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

Sprechspruch
This charming alliterative term refers to a short lyrical poem set to music common among the German

Sprezzatura
An Italian term that doesn't translate well into English, the word embodies both the appearance of r

Sprung Rhythm
Also called 'accentual rhythm,' sprung rhythm is a term invented by the poet-priest Gerard Manley Ho

Squire
A knight-in-training, a young boy who has spent several years as a page to learn humility, patience,

Stage
An area set aside or deliberately constructed as a place for actors, dancers, musicians, or singers

Stage Direction
Sometimes abbreviated 's.d.,' the term in drama refers to part of the printed text in a play that is

Standard English
The more prestigious variety of English described in prescriptivist dictionaries and grammars, taugh

Stanza
An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem. Typically, each

Stasimon
From Greek 'stationary song,' a stasimon is an ode sung by the chorus in a Greek play after the chor

Static Character
A static character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality ove

Stationers Register
Stephen Greenblatt provides the following definition

Stave
Another term for stanza. See stanza.

Stem
In linguistics, a form consisting of a base and an affix to which other affixes can be attached.

Stemma
A record or diagram similar to a family tree showing the connections between manuscripts of a given

Stereotype
A character who is so ordinary or unoriginal that the character seems like an oversimplified represe

Stichomythy
Dialogue consisting of one-line speeches designed for rapid delivery and snappy exchanges. Usually,

Stock Character
A character type that appears repeatedly in a particular literary genre, one which has certain conve

Stop
Also called a plosive, in linguistics, a stop is any sound made by rapidly opening and closing airfl

Stornelli
Italian flower songs--often interspersed within a larger work. Robert Browning adapts many of these

Stream Of Consciousness
Writing in which a character's perceptions, thoughts, and memories are presented in an apparently ra

Stress
In linguistics, the emphasis, length and loudness that mark one syllable as more pronounced than ano

Stroke Letter
In paleography, a stroke letter was one made mostly from minims (i.e., straight vertical lines). The

Strong Declension
In Germanic languages, any noun or adjective declension in which the stem originally ended in a vowe

Strong Verb
In Germanic languages, a strong verb is one whose linguistic principal parts were formed by ablaut o

Strophe
In classical Greek literature like the play Antigonê and the Pindaric Odes, the strophe and the a

Structural Grammar
Also called structuralism, this term refers to a descriptivist approach to grammar associated with m

Sturgeons Law
When asked why so much of science fiction consisted of 'crap' (junk literature), science fiction aut

Style
The author's words and the characteristic way that writer uses language to achieve certain effects.

Stylistics
Aspects of form or style in contrast with aspects of content, i.e., stylistics are those features th

Subjective Genitive
A genitive case common in Greek grammar in which the genitive functions as the origin or source (or

Sublunary
The area of the cosmos inside the orbit of the moon, including the earth. In medieval and Renaissanc

Subplot
A minor or subordinate secondary plot, often involving a deuteragonist's struggles, which takes plac

Substantive
A substantive word or phrase is one that can functoin as a noun within a sentence or clause. See esp

Substantive Adjective
An adjective that stands by itself in the place of an implied noun--a type of rhetorical ellipsis. I

Substantive Text
A text based upon access to an original manuscript as opposed to a text derived only from an earlier

Substratum Theory
The idea that an original language in a region alters or affects later languages introduced there. C

Succubus
A demon-lover in feminine shape, as opposed to an incubus (plural incubi), the same sort of demon-lo

Suffix
In linguistics, an affix that comes after the base of a word.

Summa
A treatise, essay, or book that attempts to deal comprehensively with its topic, especially one that

Summoner
Medieval law courts were divided into civil courts that tried public offenses and ecclesiastical cou

Sumptuary Laws
Laws that regulate the sort of clothing an individual may wear. Classical Rome restricted certain ty

Superstratum Theory
The idea that a new language introduced into a region alters or affects the language spoken there pr

Supine
A supine verb form is one that is not fully conjugated. For instance, the subjunctive mood is often

Suppletive Form
An inflectional form in which a common word has its current inflection come from a completely differ

Surface Structure
In linguistics, Noam Chomsky distinguishes between superficial 'surface structure' and 'deep structu

Surprise Ending
Another term for an O. Henry ending.

Surrealism
An artistic movement doing away with the restrictions of realism and verisimilitude that might be im

Syllaba Anceps
Also called a syllable anceps, the term refers to a syllable that may be read as either long or shor

Syllabary
A writing system in which each symbol represents a syllable such as in Japanese kana (hiragana and k

Syllepsis
A specialized form of zeugma in which the meaning of a verb cleverly changes halfway through a sente

Symbol
A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level. For i

Symbolic Character
Symbolic characters are characters whose primary literary function is symbolic, even though the char

Symbolic Word
In linguistics, this is a new word created because it sounds similar to another word with strong sem

Symbolism
Frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a

Symploce
Repeating words at both the beginning and the ending of a phrase. In St. Paul's letters, he seeks sy

Symposium
An after-dinner speech contest or informal debate. Such spontaneous talks were popular in classical

Synaeresis
When two vowels appear side-by-side within a single word, and the poet blurs them together into a si

Synaesthesia
A rhetorical trope involving shifts in imagery. It involves taking one type of sensory input (sight,

Synchronic
A synchronic study is one that provides an overview of a subject at a particular moment in time, as

Synchronic
The examination of a subject such as literature, linguistics, or history when focusing on a single p

Syncopated
A syncopated word has lost a sound or letter. This syncopation happens because of contractions, ling

Syncopation
The use of syncope. See below.

Syncope
When a desperate poet drops a vowel sound between two consonants to make the meter match in each lin

Synecdoche
A rhetorical trope involving a part of an object representing the whole, or the whole of an object r

Synesthesia
An alternative spelling of synaesthesia, above.

Synoptic Gospels
The three first gospels (Matthew Mark, Luke), which share several textual similarities. Biblical sch

Syntagmatic Change
Any change in language resulting from the influence of nearby sounds or words. Examples include ling

Syntax
As David Smith puts it, 'the orderly arrangement of words into sentences to express ideas,' i.e., th

Synthetic
Not to be confused with an artificial or made-up language like Esperanto or Tolkien's Elvish, a synt

Syzygy
(from Greek 'yoke')

Taboo
(1) In anthropology, a taboo is a socially prohibited activity. For instance, in classical Greek cul

Tabula Rasa
The term used in Enlightenment philosophy for the idea that humanity is born completely innocent, wi

Tactile Imagery
Verbal description that evokes the sense of touch. See imagery.

Tag
Tags are catch-phrases or character traits that a fiction writer uses repeatedly with a character. F

Tail-Rhyme
A unit of verse in which a short line, followed by a longer line or section of longer lines, rhymes

Tanka
A genre of Japanese poetry similar to the haiku. A tanka consists of thirty-one syllables arranged i

Tel Quel School
A school of French intellectuals associated with Philippe Seller's review Tel Quel. Sample members i

Telemachia
The first four books of The Odyssey are together called the Telemachia because they focus on the pro

Telestich
A poem in which the last letters of successive lines form a word, phrase, or consecutive letters of

Temenos
In Classical Greek culture, the temenos is a sacred area marked off as holy ground. On this special

Tempo
The pace or speed of speech and also the degree to which individual sounds are fully articulated or

Temporal
In grammatical and linguistic discussion, something relating to the element of time. See further dis

Temptation Motif
A motif in which one of the protagonist's primary struggles is the conflict between his or her sense

Tendential
In grammar, tendential refers to action that has been attempted but remains incomplete--especially i

Tenor
In common usage, tenor refers to the course of thought, meaning or emotion in anything written or sp

Tense Vowel
Any vowel made with the tongue muscles relatively more tense than in a lax vowel. These tense vowels

Tension
(1) In common usage, tension refers to a sense of heightened involvement, uncertainty, and interest

Tercet
A three-line unit or stanza of poetry. It typically rhymes in an AAA or ABA pattern. If the tercet f

Terministic Screen
Kenneth Burke's term for the way a word or label alters the way we categorize, analyze, and perceive

Terminus A Quo
The earliest possible date that a literary work could have been written, a potential starting point

Terminus Ad Quem
The latest possible date that a literary work could have been written, a potential ending point for

Terrible Sonnets
In spite of the label, this phrase does not refer to poorly written sonnets. Gerard Manley Hopkins u

Terza Rima
A three-line stanza form with interlocking rhymes that move from one stanza to the next. The typical

Test Act Of 1673
A law requiring all British officials holding public office to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's S

Testament
An agreement or covenant, especially in the sense of a will being a 'last will and testament' or in

Tetragrammaton
The four Hebrew consonant letters corresponding to yhwh (or in German transliteration, jhvh). The ol

Tetralogy
(1) In a general sense, a collection of four narratives that are contiguous and continuous in chrono

Tetrameter
A line consisting of four metrical feet. See discussion under meter.

Text
In literary criticism, formalist critics use the term text to refer to a single work of literary art

Textual Criticism
The collection, comparison, and collating of all textual variants in order to reconstruct or recreat