AP English Language and Composition Exam Glossary

Glossary of Important Terms for the AP English Language and Composition Exam

Rhetorical Figures & Stylistic Devices

Chiasmus

  • Definition: A figure of speech based on inverted parallelism. It's a rhetorical figure where two clauses relate to each other through a reversal of terms.

  • Purpose: Usually to make a larger point or to provide balance or order.

  • Classical Rhetoric: Parallel structures did not repeat words.

    • Example: Alexander Pope's Essay on Man: "His time a moment, and a point his space."

  • Contemporary Standards: Allow for repeated words.

    • Example: John F. Kennedy's inaugural address: "…ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country."

Conceit

  • Definition: A fanciful expression, typically an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

  • Characteristic: Displays intellectual cleverness due to the unusual comparison.

Extended Metaphor

  • Definition: A metaphor developed at great length, recurring frequently throughout a work.

  • Relation: See metaphor (implied by the source, though metaphor is not explicitly defined in this excerpt).

Euphemism

  • Etymology: From Greek, meaning "good speech."

  • Definition: A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

  • Purpose: May be used to adhere to standards of social or political correctness, or to add humor or ironic understatement.

    • Example: Saying "earthly remains" instead of "corpse."

Figurative Language

  • Definition: Writing or speech not intended to carry literal meaning; usually meant to be imaginative and vivid.

  • Relation: See figure of speech.

Figure of Speech

  • Definition: A device used to produce figurative language.

  • Characteristic: Many compare dissimilar things.

  • Examples: Apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement.

Alliteration

  • Definition: The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds, in two or more neighboring words.

    • Example: "She sells sea shells."

  • AP Exam Relevance: The term is not typically used in the multiple-choice section, but you can look for it in essay passages.

  • Effects: Can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, and/or supply a musical sound.

Allusion

  • Definition: A direct or indirect reference to something presumably commonly known (e.g., event, book, myth, place, work of art).

  • Types: Historical (e.g., Hitler), literary (e.g., Kurtz in Heart of Darkness), religious (e.g., Noah and the flood), mythical (e.g., Atlas).

  • Characteristic: A work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion.

Analogy

  • Definition: A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.

  • Purpose: To explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar; to make writing more vivid, imaginative, and intellectually engaging.

Antithesis

  • Definition: A figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure.

  • Purpose: The resulting parallelism emphasizes the opposition of ideas.

    • Examples: "Man proposes, God disposes." and John Dryden's: "Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell."

Aphorism

  • Definition: A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle.

  • Distinction: If authorship is unknown, it's generally considered a folk proverb.

  • Purpose: Can be a memorable summation of the author's point.

Apostrophe

  • Definition: A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction (e.g., liberty or love).

  • Effect: May add familiarity or emotional intensity.

    • Example: William Wordsworth addressing John Milton: "Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee."

Caricature

  • Definition: A representation (pictorial or literary) in which a subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.

  • Potential: Can sometimes be so exaggerated it becomes a grotesque imitation or misrepresentation.

  • Synonymous Words: Burlesque, parody, travesty, satire, lampoon.

Grammatical & Structural Terms

Clause

  • Definition: A grammatical unit containing both a subject and a verb.

  • Independent (Main) Clause: Expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

  • Dependent (Subordinate) Clause: Cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.

    • Example Sentence: "Because I practiced hard, my AP scores were high."

      • Independent Clause: "my AP scores were high"

      • Dependent Clause: "Because I practiced hard."

Antecedent

  • Definition: The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.

  • AP Exam Relevance: Occasionally asks for the antecedent of a given pronoun in complex sentences or groups of sentences.

Word Meaning & Choice

Connotation

  • Definition: The nonliteral, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning.

  • Involvement: May involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes.

  • Relation: See denotation.

Denotation

  • Definition: The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color.

  • Relation: See connotation.

Diction

  • Definition: Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, particularly concerning their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

  • AP Exam Considerations:

    • You should be able to describe an author's diction (e.g., formal or informal, ornate or plain).

    • Understand how diction complements the author's purpose.

  • Creation of Style: Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, and so on, creates an author's style.

  • Important Note for Essays:

    • This term frequently appears in essay questions.

    • Avoid redundant phrases in your thesis like, "The author uses diction…" (This is akin to saying, "A painter uses paints to paint.").

    • At least try to use an adjective to describe it, such as "stark diction" or "flowery and soft diction."

  • Relation: See syntax (implied by the source, though syntax is not explicitly defined in this excerpt).

Ambiguity

  • Definition: The multiple meanings (either intentional or unintentional) of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.

Genre & Literary Forms

Generic Conventions

  • Definition: Describes traditions specific to each genre. These conventions help define and differentiate genres (e.g., an essay from journalistic writing, or an autobiography from political writing).

  • AP Exam Application: Try to distinguish the unique features of a writer's work from those dictated by convention.

Genre

  • Definition: The major category into which a literary work fits.

  • Basic Divisions: Prose, poetry, and drama.

  • Flexibility: "Genre" is a flexible term; within these broad categories exist many subdivisions often called genres themselves.

    • Prose Subdivisions: Fiction (novels, short stories) or nonfiction (essays, biographies, autobiographies, etc.).

    • Poetry Subcategories: Lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic, and so on.

Allegory

  • Definition: A device using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning.

  • Characteristic: Authors may intend characters to personify an abstraction (like hope or freedom).

  • Meaning: The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence.

Tone, Mood, & Purpose

Colloquialism

  • Definition: Slang or informality in speech or writing.

  • Acceptability: Generally not acceptable for formal writing.

  • Effect: Gives work a conversational, familiar tone.

  • Inclusion: Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.

Didactic

  • Etymology: From Greek, literally meaning "instructive."

  • Definition: Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing.

  • Focus: Especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.

Atmosphere

  • Definition: The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work.

  • Establishment Factors: Partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects described (e.g., weather descriptions).

  • Effect: Frequently foreshadows events.

  • Relation: See mood (implied by the source, though mood is not explicitly defined in this excerpt).

Argumentation Terms (for Multiple-Choice and Essay Sections)

Ad hominem argument

  • Etymology: From Latin, meaning "to or against the man."

  • Definition: An argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, to feeling rather than intellect.