English 101 - Language features: Meanings & Examples

Here are the language features and examples of them for your reference:

Glossary of Language Features and Poetic Terms

Alliteration

Occurs when the initial sounds of a word, beginning with either a consonant or a vowel are repeated. It is important to listen to the sound rather than rely on the visual representation of the letter.
E.g. photo frame, gigantic jigsaw, chicken 'n chips
People who pen poetry probably pamper pets.

Analogy

Using a simple comparison to explain a complex concept.
E.g. The process of achieving your goals is like working your way up a ladder.

Antagonist

A character or force against which another character struggles.

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose. It is important to listen to the sound of the vowel and vowel combinations rather than rely of the visual representation of the letters.
E.g. cow/ shout
too / blew
bird/ curl/ her
bear/mare/deer/there/their
The round clown found himself rolling around on the ground.

Characterisation

The way writers present and reveal character through speech, dress, manner and actions.

Cliché

An expression which is over used "my better half" (means wife/husband/partner)

Climax

The turning point of the action in the plot of play or story.
Colloquial Language
Everyday/informal language used in conversation - often not literal meanings.
E.g."Gidday, mate - how's it goin'?"

Complication

An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates and develops the primary or central conflict.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces in a story or a play, usually resolved by the end of the story or play.

Contractions

Two words shortened by combination, "I'll" instead of "I will"

Couplet

A pair of rhymed lines that may or may not constitute a separate stanza in a poem.

Dialogue

The conversation of characters. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

Euphemism

When something not so nice is said in a nice way, e.g. "passed away" instead of "died"
"came into this world" instead of "born"

Fiction

An imagined story, whether in prose, poetry or drama. Opposite to non-fiction.

Figurative Language

Used to create special meaning or effect. Includes similes, metaphors and personification. Opposite to literal language.

Free Verse

Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme.

Hyperbole (pron. Hi - per - boll - ee)

A figure of speech involving exaggeration.
E.g. "I am so hungry I could eat a horse" and " I laughed until I died."

Image

A concrete expression of a sense impression, a feeling or an idea. Imagery refers to the pattern of related details in a work.

Imagery

Descriptions which invoke mental images to the reader. Often uses similes and metaphors. Often used in poetry and song lyrics. Imagery allows the writer to show what he/she means instead of telling directly.
E.g. I took a walk around the world to
Ease my troubled mind
I left my body laying somewhere
In the sands of time.
I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon
I feel there is nothing I can do.
Kryptonite - Three Doors Down

Irony

A difference or the opposite between what is said and what is actually intended or implied - often used for humour.
E.g. Your friend turns up in dirty ripped jeans and you say with a smirk, "I see you have your best clothes on!"

Listing

Listing is a stream of words, separated by commas. It is used to enhance the message and provide impact.

Literal

A form of language in which writers and speakers mean exactly what their words denote. Opposite of figurative language.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase meaning one kind of idea is used in place of another to suggest a similarity.
E.g. "The ship ploughed through the waves."

Meter

The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems.

Mood

Sets the tone for the reader's expectations and determines whether a work will be happy or sad.

Motif or Theme

A motif is an element which recurs frequently in literature E.g. "It was the usual ‘girl meets boy'".

Narrator

The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author.

Onomatopoeia

Words which sound like their meanings.
E.g. drip, buzz, pop etc.

Personification

Giving human qualities or characteristics to a non-human thing. This helps the writer bring a passage alive, e.g. "darkness crept through the forest"

Point of View

Refers to the way a narrative is told. In the third person the narrator is outside the story and usually the language is "he, she, they, him, her, their etc". In the first person point of view (eg "I, me, mine") information is limited to what the narrator can know or find out.

Pun

A "play on words"
E.g. "an elevator makes ghosts happy because it lifts their spirits".

Plot

The unified structure of incidents in a literary work.

Protagonist

The main character of a piece of writing.

Repetition

A word or group of words is repeated throughout the writing to create impact.

Resolution

The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel or story.

Rhetorical Question

A question which is presented, not expecting an answer but to achieve an emphasis stronger than a direct statement.
E.g. "Why me?"

Rhythm

The recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse.

Satire

Work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules.

Setting

The time and place of a piece of work.

Simile

A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as or as though. E.g. "My love is like a red, red rose."

Stanza

A division or unit of a poem that is repeated in the same form (like a verse).

Subject

What a piece of writing is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme.

Subplot

Another plot which co-exists with the main plot.

Theme

The idea of a piece of work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization.

Tone

The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work.

Understatement

A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the opposite of exaggeration.

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