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Literature. This glossary of literary terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in the discussion, classification, analysis, and criticism of all types of literature, such as poetry, novels, and picture books, as well as of grammar, syntax, and language techniques. For a more complete glossary of terms relating to poetry in ...
Linguistics. Literal and figurative language is a distinction that exists in natural languages and studied within certain areas of language analysis, in particular stylistics, rhetoric, and semantics. Literal language uses words exactly according to their direct, straightforward, or conventionally accepted meanings or denotation.
In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the sequence of events in which each event affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as a series of events linked by the connector "and so". Plots can vary from the simple—such as in a traditional ballad —to forming ...
In rhetoric, zeugma ( / ˈzjuːɡmə / ⓘ; from the Ancient Greek ζεῦγμα, zeûgma, lit. "a yoking together" [1]) and syllepsis ( / sɪˈlɛpsɪs /; from the Ancient Greek σύλληψις, sullēpsis, lit. "a taking together" [2]) are figures of speech in which a single phrase or word joins different parts of a sentence. [3]
Alliterative verse. The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. [1] The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are ...
Diction ( Latin: dictionem (nom. dictio ), "a saying, expression, word"), [1] in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story. [2] [3] In its common meaning, it is the distinctiveness of speech: [3] [4] [5] the art of speaking so that each word is clearly heard and ...
Epic is a narrative genre characterised by its length, scope, and subject matter. The defining characteristics of the genre are mostly derived from its roots in ancient epics (poems such as Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey ). An epic is not limited to the traditional medium of oral poetry, but has expanded to include modern mediums including film ...
Used to describe a tense, the gnomic is considered neutral by not limiting action, in particular, to the past, present, or future. Examples of the gnomic include such generic statements as: "birds fly"; "sugar is sweet"; and "a mother can always tell". [note 1] [1] [2] If, as an aspect, it does take temporality into consideration, it may be ...
The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase is a non-fiction book by Mark Forsyth published in 2013. [1] [2] [3] The book explains classical rhetoric, dedicating each chapter to a rhetorical figure with examples of its use, particularly in the works of William Shakespeare. Forsyth argues the power of Shakespeare's language ...
Literariness. In literary theory, literariness is the organisation of language which through special linguistic and formal properties distinguishes literary texts from non-literary texts (Baldick 2008). The defining features of a literary work do not reside in extraliterary conditions such as history or sociocultural phenomena under which a ...