Praxis Middle School-Language Arts-Figurative Language

Question 1

allegory

Answer 1

a story in which people or things or actions represent an idea or a generalization about life. Allegories usually have strong lessons or morals (Animal Farm)

Question 2

alliteration

Answer 2

the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words such as peter piper picked a pack of pickled peppers

Question 3

allusion

Answer 3

a reference to a familiar person, place, thing, or event. - for example, Don Juan, brave new world, Everyman, machiavellian, utopia

Question 4

analogy

Answer 4

a comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way

Question 5

anapestic meter

Answer 5

meter that is composed of feet that are short-short-long or unaccented -unaccented-accented, usually used in light or whimsical poetry, such as a limerick

Question 6

anecdote

Answer 6

a brief story that illustrates or makes a point

Question 7

antagonist

Answer 7

a person or thing working against the hero of a literary work (the protagonist)

Question 8

aphorism

Answer 8

a wise saying usually short and written (ex. lost time is never found again)

Question 9

apostrophe

Answer 9

a turn from the general audience to address a specific group of persons (or a personified abstraction) who is present or absent. Ex. Hamlet turning to the audience and speaking directly to one woman about his father’s death.

Question 10

assonance

Answer 10

a repetition of the same sound in words close to one another. (ex. white stripes)

Question 11

blank verse

Answer 11

unrhymed verse often occurring in iambic pentameter

Question 12

caesura

Answer 12

a break in the rhythm of a language, particularly a natural pause in a line or verse, marked in prosody by a double vertical line.

Question 13

characterization

Answer 13

a method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits

Question 14

cliche

Answer 14

an expression that has been used so often that it uses it’s expressive power (ex. dead as a doornail or I am so hungry I could eat a horse)

Question 15

consonance

Answer 15

repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing different vowels. for example stroke of luck

Question 16

couplet

Answer 16

a stanza made up of two rhyming lines.

Question 17

diction

Answer 17

an author’s choice of words based on their clearness, conciseness, effectiveness, and authenticity.

Question 18

archaic: type of diction

Answer 18

old fashioned words that are no longer used in common speech such as thee, thy, and thou

Question 19

colloquialisms: type of diction

Answer 19

expressions that are usually accepted in informal situations or regions such as “wicked awesome”

Question 20

dialect: type of diction

Answer 20

a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area

Question 21

jargon: type of diction

Answer 21

specialized language used in a particular field or content area for example educational jargon includes differentiated instruction, cooperative learning, and authentic assessment

Question 22

profanity: type of diction

Answer 22

profanity: type of diction

Question 23

slang: type of diction

Answer 23

informational language used by a particular group of people among themselves

Question 24

vulgarity: type of diction

Answer 24

language widely considered crude, disgusting, and oftentimes offensive

Question 25

end rhyme

Answer 25

rhyming of ends of lines of verse

Question 26

enjambment

Answer 26

also known as a run on line in poetry. Enjambment occurs when one line ends and continues onto the next line to complete meaning. For example in thoreau's poem "my life has been the poem I would have writ" the first line is my life has been the poem I would have writ. The second line completes the meaning "but I could not both live and utter it"

Question 27

existentialism

Answer 27

a philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility. Jean-Paul sartre is the foremost existentialist . Other famous existentialist writers include Kierkegaard(the father of existentialism), albert Camus, fredirich Nietzsche, franz kafka, and simone de beauvoir

Question 28

flashback

Answer 28

a literary device in which the author jumps back in time in the chronology of a narrative

Question 29

foot

Answer 29

a metrical foot is defined as one stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables (from zero to as many as 4) Stressed syllables are indicated by the ' symbol. Unstressed syllables are indicated by the (smiley face) symbol. There are four possible metrical feet

Question 30

iambic : type of foot

Answer 30

unstressed, stressed

Question 31

trochaic: type of foot

Answer 31

stressed, unstressed

Question 32

anapestic

Answer 32

unstressed, unstressed, stressed

Question 33

dactylic

Answer 33

stressed, unstressed, unstressed

Question 34

one foot:

Answer 34

monometer

Question 35

two feet:

Answer 35

dimeter

Question 36

three feet

Answer 36

trimeter

Question 37

four feet

Answer 37

tetrameter

Question 38

five feet

Answer 38

pentameter

Question 39

six feet

Answer 39

hexameter

Question 40

seven feet

Answer 40

Septameter

Question 41

eight feet

Answer 41

octameter

Question 42

foreshadowing

Answer 42

a literary technique in which the author gives hints or clues about what is to come at some point later in the story.

Question 43

free verse

Answer 43

verse that contains an irregular metrical pattern and line length: also known as vers libre

Question 44

genre

Answer 44

a category of literature defined by its style, form, and content

Question 45

heroic couplet

Answer 45

a pair of lines of poetic verse written in iambic pentameter

Question 46

hubris

Answer 46

the flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero; this term comes from the Greek work hybris, which means excessive pride

Question 47

hyperbole

Answer 47

an exaggeration for emphasis or rhetorical effect

Question 48

imagery

Answer 48

the use of words to create pictures in the reader's mind

Question 49

internal rhyme

Answer 49

rhyme that occurs within a line of verse

Question 50

irony

Answer 50

the use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal of expected meaning.

Question 51

dramatic irony

Answer 51

the reader sees a character's errors, but the character does not

Question 52

verbal irony

Answer 52

the writer's say one thing and it means another

Question 53

situation

Answer 53

the purpose of a particular action differs greatly from the result

Question 54

malapropism

Answer 54

a type of pun, or play on words, that results when two words become mixed up in the speaker's mind. For example: don't put the horse before the cart

Question 55

metaphor

Answer 55

a figure of speech in which a comparison is implied but not stated such as this winter is a bear

Question 56

meter

Answer 56

a rhythmical pattern in verse that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables

Question 57

mood

Answer 57

the feeling a text evokes in the reader such as sadness, tranquility, or elation

Question 58

moral

Answer 58

a lesson a work of literature is teaching

Question 59

narration

Answer 59

the telling of a story

Question 60

onomatopoeia

Answer 60

the use of sound words to suggest meaning

Question 61

oxymoron

Answer 61

a phrase that contains of two contradictory terms like "deafening silence"

Question 62

paradox

Answer 62

a contradictory statement that makes sense for example Hegel's paradox :man learns from history that man learns nothing from history

Question 63

personification

Answer 63

a literary device in which animals ideas and things are represented as having human traits

Question 64

point of view

Answer 64

the perspective from which a story is told

Question 65

first person point of view

Answer 65

the story is told from the point of view of one character

Question 66

third person point of view

Answer 66

the story is told by someone outside the story

Question 67

omniscient point of view

Answer 67

the narrator of the story shares the thoughts and feelings of all the characters

Question 68

limited omniscient point of view

Answer 68

the narrator of the story shares the thoughts and feelings of one of the characters

Question 69

camera view

Answer 69

the narrator records the action from his or her point of view, unaware of any other characters' thoughts of feelings. This perspective is also known as the objective view

Question 70

refrain

Answer 70

the repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals, particularly at the end of each stanza

Question 71

repetition

Answer 71

the multiple use of a word, phrase, or idea for emphasis or rhythmic effect

Question 72

rhetoric

Answer 72

persuasive writing

Question 73

rhythm

Answer 73

the regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry

Question 74

setting

Answer 74

the time and place in which the action of a story takes place

Question 75

simile

Answer 75

a comparison of two unlike things, usually including the word like or as

Question 76

style

Answer 76

how the author uses words, phrases, and sentences to form ideas

Question 77

symbol

Answer 77

a person, place, thing, or event used to represent something else, such as the white flag that represents surrender

Question 78

tone

Answer 78

the overall feeling created by an author's use of words

Question 79

transcendentalism

Answer 79

during the mid 19th century in new england, several writers and intellectuals worked together to write, translate works, and publish and become known as transcendentalists. Their philosophy focused on protesting the puritan ethic and materialism. The valued individualism, freedom, experimentation, and spirituality. Noted transcendentalists are ralph waldo emerson, nathaniel hawthorne, henry david thoreau, henry wadsworth longfellow, and oliver wendell holmes

Question 80

verse

Answer 80

a metric line of poetry. a verse is named based on the kind and number of feet composing it

Question 81

voice

Answer 81

distinctive features of a person's speech and speech patterns

Question 82

rhythm

Answer 82

pattern of stresses in a line of verse. Examples.

Question 83

feet

Answer 83

individual rhythmic units: iamb (unstressed, stressed), trochee (stressed, unstressed), dactyl (stressed, unstressed, unstressed), anapest (unstressed, unstressed, stressed)

Question 84

verse

Answer 84

is built by stringing together repetitions of one of the feet (anapest, dactyl, iamb, trochee). If there is one foot it is monometer, two feet it is dimeter and so one

Question 85

iambic pentameter

Answer 85

five feet of unstressed, stressed

Question 86

pentameter

Answer 86

poetry lines with five feet