22 Arts, Literature and Communication : Literature terms
Hi everyone. My name is Andrée-Ann, and I am a student at Montmorency College in the Art, Letters and Communication: Literature program. This is my third semester at college. In my program, I learn about different literary trends, branches of linguistics, different genres, and how to write a text. My glossary helps you understand what type of text/book you are reading, how the author is addressing you and the science hidden behind the words. It contains terms related to literature, parts of speech, definitions in sentence case from Google Search using "define" + the term, text-to-speech pronunciation models, images from Wikimedia Commons, automatic translations to French, and authentic example sentences from the Lextutor Concordancer.
catharsis
noun
The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
Example: It has CATHARSIS, anagorisis and evokes fear amongst the audience.
fr: catharsis
character
noun
A person in a novel, play, or movie.
Example: The modern reader might take issue with the CHARACTER's definition of 'fair'.
fr: personnage
connotation
noun
An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Example: We already noticed the morbid CONNOTATION of the words in the Y place: "gun", "slaughter-house", etc.
fr: connotation
denotation
noun
The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.
Example: However, children are also able to make guesses about a word's DENOTATION, often having heard the word only a minimal number of times, regardless of whether or not there is a concrete referent.
fr: dénotation
essay
noun
A short piece of writing on a particular subject.
Example: However, a debate persists and will be a recurring theme of this ESSAY.
fr: essai
fable
noun
A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
Example: Gustavo Uzielli, a Toscanelli scholar, has even suggested that the Academy was nothing but a FABLE.
fr: fable
humanism
noun
(among some contemporary writers) A system of thought criticized as being centered on the notion of the rational, autonomous self and ignoring the unintegrated and conditioned nature of the individual.
Example: HUMANISM was a movement that lay at the heart of the fifteenth century Renaissance in Italy.
fr: humanisme
linguistics
noun
The scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics. Specific branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics, dialectology, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, historical-comparative linguistics, and applied linguistics.
Example: The Structuralist emphasis on LINGUISTICS therefore makes it the most effective approach to 'make sense' of the poem.
fr: linguistique
literature
noun
Written works, especially that considered superior or lasting artistic merit.
Example: There is a huge amount of LITERATURE about pricing methods from the economic to the strategic point of view.
fr: littérature
narrator
noun
A person who narrates something, especially a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem.
Example: Like a child, the NARRATOR looks to her family for comfort and security.
fr: narrateur
novel
noun
A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.
Example: Consequently, as we can see, Pliny's letters are all written in the 'best Latin prose' and in some parts it sounds almost like an epic NOVEL.
fr: roman
phonetic
adjective
(of a system of writing) Having a direct correspondence between symbols and sounds.(relating to speech sounds.)
Example: Furthermore, he writes the "no evidence whatsoever" has been advanced to suggest that child has a PHONETIC system of its own.
fr: phonétique
phonology
noun
The system of contrasting relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language. The branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), within a language or between different languages.
Example: However, those with Downs Syndrome experience greater difficulties with lexis, syntax and particularly PHONOLOGY.
fr: phonologie
poem
noun
A piece of writing that partakes of the nature of both speech and song that is nearly always rhythmical, usually metaphorical, and often exhibits such formal elements as meter, rhyme, and strophic structure.
Example: His use of extreme language and imagery highlights how atypical his situation is- making the POEM all the more emotional.
fr: poème
pragmatic
adjective
Dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.
Example: Non-violent alternatives, while morally superior to acts of war, can also have PRAGMATIC advantages over violence.
fr: pragmatique
prose
noun
Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
Example: Old's poem also crosses the genre boundary separating poetry and PROSE, as it rejects traditional forms of poetry.
fr: prose
Rhetoric
noun
The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.
Example: It was very unusual for Neurath to write in racialized RHETORIC, but the memorandum exposes him to charges of wishing race-based persecution, even annihilation of Czechs.
fr: rhétorique
romanticism
noun
A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
Example: Modernism as a movement followed after ROMANTICISM.
fr: romantisme
semantics
noun
The branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.
Example: Spender focuses on four linguistic features to demonstrate the male bias in both syntax and semantics.
fr: sémantique
stanza
noun
A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
Example: There is also assonance in lines three and four of the first STANZA.
fr: strophe
tale
noun
A fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.
Example: In 'The Winter's TALE' there is more of a freedom of expression of time and space.
fr: conte
versification
noun
Regular verse technique (poetry).
Example: Eliot's deviant VERSIFICATION allows him to modulate pace and intensity, which in turn creates a purposeful chaos that reflects the complexity of the Modernist world.
