AP English Lang/Amer Lit B-Jackson 23.0

AP English Language and American Literature Vocabulary Flashcards

Exigence

The issue, problem, or situation that causes or prompts someone to write or speak.

Audience

The listener, viewer, or reader of a text or performance.

Purpose

The reason for which something is done or created.

Ethos

Ethos is the character and credibility of the writer; the establishment of authority; the 'why you should trust me' factor.

Logos

Logos is logic; facts or objective information; appealing to one's intellect.

Pathos

Pathos is emotion; appealing to one's feelings.

Organization (Arrangement; Structure)

In what order are things presented?

Style

Diction, figurative language, syntax, etc.

Diction

Analyze only unusual word choice such as archaic language or especially evocative choices that contain powerful connotations.

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things.

Simile

An explicit comparison between two unlike things with the use of 'like' or 'as'.

Personification

Attributing human qualities to an abstract idea or an inanimate object.

Imagery

Language that makes strong appeal to the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell - imagery allows the reader to more fully participate in the work with images and experiences that they can tie to directly or indirectly.

Syntax

The intentional emphasis on word order/structure of a sentence or phrase; to analyze syntax one can consider sentence form and structure, repetition, and/or punctuation.

Pun

A play on the meaning of words that relies on a word having more than one meaning or sounding like another word.

Irony

The speaker means something other than what is said; the unexpected; a difference between what is stated to be literally true and what the reader knows to be true.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration; deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.

Understatement

Opposite of hyperbole, intensifies an idea by understatement.

Synecdoche

One word that makes the reader think of all things in the class, so 'all hands on deck' refers to all helpers.

Metonymy

Designation of one thing with something closely associated with it.

Oxymoron

Contradiction; two contradictory terms or ideas used together.

Paradox

A statement that appears to be contradictory but, in fact, has some truth.

Onomatopoeia

Refers to the use of words whose sound reinforces their meaning.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of successive words; effect: to increase memory retention, add emphasis and/or to create a rhythm.

Euphemism

An inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or harsh.

Allusion

A reference to another text or assumed knowledge of a reference; an allusion references and draws on the authority of the alluded work and connects the reader with the author by assuming common knowledge.

Anadiplosis

Repeats the last word of one phrase, clause, or sentence at or very near the beginning of the next.

Chiasmus

Grammatical structure when the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second, sometimes repeating the same words.

Parallelism

A set of similarly structured words, phrases, or clauses.

Juxtaposition

The placing of contrasting settings, characters, or other literary elements in opposition between paragraphs or between sections of text to highlight an intended disparity.

Antithesis

The placing of opposing or contrasting ideas and/or words within the same sentence or very close together to emphasize their disparity.

Asyndeton

Conjunctions are omitted, producing fast-paced and rapid prose to speed up the reader so as to have the reader experience the events along with the persona in a rapid succession.

Polysyndeton

The use of many conjunctions has the opposite effect of asyndeton; it slows the pace of the reader but the effect is to possibly overwhelm the reader with details thus connecting the reader and the persona to the same experience – may also be called cataloging

Anaphora

A form of a regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or strategically placed paragraphs

Rhetorical questions

A question posed by the speaker which has an obvious answer, no answer, or is the argument the speaker or writer intends to answer in an effort to further prove their argument.

Tone

The accumulated and implied attitude toward the subject reached by analyzing diction, detail, syntax, and all other figurative language elements.

Tone Shift

Indicates a shift in attitude about the subject. A tone shift may be the result of a change in speaker, subject, audience, or intention.

Logical Fallacies

Common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument.

Slippery Slope

A conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps Z will happen, too, basically equating A and Z.

Hasty Generalization

A conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

A conclusion that assumes that if 'A' occurred after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.'