Part VII: Glossary, Princeton Review AP English Literature & Composition Prep, 2021

Noun: A person, place, thing, or idea (or an abstraction—for example, strength and determination are nouns).
Verb: An action word or a word that expresses a state of being.
Adjective: A word that modifies, describes, or limits a noun or pronoun.
Adverb: A word that modifies, describes, or limits a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. (In the phrase the profoundly nasty little poodle, nasty and little are adjectives, but profoundly is an adverb, as it modifies the adjective nasty.)
Preposition: A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. A preposition should not be the last word in a sentence in formal writing. A preposition is the first word of a prepositional phrase. The phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun. (Take, for instance, the phrase in the lake. In is the preposition and lake is the noun that ends the phrase.)
Pronoun: A word that replaces a noun. Words such as he, she, it, they, them, who, and that can replace a noun. The noun to which a pronoun refers is called the antecedent. You find the antecedent by looking back from the pronoun to the part of the passage immediately preceding the pronoun and looking at the nouns that are in those sentences. One of those nouns, either because it is the closest to the pronoun or because it makes the most sense in context, is the noun to which the pronoun refers.
Gerund: A word that serves two functions. It acts like a noun and it acts like a verb. Look at the following sentence. Swimming across the lake is fun. Swimming is the gerund.
Participle: A word that serves two functions. It acts like an adjective and it acts like a verb. Look how swimming is used in the following sentence. The girl, swimming across the lake, reminds me of my sister. In this case the word swimming is describing the girl and, therefore, is a participle.
Infinitive: A phrase that begins with the word to and is followed by a verb form. To swim is an infinitive. In the following sentence, to swim is the infinitive: To swim across the lake is fun. Infinitives function as verbs, but they can also function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS FOR THE AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION EXAM

We’ve put an asterisk (*) beside the handful of terms that you absolutely must know.

An abstract style (in writing) is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points.

As an adjective describing style, this word means dry and theoretical writing. When a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis, the writing is academic.

In poetry, accent refers to the stressed portion of a word. In “To be, or not to be,” accents fall on the first “be” and “not.” It sounds silly any other way. But accent in poetry is also often a matter of opinion. Consider the rest of the first line of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “That is the question.” The stresses in that portion of the line are open to a variety of interpretations.

Aesthetic can be used as an adjective meaning “appealing to the senses.” Aesthetic judgment is a phrase synonymous with artistic judgment. As a noun, an aesthetic is a coherent sense of taste. The kid whose room is painted black, who sleeps in a coffin, and listens only to funeral music has an aesthetic. The kid whose room is filled with pictures of kittens and daisies but who sleeps in a coffin and listens to polka music has a confused aesthetic. The plural noun, aesthetics, is the study of beauty. Questions like What is beauty? or Is the beautiful always good? fall into the category of aesthetics.

An allegory is a story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. Many fables have an allegorical quality. For example, Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper” isn’t merely the story of a hardworking ant and a carefree grasshopper, but is also a story about different approaches to living—the thrifty and the devil-may-care. It can also be read as a story about the seasons of summer and winter, which represent a time of prosperity and a time of hardship, or even as representing youth and age. True allegories are even more hard and fast. Bunyan’s epic poem, Pilgrim’s Progress, is an allegory of the soul, in which each and every part of the tale represents some feature of the spiritual world and the struggles of an individual to lead a Christian life.

The repetition of initial consonant sounds is called alliteration. In other words, consonant clusters coming closely cramped and compressed—no coincidence.

A reference to another work or famous figure is an allusion. A classical allusion is a reference to Greek and Roman mythology or literature such as The Iliad. Allusions can be topical or popular as well. A topical allusion refers to a current event. A popular allusion refers to something from popular culture, such as a reference to a television show or a hit movie.

The word anachronism is derived from Greek. It means “misplaced in time.” If the actor playing Brutus in a production of Julius Caesar forgets to take off his wrist-watch, the effect will be anachronistic (and probably comic).

An analogy is a comparison. Usually analogies involve two or more symbolic parts and are employed to clarify an action or a relationship. Just as the mother eagle shelters her young from the storm by spreading her great wing above their heads, so does Acme Insurers of America spread an umbrella of coverage to protect its policyholders from the storms of life.

The word, phrase, or clause that a pronoun refers to or replaces. In The principal asked the children where they were going, they is the pronoun and children is the antecedent.

In literature, when inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation, anthropomorphism is at work. For example, In the forest, the darkness waited for me, I could hear its patient breathing…Anthropomorphism is often confused with personification, which requires that the nonhuman quality or thing take on a human shape.

An anticlimax occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. Anticlimax is frequently comic. Sir, your snide manner and despicable arrogance have long been a source of disgust to me, but I’ve overlooked it until now. However, it has come to my attention that you have fallen so disgracefully deep into that mire of filth which is your mind as to attempt to besmirch my wife’s honor and my good name. Sir, I challenge you to a game of badminton!

A short and usually witty saying, such as “ ‘Classic’? A book which people praise and don’t read.”—Mark Twain.

The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. Authors sometimes use archaisms to create a feeling of antiquity. Tourist traps use archaisms with a vengeance, as in “Ye Olde Candle Shoppe”—Yeech!

Standard or clichéd character types, such as the drunk, the miser, and the foolish girl.

The act or process of analyzing evidence, drawing conclusions, and developing claims. Literary argumentation applies this process to literature.

A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage. (See soliloquy.)

The repeated use of vowel sounds, as in, “Old king Cole was a merry old soul.”

A speaker’s, author’s, or character’s nature toward or opinion of a subject. (See tone.)

A long, narrative poem usually in very regular meter and rhyme. A ballad typically has a naive folksy quality, a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry.

When writing strains for grandeur it can’t support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup, that’s bathos.

This is the use of disturbing themes in comedy. In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, the two tramps, Didi and Gogo, comically debate over which should commit suicide first and whether the branches of the tree will support their weight. This is black humor.

This is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. When one tries to be eloquent by using the largest, most uncommon words, one falls into bombast.

A burlesque is broad parody, one that takes a style or a form such as tragic drama and exaggerates it into ridiculousness. A parody usually takes on a specific work, such as Hamlet. For the purposes of the AP Exam, you can think of the terms parody and burlesque as interchangeable.

The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense. For example, iambic pentameter is the technical name for a rhythm. One sample of predominantly iambic pentameter verse could have a gentle, pulsing cadence, whereas another might have a conversational cadence, and still another might have a vigorous, marching cadence.

The name for a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to the way chapters divide a novel.

This is a term drawn from Aristotle’s writings on tragedy. Catharsis refers to the “cleansing” of emotion an audience member experiences having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage.

In literary terms, description, representations, or discussions of the features that make up an individual and represent who they are. Character can also refer to an individual in a play.

In drama, a chorus is the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it.

What a troublesome word! Don’t confuse classic with classical. Classic can mean typical, as in Oh, that was a classic blunder. It can also mean an accepted masterpiece, for example, Death of a Salesman. But, classical refers to the arts of ancient Greece and Rome and the qualities of those arts.

A coinage is a new word, usually one invented on the spot. People’s names often become grist for coinages, as in, Oh, man, you just pulled a major Wilson. Of course, you’d have to know Wilson to know what that means, but you can tell it isn’t a good thing. The technical term for coinage is neologism.

This is a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn’t a part of accepted “schoolbook” English. For example, I’m toast. I’m a crispy-critter man, and now I’ve got this wicked headache.

These two terms carry the similar meaning of suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words (image, idea, opposition); there are subtleties and variations; there are multiple layers of interpretation; the meaning is both explicit and implicit.

In poetry, conceit doesn’t mean stuck-up. It refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed and expanded upon over several lines. When the image dominates and shapes the entire work, it’s called a controlling image. A metaphysical conceit is reserved for metaphysical poems only.

The denotation of a word is its literal meaning. The connotations are everything else that the word suggests or implies. For example, in the phrase the dark forest, dark denotes a relative lack of light. The connotation is of danger, or perhaps mystery or quiet; we’d need more information to know for sure, and if we did know with complete certainty that wouldn’t be connotation, but denotation. In many cases, connotation eventually so overwhelms a word that it takes over the denotation. For example, livid is supposed to denote a dark purple-red color like that of a bruise, but it has been used so often in the context of extreme anger that many people have come to use livid as a synonym for enraged, rather than a connotative description of it.

The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings, which is alliteration). A flock of sick, black-checkered ducks.

In order to observe decorum, a character’s speech must be styled according to her social station and in accordance with the occasion. A bum should speak like a bum about bumly things, while a princess should speak only about higher topics (and in a delicate manner). In Neoclassical and Victorian literature, the authors observed decorum, meaning they did not write about the indecorous. The bum wouldn’t even appear in this genre of literature.

The items or parts that make up a larger picture or story. Writers can use details to bring their characters to life. Chaucer’s “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales is one example of how an author can use details to develop a character.

Various techniques used by poets to create sound imagery through specific word choice (e.g., rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia) to evoke an emotional response, clarify meaning, enhance the reader’s experience, and so on.

Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme. Limericks are a kind of doggerel.

A seemingly ideal world where the actual implementation of perfection is unsuccessful and destructive; opposite of utopia (see definition).

A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. Elegies often use the recent death of a noted person or loved one as a starting point. They also memorialize specific dead people.

This word is used constantly and with the assumption that you know exactly what it means—that is, the basic techniques of each genre of literature. For a quick refresher, here’s a short and sweet list for each genre:

The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.

In a broad sense, an epic is simply a very long narrative poem on a serious theme and in a dignified style. Epics typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter: a great war, a heroic journey, the Fall from Eden, a battle with supernatural forces, a trip into the underworld, and so on. The mock-epic is a parody form that deals with mundane events and ironically treats them as being worthy of epic poetry.

Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. An epitaph is usually a line or handful of lines, often serious or religious but sometimes witty and even irreverent.

The appeal to credibility; establishing common ground and trust with an audience.

A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. The use of passed away for died, and let go for fired are two examples of euphemisms.

Something said or written directly and clearly (this is a rare happening in literature because the whole game is to be “implicit”—that is, to suggest and imply).

Today we use this word to refer to extremely broad humor. Writers in earlier times used farce as a more neutral term, meaning simply a funny play; a comedy. (And you should know that for writers of centuries past, comedy was the generic term for any play; it did not imply humor.)

Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. A pair of lines ending with running and gunning would be an example of feminine rhyme. Properly, in a feminine rhyme (and not simply a double rhyme) the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed.

Writing that uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. Examples of figurative language include metaphor, simile, and irony.

A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. For example, an author will often give a cynical, quick-witted character a docile, naive, sweet-tempered friend to serve as a foil. Some classic examples include Benvolio and Tybalt or Gatsby and Tom.

The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry. A foot is formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed.

An event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later.

A subcategory of literature. Science fiction and detective stories are genres of fiction.

Gothic is the sensibility derived from dark novels. This form first showed up in the mid-18th century and has continued to woo audiences ever since. Think in terms of Poe, Shelley, even Stephen King. The dark and twisty stories are considered gothic in nature.

The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character’s downfall (another term from Aristotle’s discussion of tragedy).

An author’s use of figurative language, images, or sensory details that appeal to the reader’s senses (e.g., sight, sound, or touch). Imagery coupled with figures of speech (such as similes, metaphors, personification, and onomatopoeia) creates a vivid depiction of a scene that strikes as many of the reader’s senses as possible.

Something said or written that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. “Meaning” is definitely present but it’s in the imagery, or “between the lines.”

Latin for “in the midst of things.” One of the conventions of epic poetry is that the action begins in medias res. For example, when The Iliad begins, the Trojan war has already been going on for seven years.

Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. When done badly it can give a stilted, artificial, look-at-me-I’m-poetry feel to the verse, but poets do it all the time. This type of messing with syntax is called poetic license. I’ll have one large pizza with all the fixins—presto chango instant poetry: A pizza large I’ll have, one with the fixins all.

Placing two or more concepts, places, characters, or their actions together for the purpose of comparison or contrast.

A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss.

A loose sentence is complete before its end. A periodic sentence is not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase. (The term loose does not in any way imply that the sentences are slack or shoddy.)

A type of poetry that explores the poet’s personal interpretation of and feelings about the world (or the part that his poem is about). When the word lyric is used to describe a tone, it refers to a sweet, emotional melodiousness.

This is the big one, the one task you have to do all the time. You are discovering what makes sense, what’s important. There is literal meaning which is concrete and explicit, and there is metaphorical or abstract meaning.

A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. (It sounds dumb, but melodramatic movies make tons of money every year.)

A comparison between two relatively unlike ideas in which you call one thing something it’s not (e.g., the pond was his watery tomb—he died in the pond, but the pond itself isn’t actually a burial place).

A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with. For example, a herd of 50 cows could be called 50 head of cattle.

The methods employed in the telling of a story or an account. Examples of narrative techniques include point of view, manipulation of time, dialogue, and internal monologue.

An objective treatment of subject matter is an impersonal or outside view of events.

One of the most useful concepts in analyzing literature. It means that you have a pair of elements that contrast sharply. It is not necessarily “conflict” but rather a pairing of images (or settings or appeals, for example) whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it’s placed in contrast to the other one. This kind of opposition creates mystery and tension. Oppositions can be obvious. Oppositions can also lead to irony, but not necessarily so.

A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. Bright black. A calm frenzy. Jumbo shrimp. Dark light. A truthful lie.

A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself but on closer inspection does not.

Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. For example: I love fishing, swimming, and hiking. All parts of the list are grammatically sound, as opposed to the unparallel version, I love fishing, to swim, and a hike.

To restate phrases and sentences in your own words; to rephrase. Paraphrase is not analysis or interpretation, so don’t fall into the thinking that traps so many students. Paraphrasing is just a way of showing that you comprehend what you’ve just read—that you can now put it in your own words. No more, no less.

A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. Jack’s three dogs, including that miserable little spaniel, were with him that day.

A work that makes fun of another work by exaggerating many of its qualities to ridiculousness.

A created personality, reflective of the author; provides insight from a third person, not a first person, point of view.

Giving an inanimate object human qualities or form. The darkness of the forest became the figure of a beautiful, pale-skinned woman in night-black clothes.

The perspective from which the action of a novel (or narrative poem) is presented, whether the action is presented by one character or from different vantage points over the course of the novel. Be sensitive to point of view, because the AP Exam writers like to ask questions about it and also like you to mention point of view in your essays.

Related to point of view is the narrative form that a novel or story takes. There are a few common narrative positions:

The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings.

A question that suggests an answer. In theory, the effect of a rhetorical question is that it causes the listener to feel she has come up with the answer herself. For example, if someone is eating with their mouth open, smacking loudly, you might ask, “is it good?” You don’t actually expect an answer, but you convey your point that the smacking is annoying.

The devices used to create effective or persuasive language. Common examples of these techniques include contrast, repetition, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical questions.

A form of humor that focuses on making fun of society through witty, sometimes dark social commentary; taking things that should be funny and picking on them in a way that raises awareness to ridiculousness and societal frustrations (think SNL, Family Guy, and slapstick comedies like Scary Movie or Step Brothers).

The physical location of a play, story, or novel, which often includes information about time and place. The setting can also provide background information to a story.

A comparison between two relatively unlike ideas using like or as (e.g., her hair is as bright as the sun—we all know that the sun is yellow; therefore, we can deduce that her hair is blonde).

A speech given by one character alone on stage in which the character expresses his/her thoughts or feelings.

A group of lines in verse, roughly analogous in function to the paragraph in prose.

The way in which a work is arranged or divided. Structure can also refer to the relationship between the parts of a work and the work as a whole. The most common principles of structure are series (A, B, C, D, E), contrast (A versus B, C versus D, E versus A), and repetition (AA, BB, AB). The most common units of structure in plays are scene and act; in novels, chapter; and in poems, line and stanza.

The manner in which an author writes, which can distinguish him or her from another writer. Examples of style include expository, argumentative, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative. Style also refers to the technique(s) writers employ as their mode of expression. Examples of these techniques include diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery, selection of detail, sound effects, tone, and voice.

A subjective treatment uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer’s emotional responses.

If I were you, I’d learn this one! That’s a small joke because the grammatical situation involves the words “if” and “were.” What you do is set up a hypothetical situation, a kind of wishful thing: if I were you, if he were honest, if she were rich. You can also get away from the person and into the “it”: I wish it were true, would it were so (that even sounds like Shakespeare and poetry). Go to line 111 on this page for the example: “Were one not already the Duke….”

To imply, entail, and/or indicate. This is another one of those basic tools of literature. It goes along with the concept of implicit. As the reader, you have to do all the work to pull out the meaning.

A simple retelling of what you’ve just read. It’s mechanical, superficial, and a step beyond the paraphrase in that it covers much more material and is more general. You can summarize a whole chapter or a whole story, whereas you paraphrase word-by-word and line-by-line. Summary hits the highlights of a piece without revealing all of the facts.

The demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with imagination. Also, the acceptance on an audience’s or reader’s part of the incidents of plot in a play or story. If there are too many coincidences or improbable occurrences, the viewer/reader can no longer suspend disbelief and subsequently loses interest.

Contracting, or shortening, a word by removing internal sounds, syllables, or letters and inserting an apostrophe; or by dropping unstressed vowels, letters, syllables, or consonants from the middle of a word and replacing with an apostrophe. Examples include “heav’n,” “ev’ry,” and “fail’d” in Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On the Death of J.C. an Infant” (see this page).

Sentence structure; the way in which words and phrases are structured to create meaning.

The methods, the tools, the “how-she-does-it” ways of the author. The elements are not techniques. In poetry, onomatopoeia is a technique within the element of rhythm. In drama, blocking is a technique, as is lighting. Concrete details are not techniques, but tone is. Main idea is not a technique, but opposition is.

The main idea or central insight into life or human nature revealed through a literary work.

The main position of an argument. The central contention that will be supported. The guiding statement that reveals an argument’s purpose/goal; essentially a contract with a reader that lets him/her know exactly what you plan to discuss or prove in an essay.

The manner in which an author expresses his or her attitude about a subject. Writers convey tone through the use of many devices, such as word choice/diction. (See attitude.)

In a tragedy, this is the weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise.

An idealized place. Imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity, and peace. Several works of fiction have been written about utopias.

The use of a word to modify two or more words but used for different meanings. He closed the door and his heart on his lost love.

Part VII

Glossary

GLOSSARY OF BASIC PARTS OF SPEECH

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS FOR THE AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION EXAM