AP Language Terms #21-40

Objectivity

The impersonal presentation of events and characters, representing a writer's attempt to remove himself or herself from any subjective, personal involvement.

Subjectivity

A personal presentation of events, influenced by an author's feelings and emotions.

Fallacy

An argument or reasoning in which the conclusion does not follow from the premises; a false argument.

Style

An author's characteristic manner of expression, to which diction, syntax, imagery, structure, and content all contribute.

Voice

Refers to two different areas of writing: the "sound" of a writer's style, and the relationship between a sentence's subject and verb (active vs. passive, e.g., "Bob hit the ball" vs. "The ball was hit by Bob").

Tone

The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience.

Mood

Similar to tone, the primary emotional attitude of a work (the feeling, the atmosphere). Syntax is also a determinant of mood due to sentence length, strength, and complexity affecting pacing.

Syntax

The grammatical structure/arrangement of words of a sentence, including sentence length and types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory, simple, complex, compound, and compound-complex).

Diction

The writer's choice of words.

Lexicon

The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.

Denotation

The literal, or "dictionary", meaning of a word as defined.

Connotation

The implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind.

Jargon

The special language of a profession or group, often perceived by outsiders as exclusive, evasive, or rude.

Colloquialism

A word or phrase used in everyday conversation and/or informal writing, often inappropriate in formal writing.

Vernacular

The everyday or common language of a geographic area or the native language of commoners in a country (often associated with "dialect").

Aphorism

A short, often witty statement of a principle or truth about life.

Verbal Irony

The words literally state the opposite of the speaker's true meaning.

Sarcasm

Sometimes harsh, caustic remarks to or about someone or something; less tactful than verbal irony.

Situational Irony

Events turn out the opposite of what was expected.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude towards some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way, typically targeting groups or concepts rather than individuals.