AP Lang Literary Terms

Allusion

Allusion

a reference to a biblical, mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing

Diction

a speaker’s choice of words. Analysis of diction looks at these choices and what they add to the speaker’s message

Alliteration

 repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence

Anaphora

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Connotation

 meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations are often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone.

Denotation

the dictionary definition of a word

Imagery

descriptive details; passages that stir emotion by appealing to the senses (e.g. visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory, tactile). Imagery may use literal or figurative language to appeal to the senses.

Figurative Language (Figures of Speech)

non-literal language, sometimes referred to as tropes or metaphorical language, often evoking strong imagery and/or figures of speech to compare one thing to another either explicitly (simile) or implicitly (metaphor). Other forms of figurative language include personification, paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.

Analogy

a comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Often, an analogy uses something simple or familiar to explain something unfamiliar or complex.

Faulty analogy

a fallacy that occurs when an analogy compares two things that are not comparable. For instance, to argue that because we put animals who are in irreversible pain out of their misery, so we should do the same for people, asks the reader to ignore significant and profound differences between animals and people.

Hyperbole

deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike

Oxymoron

 a paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words (giant shrimp)

Personification

 a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, object, or concept

Irony

a figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity

Satire

the use of irony or sarcasm to critique society or an individual

Simile

a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike (“like,” “as,” “than”)

Understatement

 a figure of speech in which something is presented as less important, dire, urgent, good, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect. Opposite of Hyperbole.

Rhetoric

Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” In other words, it is the art of finding ways of persuading an audience.

Rhetorical appeals

rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion)

Ethos

Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.

Logos

Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.

Pathos

Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.

Rhetorical situation

Exigence, Audience, Purpose

Audience

the listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple audiences.

Context

the circumstances, atmosphere, and events surrounding a text

Mood

the feeling or atmosphere created by a text

Occasion

the time and place a speech is given or a piece is written

Persona

Greek for “mask.” The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience

Purpose

 the goal the speaker wants to achieve

Speaker

 the person or group who creates a text

Subject

the topic of a text; what the text is about

Tone

a speaker’s attitude toward the subject conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices

Syntax

 the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order (subject-verb-object, for instance, or an inverted structure); the length and structure of sentences (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex); and such schemes as parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, and antimetabole

Juxtaposition

placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences

Parallelism

similarity of structure in a pair of series of related words, phrases, or clauses