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LEXICON
A Lifetime Of Words From ENG 2012
Welcome to my Lexicon. I've had the opportunity to be able to define and provide examples for multiple words from class that were presented to us which have also expanded my knowledge. I thrive off learning new things and I am always accepting new challenges in order to make my knowledge more virtuous. Explore my Lexicon below I put a lot of effort into it.
Gaps and Silences
Areas of texts that are open to interpretation
Things that are left out of the text
Leaves it up to the reader to fill in the gaps and make meaning out of the text
Also interpreted as trying to see from the author’s perspective
Example 1 - Not talking about John's death until the end of S-Town
Example 2 - Stranger Things; Implys but does not explicitly state the main character is gay
Other/Marginalization
Explores things that cannot be said
Inadvertent or conscious act of ignoring collective groups of people
Usually to a smaller character in a subtext who adds more to main character
Example 1 - John's mother in S - Town is definitely marginalized; mentioned only to bring up her dementia
Example 2 - Big Hero 6; Kids parents are dead, not very talked about but helps us understand his relationship with and dependency on
Decentering
Actively dislocating what is assumed to be the direct center of attention
Draw attention to something inside or outside the text which they feel throws a revealing light across it
Example 1 - S-Town Ep. 2; Brian decenters murder - He suggests Burt might not have ever murdered anyone but then John dies. Shows how he was originally approacihng murder in the first place.
Example 2 - Hamlet - placing more focus on characters that would otherwise be forgotten about like Ophelia and Gertrude
Idiolect
Someone's distinct way of speaking
Example 1 - Johns distinct way of speaking as opposed to Brian's way of speaking - accents or words used
Example 2 - Yoda speaks very different from everyone in his universe
Author and Authority
No authority without authorship - Authenticity - Is what's going on really happening
Example 1 - S-Town, Brian is leading us through the plot but does he control what exactly is going on? Is he directing the story?
Example 2 - Is God the author of our story? Or do we have free will and control our story?
Character and Characterization
How the writer makes the characters into the people they are
Example 1 - Brian Reed says what he thinks about people
Example 2 - In Looney Tunes a lot of characterization is done indirectly through the use of action or maybe dialogue giving you insight into a character
Round Vs. Flat
Round characters are very complex and dynamic
Flat Characters are more static
Example 1 - Brian would be a Round Character in S-Town
Example 2 - Sora would be a round character in Kingdom Hearts while the Disney characters he encounters are flat
Comedy
Disorder to order - Chaos to harmony
Things you find funny
Example 1 - In S-Town a lot of John's comebacks and remarks could possibly be seen as comedic
Example 2 - That 70's Show - Humor is created through the use of problem solving and other things you could relate to
Tragedy
Reverse of Comedy
Order to Disorder - Harmony to Chaos
Fall From Grace
Example 1 - In S Town John's Death
Example 2 - Teenage Pregnancy
Absurd
Style that has close likes with existentialism and realism - Skeptic of conventional reasoning - Usually satirical or in dark humor
Example 1 - Catch 22
Example 2 - Happy Tree Friends
Pastoral
A genre where people from the country are shown to be simple and innocent- away from city life
Example 1 - Brokeback Mountain
Example 2 - In The Stand
Discourse
System of language that compromises usual verbal ideas - Discussion
Example 1 - S Town - John's discourse about global issues
Example 2 - Twitter - Just one huge discourse between the world
Dialogue
The words that are being said in a conversation
Example 1 - S Town Episode 6 - more so an interview thus more dialogue
Example 2 - 13 Reasons Why - Main character creates a dialogue between himself and Hannah the deceased
Absence and Presence
Gauging the ontology of things - Something is or is something that
Example 1 - S Town - The way Mary Grace was treated by John
Example 2 - White Feminism - Absence of problems within colored/queer communities
Background
What appears the most inconspicuous - the historical or background reading is detached from contemporary
Example 1 - We know nothing about S Town in S Town
Example 2 - We know nothing about the parents in most modern cartoons
Foreground
The most prominent thing in the picture - linguistic item that draws attention to itself
Example 1 - How John might say things as if the don't truly matter but then they become the most important part of the show (John's suicide)
Example 2 - Sora is always in the foreground in Kingdom Hearts
Point of View
Point from which an event is perceived
Example 1 - In S Town we see everything happen from Brian's point of view
Example 2 - In Sonic Adventure we see the story happen from 6 characters point of view
Image
Verbal representation of visual things
Example 1 - Symbol of a stork meaning child birth
Example 2 - Tattoos being an image of something deeper to John in S Town
Covers use of language in a literary work that evokes sense impressions by literal or figurative reference to perceptible objects, scenes, actions, or states
Example 1 - The poem about the sweetness of eating the plum
Example 2 - In S Town John's imagery of the clock
Metaphor
Talking about one things in terms of something else as to suggest a common quality between them
Example 1 - Describing a talent "blossoming"
Example 2 - Shakespeare in "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day"
Personification
To attribute human characteristics to something that is not a living thing - usually to create figurative language
Example 1 - The wind was howling
Example 2 - The sun was oppressing
Simile
To compare two things using like or as
Example 1 - Sylvia Plath - Overexposed like an X Ray
Example 2 - Othello - As False as water
Context
Refers to all those physical and cultural conditions whereby a text or anything else comes into being
Example 1 - Context of the time period of The Incredibles
Example 2 - Context of the prequel to the sequel
Intertext
Enabling a textual reference to a particular text within the body of another text
Example 1 - A lot of pop culture references made in S Town
Example 2 - In The Crying of Lot 49 there is a reference to Oedipus Rex story
Realism
Generally refers to any movement which claims to offer a fresh, supposedly more faithful view of reality
Example 1 - A Visit From The Goon Squad - makes characters seem lifelike
Example 2 - Reality television
Heteroglossia
Two or more voices or perspectives present in a literary work
Example 1 - Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories you get the voices of Roxas and Sora
Example 2 - In S Town episode 1 you get Brian and John voice
Iambic Pentameter
A particular pattern of stressed/unstressed syllables
Example 1 - "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?"
Example 2 - Anything from Shakespeare
End Stop
Used so that the end of a line coincides with a clause or sentence break - stops with some sort of definitive punctuation
Example 1 - Walt Whitman - Faces - "An unceasing death bell tolls there"
Example 2 - Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet - "And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Enjambment
Also known as "run-over," lines run on from one to the next
Example 1 - John Keats "Endymion"
Example 2 - Shakespeare - Sonnet 75 -
"Now proud as an enjoyer and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure"
Aestheticism
Promotes aesthetic themes over social and political ones in texts - Favors looks over substance or depth
Example 1 - Salvadore Dali - portrait of traditional religious event with a self portrait in the bottom left corner
Example 2 - The Mona Lisa
Amoebaen Verse
Poetry written in the form of a dialogue between two speakers
Example 1 - Anna and Elsa's song in Frozen
Example 2 - Same Girl R. Kelly and Usher
Apollonian Vs. Dionysian
Concept based off of Greek mythology where Apollonian represents order and Dionysian represents chaos
Example of Dionysian - Kid Cudi in Speedin Bullet to Heaven
Example of Apollonian - Operatic music
Camp
Style of performance popularly associated with sexual behavior, exaggerated gestures are reduced flippantly to sexually suggestive mockery
Example 1 - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Example 2 - Jamie Foxx on In Living Color when he would play Wanda his female alter ego
Classicism
The following of traditional and long-established theories or styles
Example 1 - Alexander Pope "The Rape of The Lock
Example 2 - Johnathan Swift "Gullivers Travels"
Conceit
Extended metaphor that connects two unlike things in a unique and interesting way
Example 1 - Juliet is compared to a boat in a storm
Example 2 - A Visit From the Goon Squad - Life is compared to a sandwich
Differance
meaning of something is constantly changing
Example 1 - Tattoos in S Town
Example 2 - Red in Stanley Kubrick Movies
Dynamic Vs. Static
Dynamic characters go through some sort of drastic transition or change in their personality or beliefs throughout the story. They move and change with the plot, while static characters remain relatively unchanged from the beginning of the story to the end.
Example 1 - Get Out - Chris initially trusts his girlfriend, probably mistrusts white people only at the end
Example 2 - Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter
Jouissance
French word for 'enjoyment,' often used in a sexual sense and described as unsettling and destabilizing
Example 1 - 50 Shades of Grey
Example 2 - Fanfictions
Motif or Leitmotif
Recurring element or recurring thematic pattern
Examples 1 - Imperial March in Star Wars
Example 2 - Friendship in Kingdom Hearts
Literariness
Specific sum of linguistic and formal properties and elements that characterize and distinguish a literary text from a non-literary one
Example 1 - Meter and Rhyme that distinguish poem from a novel
Example 2 - Things that distinguish genre
Mythology
Body of myths and traditional stories belonging to a specific culture - can also be common belief
Example 1 - The meaning of money
Example 2 - Persinarse before entering church
Objective Correlative
An external equivalent for an internal state of mind - thus any object, scene, event, or situation that may be said to stand for or evoke a given mood or emotion, as opposed to a direct subjective expression of it
Example 1 - Hamlets emotions do not represent the facts of the plays actions
Example 2 - Rain for sad days
Old English
Language of early anglo-saxons, infused with germanic vocabulary
Example 1 - Original Beowulf writing
Example 2 - The Lords Prayer was originally written in Olde English
Soliloquy
Lengthy and significant monologue given by one single lone character in a scene - Tends to involve some hidden or key thoughts, ideas, and emotions of the character that are relevant to and help develop the story
Example 1 - Shakespeare consantly uses Soliloquys
Example 2 - Romeo and Juliet - Juliet speaks her thoughts aloud when she learns that Romeo is the son of her family's enemy: O Romeo, Romeo!
Syntax
The way that words are strung together in writing
Example 1 - Yoda inverts syntax
Example 2 - Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z speaks very weird syntax early in the series due to him being a demon
Volta
Any kind of significant literary turn
Example 1 - Any time Shakespeare says yet in a poem
Example 2 - S Town John's Death
Black Comedy
A kind of dram in which disturbing or sinister subjects like death and other things are treated as if they're funny
Example 1 - Happy Tree Friends
Example 2 - Celebrity Deathmatch
Lampoon
A Caricature of a real life person
Example 1 - National Lampoons Family Vacation
Example 2 - Byron's Satire
Metafiction
A literary device used self-consciously and systematically to draw attention to a work's status as a work of imagination
Example 1 - The Crying of Lot 49
Example 2 - Looney Tunes
Burlesque
A style in literature and drama that mocks or imitates a subject by representing it in an ironic or ludicrous way
Example 1 - Parody
Example 2 - Drag Shows
Eponym
A person or thing after which something else is named
Example 1 - Napoleon is the eponym of the Napoleonic Code
Example 2 - Strait of Magellan - Ferdinand Magellan
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a literary device that is used in narratives to omit some parts of a sentence or event, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while acting or reading it out. It is usually written between the sentences as a series of three dots, like this: “…”
Example 1 - To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Example 2 - Crash Blossoms Story in the New York Times
Fable
Fable is a literary device that can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral lesson at the end
Example 1 - The Fox and the Crow
Example 2 - Animal Farm
Frame Story
Frame story is a story set within a story, narrative, or movie, told by the main or the supporting character. A character starts telling a story to other characters, or he sits down to write a story, telling the details to the audience. This technique is also called a “frame narrative,” and is a very popular form of literary technique employed in storytelling and narration.
Example 1 - Frankenstein
Example 2 - Inception
Fallacy
An erroneous argument dependent upon an unsound or illogical contention. There are many fallacy examples that we can find in everyday conversations.
Example 1 - Appeal to Ignorance
Example 2 - Appeal to Authority
Haiku
A poem that has three lines, where the first and last lines have five moras, and the middle line has seven
Example 1 - Old Pond by Basho
Example 2 - Book of Haikus by Jack Keouac
Hypophora
a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question, and then immediately provides an answer to that question
Example 1 - A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Example 2 - Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
Hamartia
A personal error in a protagonist’s personality, which brings about his tragic downfall in a tragedy - this defect in a hero’s personality is also known as a “tragic flaw”
Example 1 -Oedipus by Sophocles - his hamartia is his hubris
Example 2 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare - his hamartia is his indecisiveness
Innuendo
An indirect or a subtle observation about a thing or a person
Example 1 - The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock - "Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
Example 2 - Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Teacher named Mr. Choakumchild
Isocolon
A rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases, and clauses of grammatically equal length
Example 1 - Community by John Donne - “Good we must love, and must hate ill,
For ill is ill, and good good still;
But there are things indifferent,
Which we may neither hate, nor love,
But one, and then another prove,
As we shall find our fancy bent…”
Example 2 - The Tyger by William Blake -“What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”
Limerick
A comic verse, containing five anapestic (unstressed/unstressed/stressed) lines, in which the first, second, and fifth lines are longer, rhyme together, and follow three metrical feet - the third and fourth lines rhyme together, are shorter, and follow two metrical feet
Example 1 - To Miss Vera Beringer by Lewis Carroll
Example 2 - There was an Old Man With A beard by Edward Lear
Malapropism
The use of an incorrect word in place of a similar-sounding word, which results in a nonsensical and humorous expression
Example 1 - Much Ado About Nothing - Willliam Shakespeare - “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.”
Example 2 - Much Ado About Nothing - Willliam Shakespeare - “By this hand, they are scoundrels and subtractors
that say so of him. Who are they?”
Metonymy
A figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated
Example 1 - Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare - "Friends Romans countrymen lend me your ears"
Example 2 - Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell - "I'm mighty glad Georgia waited till after Christmas"
Non Sequitur
A literary device that includes statements, sayings, and conclusions that do not follow the fundamental principles of logic and reason
Example 1 - Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Example 2 - Non Sequitur Comic Strip
Pastiche
A literary piece that imitates a famous literary work by another writer
Example 1 - Rozencrants and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Example 2 - The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge
Persona
A voice or an assumed role of a character, which represents the thoughts of a writer, or a specific person the writer wants to present as his mouthpiece
Example 1 - The Love Song of Alred J. Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
Example 2 - My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Portmanteau
A literary device in which two or more words are joined together to coin a new word, which refers to a singe concept
Example 1 - telephone + marathon = telethon
Example 2 - web + log = blog
Palindrome
A number, a word, a sentence, a symbol, or even signs that can be read forward as well as backward, or in reverse order with the same effects and meanings
Example 1 - Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel
Example 2 - Norma is as selfless as I am, Ron
Parody
An imitation of a particular writer, artist, or genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect
Example 1 - The Daily Show
Example 2 - Scary Movie
Slang
Words that are not a part of standard vocabulary or language, and which are used informally
Example 1 - Bob's your uncle - there you have it essentially
Example 2 - Flop - someone who cancels plans at the last minute
Verisimilitude
A likeness to the truth, such as the resemblance of a fictitious work to a real event, even if it is a far-fetched one
Example 1 - Gullivers Travels by Johnathan Swift
Example 2 - Adventures of huckleberry Finn by MArk Twain
Vignette
A small impressionistic scene, an illustration, a descriptive passage, a short essay, a fiction or nonfiction work focusing on one particular moment; or giving an impression about an idea, character, setting, mood, aspect, or object
Example 1 - House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisnero
Example 2 - Railroads by E.B. White
Wit
A literary device used to make the reader laugh
Example 1 - The Good Morrow by John Donne - “My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.”
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