AP Lang Vocab List #4

Parody

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule

Pedantic

An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish.

Periodic sentence

A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end

Example of Periodic Sentence

“Ecstatic with my AP score, I let out a loud, joyful shout!”"

Personification

A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.

Polysyndeton

Figure of addition and emphasis which intentionally employs a series of conjunctions (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) not normally found in successive words, phrases or clauses; the deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or clauses.

Example of Polysyndeton 1

They read and studied and wrote and drilled. I laughed and talked and flunked.

Example of Polysyndeton 2

“It’s [foorball] a way of life, really, to those particular people who are a part of it. It’s more than a game, and regardless of what level it’s played upon, it still demands those attributes of courage and stamina and coordinated efficiency and goes even beyond that for [it] is a means – it provides a mental and physical relaxation to everybody that watches it, like yourself.”

Point of view

In literature, the perspective from which a story is told.

Predicate adjective

One type of subject complement is an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb. It is an the predicate of the sentence, and modifies, or describes, the subject.

Predicate nominative

A second type of subject complement - a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that names the subject. It, like the predicate adjective, follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence.

Prose

One of the major divisions of genre, prose refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms. In prose the printer determines the length of the line; in poetry, the poet determines the length of the line

Repetition

The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.

Rhetoric

From the Greek for “orator,” this term describes the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively.

Rhetorical modes

This flexible term describes the variety, the conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing.

Rhetorical Question [erotesis]

differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no answer would suffice.

Example of Rhetorical Question [erotesis]

We shrink from change; yet is there anything that can come into being without it? What does Nature hold dearer, or more proper to herself? Could you have a hot bath unless the firewood underwent some change? Could you be nourished if the food suffered no change? Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is the same order, and no less necessary to Nature?

Sarcasm

From the Greek meaning “to tear flesh,” sarcasm involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something.