depending on the desired effect. There are
four general types of diction: "formal,"
used in scholarly or lofty writing;
"informal," used in relaxed but educated
conversation; "colloquial," used in
everyday speech; and "slang," containing
newly coined words and other terms not
accepted in formal usage.
the omission of a word or phrase necessary
for a complete syntactical construction but
not necessary for understanding (May also
be defined as three spaced periods
indicating the omission of text.)
the substitution of a mild or less negative
word or phrase for a harsh or blunt one, as
in the use of "pass away" instead of "die."
the use of words, phrases, symbols, and
ideas in such a way as to evoke mental
images and sense impressions by using
words in a nonliteral way, giving them a
meaning beyond their ordinary one
a broad statement or belief based on a
limited number of facts, examples, or
statistics. A product of inductive
reasoning, generalizations should be used
carefully and sparingly in essays.
a sermon or a tedious moralizing lecture or
admonition
exaggeration or overstatement. Example:
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32. idiom
33. imagery
34. inference
35. irony
36. imperative
37. inverted word order
38. jargon
39. literal language
40. litotes
I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
He's as big as a house.
a speech form or an expression of a given
language that is peculiar to itself
grammatically or cannot be understood
from the individual meanings of its
elements, as in keep tabs on.
any poetic reference to the five senses
(sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste).
Essentially, imagery is a group of words
that create a mental image. Such images
can be created by using figures of speech
such as similes, metaphors, and
personification.
the process of drawing a conclusion from
given evidence
a form of speech in which the real meaning
is concealed or contradicted by the words
used. Irony involves the perception that
things are not what they are said to be or
what they seem. Dramatic irony lies in the
audience's deeper perceptions of a coming
fate, which contrast with the character's
perceptions.
expressing a command or plea
the use of words out of their normal order.
Example: In "Chartless" Emily Dickenson
writes "Yet know I how the heather looks"
and "Yet certain am I of the spot." Instead
of saying "Yet I know" and "Yet I am
certain" she reverses the usual order and
shifts the emphasis to the more important
words.
language that is used or understood only
by a select group of people. Jargon may
refer to terminology used in a certain
profession, such as computer jargon, or it
may refer to any nonsensical language that
is not understood by most people.
language that does not exaggerate or
embellish the subject matter and uses no
tools of figurative language. To say "He
ran very quickly down the street" is to use
literal language, whereas to say "He ran
like a hare down the street" would be
using figurative language.
a figure of speech in which an affirmative
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41. loaded words
42. metaphor
43. metonymy
44. moral
45. non sequiturs
46. order of importance
47. onomatopoeia
48. oxymoron
49. parody
50. paradox
51. parallelism
52. personification
53. polysyndeton
is expressed by the negation of its
opposite, as in no small problem.
words or phrases which have strong
emotional overtones or connotations and
which evoke strongly positive (or
negative) reactions far beyond the specific
meaning of the word which is listed in the
dictionary
comparison of two unlike things using the
verb "to be" and not using like or as in a
simile. Example: “He is a pig. Thou art
sunshine.”
Substitution of a word for another word
closely associated with it. Example:
“bowing to the sceptered isle” (Great
Britain)
the significance of a story or event: "the
moral of the story is to love thy neighbor"
a statement that does not follow logically
from what preceded it
rank ing events or items in the order of
their significance (importance)
a word that imitates the sound it
represents. Example: splash, wow, gush,
kerplunk
two contradictory words used together.
Examples: hot ice, cold fire, wise fool, sad
joy, military intelligence, eloquent silence,
an imitation of a serious literary work or
the signature style of a particular author in
a ridiculous manner. A typical parody
adopts the style of the original and applies
it to an inappropriate subject for humorous
effect. Parody is a form of satire and could
be considered the literary equivalent of a
caricature or cartoon.
a kind of truth that at first seems
contradictory. Example: Stone walls do
not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage.
the use of corresponding syntactical forms
human qualities assigned to animals or
objects. Example: a smiling moon, a jovial
sun
the repetition of connectives or
conjunctions in close succession for
rhetorical effect, as in the phrase here and
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54. satire
55. simile
56. spatial order
57. subjunctive
58. syllogism
59. symbolism
60. synecdoche
61. synonym
62. syntax
there and everywhere.
a piece of literature designed to ridicule
the subject of the work. While satire can be
funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to
arouse contempt. Jonathan Swift's
Gulliver's Travels satirizes the English
people, making them seem dwarfish in
their ability to deal with large thoughts,
issues, or deeds.
the comparison of two unlike things using
like or as. Related to metaphor. Example:
He eats like a pig. Vines like golden
prisons.
a method of description that begins at one
geographical point and moves onward in
an orderly fashion.
a grammatical mood of the verb that
expresses wishes, commands (in
subordinate clauses), and statements that
are contrary to fact. Example: "If I were a
rich man…"
a form of deductive reasoning consisting of
a major premise, a minor premise, and a
conclusion; for example, All men are foolish
(major premise); Smith is a man (minor
premise); therefore, Smith is foolish
(conclusion).
the practice of representing things by
means of symbols or of attributing
symbolic meanings or significance to
objects, events, or relationships.
use of a part to represent the whole.
Example: "lend me your ears" (give me
your attention).
a word having the same or nearly the same
meaning as another word or other words
in a language. Example: "Error" and
"mistake" are synonyms.
the way in which words can be arranged
and modified to construct sentences.
Writers characteristically use syntactic subordination when they aim for a highly
formal effect, and syntactic co-ordination
when they aim for a simpler, more
straight-forward effect.
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