Accumulation:
The enumeration of words (attributes) having a similar meaning. ”The
process is wasteful, dangerous, messy, and sometimes tragic.”
Acronym:
A single word, formed from the initial letters of other words (NATO = North
Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Act:
The act is the major division of a drama/play, often divided
further into scenes.
Acting time:
The acting time is the time from the beginning to the end of an episode
or episodes in a fictional text. The relationship between acting time
and narrating time/reading time depends on the mode of presentation.
Action:
The action of a story is a series of events usually arranged so
as to have three recognizable parts:
1.
the beginning (introduction,
exposition),
2.
the middle (rising
action, complication; crisis, climax, turning-point; falling action)
3.
and the end (dénouement or solution, catastrophe, resolution).
In contrast to real life, action in fiction is ordered; it
"imitates in words a sequence of human activities, with a power to affect
our opinions and emotions in a certain way". It is the basic principle in
all fiction and arouses the reader's interest: it makes him eager to
learn what is going to happen and/or how the problems faced by the characters
are going to be solved. Action produces tension, suspense or surprise.
Allegory:
The allegory appears in fictional texts in which ideas are
personified and a story is told to express some general truth.
Examples: Truth,
Vice, Virtue, Justice.
Alliteration:
An alliteration is a repetition of sounds (consonants) at the
beginning of neighbouring words or of stressed syllables within such words, e.g. ”fingers the small size
of small spades.” Purpose: rhythm and stress.
Allusion:
An allusion is a direct or indirect reference to some well-known
historical person or event, saying, proverb, line or sentence from a work of
literature.
Anachronism:
An error in chronology: placing an event, item or expression in the
wrong period. Shakespeare referred to a cannon in King
John, a play set in time long before those weapons were used in England,
and he placed a clock in Julius Caesar.
Anagram:
A word or phrase formed by the transposition of letters in another word.
Samuel Butler’s novel Erewhon derives
its title from the word nowhere.
Anaphora:
The anaphora is a repetition of the same word or words at the
beginning of neighbouring sentences, lines, stanzas, etc.
And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun,
And she forgot the blue above the trees, ...
Anticlimax:
This
is a stylistic device which involves a humorous descent from something serious
or dignified to something frivolous or trivial.
Antithesis:
A figure of speech in which opposing or contrasting ideas are balanced
against each other in grammatically parallel syntax.
Archaism:
The use of an old or obsolete word: albeit (though), quoth he (said he).
Aside:
In a play, words spoken by an actor which the other persons on stage are
not supposed to hear.
Assonance:
The assonance is a repetition of similar vowel sounds
within stressed syllables of neighbouring words, e.g. ”on
the dole with nowhere to go.”
Asyndeton:
A condensed expression in which
words or phrases are presented in series,
separated by commas only: Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I
conquered).
Atmosphere:
Atmosphere is a feeling or mood created by a writer or
speaker to evoke the reader’s or listener’s emotions. It may be, for example,
pleasant or gloomy, peaceful or violent.
Attitudinal adverb:
It is an adverb expressing a writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards his
or her topic, e.g. ”certainly”, ”honestly”,
”obviously”, ”simply”.
Author (omniscient):
An omniscient author is capable of seeing, knowing,
and telling whatever he wishes. He is free to move his characters in
time and place, to describe the physical action and private thoughts of characters,
to comment on what happens and to make clear the theme of his story
in whatever way he chooses (cf. point of view).
Ballad:
Originally a song accompanied by a dance. Later the name was applied to
a narrative poem. Ballads, passed down by word of mouth, were direct and
simple, with romantic, historical or supernatural setting. The literary ballad
is a poem with the rhyme scheme abcb.
Blank verse:
Unrhymed lines of mostly 10 syllables each; especially
the iambic pentameter. Shakespeare
chiefly used blank verse in his dramas.
Caesura:
The break or pause between words within a metrical foot; a pause in a
line of verse generally near the middle.
Caricature:
One-sided over-emphasis of certain traits of character, used to
mock or criticize.
Character:
In a fictional text, person developed through action, description,
language and way of speaking.
1.
flat character: Term coined by E.M. Forster; a flat
character is not fully developed, it lacks complexity, and may be referred
to a type or a caricature.
2.
round character: a person in a work of fiction who
is so fully described as to be recognizable, understandable, and individually
different from all others appearing in the book.
Characterization:
There are several different ways of presenting a character in fiction
or drama:
1.
Explicit presentation: Here the omniscient author describes the outward appearance
and the psychological nature of a character. If a character's
thoughts and/or his feelings are described we speak of introspection.
2.
Implicit presentation: A character is presented in terms of his or her environment.
If a person lives in strange surroundings he is assumed to be strange himself.
Since the author does not tell us explicitly, the reader is expected to draw
his own conclusions.
3.
Dramatic presentation: A character is presented through action, interaction or dialogue.
Here, too, the author seems to have withdrawn from the scene and the
reader (or audience) must form their own impressions.
A
cartoon is a drawing, usually in a newspaper or magazine and often with a
comment (or caption) underneath it, which is funny and/or makes a political
point or criticism.
Chiasmus:
A figure of speech by which contrasted terms are arranged crosswise, the
word order in the first phrase is reversed in the second:
Example: Flowers
are lovely, love is flowerlike.
As
fast as idylls seduce visitors, visitors reduce idylls.
Chronological order:
Simple temporal order in which the action is presented in
sequence, i.e. as it actually occurred or is supposed to have occurred.
Climactic order:
Way of structuring a text according to the importance of its items,
leading to a climax.
Climax:
Structural element of a text, the
moment when the conflict is most intense.
In fictional texts, the climax follows the rising action and
precedes the turning-point.
Cliff-hanger:
A melodramatic adventure serial (in magazines or
films) in which each instalment ends in suspense.
Cloak-and-dagger:
A play or novel that deals with
espionage or intrigue and is highly dramatic and romantic. Duma’s The Three Musketeers is a
famous example.
Comedy:
Kind of drama which deals with a light topic
or a more serious topic in an amusing way. By using comic elements, the author wants to entertain and sometimes
criticize.
Comic relief:
A comic, diverting element in a serious literary work, especially in a play,
which relieves the tension, and also by contrast, heightens the
significance of the tragic theme.
Examples: the gravedigger scene in Hamlet and the episode of the
drunken porter in Macbeth.
A
comic strip is a sequence of drawings or cartoons that tell a story and have
dialogue printed in balloons. Comic strips are often serialised in newspapers.
Comment:
Non-fictional
text form in which the writer or speaker deals with one or more topics
and offers his or her own judgement in order to convince the reader or
listener.
Complication:
The interplay between character and event which
builds up a tension in the character and develops a problem out
of the original situation given in a piece of fiction.
Conflict:
All fiction involves, at one level or another, conflict. A character
struggles against a certain environment or against others (external conflict),
or he is engaged in a struggle with himself (internal conflict). One
important approach to the right understanding of any story is to determine
the nature of the conflict involved and the pattern which the opposing forces
assume.
Connotation:
Additional meaning of a word beyond its dictionary
definition (Denotation).
Contrast:
Bringing together of opposing views in order to emphasize their
differences or create tension.
Examples: Paradise’
loss is our gain.
It
was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Counterplot:
(Also called subplot) a secondary theme in a play
or novel used as a variation of the principal theme or in
contrast to it.
Couplet:
A couplet consists of two consecutive lines of verse rhyming together,
usually in the same metre.
Example: Cassius: And
after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him or worse days endure. (Julius Caesar, I, 3)
The highest point of the complication in the action,
when forces and counter forces have met and the direction which the action
must now take is determined (cf. turning-point). In strict terminology,
crisis refers only to structural and plot elements, whereas climax
refers to the highest point of reader/audience interest.
Denotation:
Actual meaning of a word as defined in a dictionary (Connotaton).
Dénouement:
(Solution) structural element of fictional
texts in which the conflict is solved.
Tthe form of discourse in which the author tells the reader what a person, a
place, or an object looks like. The writer tries
to evoke an image in the reader's mind similar to the in his/her own
mind. A text of this nature is called a descriptive text.
Dialectical order:
A way of structuring a text by opening with the
statement of an idea/action (= thesis), following by its opposite (= antithesis)
and solving the conflict between the two in a compromise (= synthesis).
It is frequently used in argumentative texts.
Diary:
A personal record of facts and experiences, kept daily
or at frequent intervals, usually for private use.
Didactic:
Intended to teach a lesson.
A narrative build around a particular
period or event in history or the present. In this type of writing there are no
fictional characters and the aim is to bring the event or period to life
for the reader.
Drama (dramatic):
Piece of fiction, also called play, presenting a conflict
and. It is usually written for performance on stage, in films or on TV. The drama
usually falls into the following categories: play, comedy, tragedy. (Cf. act,
scene, stage direction).
Dramatic irony:
This is the device of putting into the speaker’s mouth words which have
for the audience a meaning not intended by the speaker.
Example from Macbeth: the drunken porter jestingly talks of being
the porter at Hell’s gate.
A newspaper article which is a comment on an event that the readers are
already fully informed about. It is often
written by one of the top editors of a paper and reflects the policy of the
paper. The writer's name is not mentioned. American and British papers reserve
one or two inside pages for editorials and often print letters from readers
beside them.
Elegy:
A mournful, melancholy poem, especially a
funeral song or a lament for the dead.
Ellipsis:
Shortening of sentences by dropping a word or words (often verbs) which
can be understood form the context. Purpose: focus the reader’s attention.
Example: ”’Been to the cinema
lately?’ he asked”
Emotive (language):
Using words or expressions which have particular connotations in
order to appeal to the reader’s or listener’s emotions and influence him or her
in some way.
Enjambment:
Running on of a syntactical unit beyond the end of a line
of a poem, also called run-on line.
Entrance:
In drama, the coming of a character onto
the stage. The opposite is exit.
Epic:
A lengthy narrative poem in which action,
characters, and language are on a heroic level; the style is
exalted and even majestic.
Examples: Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid,
Milton’s Paradise Lost and Beowulf.
Epigram:
A witty, ingenious, and pointed saying that is expressed tersely. Aphorism
is a related form.
Examples: ”I would live to study and not study to live.” (F. Bacon),
and ”I can resist everything except temptation.” (O.
Wilde)
Essay:
A text form in which the writer expresses his personal
views on some topic in an artistic way.
Essays can be descriptive, narrative, argumentative, satiric,
biographical, critical, or historical. There are many
possible varieties, from the serious to the light-hearted and entertaining.
Euphemism:
Stylistic device used to hide the true nature of something unpleasant by
expressing it in a more pleasant, less direct way.
Examples: ”he passed away” instead of ”he died”, or ”mental home”
instead of ”madhouse”.
Exaggeration:
Exaggeration means a strong overstatement, often used with an amusing
effect (cf. understatement).
It has to fulfil several requirements - to set the action going,
suggest the theme, sketch the background, introduce the main
characters and their problems, arouse suspense.
Generally speaking, it sets forth the prerequisites from which the story
will develop. –
The process of giving the reader necessary information concerning the characters
and events existing before the action proper of a story, drama
or novel begins.
Expressionism:
Expressionism in modern literature can be referred to
as any deliberate distortion of reality. In drama it applies to a style of
play-writing emphasising emotional and symbolic or abstract representations of
reality. In novels or short stories it involves the presentation of an
objective outer world through intensified impressions and moods of characters.
Examples: E. O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, T. Williams’ The
Glass Menagerie, A. Miller’s The Death of a
Salesman.
Eye rhyme:
Two words which, from the spelling, look as though they should rhyme,
but which actually do not.
Examples: move – love; have – grave; stood – blood.
Fable:
Usually short fictional narrative, commonly
employing personified animals that represent human types. It us an allegorical text form with a clear didactic function
that is either implicitly expressed throughout the action or stated explicitly
in the form of a moral.
Falling action:
Structural element of a fictional text, marked
by a reduction of the suspense.
It usually follows the turning-point and precedes the solution/dénouement.
Feature story:
Variant
of the text form report. Though based on facts, it does not emphasize
generally newsworthy events, but rather an individual case and so it appeals to
the emotions and arouses human interest. Feature story writers do not only give
an account of an event but generally also provide background and supplementary
information. The feature story is often written in an emotional, personal or
humorous way.
meaning
of a word that goes beyond its usual definition(s) and transfers the word from
its normal context to a new one. Examples of figurative use of language are metaphors,
similes and symbols.
Flashback:
A passage in the narrative which breaks the
chronological sequence of events to deal with earlier events, i.e. dream,
dialogue, or memory.
Focus:
The center around which the
material of an imaginative work of art is concentrated. The focus may be primarily upon character, upon an idea, upon a setting,
or the like.
Foot (feet):
Unit of stressed and unstressed syllables within a line
of a poem (cf. metre).
Any
piece of writing can be classified according to the writer's main purpose.
These types of writing are called forms of discourse. The five major forms of
discourse are description, exposition, narration, argument
or persuasion, and instruction.
Frame story:
A story within a story.
Free verse:
Form of a poem whose structure is not established by rhyme
and a regular metre, but, for example, by repetition, rhythm
and sound elements such as alliteration and assonance.
A narrative form which attempts to re-create past events and includes
both fictional elements (imaginary characters and situations) and
non-fictional or historical elements (historical characters, factual documentation). In this type of fiction the story element is important too.
Obvious and deliberate exaggeration, for the
purpose of emphasis. It is not meant to be taken literally, but is
used figuratively to create humor or emphasis, e.g. ”I've
told you a thousand times not to do that.”
Iambus:
A metrical foot of two syllables, the first unaccented, the second
accented ½È —½
Example: To be, or not to be – that is the question. (Hamlet)
Idiom (idiomatic speech):
A group of words which has a special meaning that cannot be literally
translated into another language.
Example: ”Hold the line, please.” In
German: ”Bleiben Sie bitte am Apparat.”
Image (imagery):
Basically the term denotes the images employed in a literary work
(or any other text). A general definition is: a picture in words which often
strongly appeals to the senses. Specific devices are symbol, simile
and metaphor.
Initiation:
1.
The act of initiation or
the fact of being initiated; formal introduction or initial ceremony into some
office, into society, etc., or the participation in some principles or observances;
hence, instruction in the elements of any subject or practice.
2.
Initiation story: the account of a boy's/girl's becoming a man/woman as he/she moves
from innocence and ignorance - through a difficult process of acquiring
knowledge of the world - to the practical but somewhat disillusioning wisdom of
adulthood.
3.
The first existential
ordeal, crisis or encounter with the experience in the life of a youth.
Its ideal aim is knowledge, recognition and confirmation in the world, to
which the actions of the initiate, however painful, must tend. It is,
quite simply, the viable mode of confronting adult realities.
4.
An initiation story
may be said to show its young protagonist experiencing a significant
change of knowledge about the world of himself, or a
change of character, or of both, and this change must point or lead him
toward an adult world. It may or may not contain some form of ritual, but it
should give some evidence that the change is at least likely to have permanent
effects.
5.
Initiation stories obviously center on a variety of experiences
and the initiations vary in effect. It will be useful, therefore, to divide
initiations into types according to their power and effect (tentative,
incomplete and decisive initiation).
It
is the form of discourse in which the writer tries to teach people something,
usually by telling them what to do or how to do something. A text of this
nature is called an instructive text.
A form of presentation which reveals the feelings, thoughts and
recollections of a character without the intervention of the narrator. The reader directly ”overhears” the thoughts
flowing through the character's mind. Sometimes the term stream of
consciousness is used synonymously.
Interview:
Special kind of dialogue, usually
prepared in advance and later edited for publication or broadcast.
Irony:
A statement expressing the opposite of what is really meant, whereby the
reader or listener is expected to realize the true meaning.
Example: "Lovely weather, isn't it?" said A to B, while a thunderstorm
was tearing his umbrella to pieces.
Jargon:
Technical expressions used among themselves by members of a particular
profession or social group (sports, truckers, youth groups).
Keyword outline:
Text form belonging to the expository text
type, a systematic, condensed arrangement of important information from a text. It contains the main ideas of a paragraph or group of paragraphs, their
supporting ideas and often important details, visually structured according to
their relative importance.
Layout:
Choice of print and general
arrangement of written and/or pictorial material on a page of a book, magazine,
newspaper, etc. The layout determines
the readability and attractiveness of the printed matter.
Leading article:
Variant of the text type comment, usually
written by the chief editor of a newspaper or magazine to state a particular
opinion on some topic of current importance. The views expressed are generally representative of the political
and social tendency of the publication as a whole. Also known
as editorial.
Letter to the editor:
Variant text form of the text type comment, a letter written by a
reader of a newspaper or magazine to its editor in order to express a personal
opinion on some topic of general interest or to react to an article
which appeared in that newspaper or magazine, usually with he intention of
having the letter published.
Line:
In a poem, structural unit, usually classified by the number of feet
it contains (cf. metre, stanza).
Listing order:
Way of structuring a text by enumerating its items, not necessarily
according to their importance, often achieved by numbering the items or by introducing
them with adverbs like ”first”, ”then”, ”finally”.
Literal (meaning):
Meaning of a word as defined in a dictionary (cf. figurative).
Litotes:
An ironically moderate speech. Sometimes a rhetorical understatement in which a
negative is substituted for the positive remark.
Example: ”not bad” instead of ”quite good”.
Element of imagery, the linking of two
seemingly unlike things with one another in the form of an implicit comparison,
thus suggesting some kind of identity, e.g. ”the snow
of his hair.” Such figures of speech can be found in poetic language as
well as in everyday language to create a dramatic effect.
In everyday language one is no longer aware of the
metaphorical quality because of too frequent use. Those expressions are called dead
metaphors (e.g. ”bottle-neck, leg of a table, foot
of a mountain” etc.). In poetic language metaphorical expressions achieve a
special effect: ”The road was a ribbon of moonlight.”
Another form of metaphor, very similar to synecdoche (and, in fact, some rhetoricians do not distinguish between the two), in which a closely associated object is substituted for the object or idea in mind:
"The orders came directly from the White House."
Regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
within a line of a poem.
1.
iambic foot ½È -½ The curfew
tolls the knell of parting day.
2.
trochaic foot ½- Ƚ There they
are, my fifty men and women.
3.
anapaestic foot ½È È -½ The Assyrian came
down like a wolf on the
fold.
4.
dactylic foot ½ - È È½ Eve, with her
basket, was deep in the bells
and grass.
Mode of presentation:
Basically there are two different ways of narrating a story.
The author may tell his story in a very detailed fashion so that the reader has
the feeling of participating in the action. That is called scenic presentation.
The use of dialogue is a typical feature of scenic presentation. - If
the author merely gives a selected summary of what happens within a
certain period we call this mode panoramic presentation.
Other terms: scenic
presentation -
scene -
showing
panoramic presentation -
summary -
telling.
Monologue (interior):
See: interior monologue and stream of consciousness.
Moral:
Lesson taught by a text with a didactic function, either expressed
explicitly in a final statement or implied by the action of the story
(cf. fable, parable).
Narrating time:
Time it takes to relate a particular event or series of events in a
narrative text, nearly the same as reading time. The relationship
between narrating time/reading time and acting time is dependent on the mode
of presentation.
Narrator: cf. point of view
Naturalism:
In literature, an attempt to achieve fidelity to nature by rejecting
idealized descriptions of life. Naturalistic writers believe that man’s
existence is shaped by heredity and environment. Novels and plays emphasize
man’s animality and his brutal struggle for survival.
Writers: Th. Dreiser, E. O’Neill, F. Norris, St. Crane.
News story:
Non-fictional variant of the text
form report, based on facts, but enriched by background information and
story-like elements. If the writer of a news story brings in a great deal of
subjective statements and interpretation, it is called an interpretive news
story.
Non-fiction (non-fictional):
Category of texts in which the writer or speaker refers only to persons
and places that really exist and to events that do or
did take place. Common examples of non-fiction are comments and reports.
Novel:
Long and complex fictional narrative written in
prose.
Ode:
Originally, an ode was a poem meant to be sung, but its meaning has been
altered to apply to a lyric poem with a dignified theme, written in a formal,
elevated style.
Examples: Shelley: Ode to the West Wind, and Gray’s
The Progress of Poesy.
The formation of words from sounds which seem to suggest and reinforce
the meaning. Onomatopoeia is often used in imitation of natural sounds: bang,
hiss, swish, buzz.
Open ending:
Structural element of fictional texts, the opposite of
solution or dénouement.
In a story with an open
ending the conflict is not solved: the final interpretation
is left up to the reader or audience.
A specific method of historiography (historical research and writing). A broad range of people are interviewed on how they experienced a
certain period, historical development or event in their daily lives. Their
reports – often recorded – are edited and more or less directly presented in
print or on tape.
A figure of speech in which two contradictory words are combined to
produce a rhetorical effect:
Examples: ”eloquent
silence”
Be
fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,
Thou
pure impiety and impious purity! (Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing)
Parable:
Usually a short fictional narrative with a
didactic function, telling the story of some event in order to make a general
statement about human behaviour.
This moral is not always stated explicitly; the reader or listener is
expected to draw a parallel between the story and his/her own experience. The
parable is an allegorical text form that presents human types.
Paradox:
A statement that seems at first to be in itself contradictory, even
senseless, but reveals some hidden truth on second thought.
Parallelism:
Repetition
of the same or similar syntactical form in different sentences or parts of
sentences (cf. anaphora).
Parody:
Fictional text which imitates the form and language of a well-known
piece of writing while changing its tone and context. It may be simply
designed to ridicule the original or it may offer serious, valuable criticism
of it.
Personification:
(The personification; to personify s.th.)
It is the technique of representing animals, plants, objects, the forces
of nature or abstract ideas as if they were human beings and possessed human
qualities.
Play: see Drama
Plot:
In fictional texts, the structure of the action as a set of
events connected by cause and effect and centered around one or more conflicts. Plot is typically
composed of the following elements, usually in this order: exposition, rising
action, climax, turning-point, falling action, solution/dénouement
or open ending.
The structure of an action with its particular order
and arrangement of facts. E.M. Forster in Aspects
of the Novel tries to differentiate between plot and story as the
constituents of an action: "We have defined a story as a narrative of
events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events,
the emphasis falling on causality. 'The king died and then the queen died,' is
a story. 'The king died, and then the queen died of grief,' is a plot. (Aspects, p. 93.)
Poem:
Fictional text structured by lines, often
arranged in stanzas, employing such elements as metre, rhyme,
alliteration and assonance, as well as imagery and words
rich in connotations.
Poetic diction:
A term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time of the Romantic revolution, when William Wordsworth challenged the distinction in his Romantic manifesto, the Preface to the third (1802) edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Point of view:
The author who writes a story is always omniscient. He may choose to
reveal his omniscience (unlimited knowledge), reduce it, or give it up completely.
Author and narrator are not identical. The author is the
writer, the ”real man” with a personal biography,
who remains outside the story. The narrator is always a figure within
the story, where he can adopt various roles.
1.
Neutral omniscience: The narrative is told in the third person. The prevailing
characteristic is that the narrator knows everything about his characters,
their thoughts, feelings, perceptions. The reader has access to all possible
kinds of information.
2.
Selective omniscience: The third-person narrator deliberately limits his
total omniscience and restricts himself to the viewpoint of one or several
(multiple selective omniscience) characters in the narrative. In the latter
case he may shift from the viewpoint of one character to that of another
(shifting point of view).
3.
Observer-narrator: The narrator confines himself to the role of an
observer, who tells only those things that can be perceived from the outside.
He has no access to the thoughts of other characters.
4.
As witness: The author hands his job of story-telling completely
over to another mediator. The "I" as witness is a character in his
own right within the story. The natural consequence of this narrative form is
that the witness has no more than ordinary access to the mental state of
others.
5.
Narrator as protagonist: The main character tells his own story in the first
person. He is limited almost entirely to his own thoughts, feelings and
perceptions.
6.
Withdrawal of author and
character: The
total elimination of the narrator. The story comes directly through the minds
of the characters. The aim is to dramatize mental states. (Cf. stream of
consciousness).
7.
The dramatic mode: Having eliminated the author, and then the narrator,
we are now ready to dispose of mental states altogether. The information
available to the reader in the dramatic mode is limited largely to what the
characters do and say, the "point of view" being comparable to that
of a camera. The characters' appearance and the setting may be supplied by the
author as in the stage directions of a play (cf. scenic presentation).
Protagonists:
The main character of a novel, story
or drama.
Pun:
Play on words, using either different meanings of the
same word or the different meanings of words having the same or similar sounds.
Realism:
1.
A theory of writing in
which the familiar ordinary aspects of life are depicted in a matter-of-fact
manner designed to reflect life as it actually is.
2.
Treatment of subject
matter in a way that presents careful descriptions of everyday life, often the
lives of so-called middle or lower-class people (cf. naturalism).
Register:
A variety of language used for a specific purpose, as opposed to dialect
(which varies by speakers).
Registers may be defined by reference to subject matter (filed of
discourse, e.g. the jargon of sport), to medium (mode of discourse, e.g.
printed material, letter, message on tape, etc.), or to level of
formality (manner of discourse, e.g. formal, casual, familiar, etc.).
Repeated use of particular sounds, syllables, words,
phrases, sentences etc., as a means of structuring a text (cf. alliteration,
anaphora, assonance, parallelism).
Representation:
Someone is a member of a certain group and speaks on its behalf.
Examples are:
1.
She represented her
fellow-workers at the conference.
2.
Does Mr. Parker still
represent Worcester in Parliament?
3.
”No taxation without
representation!” (Catchword during the American Revolution)
4.
House of Representatives
5.
Phonetic symbols [sainz] (here: signs) represent sounds.
Report:
Non-fictional, journalistic text form belonging to the text type narration,
often told in the past tense. It provides factual answers to the questions
”who?”, ”what?”, ”when?”, ”where?” and ”why?”, the so-called ”five w’s”. These facts are verifiable, i.e. they can be checked
on by the reader or listener.
The act of using language for persuasion in speaking or writing,
especially in oratory. The writer or speaker
can use various rhetorical or stylistic devices to achieve the desired effects.
These include: alliteration, allusion, anticlimax, antithesis, hyperbole,
paradox, parallelism, pun.
Rhetorical Question:
Question to which the answer is
obvious and therefore not expected.
It forces the reader or listener to think in a certain direction and is
characteristic of the persuasive style.
Rhyme:
Identity of sounds between two words, extending form
the last stressed syllable to the end of the words. If this occurs at the end
of two or more lines of a poem, we speak of end rhyme; if
within a line, it is known as internal rhyme.
A repeated pattern of end rhymes; usually marked with letters of the alphabet (ABBA would mark a rhyme scheme in the first stanza of, say, dog/man/plan/fog; CDDC would mark a rhyme scheme in the second stanza of, say, map/press/dress/slap).
Rhythm (rhythmic):
Natural flow of speech in its
sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables.
In a poem, rhythm is often in conflict with the metre.
Rising action:
Structural element of fictional texts, marked by an
increase in suspense and an intensifying of the conflict. It usually follows the exposition and precedes the climax.
Sarcasm:
Sarcasm means a bitter or aggressive remark used to express disapproval
or mockery (cf. irony, satire).
Satire:
A satire (satirical text) is a fictional text intended to criticize
certain conditions, events or people by making them ridiculous, often by using humour,
irony, exaggeration and sarcasm.
Scene:
Subdivision of an act of a drama, usually established by a
unity of time, place and action (Aristotle), often marked by the entrance
and exit of one or more characters.
Science fiction:
Stories and novels dealing, usually in a fanciful way,
with scientific innovations such as space travel, robots, genetic manipulation,
etc. Some SF novels also deal with sociological and philosophical
problems. Forerunners of this genre are Utopian novels of former centuries.
Among the classic SF writers are Jules Verne and H.G. Wells; prominent modern
authors include Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, R.A. Heinlein, James Blish, Kurt Vonnegut, and Arthur C. Clarke.
Setting:
Place, time and circumstances in which the action takes place.
Short Story:
A brief narrative written in prose, shorter
than a novel. The short story often
deals with one main event and with the development of one character.
While a short story is less complex and detailed than most novels, it is
more likely to produce ”a certain unique and single
effect” (Edgar Allan Poe) in the reader. A conflict is frequently at the
centre of the story. There is usually a dramatic development comprising
several stages: an opening situation (exposition), a developing conflict
(rising action), a point where the conflict is most intense (climax),
and the falling action bringing about success or failure for the protagonist.
Element of imagery; connecting and comparing two things of
different classes or categories by ”as” or ”like” to
increase vividness and expression. An explicit comparison on the basis of a
resemblance in one or several aspects: ”his hair was
like snow”.
Slang:
A variety of familiar and colloquial speech, often new, picturesque, and
strilking, sometimes even vulgar; not yet fully
recognized and accepted by the community as a permanent part of the common language.
Examples: ”buck” – ”dollar”; ”gimme” – ”give (it to) me”; ”black maria
– police van”
Solecism:
Incorrect use of grammar to characterize a person or
create the feeling of closeness.
Example: ”... he
don’t care much for music ...
”
”I’m
the one [who] takes Mom grocery shopping.”
Solution:
Structural element of a fictional text in which the conflict is
resolved (cf. dénouement, open ending, plot).
Sonnet:
Poem consisting of fourteen lines (often: iambic
pentameter), each usually containing five feet, with a fixed rhyme
scheme (often: abab/cdcd/efefgg), often divided
into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). Famous
sonnet writers were Shakespeare and Milton.
The
speaker is the voice speaking to us in a poem. Even when the personal pronoun ”I” is used in a poem, we cannot assume that the
speaker is identical with the poet. As a rule we should treat the speaker as a
character invented by the poet. The speaker is also sometimes called ”persona”.
Speech:
Verbal text form, a talk or address delivered to an audience, usually in
formal style.
Stage direction:
Author’s notes in a drama on
how it is to be performed, often with important details about the setting,
the characters’ appearances, actions, movements, gestures, ways
of speaking and attitudes, thus providing explicit as well as implicit
characterization.
Stanza:
Group of lines in a poem (cf. rhyme scheme). In some poems, (especially in traditional ones), each stanza has the
same pattern. A two line stanza is called a couplet, a stanza of four
lines is known as a quatrain.
Stream of consciousness:
We may define stream-of-consciousness fiction as a type of fiction
in which the basic emphasis is placed on the exploration of a character's
consciousness for the purpose of revealing his mental nature. The important
characteristics of the movement of consciousness is its ability to move freely
in time and space, imitating the psychological principle of free association,
controlled by memory, senses, imagination. There are two basic techniques
used in presenting stream of consciousness: reported thought and interior
monologue.
1.
Reported thought (also: indirect interior monologue or substitutionary
narration): a presentation of thoughts, feelings, perceptions which
contains elements of both direct speech and reported speech. Typical features
are the third person point of view, the past tense group (as in reported
speech) and the omission of introductory clauses such as "he said",
"she thought", etc.
2.
Interior monologue (also: direct interior monologue): the type of monologue which
presents consciousness directly to the reader. There is complete or
near-complete disappearance of the author from the page. It is in the first
person, the tense is as mind dictates.
Summary:
Text form belonging to the text type exposition,
a short continuous text presenting the most important information from some
other text. Although formulated in the summary
writer’s own words - sometimes on the basis of a keyword outline of the
original text - it does not contain his or her personal opinions or
interpretations.
Suspense:
Feeling of tension or expectation aroused in
the reader or audience about the further development of the characters, conflict
and plot.
A writer's characteristic use of language. Style includes:
*
arrangement of ideas
*
choice of vocabulary
*
sentence structure and
variety
*
imagery
*
appropriate diction or
register
*
rhythm
*
repetition
*
tone etc.
1.
Formal style: Language used to address educated readers or listeners not known very
closely by the writer or speaker. Formal style shows detachment and respect.
Typical of it are a non-personal point of view, the use of precise and
frequently difficult vocabulary, full forms and often long, complex sentences.
2.
Informal style: Language used to address readers or listeners with whom the writer or
speaker feels comfortable. Informal style is characteristic of relaxed,
personal and subjective communication. Typical of it are a personal point
of view, the use of fairly simple, even slangy vocabulary, short forms,
uncomplicated sentence patterns, ellipsis and fillers.
3.
Neutral style: Language distinguished by a choice of words and sentence structures common
to all text forms and appropriate to any situation.
4.
Persuasive style: The persuasive style uses language intended to convince or persuade
the reader or listener. Characteristic elements are attitudinal and intensifying
adverbs and rhetorical questions. Persuasive style is used in the
text type argumentation and in subjective forms of the text type instruction
such as advertisements.
A symbol is an object, character, or incident which stands for
something else or suggests something greater than itself, e.g. an idea or a
quality. It establishes at least two levels of meaning,
the concrete and the spiritual one (cf. figurative meaning). Examples
are:
|
1.
apple |
symbol of (physical) love and fertility |
|
2.
book |
symbol of wisdom and knowledge; in Islamic countries also symbol of
fate |
|
3.
dove |
symbol of peace |
|
4.
fountain |
connected with (deep) water -> deep secrets, knowledge, wisdom; but
also purification |
|
5.
owl |
symbol of wisdom, science and knowledge |
|
6.
ring |
symbol of eternity (without beginning and end - cf. circle); symbol of
marital unity, loyalty and membership of a certain group |
|
7.
rose |
symbol of love, but also of discreteness and secrecy |
Synecdoche:
A part of something represents the
whole to focus the attention.
Example: Two legs
good – four wheels better.
An unnecessary accumulation of words of the same or similar meaning. It is a fault of style or a figure that is employed deliberately. Pleonasm
is often used synonymously.
Technical vocabulary:
Words and expressions from a special field of knowledge, frequent in technical
description, used for the sake of clarity and precision due to their lack
of connotation.
Text form:
Realization of one of the five text types in
actual texts, e.g. as poems, short stories, novels, reports,
comments. Though most text forms
contain elements of several text types, one of them is usually dominant.
Text Types:
Classification of texts according to five different
models based on the writer’s intentions.
1.
The argumentative text
type: The argumentative text type deals with controversial
matter and expresses a clear opinion. Comments, interviews, leading
articles, letters to the editor and pieces of criticism are
common argumentative text forms.
2.
The descriptive text
type: The descriptive text type presents the physical characteristics
of living beings, objects and/or processes. The presentation can be either
based on exact observation and objective information (= technical
description), or it can give a suggestive mental picture based on the
writer’s subjective impressions (= impressionistic description).
3.
The instructive text
type: The instructive text type aims at influencing the
reader’s or listener’s behaviour by advising or instructing him or her.
Characteristic of instruction is the use of commands or recommendations and the
present tense group of verbs. Rules and regulations are common text forms
belonging to the type instruction.
4.
The expository text
type: In the expository text type the writer or speaker
analyses and explains some relatively complex matter, mostly in an objective
and precise way. Dictionary definitions, entries in reference books, keyword
outlines and summaries are common text forms belonging to the
expository text type.
5.
The narrative type of
texts: cf. The narrative text type
presents actions or events in some kind of temporal order. Novels,
short stories and reports are common text forms belonging to the
text type narration.
Theme:
Central topic of
or idea of a text, holding all its elements together and giving them meaning.
Time-scheme:
In any piece of fiction there are two different kinds of ”time” to be distinguished. Reading time is the
time it takes to read a story or book which is dependent on the extent of a
narrative (number of pages). Acting time is the time-span of the events
of a story. The German literary terms are “Erzählzeit”
and “erzählte Zeit”.
Tone:
Writer’s or speaker’s attitude towards his/her theme,
character(s) and especially towards the reader or listener, as reflected
in the text. Tone can, for example, be serious
or playful, humorous or solemn, arrogant or modest, emotional, ironical,
critical, sympathetic (cf. atmosphere).
Topical order:
Way of structuring a text according to its main topics, often
also subtopics, following logical steps or categories.
Turning-point:
Structural element of a fictional text, marking
a change in the conflict or suspense. It usually follows the climax and precedes the falling action.
Type:
Character in a fictional text who is not fully developed, but one-sided, representing a
group of people or some human trait.
Understatement:
Statement that is deliberately weak, putting less emphasis or importance
on something than it deserves, often used as a form of irony (cf. exaggeration).
Utopia (utopian):
Fictional text dealing with
an ideal society, place or world.
If this society is a negative one, we usually call it an anti-utopia.