Spring Literary Terms
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Anacoluthon- a grammatical term for change of construction in a sentence that leaves the initial construction unfinished.
Anadiplosis- repetition in which a word or phrase appears both at the end of one clause, sentence, or stanza, and at the beginning of the next, thus linking the two units.
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Allusion- an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is this mentioned.
Anaphora- rhetorical repetition in which the same word or phrase is repeated in successive lines, clauses, or sentences.
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Alliteration- the repetition of the sound usually initial consonants of words or of stress syllables in any sequence of neighboring words.
Analogy- illustration of an idea by means of a more familiar idea that is similar or parallel to it in some significant features, and thus said to be analogous to it.
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Antiphrasis- a figure of speech in which a single word is used in a sense directly opposite to its usual meaning.
Aphorism- a statement of some general principle, expressed memorably by condensing much wisdom into few words.
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Antithesis- a contrast or opposition, either rhetorical or philosophical and disposition of words that serves to emphasize a contrast or opposition of ideas, usually by the balancing of connected clauses with parallel grammatical constructions.
Apostrophe- a rhetorical figure in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person, on an abstraction or inanimate object.
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Antagonist- A person or force that causes a conflict or obstacle for the main character.
Archetype- a symbol, theme, setting, or character- type that recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, dreams, and rituals so frequently or prominently as to suggest that it embodies essential element of universal human experience.
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Asyndeton- s form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting words between clauses.
Cacophony- harshness or discordance of sound- the opposite of euphony.
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Broken rhyme- the splitting of a word at the end of a verse line to allow a rhyme on a syllable other that the final one which is transformed to the following line.
Caesura- a pause in a line of verse often coinciding with a break between clause or sentences.
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Assonance- the repetition of identical of similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of neighboring words.
Blank verse- unrhymed lines of iambic
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Catachresis- the misapplication of a word or the exterision of a words meaning in a surprising but strictly illogical.
Chiasmus- a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second.
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Colloquialism-the use of informal expressions appropriate to everyday speech rather than to the formality of writing and differing formality of writing and differing in pronunciation.
Crossed rhyme-the rhyming of one word in the middle of a long verse line with a word in a similar position in the next line.
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Consonance- the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowels sounds are different.
Couplet- a pair of rhyming verse lines usually of the same length.
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deus ex machina
The god from a machine who was lowered on the stage by mechanical contrivance in some ancient Greek plays to solve the problem of plot at a stroke.
Didactic-instructive; designed to impact information, advice, or some doctrine of morality or philosophy.
Denouement- the clearing up or untying of the complications of the plot in a play or story usually a final scene or chapter in which mysteries, confusions, and doubtful destinies are clarified.
Dialect -a distinctive variety of a language, spoken by members of an identifiable regional group, nation, or social class. Dialects differ in punctuation, vocabulary and grammar.
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Denotation-the rage of further associations that a word or phrase suggests in addition to its straightforward dictionary meaning.
Diction- the choice of words used in a literary work. A writer’s diction may be characterized.
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Elision-the slurring or suppression of a vowel sound or syllable, usually by fusing a final unstressed vowel with the following word beginning with a vowel
Epanalepsis-Repetition of the
same word or clause after intervening matter. More strictly, repetition at the
end of a line, phrase, or clause of the word or words that occurred at the
beginning of the same line, phrase, or clause
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Ellipsis-Omission of a word
or short phrase easily understood in context
Fable- a brief tale in verse or prose that conveys a moral lesson, usually
by giving human speech and manners to animals and inanimate things,
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Feminine rhyme- the rhyme on
two syllables, the first stressed and the second unstressed and.
Flashback- a form of anachrony by which some of
the events of a story are related at a point in the narrative after later story
events have already been recounted.
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Epistrophe- Ending a series of lines, phrases,
clauses, or sentences with the same word or words.
Euphony- a pleasing smoothness of sound,
perceived by the ease with which the words can be spoken in combination. The
use of long vowels, liquid consonants (l,r) on a semi- vowels (w,y).
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Foil- a character whose
qualities or actions serve to emphasize those of the protagonist by providing a
strong contrast with them.
Foregrounding- giving unusual prominence to one element
or property of a text relative to other less noticeable aspects.
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Free verse- a part of poetry that does not conform to any regular metre the length of its lines is irregular, as is its use of rhyme if any it uses a flexible metrical pattern.
Haiku- a form of Japanese lyric verse that encapsulates a single impression of a natural object or scene, within a particular season. In 17 syllables arranged in 3 unrhymed lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables.
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Hendiadys- Expressing a single idea by two nouns instead of a
noun and its qualifier. A method of amplification that adds force.
Hyperbaton- Adding
a word or thought to a sentence that is already semantically complete, thus
drawing emphasis to the addition.
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Interior monologue- the written representation of a character’s inner thoughts, impressions, and memories as if directly ‘overheard’ without the apparent intervention of a summarizing and selecting narrator.
Internal rhyme- a poetic device by which two or more words rhyme within the same line of verse.
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Hyperbole- Rhetorical exaggeration. Hyperbole is often accomplished via comparisons, similes, and metaphors.
Double enterdre- a French phrase for double meaning, adopted into the English language to denote a pun in which a word or phrase has a second usually sexual meaning.
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Hypotactic- marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them.
In media res- the Latin phrase meaning into the middle of things applied to the common technique of storytelling by which the narrator begins the story at some exciting point in the middle of the action.
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Homonym- a word that is identical in form with another word, either in sound, or spelling or both but differs in meaning.
Hendecasyllabic- verse written in lines of 11 syllables.
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Irony- Speaking in such a way as to imply the contrary of what one says, often for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest.
Imagery- a rather vague critical term covering those uses of language in a literary work that evoke sense –impressions by literal or figurative reference to perceptible or concrete objects, scenes, actions, or states, as distinct from the language of abstract argument or exposition.
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Leitmotif- a frequently repeated phrase image, symbol or situation in a literary work, the recurrence of which usually indicates or supports a theme.
Litotes- Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite.
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Metre - the pattern of measured sound units recurring more of less regularly in line verse
Monody- an elegy, dirge, or lament uttered by a single speaker or presented as id to be spoken by a single speaker.
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Machinery- the collective term applied since the 18th century to the supernatural beings, gods, angels, devils, who take part in the action of an epic
Masculine rhyme- the commonest kind of rhyme between single stressed syllables at eh end of verse lines.
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malapropism- a confused comically inaccurate use of a long word or words.
metonymy - Reference to something or someone by naming one of its attributes.
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melodrama- a popular form of sensational drama that flourished in the 19th century theatre, surviving in different forms in modern cinema and television.
mise en scene – the French term for the staging or visual arrangement of a dramatic production, comprising scenery, properties, costume, lighting, and human movement.
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monologue- an extended speech uttered by one speaker, either to others or as if alone.
metaphor- A comparison made by referring to one thing as another