AP English vocab

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.

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 not normally found in successive words, phrases or clauses; the deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or clauses.

Point of View

In literature, the perspective from which a story is told. There are two general divisions and many subdivisions within those.

Prose

One of the major divisions of genre, refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms.

Rhetorical Modes

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

Rhetorical Question

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.

Sarcasm

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

Satire

 A work that targets human vices and follies or social institutions and conventions for reform of 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

An evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices. Classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors. 

Subject Complement

The word or clauses that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it. 

Subordinate Clause

Like all clauses, this word group contains both a subject and a verb, but unlike the independent clause, it cannot stand alone; it does not express a complete thought.

Syllogism

From the Greek for “reckoning together,”a deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion.

Symbol / Symbolism

Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually something concrete – such as an object, action, character, or scene – that represents something more abstract. 

Synecdoche

A type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part, the genus for the species, the species for the genus, the material for the thing made, or in short, any portion, section, or main quality for the whole or the thing itself (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, the insight it offers into life. Usually it is unstated in fictional works, but in non-fiction, it may be directly stated, especially in expository or argumentative writing.

Thesis

In expository writing, it is the sentence or a group of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or position.

Tone

Describes the author’s attitude toward the material, the audience, or both.

Transition

 A word or phrase that links different ideas. Used especially, although not exclusively, in expository and argumentative writing, this effectively signals a shift from one idea to another.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact, presents something as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic.

Undertone

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