AP English Language & Composition

This list shall expand over the course of the term, to include all rhetorical devices, expository modes, and figures of speech that you can expect to find on the AP Language examination. There are several basic terms—alliteration, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, symbol, pun, personification, rhyme, meter, parallel structure (or parallelism)—that I expect you to know. If you don’t know the meaning of these terms, look them up in the American Heritage Dictionary; of course, see me if you experience any difficulty.

IRONY

A literary device that involves a discrepancy between appearance and reality.

Verbal irony occurs when one says one thing but intends the exact opposite. We use verbal irony all the time. When we nickname a fat man “slim” or a tall man “shorty,” we don’t expect our words to be taken literally. Nor would we take literally the words “That’s a nice thing to say!” after a rude remark, or, while standing in the rain, the words, “Beautiful day today, isn’t it?” Sarcasm <from Latin sarcasmus, meaning to tear flesh> occurs when verbal irony is used to attack or abuse someone: “Nice going, genius.” “Great directions. I got lost twice.” “Love the mullet. Very sharp.” [Thanks to Dr. Hugh Ormsby-Lennon for clearing up the difference between irony and sarcasm for me.]

Dramatic irony occurs when a character in a play says something that contains an incongruity of which she is not aware. In other words, we know something the character doesn’t—and that knowledge invests her speech with ironic significance. For example, it would be ironic (in the dramatic sense) if a man were to lecture me on proper etiquette while absently picking his nose. In Oedipus Rex, the main character vows to punish the murderer of King Laius; because we know (and he doesn’t) that he is the murderer, his threats are profoundly ironic. One final, rather chilling example: in Lolita, Humbert Humbert ironically instructs the little girl he has kidnapped not to talk to strangers.

Situational irony occurs when there is incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. Example: I leave a banana on the ground for somebody to slip on, and then I step on it myself. Or: I invent a devastating computer virus that winds up wiping out my hard drive; I christen a boat “Unsinkable” and it sinks on its maiden voyage; Victor Frankenstein strives to create a superhuman being, and creates a monstrous misfit instead.

Cosmic irony occurs when it seems that God or fate is manipulating events so as to inspire false hopes, which are inevitably dashed. In the film Election, Jim McAllister plans an adulterous meeting with his neighbor, only to find that she has betrayed him to his wife; he then vows to improve his life, only to be suddenly fired from his job. Wittily, the director has the camera look down on the defeated character from above, like a looming, unsympathetic god. (This is the kind of irony Alanis Morissette had in mind: rain on your wedding day, et cetera.)

SATIRE

A comic literary work that attacks human wickedness or folly through irony or ridicule. Satire is distinguished from other forms of comedy (such as farce and parody) by its desire to correct or improve human nature. The two greatest literary satires are Voltaire’s Candide and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels—both of which concern a man who travels across the globe, only to confront, everywhere, evidence of the selfishness, falsehood, and utter depravity of women and men.

Satires frequently employ dramatic irony. Because both Candide and Gulliver are rather naïve, they frequently mistake the evils of the world for good things; the reader, who knows better, must infer the author’s implied criticism. Swift, in his classic satire “A Modest Proposal,” employs verbal irony, by advocating a shocking solution to hunger and poverty in Ireland that he couldn’t possibly have believed.

Many of the articles published by The Onion are satires, and there are some excellent satirical films as well, including Election, which ridicules (among other things) the hypocrisy of educators, and The Cable Guy, which satirizes the culture of television. The Simpsons uses characters like Mr. Burns and Chief Wiggum to satirize capitalist greed and inept law enforcement, respectively.

One last thing about satire: it doesn’t (usually) work. Swift writes (in the Preface to “Battle of the Books“) that satire is a mirror in which a person sees everybody’s face but his or her own. The reason why Candide and Gulliver’s Travels are so funny, 250 years after, is because men and women are just as nasty now as they were in the eighteenth century.

UTOPIA and DYSTOPIA

Utopia <from the Greek ou + topia, no place> refers to an ideally perfect place, but also an impractically idealistic one; also, any literary work describing an ideal society. The word comes from a book by St. Thomas More, about an imaginary island characterized by religious toleration, communal property, no class distinctions, and no crime. Other famous utopias include Plato’s Republic, Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis, Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000-1887, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, about a society ruled by women.

Dystopia refers to an imaginary place or society characterized by human misery and oppression, as well as to a work describing such a society. The most famous dystopias are Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (set in the year 632 A.F., “After Ford”) and George Orwell’s 1984, both of which deal with oppressive, mechanistic societies which have eliminated individual creativity and freedom.

Of course, the difference between a utopia and a dystopia is a matter of personal taste. In Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the land of the Houhynhnms, where a race of super-intelligent horses rules over the humanoid Yahoos, was once considered a Utopia; but recent critics see it as a dystopia, prefiguring the rise of fascism and racial genocide in the twentieth-century.

CHIASMUS and ZEUGMA

Two important rhetorical figures that employ parallel structure.

Chiasmus <from the Greek chi, meaning cross> occurs when the second of two parallel clauses is reversed. The result is often witty and memorable; you should try it. Here are some good examples:

· “When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.” (Oscar Wilde)

· “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” (Shakespeare, Richard II 5.5)

· “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1.1)

· “Other men live to eat; I eat to live.” (Socrates)

· “The heart of the fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.” (Benjamin Franklin)

· “If a man owns land, the land owns him.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

· “Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” (Samuel Johnson)

· “Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get.” (George Bernard Shaw)

Learn more than you could possibly want to know about this literary device at chiasmus.com.

Zeugma <Greek, joining> refers to a sentence in which a single adjective or verb takes two or more objects, but has different meanings when applied to each object. The effect is often comic.

· “Hemingway Shoots Lions, Self.” (The Onion, Our Dumb Century)

· “New President Feels Nation’s Pain, Breasts.” (ditto)

· “Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,
Forget her pray’rs, or miss a masquerade;
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball”

(Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock)

· She bought his lie and a brand new scarf.

· I fished for trout, he for compliments.

· I collected myself and my belongings.

· The room and my mood were blue.

METONYMY and SYNECDOCHE

Two important types of metaphor.

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which something closely related to something comes to stand for that thing. I know that that is perhaps the least useful definition you have ever seen; a few examples might help. Today, no doubt, the White House released a statement. (It does, every day.) However: how can a building release a statement? Literally, to say that “The White House released a statement” is so much nonsense. But everybody who hears those words knows what is figuratively meant: that people who live or work in the White House released a statement. “White House” serves as a metonymy for people associated with it. Here are some famous examples of metonymy:

· You can’t fight City Hall. (City Hall stands for the local government.)

· The pen is mightier than the sword. (Pen stands for writing and sword for violence; literally, of course, the statement is nonsensical.)

· Crimes against the crown. (Crown stands for the monarch who wears the crown.)

We use metonymy, too, when we substitute a quality of something for that thing: so that a lot of money is a lot of green; a one-hundred dollar bill is a Benjamin; certain bees are yellow jackets; a foot-soldier is a grunt; investors are the money. Also,

· I say I am reading Shakespeare, or listening to Beethoven, when I am really reading or listening to works by those artists.

· Businessmen are called suits; during the American Revolution, British soldiers were called redcoats; the rebels, bluecoats; special operation American soldiers are known as green berets.

· Many sexist and racist slurs are metonymical, such as the offensive skirt for a woman (and hence skirt-chaser for a ladies man); the object is dehumanization.

Not to get too philosophical, but it seems important to note that the most common metonymies are, um, words themselves. Words have no intrinsic connection to things; they are just sounds and signs arbitrarily associated with objects. The word for you—your name—is a terrific example: what intrinsic connection is there between you and the name you are called? (We can talk about this in class, if it interests you.)

Synecdoche (pronounced sin-ECK-doe-kee) is much more specific than metonymy: it’s a figure of speech whereby a part stands for a whole, or a whole stands for a part. Here are some common synecdoches:

· four-eyes for a person who wears glasses;

· motor-mouth for someone who talks to much, and metal-mouth for someone who wears braces;

· giving one’s hand in marriage;

· a set of wheels for a car.

Also, laborers are often called hired hands; spies, eyes and ears; scientists, the brains.

MODES of EXPOSITION

There are only a few ways to organize a paragraph. Fortunately, they are all pretty obvious. Of course, paragraphs can be organized around a combination of these modes, and good ones usually are.

· Description

· Narration – tell a story, often to illustrate a point

· Comparison/Contrast – compare and/or contrast two or more things

· Process – explain how to do something

· Definition – explain how you will be using a word

· Classification/Division

· Argumentation – take a side and defend it

· Analogy – explain a difficult or novel idea or thing by relating it to a familiar one