AICE English Language: Language Tools & Terms

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary terms regarding analysis in AICE English Language, focusing on tools and techniques used in text and analytical writing.

Author’s Purpose

The reason why an author wrote something.

Audience

The person or group of people that are the intended audience of a text or communication.

Point of View (POV)

The narrative perspective from which a story is told.

Register

The level of formality within a text, which can be formal, informal, or semi-formal.

Bias

Being heavily in favor of or opposed to an idea or thing, usually in a way that is close-minded, prejudicial, or unfair.

Genre Elements

Text features and unique elements that make up fiction and nonfiction texts.

Asyndeton

Omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses.

Polysyndeton

Repetition of conjunctions in close succession.

Anaphora

The repetition of certain words or phrases at the beginning of consecutive sentences.

Chiasmus

A grammatical structure that inverts phrases.

Punctuation

The marks or symbols used in writing to improve clarity, meaning, and structure.

Repetition

The repeating of a specific word or phrase for emphasis.

Sentence Length

The length of a given sentence, which can impact the overall effect.

Sentence Type

Establishes the purpose of a sentence: declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory.

Sentence Structure

The arrangement of independent and subordinate clauses in a sentence.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases in a specific order.

Triadic Structure (Rule of 3)

A sentence containing a series of three words, phrases, or clauses.

Alliteration

The repetition of two or more letters or sounds at the beginning of closely connected words.

Allusion

A reference to another work, person, event, place, or thing in pop culture.

Connotation

The feeling or emotion associated with a word, which can be positive, negative, or neutral.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Diction

The choice and use of words by authors in their writing.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration of a truth or point for emphasis or dramatic effect.

Imagery

The use of vivid and descriptive language to create mental pictures or sensations in readers.

Irony

A contradiction or disconnect between what is expected and what happens.

Metaphor/Extended Metaphor

A metaphor makes a comparison between two unrelated things without using "like" or "as"; an extended metaphor continues this comparison.

Mood

The emotional atmosphere or tone created within a text.

Personification

Gives human qualities to objects, animals, or ideas.

Rhetoric

The art of using language effectively and persuasively.

Rhetorical Appeals

Techniques that appeal to ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic).

Simile

Uses the words 'like' or 'as' to compare two unrelated things.

Symbolism

The use of symbols or objects to represent ideas beyond their literal meaning.

Tone

The overall attitude of a text reflecting the writer’s feelings towards the subject matter.

Juxtaposition

The placement of normally unassociated ideas next to one another to create surprise.

Antithesis

The rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words or clauses.

Zeugma

A figure of speech in which a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech where a part is put for the whole.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a word is substituted for something closely associated.

Synesthesia

A figure of speech where one sense is described in terms of another.

Apostrophe

A rhetorical figure in which the speaker addresses a dead or absent person or an inanimate object.

Epistrophe

Repetition at the end of successive clauses.

Parallelism

The use of successive verbal constructions that correspond in grammatical structure.