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Phrases to be used in the analysis of language means

The use of (colloquial English; this metaphor…) helps to (make the scene and characters vivid and lifelike; to create local colouring…).

The use of (archaic words) adds to (the solemn atmosphere created by the description; the concreteness of the description; the humorous effect…).

The use of this word deserves special attention in the text because (its primary meaning interplays with its meaning in the text…).

The choice of epithets reveals (the narrator’s ironic attitude to the character…).

All these verb metaphors are aimed at (revealing his state of mind, his irresolution…).

The contrast between the two men is revealed through various means, such as…

The irony is made more palpable and concrete by means of (an incoherent and disorderly enumeration of subjects taught at the University…).

The image of (a cat crouching under a table…) suggests analogy with (the character’s two-fold and contradictory feelings…).

The mood is conveyed by… this effect is enhanced by … These words convey the impression of …

The preponderance of verbs in the narration contributes to (suspense…). The following words (phrases, sentences) suggest (underlying threat and mistrust; the character’s apprehension).

Even the names of the characters and places contribute to the general tenor/ tone of the story.

This parallel construction helps to bring out 9the intensity of their feelings…).

The impression of (solemnity) produced by these words clashes with the meaning of the last sentence which is not at all solemn.

It makes the episodes humorous.

The author’s meditations on this subject are expressed in the following lines…

These lines refer to …

These lines have broader implication that might appear at first glance.

Laconic phrases, simple constructions make the story more dynamic. This epithet testifies not merely to her attractive appearance but also to her wide range of talents.

All these language means point to (a deep misunderstanding between these two people; their incompatible outlooks on life…).

This metaphor is of great significance as it conveys the writer’s message.

Glossary of terms

Abstract The opposite to concrete; used to describe a word or group of words representing attitudes generalities, ideas, or qualities that cannot be apprehended directly through the senses. The language of philosophy and science tends to be abstract.

Accent Used in English poetry to describe the stress or emphasis accorded to certain syllables. When a pronounced syllable receives no stress or emphasis, it is, by contrast, referred to as unaccented. In English poetry, meter depends on the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables.

Act A major division of a play; sometimes subdivided into a number of separate scenes.

Allegory A literary work in which characters, events, and often settings combine to convey another complete level of meaning.

Alliteration Repetition of the same consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words:

“Should the glee – glaze-

In Death’s – stiff – stare-“

(Emily Dickinson)

Alliterative verse A metrical system in which each line contains a fixed number of accented syllables and a various number of unaccented ones.

Allusion An indirect reference to some character or event in literature, history or mythology that enriches the meaning of the passage: In Eliot’s poem, The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, the persona says: “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be”, suggesting that he lacks Hamlet’s nobility.

Anachronism A person or thing that is chronically out of place.

Anapest A foot of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one.

Animism A poetic figure of speech in which an idea or inanimate object is described as though it were living, without attributing human traits to it; see also personification.

Antagonist The character (or a force such as war or poverty) in a drama, poem, or work of fiction whose actions oppose those of the protagonist (the main character).

Anticlimax A trivial event following immediately after significant events.

Antihero A protagonist whose distinctive qualities are directly opposite to, or incompatible with, those associated with the traditional hero. Such an opposition by no means implies that the character is evil or villainous but often tends to reflect the author’s belief that modern life no longer tolerates or produces individuals capable of genuine heroism, in its classic sense.

Apostrophe A poetic figure of speech in which a personification is addressed:

“You sea! I resign myself to you also –

I guess what you mean.”

(Walt Whitman)

Archaism An obsolete word or phrase.

Archetype A recurring character-type, plot, symbol or theme of universal significance: the blind prophet figure, the journey to the underworld, the sea as source of life, the initiation theme.

Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds within syllables:

“On desperate seas long wont to roam”

(Edgar Allan Poe)

Blank Verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter, the line that most closely resembles speech in English:

“When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.”

(Robert Frost)

Burlesque A form of humour that ridicules persons, attitudes, actions, or things by means of distortion and exaggeration. Burlesque of a particular literary work of style is referred to as parody. Carricuture, on the other hand, creates humour by distorting or exaggerating an individual’s prominent physical features; see also Satire.

Catastrophe A form of conclusion (or denouement), usually tragic in its outcome.

Chance and Coincidence Chance refers to events or “happenings” within a plot that occur without sufficient preparation; coincidence to the accidental occurrence of two (or more) events that have a certain correspondence.

Character An individual within a literary work.

Characterization The process by which an author creates, develops, and presents a character.

Chronological order The presentation of events according to the time they occur.

Climax (or Crisis) The point toward which the action of a plot builds as the conflicts become increasingly more intense or complex; the turning point.

Closed Plot Structure The structure of the plot having all the elements of it as clearly discernable parts (i.e. exposition, complication, climax, denouement, ending).

Closet Drama A drama written to be read rather than staged and acted.

Coherence In good writing, the orderly, logical relationship among the many parts – the smooth moving forward of ideas through clearly related sentences. Also see Unity.

Comic Relief A comic scene introduced into an otherwise serious or tragic fictional or dramatic work, usually to relieve, if only momentarily, the tension of the plot; often heightens, by contrast, the emotional intensity of the work.

Complication A rising action of a plot during which the conflicts build toward the climax.

Composition The interrelation between different components of the plot.

Conceit A highly imaginative, often startling, figure of speech drawing on analogy between two unlike things in an ingenious way:

“In this sad state, God’s tender bowels run

Out streams of grace …….”

(Edward Taylor)

Confidant/ Confidante The individual, often a minor character, to whom a major character reveals, or “confesses”, his or her most private thoughts and feelings. Authors and playwrights use the confidant as a device to communicate necessary information to the reader and audience.

Conflict The struggle between opposing characters or forces that causes tension or suspense in the plot.

Connotation The associations that attach themselves to many words, deeply affecting their literal meaning (i.e., haze, smog; female parent, mother).

Consonance Close repetition of the same consonant sounds preceded by different vowel sounds (slip, slap, slop). At the end of lines of poetry, this pattern produces half-rhyme.

Controlling Image In a short story, novel, play, or poem, an image that recurs and carries such symbolic significance that it embodies the theme of the work, as the wallpaper does in Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper, as the thunderstorm does in Chopin’s The Storm, as the General’s pistols do in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, as the grass does in Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Criticism The description, analysis, interpretation, or evaluation of a literary work of art.

Denotation The literal meaning of a word.

Denouement Literally, the “untying”; the resolution of the conflicts following the climax (or crisis) of a plot.

Dialogue The conversation that goes on between or among characters in a literary work.

Diction Choice of words in writing or speaking.

Dramatic Monologue A poem consisting of a self-revealing speech delivered by one person to a silent listener; for instance, Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess.

Empathy Literally, “feeling in”, the emotional identification that a reader or an audience feels with a character.

Epic A long narrative poem, elevated and dignified in theme, tone and style, celebrating heroic deeds and historically (at times cosmically) important events; usually focuses on the adventures of a hero who has qualities that are superhuman or divine and on whose fate very often depends the destiny of tribe, a nation, or even the whole of the human race.

Epigraph A quotation at the beginning of a poem, novel, play, or essay that suggests the theme of the work.

Epilogue The concluding section of a literary work, usually a play, in which loose threads are tied together or a moral is drawn.

Epiphany A moment of insight for a character, in which the light of truth suddenly dawns.

Episode In a narrative, a unified sequence of events, in Greek Drama, the action between choruses.

Epistolary Novel A type of novel in which the narrative is carried on by means of a series of letters.

Euphony and Cacophony Euphony describes language that is harmonious, smooth, and pleasing to the ear. Harsh, nonharmonious, and discordant language is cacophony; cacophony is also referred to as dissonance.

Explication A line-by-time commentary and interpretation based on a close reading of a scene or a short literary work.

Exposition That part of a plot devoted to supplying background information, explaining events that happened before the current action.

Fable A story, usually using symbolic characters and settings, designed to teach a lesson.

Falling Action In classical dramatic structure, the part of a play after the climax, in which the consequences of the conflict are revealed. Also see denouement.

False Rhyme Rhyme pairing the sounds of accented and unaccented syllables.

Fantasy A work of fiction that deliberately sets aside everyday reality.

Farce A type of comedy which achieves its effect through ridiculous and exaggerated situations, broad, often crude, verbal humour, and various kinds of buffoonery and physical horseplay.

Figurative Language Language used imaginatively and nonliterally. It is composed of such figures of speech (or tropes) as metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, apostrophe, hyperbole, symbol, irony, and paradox.

Fiction A prose narrative that is the product of imagination.

Flashback Part of a narrative that interrupts the chronological flow by relating events from the past.

Flat Character In contrast to a well-developed round character, a flat one is stereotyped or shallow, not seeming as complex as real people.

Foil A character, usually a minor one, who emphasizes the qualities of another one through implied comparison and contrast between the two.

Foot The basic metrical or rhythmical unit within a line of poetry. A foot of poetry generally consists of an accented syllable and one or more unaccented syllables arranged in a variety of patterns. See Scansion.

Foreshadowing Early clues about what will happen later in a narrative or play.

Formal Writing The highest level of usage, in which no contractions, fragments, or slang are used.

Form A term used either as a synonym for literary genre or type, or to describe the essential organizing structure of a work of art.

Free Verse Poetry that does not have regular rhythm, rhyme, or standard form.

Free Writing Writing without regard to coherence or correctness, intended to relax the writer and produce ideas for further writing.

Genre A classification of literature: drama, novel, novella, short story, poem.

Hero The character intended to engage most fully the audience’s or reader’s sympathies and admiration.

High Comedy and Low Comedy A type of highly verbal comedy whose appeal is mainly intellectual and sophisticated, often with a basic seriousness of purpose, is high comedy (e.g., a comedy of manners). Low comedy is casual and conversational in tone and sometimes ungrammatical and colloquial.

Historical Criticism Seeks to understand and explain a literary work in terms of the author’s life and the historical context and circumstances in which it was written.

Hyperbole A purposeful exaggeration.

Identical Rhyme Rhyme achieved through the repetition of the same word or two words that have the same sound but spelled differently and have different meanings.

Image/ Imagery Passages or words that appeal to the senses.

Incongruity A word, phrase, or idea that is out of keeping, inconsistent, or inappropriate in its context.

Informal Writing The familiar, everyday level of usage, which includes contractions and perhaps slang but precludes nonstandard grammar and punctuation.

Initiation Story Commonly used to describe a narrative focusing on a young person’s movement from innocence toward maturity as a result of experience.

In Medias Res Latin for a narrative that begins “in the middle of things”.

Internal Rhyme The occurrence of similar sounds within the lines of a poem rather than just at the ends of lines.

Intrigue A scheme that one character devises to entrap another, thus providing impetus for the plot.

Irony Incongruity between expectation and actuality. Verbal irony involves a discrepancy between the words spoken and the intended meaning, as in sarcasm. Dramatic irony involves the difference between what a character believes true and what the better informed reader or audience knows to be true. Situational irony involves the contrast between how something appears and ho wit really is.

Jargon The specialized words and expressions belonging to certain professions, sports, hobbies, or social groups. Sometimes any tangled and incomprehensible prose is called jargon.

Juxtaposition The simultaneous presentation of two conflicting images or ideas, designed to make a point of the contrast: for example, and elaborate and well-kept church surrounded by squalorous slums.

Limerick A light, humorous verse form composed of five anapestic lines, rhyming AABBA; lines one, two, and five contain three feet (trimeter), lines three and four contain two (dimeter).

Literal Accurate, exact and concrete language, i.e. nonfigurative language. See figurative language.

Literary Present Use of present-tense verbs to write about events occurring in a poem, story, play, novel, or film.

Locale See Setting.

Logical Order Arrangement of points and ideas according to some reasonable principle or scheme.

Lyric A poem that primarily expresses emotion.

Masculine and Feminine Rhyme The two most common kinds of end rhyme. Masculine end rhyme, predominant in English poetry, consists of accented words of one syllable or polysyllabic words where the final syllable is accented. Feminine rhyme (or double rhyme) consists of rhyming words of two syllables in which the accent falls on the first syllable. A variation of feminine rhyme, called triple rhyme, occurs when there is a correspondence of sound in the final three syllables, an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones.

Melodrama In its original Greek sense, a “melodrama” meant a play with music (melos means “song”). But by the mid-nineteenth century the term had become synonymous with a highly conventionalized type of sensationalistic play putting stereotypic hero and villain against one another in a series of suspense-ridden, emotion-charged, and violence-filled scenes. The term melodramatic is used generally to describe sensational, emotional, and action-oriented writing, e.g., the cowboy western or the gothic novel.

Metaphor A figure of speech that makes an imaginative comparison between two literary unlike things:

“New York is a sucked orange.”

(R.W.Emerson)

Metonymy A figure of speech in which the name for an object or idea is applied to another with which it is closely associated or of which it is a part.

Mixed Metaphor Two or more metaphors combined together in such a way as to be incongruous, illogical, or even ludicrous.

Monologue An extended speech delivered by a single speaker, alone or in the presence of others. In a genetral sense, asides, dramatic monologues, and soliloquies are types of monologues. When the monologue serves to reveal a character’s internal thoughts and feelings, it is sometimes referred to as an interior monologue.

Mood The emotional content of a scene or setting, usually described in terms of feeling: somber, gloomy, joyful, expectant. Also see Tone.

Motif A pattern of identical or similar images recurring throughout a passage or entire work.

Motive The cause that moves a character to act.

Myth A traditional story involving deities and heroes, usually expressing and inculcating the established values of a culture.

Narrative A story line in prose a verse.

Narrative Poem A poem that tells a story

Narrative Technique The author’s methods of presenting or telling a story

Narrator The person who tells the story to the audience or readers.

Novel The name generally applied to any long fictional prose narrative.

Novelette A longish prose narrative, not long enough to be regarded as a novel but too long to be short story.

Onomatopoeia A word that sounds like what it names: whoosh, clang, babble.

Open Plot Structure The structure of the plot without a certain element (exposition, complication, climax, denouement or ending).

Oxymoron A single phrase that juxtaposes opposite terms: the lonely crowd, a roaring silence.

Parable A story designed to demonstrate a principle or lesson using symbolic characters, details and plot lines.

Paradox An apparently contradictory statement that nonetheless makes sense:

“Time held me green and dying”

(Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill)

Parody An imitation of a piece of writing, copying some features such as diction, style, and form, but changing or exaggerating other features for humorous effect.

Pathos The quality in a literary work that evokes a feeling of pity, tenderness and sympathy from the reader or audience. Overdone or misused pathos becomes mere sentimentality.

Persona The person created by the writer to be the speaker of the poem or story. The persona is not usually identical to the writer: for example, a personally optimistic writer could create a cynical persona to narrate a story.

Personification Giving human qualities to nonhuman things:

“Rain come down, give this dirty town a drink of water.”

(Dire Straits)

Plot A series of casually related events or episodes that occur in a narrative or play.

Point of View The angle of perspective from which a story is reported and interpreted. An omniscient or shifting point of view, which may include the author’s comments on the action, presents the story through a combination of characters, shifting from one person’s thoughts to another’s. An objective or dramatic point of view presents the story directly, as a play does, using only external actions, speech, and gestures. A central point of view tells the story through the voice of a central character and is often presented as a first-person account. A peripheral point of view uses a minor character to tell the story. Both central and peripheral points of view are considered limited omniscient because they give only one character’s perceptions. Also see Narrator and Tone.

Polemic A work vigorously setting forth the author’s point of view, usually on a controversial subject.

Preface The author’s or editor’s introduction, in which the writer states his or her purposes and assumptions and makes any acknowledgements.

Prelude A short poem introducing a longer one.

Précis Summing up of the content-factual information of a literary work, usually consists of 90-100 words.

Prologue A prefatory statement or speech beginning a literary work, usually a play, preparing the audience for what is to follow. See Epilogue and Preface.

Prosody The description and study of the underlying principles of poetry, e.g., its meter, rhyme and stanzaic form.

Protagonist The main character in drama or fiction, sometimes called the hero.

Pun A verbal joke based on the similarity of sound between words that have different meanings: “They went and told the sexton and the sexton tolled the bell.” (Thomas Hood)

Recognition Scene The moment in a fictional or dramatic work in which one of the characters makes an important (and often decisive) discovery that determines his or her subsequent course of action.

Represented Speech The shift from the author’s narrative into the character’s utterance. It is usually inserted into the narrative by the verbs of utterance and mental perception.

Resolution The final section of the plot in which the major conflict, issue or problem is resolved; also referred to as the conclusion or denouement.

Reversal The protagonist’s change of fortune.

Rhyme Similar or identical sounds between words, usually the end sounds in lines of verse (brain/ strain; liquor/ quicker).

Rhyme Scheme The pattern of end rhymes within a given stanza of poetry.

Rhythm and Meter Rhythm is the general term given to measured repetition of accent or beat in units of poetry or prose. In English poetry rhythm is generally established manipulating both the pattern of accent and the number of syllables in a given line. Meter refers to the predominant rhythmic pattern within any given line (or lines) of poetry.

Rising Action The complication and development of the conflict leading to the climax in a plot.

Round Character A literary character with sufficient complexity to be convincing, true to life.

Sarcasm A form of verbal irony that presents caustic and bitter disapproval in the guise of praise. Also see Irony.

Satire Literary expression that uses humour and wit to attack and expose human folly and weakness. A type of writing that holds up persons, ideas or things to varying degrees of amusement, ridicule, or contempt in order, presumably, to improve, correct or bring about some desirable change. Also see Parody.

Scene A self-contained segment of work of fiction or drama; also used as a synonym for setting.

Setting The time and place in which a story, play, or novel occurs.

Short Story A short work of narrative prose fiction. The distinction between the short story and novel is mainly one of length.

Simile A verbal comparison in which a similarity is expressed directly, using like or as (“houses leaning together like conspirators”, James Joyce).

Soliloquy A speech in which a dramatic character reveals what is going through her mind by talking aloud to herself. Also see Dramatic Monologue.

Speaker The voice or person presenting a poem.

Standard English The language that is written and spoken by most educated persons.

Stanza A group of lines forming a structural unit or division of a poem. Stanzas may be strictly formal units established and patterned (with possible variation) by the similarity of the number and length of their lines, by their meter and rhyme schemes, or as logical units, determined by their thought or content.

Stilted Language Words and expressions that are too formal for the writing situation; unnatural, artificial language.

Stock Situation A situation or incident that occurs so frequently in literature as to become at once familiar: e.g., the family feud, the missing heir, the love triangle, the case of mistaken identity.

Stream of Consciousness The narrative method of capturing and representing the inner workings of a character’s mind.

Structure The general plan, framework, or form of a piece of writing.

Style The author’s characteristic manner of expression; style includes the author’s diction, syntax, sentence patterns, punctuation, spelling, as well as the use made of such devices as sound, rhythm, imagery and figurative language.

Subplot A minor complication which relates to the major plot but is not the main focus of the action.

Suspense The psychological tension or anxiety resulting from the reader’s or audience’s uncertainty of just how a situation or conflict is likely to end.

Syllabic Meter A metrical system (common to Japanese verse but rather rare in English) in which units are measured by the number of syllables in a line.

Symbol Something that suggests or stands for an idea, quality, or concept larger than itself; the lion is a symbol of courage; a voyage or journey can symbolize life; water suggest spirituality; dryness the lack thereof.

Synecdoche A figure of speech in which the part is used to signify the whole or, less frequently, the whole is used to signify the part.

Synesthesia Figurative language in which one sense impression is described in terms of another: “hot pink” or “blue uncertain stumbling buzz”

Synopsis A summary or resume of a piece of writing.

Syntax Sentence structure; the relationship between words and among word groups in sentences.

Theme The central or dominating idea conveyed by a literary work.

Tone The attitude a writer conveys toward his or her subject and audience. In poetry this attitude is sometimes called voice.

Tragedy A serious drama that relates the events in the life of a protagonist, or tragic hero, whose error in judgement, dictated by a tragic flaw, results in the hero’s downfall and culminates in catastrophe. In less classical terms, any serious drama, novel, or short story which ends with the death or defeat of the main character may be called tragic.

Tragicomedy A type of drama (most often associated with Elizabethan and Jacobean drama) that mixes the conventions of tragedy and comedy and in which the protagonist, although subject to a series of crises (often including the thereat of death), manages to escape to celebrate a happy (and frequently highly contrived) ending.

Tragic Flaw The principal defeat in character or judgement that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero. In tragedy this flaw is often hubris, the hero’s excessive pride or self-confidence.

Tragic Hero The name given to the protagonist of a tragedy.

Trope Another name for Figure of Speech.

Type Character A literary character who embodies a number of traits that are common to a particular group or class of people (a rebellious daughter, a stern father, a jealous lover).

Unity The fitting together or agreement of all elements in a piece of writing. Also see Coherence.

Unreliable Narrator A viewpoint character who presents a biased or erroneous report that may mislead or distort a reader’s judgements about other characters and actions; sometimes the unreliable narrator may be self-deceived.

Versimilitude The appearance of truth or actuality in a literary work.

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