Dr Z Test Lit Terms

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Ad Hominem Argument

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from the latin meaning "to or against the man," this is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, to feeling rather than intellect.

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Allegory

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The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning.

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Alliteration

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

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Allusion

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A direct or indirect reference to something that is presumably commonly known, such as an event,book,myth, place or work of art.

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Ambiguity

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The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, or a word, phase, sentence or passage

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Analogy

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A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar.

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Antecedent

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

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Antithesis

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

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Aphorism

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A terse statement of known authorship that expresses a general truth or moral principle. A aphorism can be a memorable situation of the author's point

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Apostrophe

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A terse statement of know authorship that expresses a general truth of moral principle.

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Atmosphere

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The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described

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Caricature

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A representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.

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Chiasmus

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A figure of speech based on inverted parallelism. It is a rhetorical figure in which two clauses are related to each another through a reversal of terms.

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Clause

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A grammatical unit that contains voth a subject and a verb. Independent = sentence while dependent = cannot be a sentence and must be with a independent clause

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Colloquialism

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Slang or informality in speech or writing.

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Conceit

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A fanciful expression, usually in the form of a extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.

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Connotation

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

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Denotation

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The strict,literal, dictionary definition of the word,devoid of any emotion attitude or color.

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diction

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related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially regard to their correctness, clearness or effectiveness

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didactic

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Instructive. didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing.

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Euphemism

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Are more agreeble or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

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Extended metaphor

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A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.

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Figurative Language

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Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative.

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Figure of speech

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A device used to produce figurative language. many compare dissimilar things.

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Generic conventions

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This term describes traditions for each genre. Help to define each genre.

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Genre

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The major category into which a literary term fits.