AP Lang Glossary Quiz 3 (copy)

Slant rhyme

When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly – they are merely similar.

End rhyme

When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of a poem’s end rhymes.

Stressed and unstressed syllables

In every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force

Meter

A regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poetry.

Free verse

Poetry that doesn’t have much meter or rhyme.

Iambic pentameter

Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.

Sonnet

A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. Usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet.

Polysyndeton

When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions.

Pun

When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.

Rhetoric

The art of effective communication.

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle

The relationships, in any piece of writing,between the writer, the audience, and the subject. All analysis of writing is essentially an analysis of the relationships between the points on the triangle.

Rhetorical Question

Question not asked for information but for effect.

Romanticism

Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature.

Sarcasm

A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect.

Sentence

group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought.

Appositive

A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

independent clause

expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

A dependent, or subordinate clause

cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.

Balanced sentence

A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale. Both parts are parallel grammatically.

Compound sentence

Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Complex sentence

Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Cumulative sentence

When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements.

Periodic sentence

When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence.The writer begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause.

Simple sentence

Contains only one independent clause.

Declarative sentence

States an idea. It does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question.

Imperative sentence

Issues a command.

Interrogative sentence

Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns

Style

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes. Style may be conscious or unconscious.

Symbol

Anything that represents or stands for something else.

Syntax/sentence variety

Grammatical arrangement of words/grouping of words

Theme

The central idea or message of a work.

Thesis

The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition.

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact,

Litotes

a particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.