Key Literary Concepts from Satire to Wit

These flashcards cover key literary concepts ranging from satire to wit, providing definitions and explanations essential for understanding literature and rhetoric.

Satire

A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions for reform or ridicule.

Semantics

The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another.

Style

The sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices.

Subject complement

A word or clause that follows a linking verb and complements the subject by renaming or describing it.

Subordinate clause

A clause that cannot stand alone and depends on a main clause to complete its meaning.

Syllogism

A deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises leading to a sound conclusion.

Symbol/symbolism

Anything that represents itself and stands for something else, often more abstract.

Synecdoche

A type of metaphor in which a part stands for the whole or vice versa.

Syntax

The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work, often unstated in fiction.

Thesis

The sentence or group of sentences expressing the author's opinion or position in expository writing.

Tone

The author's attitude toward his material or audience.

Transition

A word or phrase that links different ideas, signaling a shift from one idea to another.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact, making something seem less significant than it is.

Undertone

An attitude that may lie under the ostensible tone of a piece.

Wit

Intellectually amazing language that surprises and delights, often humorous.