English Lit. Terms

Round Character

Multiple personality traits

Flat Character

Single personality trait

Dynamic Character

Multiple characteristics

Static character

Single characteristic

Diction

A writer's or speaker's choice of words

Denotation

The literal meaning of a word

Conotation

Implied meaning of a word

Syntax

Sentence structure

Prose

Any writing that is not poetry

Clause

a group of words with a subject and a verb

Dependent Clause

A phrase that can't stand alone as a complete sentence.

Independent Clause

A clause that can stand alone as a sentence

Simple Sentence

One independent clause

Compound Sentence

two or more independent clauses

Complex Sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and one or more dependent clause

Compound-Complex Sentence

One or more dependent clauses and two or more independent clauses

Periodic sentence

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

Cumulative Sentence

A sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases

Rhetoric Triangle

Speaker, audience, subject

Logical appeal

Method of persuasion based on evidence and reasoning

Ethos

Ethical appeal (credibility)

Pathos

Appeal to emotion

Logos

Appeal to logic

Deductive reasoning

Proving a hypothesis with reasoning

Inductive reasoning

Specific to general

Meter

Number in types of stresses in a rhyme

Foot

the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds

Near/Slant rhyme

words that almost rhyme

End rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of two or more lines of poetry

Internal rhyme

When words rhyme in the words

Apostrophe

address to an absent or imaginary person

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem

Quatrain

4 line stanza

Tropes

A plot structure or device that is used in storytelling

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

Schemes

A creative alteration in the usual order of words

Chiasmus

a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases

Antithesis

Direct opposite

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of initial clauses, phrases, or lines

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a word is substituted for another word that it is closely related to it

Intercalary Chapters

A chapter in a novel that is relevant to the theme

Motif

A repeated pattern: an image, sound, word, or symbol that comes back again and again

Theme

A central topic, subject, or message within a narrative

First-Person Limited

A narrative perspective where the story is told from the viewpoint of one character using “I” or “we”; reader only has access to thoughts, feelings, and experiences

First-Person Omniscient

The narrator is a character in the story, but also knows the thoughts and feelings of all other characters

Third-Person Limited

A narrator that only has access to a single character's thoughts and feelings

Third-Person Omniscient

A point of view where the narrator knows all the thoughts, actions, and feelings of all characters

Third-Person Objective

The narrator only says what's happening in the story

Personification

The act of giving human qualities or characteristics to something non-human

Simile

A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”

Metaphor

A figure of speech where one thing is directly compared to another by stating that one thing is the other

Hyperbole

A purposeful exaggeration not meant to be taken literally

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, character, place, or event that a writer makes to deepen the reader’s understanding of their work

Paradox

A statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true

Aphorism

A brief statement that expresses a general truth or principle about life

Rhetoric

The art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people

Soliloquy

A type of monologue where the speaker is alone

Monologue

A speech given by one person

Aside

A line directed to the audience where the characters cannot hear

Situational Irony

When the opposite thing happens then you except

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something the characters don’t know

Verbal irony

Sarcasm

Foil Character

A character that is the opposite to another character

Plastic Theater

When the author uses sound, lighting, & other theater elements to convey a characteristic or emotion

Euphemism

Lowering the harshness of a sentence by saying something nice

Pun

A play on words off how a word sounds or plays off another word

Double Entendre

A type of pun; saying something that has a second and sexual meaning

Panel

A distinct segment of the comic, containing a combination of image and text in endless variety

Gutter

The space between framed panels

Graphic Weight

A term where an artists emphasises certain parts by using color and shading in various ways

Splash

A kind of panel that spans the width of the page

Bleed

An image that extends to and/or beyond the edge of the page

Emanata

Unrealistic pictorial elements emanating from a character, symbolizing something about that character

Background

Provides additional, nonverbal information for the reader

Foreground

The view closest to the viewer

Midground

The visual plane located in the middle of a panel

Satire

Criticize something political and social, usually with humor

Bildungsroman

Coming of age story; can be spiritual

Frame

The lines and borders that contain the panels

Fallacy

Faulty logic

Ad hominem

When you attack the speaker instead of what they’re saying

Argument from authority

Because a person says it, that means they’re right

Red herring

An intentional shift in topic in an argument

Hasty generalization

Making an argument based on limited evidence

Faulty causality

When you create a cause and effect relationship that doesn’t exist

Slippery slope

When you suggest dire consequences from relatively small events

Persona

The characteristics that the writer/speaker adopts

Idiom

Phrases that when you look at the words, they don’t make sense

Colloquialism

Slang words and phrases that connect to their regions and cultures

Syllogism

A type of deductive reasoning; logical profession to prove a point

Exigence

Occasion or time of writing

Warrent

An underlying belief that exist

Allegory

Everything has a symbolic and double meaning; double layer and same meaning

Caesura

Pause in the middle of a line of poetry

Zeugma

When one word modifies two or more words in totally different ways