Kaplan CSET English Vocabulary (Reading, Language, and Literature)

An Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (as wild and woolly,threatening throngs) —called also head rhyme, initial rhyme

an implied or indirect reference especially in literature

The character who opposes the main character in a work of fiction. The Antagonist is sometimes referred to the nemesis.

• Models or patterns instantly recognizable for their universal characteristics.
• examples:
• 1) Wise old man - the old man with long white beard who knows everything
• 2) hero (not so much of heroine) - usually in fantasy stories
• 3) anti-hero
• 4) an outcast

The creation of character to populate a story.

The high point of a narrative. Follows the rising action of a story and precludes the denouement, or wrapping up.

the set of associations a word conveys, as opposed to its strict definition.

The direct or explicit meaning of a word, it's definition.

the wrap-up of a story, the part after the climax of the story

Writing that paints a picture of a fictional world, utilizing several adjectives.

conversations between two or more characters in fiction or non fiction

• writing that presents information critical for understanding of a whole piece. Expository writing is used to inform readers about a specific topic. This is done through giving direct information, and proving that the information is correct by showing the reader what is applied to the specific ideals.
• examples: 
• essays, narratives and other non-fiction

• uses of language that are not meant to be taken literally.
• examples:
• metaphors, similes, and symbols

• informal assessments that are ongoing, classroom-based, and oriented toward individual achievements
• example:
• portfolios
• observation
• student discussions
• self-assessment

(in fiction) reveals a character's thoughts and feelings.

• the tension, or difference between, what is expected and what is actually the case.
• example: 
• The fire station burning down would be ironic

The innate structural predisposition of the human brain to make sense of language (to acquire the specific sets of phonemes, morphemes, and syntactical structures that belong to any specific language system)

The awareness that there are skills that can increase learning efficiency and effectiveness; learning how to learn

• It is a comparison between two unlike things as though they were the same.
• example: Broken heart, Sea of sadness, Roller coaster of emotions

The rhythm of a poem. it may be regular or irregular

the sound sequences (sequences of phonemes) that convey meaning

The study of word structure

Writing that tells a story

a type of learning modeled on the way young children absorb a native tongue (as opposed to traditional language learning, with its rule-oriented teaching)

Linguist Noam Chomsky made the argument that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language. In turn, there is an assumption that all languages have a common structural basis. This set of rules is known as universal grammar.

the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss)

a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

• a structural device in which words, phrases, or ideas are repeated, once or several times.
• example:
• In the famous speech of Martin Luther King, Jr., the phrase “I have a dream” was repeated often and is an example of parallelism for clarity and emphasis.

a humorous subgenre of fiction that mimics the style and conventions of another, serious work.

often used to write humorous music

the attribution of human qualities to non-human animals or objects.

writing designed to convince the reader of the author's point of view

sounds that signal differences in meaning (the sounds of letters)

the understanding that words are composed of sounds called phonemes

the study of the way sounds function in language

what happens in a story, the narrative structure of a fictional story.

the perspective from which the story is being told

the study of the social, physical, and cultural contexts of language use

the main character in a work of fiction

a dependent clause that augments an independent clause with additional information, but which cannot stand alone as asentence. Dependent clauses either modify the independent clause of a sentence or serve as a component of it.

the term for a collection of strategies and language choices writers use to achieve their goals

exposes, often humorously, the follies, foibles (minor weakness), and vices of a group or system (e.g. institutions, ideas, or societies)

the support a teacher provides to enable a student to extend his knowledge

the study of the ways in which sounds, words, sentences, etc., are used to convey meaning in language, including the effect of context on meaning

the environment in which a story takes place

• a comparison of two dissimilar things using like or as.
• example:
• the steak was like a rock.

• take place after a period of learning and are designed to evaluate how well the learning has taken place 
• example
• standardized testing, midterms, and final exams

a use of figurative language in which a word or phrase signifies, or stands for, something else, in addition to itself

the grammatical structure of sentences

the central or unifying concept of a work

a term for the attitude of an artistic work

the general properties that underlie and govern the development of all human languages

the difference between a child's capacity to solve a problem on their own and their ability to solve the problem with assitance