Vocabulary

Allegory: A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

A piece of literature that constructs a hidden meaning or lesson throughout it.

All this appears in the form of a story or fable, called an allegory.

Anthropomorphism: The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.

When an animal adapts human characteristics.

Numerous individuals agree that human anthropomorphism is useful in particular situations.

Archetypes: A typical set of traits associated with a character type.

A standard way that society groups certain characters types. (Breaking archetypes create a dramatic effect within the story.)

Sally broke the typical archetypes of a rich little ballet dancer, when she shared with her new classmates how her favorite genre was heavy metal.

Conceit: A fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor.

    A more sophisticated way of writing a metephor.

    You can improve your Language Arts mark by adding a conceit into your writing.

Connotation: An idea or feeling that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

  The applied meaning or mood that the choice of word gives.

  The term ‘fat’ and ‘evil’ carry such negative connotations for me.

Context:  The parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect. 

The conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event.

You have misinterpreted my remark because you took it out of context.


Cosmogony: The branch of science that deals with the origin of the universe, esp. the solar system. 

The theory regarding what the universe is, and how it was created.

Some individuals feel studying cosmogony is absolutely fascinating.

Denotation: The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.

  The actual definition of a word.

  A connotation could take the place of the original denotation, to apply a different meaning of your choice. (The word 'house' defines the actual word, where 'home' provides a cozy feeling.)

 

Dilemma: A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, esp. equally undesirable ones.

  A type of problem characters often face in a story, trying to make the best decision.

  Bella and Matt came upon a dilemma when they hit a fork in the road, and had to decide which path would lead them home.
 

Elaborate: Intricate and rich in detail.

To expand on an idea to make it more interesting and easy to understand.

After asking Sam to elaborate on his idea, Jessica’s understanding enhanced immediately.

Euphemism: A mild or indirect way of referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

  A softer approach of saying the ordinal word so it isn't as harsh or offensive.

  Susan continue to search for an euphemism for an abortion, to convince her peers it wasn’t a horrible deed.

Evoke: To call up or produce memories or feelings.

 To touch someone so deeply that feelings are brought up.

 The cancer survivors were able to evoke emotion to complete strangers as they shared their heart touching story.

 

Fable: A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.

   A short story that is sometimes passed down generations, and teaches a lesson throughout it.

  The grandchildren learned to trust wisely after their grandpa read them a fable about a innocent pig who trusted the sneaky wolf.

 

Fantasy: The faculty or activity of imagining things that are impossible or improbable

  A made up world with made up beings.

  Candy Land would be my perfect fantasy.

Fiction: The selective transforming of reality,  twisting of it to bring out its essence. An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not actually happen, but instead  has been invented.

  Selecting essential fragments of reality, and creating made up events and characters to create a story.

  I knew not to expect to find a dragon under my own bed, because the book I was reading was only fiction.

Foil: One that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another.

Demonstrating a characters characteristics by comparing them to other characters.

A foil was used to compare the characters.

Illusion: Making reference to the details from another story or event.

Creating a picture of events from another story.

In The Hobbit Gandalf made an illusion to Harry Potter by referring to the character Dumbledore.


Imagery: Visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work.

Descriptive or figurative language allowing words to bring a picture to a readers mind, when those events aren’t literally happening.

Thanks to the colorful imagery throughout the text, the readers were able to imagine the settings like they could see them with there.

Imaginative fiction: Literature that is set in a world other than that of the reader.

  A story based on a real world setting with magical events.

  Reading imaginative fiction helps me build a more creative mind.

Innuendo: An allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one.

A sly or nasty hint.

A true strong friendship is not easily broken by an offensive innuendo.

Juxtaposition: Placement of two ideas side by side to enhance meaning.

Contrasting ideas placed together for the purpose of a clearer understanding.

The juxtaposition of the two contrasting colours attracts more attention to the picture.

Metonymy: Close association or substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.

A figure of speech where one word is replaced with another word which that is closely related.

Charlie used metonymy to have varation in his writing.

 

Nepotism: Favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit.

Favoritism over family members.

Alex confronted nepotism in front of the class, to guarantee each student was treated fairly.

 

Paradox: A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true

A statement that contradicts itself.

This century supply's a common of paradox of individual freedom in an era of individual helplessness.

Parody: An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

A technique used to make fun of something by mimicking them in a funny way. Anecdote: A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.

Emma and I created a funny parody imitating sport announcers for our Lord of the Rings project.

 

Satire: Use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule or the like in exposing, denouncing, or dividing vice or folly.

The use of irony or sarcasm to point out the faults in a humorous manner.

In the head and shoulders commercial, the creators used a satire technique to recognize the footballs soft interior despite their tough archetypes. 

Schizophrenia: A mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness.

   A mental disorder where an individuals mentality isn’t very strong or healthy, causing poor decisions and sometimes more than one personality.

  Dustin had an old friend who suffered from schizophrenia.
 

Science Fiction: A genre of fiction with imaginative but more or less plausible content such as settings in the future, futuristic science and technology, space travel, parallel universes, aliens, and paranormal abilities.

Writing based on futuristic, space age or advanced technology.

Jonny’s favorite type of literature is Science Fiction.

 

Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.

Selecting only a fragment of a speech to represent the whole saying.

James's writing was hard to understand because of the synecdoche's.

Zoomorphism: The attribution of animal forms or qualities to a god.

When a human adapts characteristics of an animal or god.

In The Life of Pi, Pi experienced zoomorphism as Richard Parker taught Pi his ways of living.