Essential Literary and Linguistic Concepts

Types of Literary Description

Description

A representation using words, especially rich in sensory images, to explain the different parts, qualities, or circumstances of a person, event, object, or story.

Topography

The description of a place.

Chronography

The description of a period or the time in which an event takes place.

Parallel

A comparative description of two individuals.

Prosopography

The physical description of a person.

Ethopoeia

The description of a person's moral character and habits.

Portrait

A description of a person's moral and physical characteristics.

Social Description

A description of a social group or community.

Process Description

A description of a process and the functioning parts of a system.

Understanding Narrative

Narrative Structure

A narrative presents a history or a series of events. It features a narrator who can be objective or subjective, possesses unity, arouses interest, and generally conforms to one or more established structures.

Types of Narratives

• Informative: The content is predominant. These narratives are objective and use denotative language.
• Expressive: The form has a greater preponderance. These narratives are subjective and use communicative, often connotative, language.

Dialogue and Monologue

Dialogue

An alternating exchange of spoken words between two or more characters.

• Direct Dialogue: Occurs when the author lets each character express themselves in their own words, often using quotation marks.
• Indirect Dialogue: Occurs when a character or the author narrates what another character said, often as part of the narrative text.

Monologue

A speech where a person speaks their thoughts aloud, often without a direct interlocutor.

Key Concepts in Semantics

Semantics

The study of meaning in language. A semantic field is a set of words grouped by similarity in meaning.

Denotation

The literal, primary, or dictionary meaning of a word, separate from the feelings or ideas that the word may suggest.

Connotation

The associated or secondary meaning of a word; the ideas and feelings that a word invokes in addition to its literal meaning.

Synonym

Words that have the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. They are different signifiers for a similar signified concept.

Antonym

Words that have meanings opposite to one another.

Polysemy

The capacity for a single word or phrase to have multiple, related meanings.

Homonym

Words that are spelled or pronounced the same but have different meanings. This category includes homographs and homophones.

• Homographs: Words that are spelled identically but may have different pronunciations and have different meanings (e.g., lead the metal vs. lead the verb).
• Homophones: Words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and spellings (e.g., to, too, and two).