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Superglossary - Literature Category: General > Literature Date & country: 11/12/2013, USA Words: 1716

Scene
A dramatic sequence that takes place within a single locale (or setting) on stage. Often scenes serv

Scenery
The visual environment created onstage using a backdrop and props. The purpose of scenery is either

Sceop
An Anglo-Saxon singer or musician who would perform in a mead hall. Cf. Bard. (A-S, 'shaper,' also s

Schema Atticum
This popular grammatical construction appears in ancient Attic Greek (and it is later mimicked in Ne

Schema Pindarikon
This popular grammatical construction appears in the ancient Attic Greek of Pindar and later in New

Schism
A schism is a split or division in the church concerning religious belief or organizational structur

Scholasticism
In medieval universities, scholasticism was the philosophy in which all branches of educaton were de

School
While common parlance uses the word school to refer to a specific institute of learning, literary sc

Schwa
The mid-central vowel or the phonetic symbol for it. This phonetic symbol is typically an upside dow

Science Fiction
Literature in which speculative technology, time travel, alien races, intelligent robots, gene-engin

Scop
An alternative spelling of sceop. See sceop. (pronounced like 'shop')

Scribal -E
When a scribe adds an unpronounced -e to words for reasons of manuscript spacing, this is called a s

Scribal Corruption
A general term referring to errors in a text made by later scribes rather than the original authors.

Scribe
A literate individual who reproduces the works of other authors by copying them from older texts or

Scrim
In drama, a flimsy curtain that becomes transparent when backlit, permitting action to take place un

Scriptorium
An area set aside in a monastery for monks to work as scribes and copy books.

Scrivener
Another term for a scribe. The term scrivener became especially common during the 1700s and 1800s fo

Second Language
In addition to a first language (i.e., a native language), a second language is any language used fr

Second Sound Shift
Another term for the High German Shift.

Secondary Source
Literary scholars distinguish between primary sources, secondary sources, and educational resources.

Secondary Stress
A stress less prominent than the primary stress--often indicated by a grave accent mark. See chart o

Self-Reflexivity
Writing has self-reflexivity if it somehow refers to itself. (Critics also call this being self-refe

Semantic Bleaching
The process by which a word loses all its original meaning--a phenomenon quite common in toponyms an

Semantic Change
A change in what a word or phrase means.

Semantic Contamination
Change of meaning that occurs when two words sound alike. Because the words are so similar, often th

Semantic Marking
When the meaning of a word is limited semantically, that word is said to possess a semantic marking.

Semantics
The study of actual meaning in languages--especially the meanings of individual words and word combi

Semiology
Another term for semiotics.

Semiotics
The study of both verbal and nonverbal signs. In Charles Sanders Peirce's thinking, a sign may fall

Semitic
A non-Indo-European family of languages including Arabic and Hebrew.

Semivowel
A sound articulated in the same way as a vowel sound, but which functions like a consonant typically

Senex Amans
A stock character in medieval fabliaux, courtly romances, and classical comedies, the senex amans is

Senryu
The senryu is a satirical form of the haiku. The form originates in Edo with the poet Karai Senryu (

Sentimental Novel
An eighteenth-century or early nineteenth-century novel emphasizing pathos rather than reason and fo

Septenary
Another term for heptameter--a line consisting of seven metrical feet.

Sequel
A literary work complete in itself, but continuing the narrative of an earlier work. It is a new sto

Serf
A medieval peasant tied to a specific plot of land in the feudal system of government. He was allowe

Series
A number of novels related to each other by plot, setting, character, or some combination of these t

Sermon Joli
Another term for a sermon joyeaux. See discussion under mock sermon.

Sestet
(1) The last part of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, it consists of six lines that rhyme with a var

Sets
The physical objects and props necessary as scenery in a play (if they are left on-stage rather than

Setsuwa Tale
A Japanese tale dating to the10th-14th centuries, typically sharing a grotesque mode of representati

Setting
The general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action of a fictional or

Sharers
In the Renaissance, these were senior actors holding business shares in the stock of a theatrical co

Shibboleth
Among linguists, the term refers to any language use that distinguishes between one 'in'-group and a

Shifting
A general term in linguistics for any slight alteration in a word's meaning, or the creation of an e

Shih Poetry
Shih is Chinese for 'songs.' There is no general word for 'poetry' specifically in Chinese, but ther

Short Story
A brief prose tale, as Edgar Allan Poe labeled it. This work of narrative fiction may contain descri

Short Syllable
In linguistics, any syllable containing a short vowel, but followed by only one consonant or no cons

Short Vowel
As Algeo defines it, 'A vowel of lesser duration than a corresponding long vowel' (329).

Shortening
In linguistics, the word has two meanings

Sibilant
In linguistics, any hissing sound made with a groove down the center of the tongue.

Sign
In linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure bases his theory of signification (semiology) upon the sign, a

Simile
An analogy or comparison implied by using an adverb such as like or as, in contrast with a metaphor

Single Effect Theory
Edgar Allan Poe's theory about what constituted a good short story. According to Poe, a good short s

Sino-Tibetan
A group of languages spoken in China, Tibet, and Burma, including Mandarin.

Situational Irony
Another term for universal irony. See discussion under irony.

Skald
The Old Norse or Scandinavian equivalent of a bard or court singer. Most of the surviving skaldic po

Skaz
A Russian yarn or tall tale in which the author dons the voice or persona of a fictitious narrator (

Skene
In classical Greek theaters, the skene was a building in the front of the orchestra that contained f

Slang
Informal diction or the use of vocabulary considered inconsistent with the preferred formal wording

Slant Rhyme
Rhymes created out of words with similar but not identical sounds. In most of these instances, eithe

Slapstick Comedy
Low comedy in which humor depends almost entirely on physical actions and sight gags. The antics of

Slave Narrative
A narrative, often autobiographical in origin, about a slave's life, perhaps including his original

Slavic
An eastern European sub-branch of Indo-European.

Smoothing
In linguistics, the monophthongization of several Old English diphthongs.

Soccus
A soft shoe worn by actors in Latin comedies, in contrast with the buskins or kothorni worn in trage

Social Dialect
In linguistics, a dialect used by a special social group rather than through an entire ethnicity or

Social Realism
In literature, a branch of realism, especially significant in Russian writing, that focuses on the l

Social Satire
Satire aimed specifically at the general foibles of society rather than an attack on an individual.

Socratic Dialogue
An attempt to explore a philosophical problem by presenting a series of speakers who argue about an

Socratic Irony
Adapting a form of ironic false modesty in which a speaker claims ignorance regarding a question or

Solar Myth
Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Max Müller were philologists who attempted to explain the origin of a number

Solecism
The area around the city of Soloi in ancient Cilicia had a population who spoke a nonstandard form o

Soliloquy
A monologue spoken by an actor at a point in the play when the character believes himself to be alon

Song
A lyric poem with a number of repeating stanzas (called refrains), written to be set to music in eit

Sonnet
A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to cert

Sonnet Cycle
Another term for a sonnet sequence. See discussion below.

Sonnet Sequence
Also called a sonnet cycle, this term refers to a gathering or arrangement of sonnets by a single au

Sons Of Ben
A school of literature consisting mostly of cavalier poets who were admirers/imitators of Ben Jonson

Soubrette
A maidservant of independent and saucy temperament in the Italian commedia dell'arte. This stock cha

Sound Symbolism
Often, several words with similar meaning may coincidentally have a similar phoneme- combination in

Source
(1) An earlier work of literature or folklore used as the basis of a later work. Scholars use the te

Space Opera
A subgenre of 'soft' science fiction especially popular between 1930-1960, often used in a derogator

Specialization
A semantic change restricting the referents of a word--i.e., a linguistic movement from a more gener

Speculative Fiction
Also called 'alternative history,' speculative fiction is science fiction that explores how the 'rea

Speech Act Theory
An idea set forth by J. L. Austin's How to Do Things with Words, which argues that language is often

Speech Prefix
Often abbreviated 's.p.,' this term in drama refers to a character's name or an abbreviated version

Spelling Pronunciation
An unhistorical way of pronouncing a word based on the spelling of a word.

Spelling Reform
Any effort to make spelling closer to actual pronunciation.

Spenserian Stanza
A nine-line stanza rhyming in an ababbcbcc pattern in which the first eight lines are pentameter and

Spirant
Another term in linguistics for a fricative.

Spirit Guide
A conventional figure in mythology, in the medieval visio and in shamanistic myths that serves as (1

Spiritual Autobiography
An autobiography (usually Christian) that focuses on an individual's spiritual growth. The plot is t

Spondaic
The adjective spondaic describes a line of poetry in which the feet are composed of successive spond

Spondee
In scansion, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two successive strong beats. The spondee typ

Spoof
A comic piece of film or literature that ostensibly presents itself as a 'genre' piece, but actually

Spoonerism
The comic (and usually unintentional) transposition of two initial consonants or other sounds. For e

Sprachbund
(Ger. 'speech bond')

Spread Vowel
Also called an unrounded vowel, in linguistics, a vowel made with the corners of the lips retracted