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Welcome to the Language, Literature and Linguistics Online Resource (3LORe). This website represents an effort to compile a descriptive list of terms in the study of English Language, Literature and Linguistics.

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A

Abstract

There are two definitions for this term, dependent on whether it is a noun or an adjective. The noun refers to a summary or outline of a larger piece of work. The adjective refers to intangible senses, entities or concepts.

 
Examples Noun: A chapter from a book would be considered an abstract.
Adjective: Love, hate, truth and humility would be abstract concepts.
Compare with Concrete
See also Noun, Adjective

Accent
or
Stress
The loud 'beats' in a poem; a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem often gives the poem its distinctive quality. In literary criticism, there is no basic difference between stress and accent, and one concentrates only on two degrees of stress, unlike the four degrees of stress sometimes distinguished in phonetics and phonology.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Compare with Passive Voice
See also Subject, Poem, Criticism

Active Voice A form of sentence construction where the subject is usually the person or thing performing an action.
 
Example "He kicked the ball."
Compare with Passive Voice
See also Subject

Actor In the analysis of TRANSITIVITY in Functional Linguistics, the noun group performing the action describe by a verb.
 
Example

John is the actor in the following sentence:

"John filled the cup with hot tea."

Compare with Agent, Goal
See also THEME, MOOD, TRANSITIVITY, Functional Linguistics, Verb, Noun

Adjective

A word describing the characteristics of a noun.

 
Example

"Nice" is the adjective in the following sentence:

"Janet is a nice girl."

Compare with Adverb
See also Noun

Adjunct A word or phrase in a sentence other than the verb or predicate.
 
See also Verb, Predicate

Adverb A word or phrase that describes or changes the meaning of a verb, adjective or another adverb, and possibly a sentence.
 
Examples

"Softly" is the adverb in the following sentence:

"He whispered softly."

Compare with Adjective
See also Verb

Affective Fallacy
or
Sympathetic Fallacy
An error in judging the merits or faults of a work of literature. The "error" results from stressing the importance of the work's effect upon the reader - that is how it makes a reader "feel" emotionally (what it does as a literary work) - instead of stressing its inner qualities as a created object, or what it "is".
Examples Affective Fallacy is evident in Aristotle's Precept (from his Poetics) that the purpose of tragedy is to evoke "fear"and "pity" in its spectators.
Compare with Pathetic Fallacy
See also Tragedy

Agent The performer of an action. In Functional Linguistics TRANSITIVITY analysis, the initiator of action in a clause. The agent and actor usually map onto one another but in causative clauses, the agent causes the actor, who is not the agent, to perform the action.
Examples

"They" is the agent and "the boy" is the actor in the following sentence:

"They made the boy run."

Compare with Actor, Goal
See also THEME, MOOD, TRANSITIVITY, Functional Linguistics

Allegory

A story representing an idea or belief that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the forms of fables, parables, poems, stories and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting and/or other types of symbols that have both literal and symbolic meanings. An allegory can be religious or political and is usually used to convey a moral lesson.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
Examples

Dante's The Divine Comedy: In Inferno, Dante is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his purpose in the world. Although Virgil literally guides Dante in his journey through the mystical inferno, he can also be seen as the reason and human wisdom that Dante has been looking for in his life. Other examples include John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, George Orwell's Animal Farm and Edmund Spencer's The Faerie Queene.

Compare with Symbol
See also Metaphor, Parable, Genre, Fable

Alliteration The repetititon of initial consonant sounds of two or more proximate words in a poem. The repitition can be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the action that is taking place and to call attention to a phrase and fix it in the reader's mind; thus it is useful for emphasis.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples

The following line from Robert Frost's poem Acquainted with the Night provides us with an example of alliteration:

"I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet."

The repitition of the 's' sound creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line. Other examples include:

"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

"Simple Simon sulked stupidly."

"The wild winds of winter..."


Allusion A reference to an idea, place, person or text (or part of a text) existing outside the literary work. Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well-known characters or events. This device is used to broaden the meaning of the poem.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples

"His attempt to drag the jumbo jet a hundred feet was a Herculean effort."
"Shaun is a Sleeping Beauty; she can sleep through a thunderstorm."

See also Character

Ambiguity A word or expression which has more than one meaning. An ambiguity is not necessarily negative in literary criticism.
(This entry was used with permission Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Antagonist

The main character in a piece narration, story, poem or drama that is at odds with the protagonist. The antagonist need not always be a person. It could be death, the devil, an illness, or any challenge that prevents the main character from living "happily ever after". In fact, the antagonist could be a character of virtue in a literary work where the protagonist represents evil.

 
Examples In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, the antagonist is Iago. Throughout the play, he instigates conflicts and sows distrust between the main characters, Othello and Desdimona, two lovers who have risked their lives in order ot elope. Iago is determined to break up their marrige due to his suspicion that Othello has taken certain liberties with his wife.
Compare with Protagonist
See also Character

Anticlimax The point in a piece of work where the result is less than what is expected, or where the outcome does not seem justified in view of the events leading up to it.
 
Compare with Climax

Antithesis A contrast or polarity in meaning.
(This entry was used with permission Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Antonym A word opposite in meaning to another.
 
Examples "Hot" and "cold", "light" and "dark".
Compare with Synonym

Apologue A moral fable, usually featuring personofied animals or inanimate objects which act like people to allow the author to comment on the human condition. Often, the apologue highlights the irrationality of mankind.
Examples George Orwell's Animal Farm and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
See also Fable

Apostrophe A figure of speech where the speaker is addressing someone or something that is absent, subtract or nonhuman. It is as if one were referring to someone as if they were not present.  A response is not expected from the addressee.
Examples

In To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet "speaks" to the skylark but does not expect the bird to reply:

“Hail to thee, blithe spirit!”

Another example might be the exclamation "Oh Lord!” uttered by a person in response to something that has evoked his or her emotions.

See also Figurative Language, Metaphor

Author The writer of a book, usually in prose form. The actual person who composed a text, not necessarily appearing in the text itself.
Compare with Narrator
See also Prose

Autobiography A detailed and purportedly objective narrative that tells a persons life story. This narrative is written by the person himself or herself.
 
Examples Katherine Graham's Personal History, Benjamin Franklin's Memoires De La Vie Privee...
Compare with Biography

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B

Ballad A story in poetic form, often about tragic lives and usually sung. Most ballads use four-line stanzas that have the a-b-c-b rhyme scheme. Somtimes they are set to music and include many stanzas. The story of a ballad may cover a wide range of subjects but usually deals with folklore or popular legends.Some ballads use a refrain or chorus repeated at regular intervals - this reflects their musical association.
 
Examples

The following is a stanza from a well-known ballad, Lord Randal:

O where have you been, Lord Randal, my son?
O where have you been, my handsome young man?
I have been to the wild wood; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary of hunting, and fain would lie down.

Another example would be Cat Steven's Cats in the Cradle.

See also Stanza, Rhyme Scheme

Biography A detailed and purportedly objective narrative that tells a persons life story. This narrative is not written by the person himself.
 
Examples Michael D. Barr's Lee Kuan Yew: The Beliefs Behind the Man, Jeanne M. Lesinski's Bill Gates
Compare with Autobiography

Blank Verse Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter verse composed of lines of five two-syllable feet with the first syllable accented, the second unaccented.
 
Examples Most of Shakespeare's work is in blank verse.
Compare with Free Verse
See also Iambic, Metre, Verse

Burlesque

Burlesque is a form of indirect satire that imitates a serious literary work or genre but applies the imitated form to inappropriate subject matter. It differs from comedy or farce in that it achieves its effects through caricature, ridicule and distortion. It differs from satire in that it is devoid of any ethical element.

High Burlesque combines an elevated literary form with trivial subject matter and includes the parody which is a mock epic poem that uses the elevated form and style of the epic genre to deal with a trivial subject.

Low Burlesque combines an undignified form with a series or lofty subject. An example is the lampoon which is a short satire or segment of a literary work that burlesques a particular person by caricaturing the victim's physical appearance and other distinguishing characteristics.

Compare with Comedy, Farce, Satire
See also Parody, Mock Epic

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C

Catastrophe A scene in a tragedy which includes the death or moral destruction of the protagonist.
Examples In the catastrophe at the end of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus, upon discovering the tragic truth about his origins and his deeds, plucks out his eyes and is condemned to spend the rest of his days a wandering beggar. The catastrophe in Shakespearean tragedy occurs in Act 5 of each drama, and always includes the death of the protagonist. Consider the fates of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello.
Compare with Comedy
See also Protagonist

Catharsis Catharsis means "purgation". It is a term describing an audience's release of the emotions of fear and pity at the end of a tragedy. The feeling of pity is elicited as the protagonist faces misfortunes, and his failure to overcome them is a fearful reminder of human frailties and limitations as well as the terror associated with the human condition. But because the protagonist's suffering is also an affirmation of human values rather than despairing denial of them, these negative emotions are purged in the audience.
Examples A good example of a play that allows us to go through Catharsis is Oedipus Rex. The Chorus and Tiresias are always reminding the audience that Oedipus could possibly be the one who is causing the "rotting of Thebes". The audience fears that he might be the one and feels pity for him, hoping that he is not. Finally it is revealed that Oedipus is the killer, and our emotions that have built up from hoping he is not, are purged from us.
See also Tragedy, Protagonist

Character A person, animal or thing represented in a literary work or the 'person' in a work of fiction or drama. The way the author creates these personages is called characterisation.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples

Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear.
Treebeard in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
Lassie the dog in the television series Lassie.

See also Characterisation

Characterisation The process by which an author creates vivid, believable characters in his work. This may be done in a variety of ways:
  • The direct description of the character
  • The direct depiction of the character's speech, mannerisms or interaction with other characters
  • Other characters' interactions/reactions to the character in question
 
See also Character

Climax The turning point of the work, the moment when the conflict is at its most intense.
 
Compare with Anticlimax

Comedy Literary work (usually drama but may be applied to other literary kinds) intended to amuse, where the central focus is triumph over adverse circumstance, usually resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. Like many literary terms (tragedy and epic being prominent examples), the term has its origin in ancient Greece, but Aristotle's discussion on comedy in his Poetics is believed to be missing, and one consequence of this is that the term is less rigidly defined than the other major genre of drama, tragedy.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew.
Compare with Tragedy
See also Tragicomedy

Complement The part of a clause or sentence that is governed by a verb and which completes the meaning of the predicate.
 
Examples

In the following sentence, "the ball" is the complement:

"James bounced the ball."

See also Predicate, Subject, Adjunct, Finite

Conceit A far-fetched simile or metaphor, a literary conceit occurs when the speaker compares two highly dissimilar things.
Examples

In Act V of Shakespeare's Richard II, the imprisoned King Richard compares his cell to the world in the following line:

I have been studying how I may compare
this prison where I live unto the world

Compare with Simile, Metaphor
See also Petrarchan Conceit

Concrete The direct opposite of abstract, it refers to descriptions that may be quantified by the five senses.
 
Examples Round, loud, soft, stink and bitter are all adjective describing concrete obsevations.
Compare with Abstract

Connotation The impression created by a word that goes beyond its dictionary definition.
 
Examples "Apartheid" has connotations of opression, injustice, etc.
Compare with Denotation

Consonance The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry. Since devices like alliteration, rhyme and meter, consonances are used by the poets for effect, the reader must stop and consider what effect the inclusion of these devices has on the poem.
Examples

Consider the following example from Theodore Roethke's Night Journey:

We rush into a rain
That rattles double glass

The repetition of the 'r' sound in "rush", "rain" and "rattles", occuring so close to each other in these two lines, would be considered consonance.

See also Alliteration, Metre, Rhyme

Couplet Two successive lines of poetry ending with the same rhyme.
 
Examples Nursery Rhymes are a rich source of couplets:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

See also Rhyme Scheme

Criticism
or
Literary Criticism
The evaluation of one or more literary works. The act of criticizing in literary criticism is not necessarily negative.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

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D

Deduction

Argument where the conclusion (C) is derived directly from the given premises (P). This is most explicitly observed in a syllogistic form:

  • P1: All men are mortal
  • P2: Alan is a man
  • C: Alan is mortal
 
Compare with Induction
See also Connotation

Denotation The actual definition of a word.
 
Examples "Apartheid" denotes a policy of segregation by ethnicity.
See also Connotation

Diction A technical term for the author's choice and arrangement of words in a particular literary work, or the language appropriate for a particular (usually poetic) work. The term poetic diction refers to the appropriate selection of words in a poem.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Doppelganger Sometimes used interchangably with "double", doppleganger is the term used to refer to a character that is duplicated. This duplication usually is a manifestation of that character's diametric opposite self.
 
Compare with Mr. Hyde would be considered Dr. Jekyll's doppelganger.

Double Entendre Used to describe words that are ambiguous enough to allow two meanings, one of them usually risqué.
 
Examples An example would be "die", for which the other meaning, especially in the Elizabethan era, was "orgasm".
Compare with Pun
See also Ambiguity, Elizabethan

Drama A literary work meant to be performed in a theatre. If viewed from this functional angle, the definition of drama as a literary kind is non-controversial. But problems may arise when one tries to define it in terms of the intrinsic qualities which a work must have in order for it to be classified as dramatic.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Dramatic Monologue A literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or speech. This monologue often comes during a climactic moment in a work and often reveals hidden truths about a character, their history and their relationships. Also it can further develop a character's personality and also be used to create irony.
Examples The most famous examples of this special type of monologue can be found within the poems of Robert Browning, such as The Bishop Orders his Tomb and Andrea Del Santo. Browning's use of dramatic monologue has a special effect on his works. The revelations of his characters not only develop themselves, but they also create settings within the monologues with their use of vivid imagery. Other authors whose works include dramatic monologues are Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot.
See also Character, Climax, Irony, Soliloquy

Dystopia A utopia gone sour, an imaginary setting where everything and everyone has gone bad.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Compare with Utopia

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E

Elegy A poem which mourns the death of someone.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Elizabethan The adjective refers to British literary works which were written during the era of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603).
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Jacobean, Modern, Romantic, Victorian

Enjambed The running over of a sentence or thought into the next couplet or line without a pause at the end of the line; a run-on line.
See also Couplet

Epic

An extended narrative poem written in a high style recounting actions, travels, adventures and heroic episodes. The setting is usually vast and the action is often given cosmic significance through the intervention of supernatural forces such as gods, angels, or demons. Some of the characteristics of an epic are:

  • The main character or protagonist is heroically larger than life, often a national hero or the source and subject of legend.
  • The deeds of the hero are presented without favoritism, revealing his failings as well as his virtues.
  • The setting covers several nations, the whole world or even the universe.
  • The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions.
  • The episodes, even though they may be fictional, provide an explanation for some of the circumstances or events in the history of a nation or people.

The term is now also used for other long literary works (usually novels) with historical settings. (This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
Examples The Anglo Saxon epic Beowulf, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, John Milton's Paradise Lost.
Compare with Prologue, Mock Epic

Epilogue A closing speech delivered by an actor at the end of a play/drama, particularly those of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is often in verse.
 
Compare with Prologue

Euphemism A mild word or phrase substituting for another which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or offensive.
 
Examples "Woman of ill repute" is a euphemism for a prostitute.

Exposition The presentation, in drama, of essential information regarding what has occurred prior to the beginning of the play.
Examples In the exposition to the film Star Wars, Luke Skywalker sees a holographic projection of Princess Lea asking for help after warning that she has been captured by Darth Vader.
See also Plot

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F

Fable A narrative told with the intention of conveying a moral message. A distinctive feature of fables is that very often, animals are featured as characters.
 
Examples Aesop's Fables
See also Allegory, Character, Narrative

Farce A light, comic theatrical piece in which the characters and events are greatly exaggerated to produce broad, absurd humour and the humour is designed to provoke continual laughter. It is a type of comedy that is based on humourous situations such as the bank robber who mistakenly wanders into a police station to hide. The situation - not the cleverness of plot or lines nor the absurdities of the character - provides the humour.
Examples Some of the best known farces are Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and The Taming of The Shrew.
See also Character, Comedy, Plot

Fiction A story that is the product of imagination rather than a documentation of fact, usually written in prose. Stylistically, the description or narration of fictional events usually has some noteworthy linguistic manifestations in the literary work. Fiction is often associated with the novel.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Novel, Narrative

Figurative Language

Language that varies from the norms of literal language and goes beyond what is denoted and has a suggestive effect on the reader. Also known as the "ornaments of language", figurative language does not mean exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap in order to comprehend an author's point. It usually involves a comparison between two things that may not, at first, seem to relate to one another. While figurative language provides a writer with the opportunity to write imaginatively, it also tests the imagination of the reader, forcing the reader to go below the surface of a literary work into deep, hidden meanings.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
Examples

Take this line by Robert Burns:

My love is a red, red rose

Clearly Burns does not really mean that he has fallen in love with a red, aromatic, many-petalled, long, thorny-stemmed plant. He means that his love is as sweet and as delicate as a rose.

In the following sentence "like a hare" is figurative:

"He ran like a hare down the alley."

Compare with A
See also Connotation, Denotation, Simile, Metaphor, Euphemism, Hyperbole

Finite A word, usually a verb, that has a specific tense, number or person. In Functional Linguistics, a word that functions to make a proposition definite so that it can be argued about.
Examples "Is", "has", "were", "will", "did", etc.
Compare with Subject, Predicator
See also Functional Linguistics

First-person Narrator A narrator who also inhabits the world of the story - the first-person narrator is also a character in the story that he or she is telling. The first-person narrator can usually be identified if a narrative makes use of first-person pronouns such as "I".
 
Compare with Third-person Narrator
See also Author, Pronoun

Flashback A narrative technique that allows a writer to present past events during current events, in order to provide background for the current narration. By including material that occurred prior to the present event, the writer provides the reader with insight into a character's motivations and or a background to a conflict. This is done through various methods including narration, dream sequences and memories. Flashback is useful for exposition, to inform the reader about a character, place or the background to a conflict.
Examples Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman uses flashback to relate Willy Loman's memories of the past. At one point, Willy is talking with his dead brother while playing cadrs with Charley, reliving a past conversation in the present. This shows a character who is living mentally in the present with the memories and events of the past.
Compare with Foreshadow
See also Exposition

Foil A character whose qualities contrast strongly with, and therefore highlight, the corresponding qualities of another character.
 
Examples Dr. Watson was a foil to Sherlock Holmes because the former was a piecemeal character.

Foreshadow A technique in writing where the author hints at or warns of the possible outcome of the story.
 
Compare with Flashback

Free Verse Poetry which lacks a regular stress pattern or metre and regular line lengths (and which may also be lacking in rhyme).
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Compare with Blank Verse
See also Metre, Rhyme

Functional Linguistics A form of grammatical analysis first introduced by M.A.K. Halliday. It is designed to account for how language is used to convey experiential (or ideational), interpersonal and textual meaning. The full analysis is basically realized through THEME, MOOD and TRANSITIVITY.
See also THEME, MOOD, TRANSITIVITY

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G

Genre

A French term that means "kind", "genus" or "type". A poem, novel or other literary work is said to belong to a particular genre if at shares at least a few conventions, or standard characteristics, with other works in that genre. Examples of literary genres are tragedy, comedy, epic and novel. Generic classifications may appear simple on the surface, but one faces serious practical problems when one tries to define terms such as comedy and tragedy with reference to an actual corpus of literary works. One solution is to place spatio-temporal constraints on generic definitions (for example, the 'early Victorian novel' or 'Wordsworth's conception of the lyric poem').
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
See also Kind, Comedy, Tragedy

Goal In Funtional Linguistics TRANSITIVITY analysis, the participant at which the process is directed. The goal is acted upon by the actor.
 
Examples

In the following sentence, "the chair" would be classified as the goal:

"Jim pushed the chair."

Compare with Actor, Agent
See also THEME, MOOD, TRANSITIVITY, Functional Linguistics

Gothic Novel A gothic novel is thought to be a novel of horrors and mysteries. It has a theme and a philosophy of the "world evil", a representation of something supernatural, mysterious, sombre; its plot is always bound up with secret murders and the heroes are marked with the seal of a demonic lot. It differs with a dignified manner of telling and many people say that it reads like "an ancient novel about adventures of knights". In all gothic novels readers observe the main heroes going through a strife of passions and feelings. Here, good heroes fight with their enemies and seek a key to a solution. Supernatural things are always taken as real ones.
Examples

Two main types of gothic novels are:

  • The sentimental gothic novel (The Old English Baron for example)
  • The black novel (The Devil in Love for example)
See also

Theme, Plot


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H

Haiku Japanese poetry, constructed in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. These poems are constructed with the intention to capture the essence the moment described.
 
Examples This example of a haiku is from Basho, a 17th century poet:

Clouds come from time to time
and bring to men a chance to
rest from looking at the moon.

Compare with Blank Verse, Free Verse
See also Poem

Hero A character, often the protagonist, who exhibits qualities such as courage, idealism, and honesty.
 
See also Character, Protagonist, Foil

Hyperbole A deliberate overstatement or exaggeration made to impact a point.
 
Examples In the following lines from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth has murdered King Duncan. Horrified at the blood on his hands, he asks:

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
C
lean from my hand? No.
This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

That much water is not required to wash blood from one's hand. The hyperbole is to illustrate the guilt Macbeth feels.

See also Figurative Language

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I

Iamb(ic) A pattern of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

Imagery

Often taken as a synonym for figurative language, but the term may also refer to the 'mental pictures' which the reader experiences in his/her response to a literary work. Imagery includes any words and phrases that appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
Examples "Blistering sun", "piercing rain" and "cotton-candy clouds".
See also Figurative Language, Synonym

Induction

An argument where the conclusion (C) is derived at by reasoning from specific premises (P) to form another general premise (P').

  • P1: The sun has been rising daily in the past
  • P2: The sun rose today
  • C: The sun will rise tomorrow (P')
 
Compare with Deduction

Irony

The effect of language in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated. Irony takes three main forms, as illustrated below.

Situational Irony: The result of an action is the reverse of what the actor expected. For example, Macbeth murders his king hoping that in becoming king he will achieve great happiness. Ironically, Macbeth never knows another moment of peace, and finally is beheaded for his murderous act.

Dramatic Irony: The audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. For example, the audience may know the identity of the murderer in a crime thriller long before the mystery is solved.

Verbal Irony: The contrast is between the literal meaning of what is said and what is meant. An example would be where a person says he or she is having a great day when in fact nothing has gone right. Sarcasm is also a form of verbal irony.

 
Compare with Figurative Speech, Metaphor
See also Sarcasm, Character

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J

Jacobean

The adjective refers to British literary works which were written during the era of the British monarch King James I (1603-25). It is derived from Jacobus or 'James'. The Jacobean age has been viewed in certain quarters as a period of disenchantment when many pondered the apparent disintegration of faith in a fixed order of the universe. There was dissatisfaction with the extravagance and unbounded enthusiasm of the 16th century and a tendency toward melancholy and decadence. Paradoxically, there was a simultaneous flourishing of Baroque elements in literature, perhaps in reaction to the growing cynicism many observed around them.

 
See also Elizabethan, Victorian, Modern, Romantic

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K

Kind
or
Literary Kind
A literary genre which has a distinctive collection of external features.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Genre

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L

Limerick A humourous poem, usually bawdy, five lines long with the rhyme scheme a-a-b-b-a.
 
Examples

The following limerick is by Geoffrey Chaucer:

Ther once was this ladye of Tyre
Whoo fild evry mann with deesiyre
Two sovrins enuff
For youre back setey stuf
But fees for onne nite are much hyer

See also Poem, Rhyme Scheme

Literal Language Writing that does not exaggerate or embellish the subject matter and is not figurative.
 
Examples

The sentence below is an example of literal language in use:

" He ran very quickly down the alley."

Compare the sentence above to the figurative one below:

"He ran like a hare down the alley."

Compare with Figurative Language
See also A

Literary Criticism See Criticism

Literary Kind See Kind

Lyric A short non-narrative poem that has a solitary speaker, and that usually expresses a particular feeling, mood, or thought.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

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M

Metaphor A word which does not precisely or literally refer to the entity to which it is supposed to refer. Metaphors are sometimes thought to exist only in works of literature, but is actually prevalent in language in general.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples One engages in the metaphorical use of language, for instance, when one says that one is feeling 'down'.
See also Figurative Language

Metre The recurrence of a similar stress pattern in some or all lines of a poem.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Metonymy A word or phrase that refers to another which is often closely associated to it.
 
Examples "Moscow" is a metonymy for the government of Russia.
Compare with Synecdoche
See also Synonym

Mock Epic The treatment of a frivolous or minor subject seriously, especially by using the machinery and devices of the epic (invocations, descriptions of armor, battles, extended similies, etc).
Examples Alexander Pope's The Dunciad and Rape of the Lock.
See also Epic, Simile

Modern The modern age in English literature is often taken as the period which began from the start of the First World War onwards. But the problem here is that there were works written before 1914 which displayed modernist tendencies, like Joseph Conrad's Nostromo and the late novels of Henry James. Another problem is that the modern age is already with us for more than three-quarters of a century, and is now longer than the Victorian age, which in itself is quite a lengthy period in the history of English literature. One solution adopted by some critics is to proclaim a post-modern age, but what period comes after the post-modern age is anybody's guess. It is perhaps high time for both modern and post-modern to be rechristened, as many works belonging to both these ages are now old hat, and it may not be legitimate to describe them as 'modern'. However, the modern age is a fruitful period as far as stylistic research is concerned, as experimentations with language are often carried out in both poetry and prose.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Elizabethan, Victorian, Jacobean, Romantic

MOOD A functional linguistic analysis which deals mostly with interpersonal meaning.
 
Compare with THEME, TRANSITIVITY
See also Functional Linguistics

Motif An element which recurs in a literary work, or across literary works.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

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N

Narrative A story, either written or spoken, about connected events.
 
Compare with Poem
See also Prose, Novel

Narrator The personage who 'tells' the story in a narrative work. Like the persona, the narrator should not be confused with the author.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples The characters Ishmael in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby are the narrators in those novels.
Compare with First-person Narrator, Third-person Narrator
See also Author, Narrative, Novel

Novel A long work of prose fiction. The novel as a more realistic literary genre is sometimes distinguished in academic literary criticism from the romance; but this distinction is not maintained by all literary critics.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Genre, Fiction

Noun A word other than a pronoun used to identify people, places, things or events. Differentiated into common nouns (words that are used to refer to general classes) and proper nouns (words used to refer to a particular member of a class)
 
Examples "Cat", "door", "gift" and "luck" are all common nouns. Proper nouns are usually names such as "Bob", "Mary", "Kitty", "Taipei" or "Iran".
Compare with Pronoun
See also Verb, Adverb, Adjective

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O

Occasional Poem A poem written for a specific occasion (eg. a birthday, a wedding etc.).
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Onomatopoeia A word or expression which resembles the sound which it represents.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples "Screech", "meow" and "hiss"

Oxymoron A rhetorical figure in which an epigrammatic effect is created by the conjunction of incongrous or contradictory terms.
Examples "Acute dullness", "calm wind", "genuine imitation", etc.

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P

Parable A brief and often simple narrative that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.
Examples In the Bible, Jesus uses parables to teach his disciples. Among them are "The Parable of the Good Seed", "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" and "The Parable of the Mustard Seed".
See also Narrative

Parallel Structure A repetition of sentences using the same structure.
Examples

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

The world will little not nor long remember what we say here
but it can never forget what they did here.


Parody A literary work that imitates the style of another literary work. A parody can be simply amusing or it can be mocking in tone, such as a poem which exaggerates the use of alliteration, in order to show the ridiculous effect of the overuse of alliteration.
Examples Henry Fielding's Shamela is, in large part, a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela.
See also Satire, Alliteration

Passive Voice A form of sentence construction where the verb acts upon the subject. Usually identifiable through the use of the word "by" preceding the subject.
 
Example "The ball was kicked by him."
Compare with Active Voice
See also Subject, Verb

Pastoral A literary genre. Originally a poem dealing with shepherds, a pastoral is usually written by an urban poet who idealizes the shepherds' lives. The term has now been extended to include any literary work which views and idealizes the simple life from the perspective of a more complex life.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Shakespeare's As You Like It
See also Genre

Pathetic Fallacy A fallacy is a reason in suggesting that nonhuman phenomena act from human feelings, as suggested by the word "pathetic" from the Greek pathos; a literary device wherein something nonhuman found in nature - a beast, plant, stream, natural force, etc, - performs as though from human feeling or motivation.
Examples The poetry of William Wordsworth is replete with instances of pathetic fallacy such as "weeping streams".
Compare with Affective Fallacy
See also Pathos

Pathos The sense of pity or sorrow aroused by a particular element or scene in a literary work.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Persona The unidentified personage who 'speaks' in a poem or prose work. The persona should not be identified with the author of the work.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Speaker, Narrator

Personification A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human characteristics.
Examples

Consider the following lines from Carl Sandburg's Chicago:

Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the big shoulders

Sandburg's description of Chicago includes shoulders. Cities do not have shoulders, people do. Sandburg personifies the city by ascribing to it something human, i.e. "shoulders". "Justice is blind" is another example.

See also Persona, Figurative Language

Petrarchan Conceit The kind of conceit used by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch and popular in Renaissance English sonnets.
Examples

"Eyes like stars or the sun", "hair like golden wires", "lips like cherries", etc.
Oxymorons are also common, such as "freezing fire", "burning ice", etc.

See also Conceit, Sonnet, Oxymoron

Picaresque Novel An episodic, often autobiographical novel about a rogue or picaro (a person of low status) wandering around and living off his wits. The wandering hero provides the author with the opportunity to connect widely different pieces of plot, since the hero can wander into any situation. Picaresque novels tend to be satiric and filled with pretty detail.
Examples Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild, Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote.
See also Satire

Plot The arrangement of actions in a particular (usually narrative) work of literature.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Poem A literary composition that puts particular emphasis on diction (often involving rhyme), rhythm and imagery.
 
Examples

The following stanza is from Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Compare with Prose
See also Stanza, Verse, Rhyme, Imagery

Point of View The perspective established by the narrator of a literary work. Point of view can either be of the first-person, in which case a character narrates the story, or it can be told from the narrative perspective of the third-person, where a personage who is not a character in the story, tells the story.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

Predicate The part of a clause or sentence that contains a verb and states something about the subject.
 
Examples

In the following sentence, "broke the wheel" is the predicate:

"Jenny broke the wheel."

Compare with Predicator
See also Subject, Finite

Predicator A verb or verbal group in a clause or sentence that specifies an action, event or process.
 
Examples

In the following sentence, "broke" is the predicator:

"Jenny broke the wheel."

Compare with Predicate
See also Subject, Finite, TRANSITIVITY, Functional Linguistics

Projection The presentation and/or production of thought or speech.

Prologue The section of a literary work that serves as an introduction before the main body of text.
 
Compare with Epilogue

Pronoun A word used in place of a noun to indicate someone or something that is already known or has been mentioned.
 
Examples "He", "she", "it", "they", "you", etc.
Compare with Noun
See also Verb, Adverb, Adjective

Prose Written or spoken language that does not exhibit a specific metre.
 
Compare with Poem
See also Narrative, Novel, Metre

Protagonist The central character serving as a focus for the story's themes and incidents.
 
Examples Hamlet is the protagonist in Shakespeare's play of the same name.
Compare with Antagonist
See also Character, Theme

Pun A play on words with similar sounds but different meanings.
 
Examples "Friar" and "fryer", "pare" and "pear".

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Q

Quatrain A four-line stanza which may be rhymed or unrhymed. A heroic quatrain is a four line stanza rhymed a-b-a-b.
 
Examples

John Donne's A Valediction Forbidding Mourning is a poem of nine heroic quatrains. The following is the first stanza of the poem:

As virtuous men pass mildly away
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:

See also Stanza

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R

Rheme The part of a clause where the Theme is developed. Typically encodes new or unfamiliar information in a clause
 
Examples

In the following clause, "picked up the ball" is the rheme:

"Elliot picked up the ball."

Compare with Theme
See also THEME, MOOD, TRANSITIVITY, Functional Linguistics

Rhetorical Question A rhetorical question is an illocutionary act that has the direct illocutionary force of a question and is not generally used with the expectation of an answer but with some different, indirect force, such as a command, a tentative statement or an evaluation.
Examples "Why is it that everything goes wrong all at once?"
"And why does it always go wrong on the first of the month?"

Rhyme The identity of the sounds of the final syllables (usually stressed) of certain proximate lines of a poem.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Poem, Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme Scheme The pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" represents the first line and all other lines rhyming with the first line. The next line that does not rhyme with the first, or "a" line, and all others that rhyme with this second type of line, is represented by the letter "b", and so on. A rhyme scheme also helps give us a verse movement, providing a break before changing thoughts.
Examples

Below is an excerpt from Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII where the rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

See also Poem, Rhyme

Romantic Adjective describing literary works which were mainly written between 1798 and 1932. Among the characteristics of Romantic literary works are an emphasis on the individual and on the expression of personal emotions, a tendency to explore new literary forms or new means of expression, and a highlighting of nature or the natural landscape.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
See also Elizabethan, Victorian, Jacobean, Modern

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S

Sarcasm A form of sneering criticism in which disapproval is often expressed as ironic praise.
Examples If John trips and falls clumsily, his rival might remark sarcastically, "Wow, that was really graceful!"

Satire A literary work which belittles or savagely attacks its subject.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Burlesque, Parody, Picaresque Novel

Scan To assign stress patterns to a poem.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Accent

Simile A type of figurative language; language that does not mean exactly what it says, that makes a comparison between two otherwise unalike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like" or "as". Similies allow an author to emphasise a characteristic of an object by comparing that object to an example with that characteristic.
 
Examples "The ice on the sidewalk was smooth as glass."
See also Figurative Language, Metaphor

Soliloquy The act of talking to oneself; in drama, a soliloquy is used by the playwright to reveal the character's thoughts.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Dramatic Monologue

Sonnet A sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses a system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition, usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. There are two main styles of sonnet, the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. The Italian sonnet consists first of an octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem and follows the rhyme scheme a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. The sestet, or last six lines, offers an answer or a resolution to the proposed problem, and follows the rhyme scheme c-d-e-c-d-e.
Examples John Milton's When I Consider How My Light is Spent
See also Rhyme Scheme, Metre

Speaker The personage or persona responsible for the voice in a poem; like the persona, the speaker should not be confused with the poet.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Persona, Narrator

Stanza A group of lines in a poem that form the poem's basic metrical unit.
 
See also Metre, Poem

Stream of Consciousness A technique or method in modern narrative fiction which attempts to convey the characters' rambling thoughts.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Modern, Narrative, Fiction.

Stress See Accent

Subject A person, thing, event or phenomenon that is being discussed.
 
Examples

In the following sentence, "a big blue bike" is the subject:

"A big blue bike was chained to the fence."

Compare with Theme

Symbol A word or expression which signifies something other than the physical object to which it directly refers.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples A rose for example, may symbolise love, and the cross, Christianity.
See also Figurative Language

Sympathetic Fallacy See Affective Fallacy

Synecdoche A device related to metonymy which uses one closely related thing to represent another thing.
Examples When the newscaster says, "The White House announced today… …….", he or she does not mean the building spoke. The White House is being used to represent the President of the United States.
Compare with Metonymy
See also Synonym

Synonym A word or phrase that means the same thing as another word or phrase in the same language.
 
Examples "Sick" and "ill", "disagreement" and "dispute", "honest" and "truthful"
Compare with Antonym

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T

THEME A functional linguistic analysis which deals mostly with textual meaning.
 
Compare with TRANSITIVITY, MOOD, Theme
See also Functional Linguistics

Theme In literature, the subject matter or topic of a literary work. In linguistics, the first major part of a clause, usually indicating subject matter, that is the point of departure for the message encoded in the clause.
 
Examples

In the following clause, "Elliot" is the linguistic theme:

"Elliot picked up the ball."

Compare with Rheme,

Third-person Narrator

A narrator that is not a character in a literary work. The third-person narrator may usually be identified through the absence of first-person pronouns in the narrative of a literary work. There are three traditional distinctions:

  • Objective Third-person Narrator: A narrator who does not give the reader any access into any character's consciousness nor focus on any given character in the story. The objective third-person narrator seems to be an impartial, non-participating spectator.
  • Limited Third-person Narrator: A narrator who gives the reader access into the consciousness of one character or focuses attention on only one character in a story. In essence, the limited third-person narrator gives the reader something akin to the telepathic ability to look into the mind of one character.
  • Omniscient Third-person Narrator: A narrator who gives the reader access to more than one character or focuses attention on more than one character in a story.
Compare with First-person Narrator
See also Author, Narrator

Tone

Tone expresses the attitude of a personage, narrator or author toward other personages in the work or towards the reader. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships, the tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or pity - the entire gemut of attitudes towards life's phenomena.
(This entry contains excerpts used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)

 
Examples The tone of John Steinbeck's short novel Cannery Row is nonjudgemental. Steinbeck never expresses disapproval of the antics of Mack and his band of bums. Rather, he treats them with unflagging kindness.
See also Author, Narrator

Tragedy A broad term, originally taken from drama; the term may refer to any work of literature which has an unhappy ending for the main character such as a drama about a noble, courageous hero of excellent character who, because of some critical character flaw or pathetic circumstances brings ruin upon himself. There have been various attempts to define tragedy, beginning with Aristotle's Poetics (which it must be noted, is more correct in its description of the tragic elements of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex than of Greek tragedy in general). Like most literary genres however, tragedy must frequently be re-defined when referring to individual works of literature. One is usually more successful if one defines tragedy in terms of certain periods of literature, or with reference to certain authors.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear are all examples of tragedy.
Compare with Comedy
See also Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy A literary work which combines elements of both tragedy and comedy. Tragicomic plays were quite common during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods of English literature.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Compare with Comedy, Tragedy
See also Elizabethan, Jacobean

TRANSITIVITY A functional linguistic analysis which deals mostly with experiential or ideational meaning.
 
Compare with THEME, MOOD, Transitivity
See also Functional Linguistics

Transitivity In traditional grammar, the idea of whether a verb is able to take on a direct object. A verb that may take on a direct object is transitive while a verb that cannot take on a direct object is intransitive.
 
Examples Transitive verbs include "take", "loan", "press", "load", etc.
Intransitive verbs include "swim", "laugh", "drool", "walk", etc.
Compare with TRANSITIVITY

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U

Utopia A literary work which describes the ideal state or way of life.
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
Examples Thomas More's Utopia (from which the term was derived).
Compare with Dystopia

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V

Verb A word used to describe action, process, state or occurence. Usually forms the main part of the predicate in a clause or sentence.
 
Examples "Run", "fly", "harm", "look", "say", etc.
Compare with Noun, Adjective, Adverb
See also Predicate

Verse A line of metered language, a line of a poem, or any work written in verse.
 
Examples

The following line of verse is from the epic poem Don Juan by Lord Byron:

My way is to begin with the beginning

See also Poem, Metre

Victorian The adjective refers to British literary works which were written, or which resemble those written during (or shortly before or after) the era of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). The adjective is also used to describe the code of morality which was believed to be predominant during her reign. (This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Elizabethan, Jacobean, Modern, Romantic

Voice The dominating ethos or tone of a literary work. The voice existing in a literary work is not always identifiable with the actual views of the author (cf. narrator and persona).
(This entry was used with permission from Ismail S. Talib's List of Key Terms in Literature)
 
See also Author, Narrator, Persona

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