AP Shortened Vocab Terms
Ad hominem fallacy- A fallacy of logic in which a person's character or motive is attacked instead of that person's argument.
Allegory- A story in which the people, places, and things represent general concepts or moral qualities.
Allusion- A brief reference to a person, place, event, or passage in a work of literature or the Bible assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader.
Analogy- A comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple.
Anaphora- Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.
Anecdote- A short entertaining account of some happening, frequently personal or biographical.
Appeal to authority/credibility (ethos)- Citation of information from people recognized for their special knowledge of a subject for the purpose of strengthening a speaker or writer's arguments.
Argumentation- Exploration of a problem by investigating all sides of it; persuasion through reason
Asyndeton- Conjunctions are omitted, producing a fast pace and rapid prose.
Begging the question- A fallacy of logical argumentation that assumes as true the very thing that one is trying to prove.
Cause and effect- Examination of the causes and/or effects of a situation or phenomenon.
Classification as a means of ordering- Arrangement of objects according to class.
Colloquial expression- Words and phrases used in everyday speech but avoided in formal writing.
Concession- When you show an audience that you have anticipated potential opposition and objections, and have an answer for them, you diffuse the audience's ability to oppose you and persuade them to accept your point of view. If there are places where you agree with your opposition, which creates goodwill and respect without weakening your thesis.
Connotation- The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning
Deduction (deductive reasoning)- A form of reasoning that begins with a generalization, then applies the generalization to a specific case or cases; opposite to induction. We might begin with thinking up a theory about our topic of interest. We then narrow that down into more specific hypotheses that we can test. We narrow down even further when we collect observations to address the hypotheses. This ultimately leads us to be able to test the hypotheses with specific data- a confirmation (or not) of our original theories.
Denotation- The literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning.
Diction- A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning.
Didactic- Tone word; instructional, designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religious lesson.
Digression- A temporary departure from the main subject in speaking or writing.
Elegiac- Tone word; of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is a irrecoverably passed
Epigraph- A quotation set at the beginning of a literary work or one of its divisions to suggest its theme.
Euphemism- The use of a word or phrase that is less direct, but is also less distasteful or less offensive than another.
Expository writing- Writing that explains or analyzes.
False dilemma- A fallacy of logical argument which is committed when too few of the available alternatives are considered, and all but one are assessed and deemed impossible or unacceptable.
Figurative language / figures of speech- Language used to create a special effect or feeling; most commonly alliteration, hyperbole, metaphor, etc.
Hyperbole- An extravagant exaggeration of fact, used either for serious or comic effect.
Inductive reasoning- A form of reasoning which works from a body of fact to the formulation of a generalization; opposite to deduction; frequently used as the principal form of reasoning and science. Inductive moves from specific observations to broader generalizations and theories. Informally, we sometimes call this a “bottom-up” approach. We begin with specific observations and measures, begin to detect patterns and regularities, formulate some tentative hypotheses that we can explore, and finally end up developing some general conclusions or theories.
Invective- Of, relating to, or characterized by insult or abuse.
Inverted syntax- Reversing the normal word order of a sentence.
Irony- A method of humorous or sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of their usual meaning
Verbal irony- Stating the opposite of what is said or meant
Situational irony- What happens is the opposite of what is expected
Dramatic irony- The audience is aware of something that the characters on stage are not
Juxtaposition- Placing two or more things side by side for comparison or contrast.
Litotes- In rhetoric, a figure in which an affirmative is expressed by a negation of the contrary.
Metaphor- A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another by being spoken of as though it were that thing.
Metonymy- A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which is an attribute or with which is it associated.
Mood- The feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader
Motif- A recurring thematic element, especially a dominant idea or a central theme.
Non sequitir- A statement that does not follow logically from what preceded it
Oxymoron- A figure of speech in which contradictory terms or ideas are combined.
Parable- A short story from which a lesson may be drawn.
Parallelism- Using the same part of speech or synthetic structure in (1) each element of a series, (2) before and after coordinating conjunctions (and, but, yet, or, for, nor) and (3) after each of a pair of correlative conjunctions (not only, but also, neither, nor, both, and, etc)
Paradox- A statement which seems self-contradictory, but which may be true in fact.
Parody- A literary composition which imitates the characteristic style of a serious work or writer and uses its features to treat trivial, nonsensical material in an attempt at humor or satire
Personification- A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstract concept is endowed with human attributes.
Periodic sentence structure- A sentence written so that the full meaning cannot be understood until the end.
Point of view- The way in which something is viewed or considered by a writer or speaker; in fiction, it is a relationship assumed between the teller of a story and the characters in it, usually demonstrated by the author's use of either first or third person
Polysyndenton- The use of many conjunctions has the effect of slowing the pace or emphasizing the numerous words or clauses.
Post hoc fallacy- This fallacy of logic occurs when the writer assumes that an incident that precedes another is the cause of the secondary incident. The chronological order of events does not establish a cause-effect relationship
Pun- A humorous play on words
Rhetoric- The art of using words effectively and writing or speaking so as to influence or persuade
Rhetorical question- A question asked for rhetorical effect to emphasize a point, no answer being expected
Sarcasm- A type of irony in which a person appears to praise something but actually insults it; its purpose is to injure or hurt
Satire- A literary work in which vices, abuses, absurdities, etc. are held up to ridicule and contempt; use of ridicule, sarcasm, irony, etc. to expose vices, abuses, etc.
Simile- A figure of speech involving a comparison using like or as
Stream of consciousness- Technique that records the thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence; reflects all the forces, internal and external, affecting the character's psych at the moment
Syllogism- A form of reasoning in which two statements or premises are made and a logical conclusion is drawn from them; a form of deductive reasoning.
Symbol- Something that stands for another thing; frequently an object used to represent an abstraction.
Synecdoche- A type of metanomy, it is the rhetorical substitution of a part for the whole
Syntax- In grammar, the arrangement of words as elements in a sentence to show their relationship
Tone- Author's attitude toward the subject matter; the tone may be angry, matter of fact, pedantic, ironic, etc.
Understatement- Deliberately representing something as much less than it really is.
Vernacular- The characteristic language of a particular group (see also colloquialism); often slang or informal
Wit- A message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter