AP Language and Composition

Auxiliary verb: verbs be do and have that help the verb. Often called helping verbs

ex: I HAVE finished my homework

Collective noun: name groups composed of members

ex: police, army, jury

Contraction: shortened version of two words

ex: I’m, how’s, ma’am

Coordinating Conjunction: See conjunction

Dangling modifier: phrase/clause which says something different from what is meant because words are left out.

ex: While driving on Greenwood yesterday, a tree began to fall toward Wendy’s car.

Passive voice: focus of the sentence is on the action not who or what is performing the action

ex: a bike was stolen

Prepositional phrase: begins with a preposition and ends with a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause

ex: The book is (on the table)

Indirect object: noun/pronoun that receives the direct object

ex: We can give Martha the tickets Martha=I.O.

Subject complement: adjecive, noun, pronoun that follows a linking verb

ex: Brandon is a gifted athelete

Transitive verb: action verb expressing a doable activity and it must have a direct object

ex: Sylvia kicked Juan under the table.

antecedent: word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers

Ex: I did not see John because he wasn’t there.  John=antecedent

active voice: normal voice; the object receives the action of the verb

ex Cats eat fish

conjunctions: a joiner; a word that connects parts of a sentence

ex: and, or

cliche: expression/idea that is overused to the point of losing its original meaning/effect

ex: She is as beautiful as a rose

Direct object: noun/pronoun that receives the action of a verb

ex: Zippy and Maurice played soccer.    Soccer=direct object

interjection: word used to express an emotion/sentiment

ex: Cheers, hooray, bye

Linking verbs: connect the subject of the verb to additional information about the subject

ex: Kelly is a shopaholic   IS=linking verb

modifier: optional element in a phrase structure

ex: She set it down (very gently)

run on: sentence with two or more independent clauses joined without correct punctuation/conjunction

ex: My car is out of gas we cannot reach town before dark

semicolon: punctuation used to connect 2 independent clauses that are related.

***BALLAD WILL NOT BE ON THE QUIZ

Tercet: 3 lines of poetry; forming a stanza or full poem

ex: Haiku

Octave: 1st eight lines of a sonnet in iambic pentameter

ex: Sonnet 19 by Milton

Analogue: a work which resembles another in terms of one or more motifs, character, scenes, or events

ex: Romeo and Juliet/ Westside Story

Anaphora: the intentional repetition of beginning clauses in order to create an artistic effect

ex: we shall not flag or fail, We shall go on the end

Anastrophe: Inverted word order or events

ex: Natalie Dorsch “Just Because”

Animism: belief that plants, animals, and object have their own spirits inhabiting them

ex: Le Petit Prince (rose)

Meter: varying pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

ex: iambic, anapestic, trochaic, dactylic (be able to define one of these)

soliloquy: monologue spoken by an actor when the character believes himself to be alone

ex: Romeo and Juliet

Affixation: making words by adding an affix to a previously existing base word/stem

ex: Quick/Quickly

Cadence: the use of a group of notes/chords used to end a piece of music or a phrase within it

Clause–> consists of a subject and predicate

ex: Life moves pretty fast   S–> Life  P–> moves pretty fast

Direct Object–> word/phrase referring to the person or thing receiving the action

ex: His colleagues sent him a postcard.  Postcard is the direct object

Exclamatory–> expresses strong feeling making an exclamation

ex: ITS ALIVE!

Independent clause–> sentence that can stand alone

ex: I love penguins.

Noun–> person place or thing

ex: Tom, car, bike

Pronoun–> substitutes a noun or another pronoun

When SHE was a young woman, SHE earned a living as a coal miner

Simple Sentence–> same as independent clause

Syntax–> sentence structure

ex: rhetorical questions, inversion

Tenor and vehicle–> tenor-thing being spoken of

vehicle–> the thing in terms of which it’s being spoken

Ex: A Sonnet is a moment’s monument …

Tenor:  sonnet   Vehicle: monument

verb–> action of a sentence

ex: jump, fall, dance