Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > English Language Skills
Literary Terms
Binoy:
Ambiguity
দ্ব্যর্থকতা
Ambiguity is an idea or situation that can be understood in more than one way. This extends from ambiguous sentences (which could mean one thing or another) up to ambiguous storylines and ambiguous arguments. It’s often viewed in a negative light, since we value clarity in writing and ambiguity is the opposite of clarity; however, sometimes ambiguity can be a good thing, especially in poetry and storytelling.
Ambiguity is similar to “vagueness,” except that ambiguity refers to something having multiple possible meanings, while vagueness refers to a general lack of clarity; something vague might not have any clear meanings while something ambiguous might have several possible clear meanings.
Example 1:
I went out in the woods and found a bat.
Was it a little furry winged creature? Or a baseball bat? Because the word “bat” is polysemous, it provides us with a very simple example of semantic ambiguity.
Example 2:
“The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.” (G.K. Chesterton)
This quote explores the polysemy of the word “good.” If you simply said, “Wow, he’s really good” without any context, a reader couldn’t know which sense of “good” you meant; it would be ambiguous.
Binoy:
Anachronism
কালবিপর্যয়
Anachronism is a Greek word meaning “backward time.” It’s what happens when an author, deliberately or accidentally, puts historical events, fashions, technology, etc., in the wrong place. This could include simple things like a historical film putting the wrong type of weapon in the hands of the soldiers, or it could be extreme inaccuracies such as having cavemen fight dinosaurs. The point is that the story shows something happening at a time when it would be impossible, or at least extremely unlikely, for that thing to happen.
Example 1:
When you think of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, you probably imagine a group of knights in plate armor, wielding broadswords and large shields. However, this is an anachronism: full plate armor was not used until at least the 13th century AD, hundreds of years after King Arthur died (around 550 AD). The real King Arthur probably wore chain mail or hardened leather armor, and lived in an earth-and-wood fort instead of a stone castle.
Example 2:
William Shakespeare sometimes used anachronisms deliberately in his plays about the ancient world. He has Cleopatra play billiards, for example, a game that didn’t exist until over 1,000 years after her death. Shakespeare did this because he wanted his plays to be staged as though the events were happening in his own day, much the way we might do with a “modernized” version of old stories. (Imagine, for example, a “Shakespeare” biopic in which the bard is sitting in a café in Brooklyn, typing out Macbeth on his laptop. This would be a deliberate anachronism, since everyone knows Shakespeare never owned a computer.)
Example 3:
Anachronisms can be found even in ancient literature. For example, Virgil’s Aeneid (written around the year 20 BC) begins with the events of the Trojan War. In the aftermath of the war, as Troy burns, the hero flees to Carthage. However, Troy was sacked some time around 1200 BC, and Carthage was not founded until about 200-400 years later.
Example 4:
Several critics have raised concerns about anachronisms in the Bible, for example the presence of camels at the time of Abraham. Current archaeological evidence suggests that camels did not appear in the Holy Land until around 1,000 BC, several centuries after Abraham is believed to have died. To most Christians and Jews, of course, such anachronisms do not matter – the minute details of the Bible are not as important to them as its spiritual and ethical message.
Binoy:
Anthimeria
পদবিপর্যয়
Anthimeria (also known as antimeria) is the usage of a word in a new grammatical form, most often the usage of a noun as a verb. Anthimeria is often used in everyday conversation as a form of slang.
Example 1:
I could use a good sleep.
Here, the word “sleep,” usually a verb, is used as a noun.
Example 2:
She headed the ball.
In soccer, “heading” the ball is to hit the ball with one’s forehead.
Example 3:
Don’t forget to hashtag that post.
This is a recent form of anthimeria, as “hashtagging” and “hashtag” have only just recently been added to the lexicon with popular social networking sites like Twitter and Instagram.
Binoy:
Aphorismus
প্রশ্ন মতানৈক্য
Aphorismus is a term in which the speaker questions whether a word is being used correctly to show disagreement. Aphorismus is often written as a rhetorical question such as “How can you call this music?”to show the difference between the usual meaning of a word and how it is being used. So, the point is to call attention to the qualities of the word, suggesting that how it is being used is not a good example of the word. In the example, the speaker is questioning whether the music heard is a good example of the word “music.”
The word aphorismus originates from the Greek phrase aphorismós meaning “rejection” or “a marking off.” Aphorismus can be used in both everyday conversation and literature. It can be used in literature in all forms including poetry, prose, and speech-writing.
Aphorismus is used to raise questions or disagree about a subject or situation without directly expressing specific concerns. Instead of directly disagreeing, you remind your listener of the definition of a word and point out that the thing you’re disagreeing with does not fit the definition. Aphorismus can be used to insult or question something in a more playful and less direct way than an insult or factual statement such as “This music is horrible.” Whereas insults and facts may be accepted or ignored, aphorismus requires the listeners to consider the definition of the subject, and then ask themselves whether the subject fits. Aphorismus requires some critical thinking from the audience, inviting them to interact with the speaker.
Example 1:
A woman is wearing a dress which is ripped, cut short, and white. She hopes to wear it for her wedding. A response using aphorismus would be:
You call that a wedding dress? It’s not appropriate at all!
Because wedding dresses are usually beautiful and elegant, this use of aphorismus challenges whether the dress being used is appropriate.
Example 2:
A man is crying over a coffee stain on his dress shirt. A response to his behavior using aphorismus would be:
How can you call yourself a man? Crying over a tiny stain!
By questioning the man, this example points out that crying over something trivial is not a good example or behavior of a “man.”
Example 3:
One of the most classic examples of aphorismus is found in Shakespeare’s Richard II:
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, feel want,
taste grief, need friends; subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?
Here, the king questions his own kingliness. By expressing that he experiences hunger, desire, grief, and loneliness like all people, he levels himself with all people.
Example 4:
For another example of aphorismus, read this excerpt from Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s:
You call yourself a free spirit, a “wild thing,” and you’re terrified somebody’s gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it’s not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It’s wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.
Here, Fred Varjak challenges Holly Golightly about her own definition of self. The aphorismus targets her claim that she is a free spirit or wild thing. Following the aphorismus, Varjak clarifies that Golightly is not really free, but actually in a self-built cage where she avoids her true self.
Binoy:
Apologue
উপগল্প; উপদেশমূলক কেচ্ছা
An apologue is a short story or fable which provides a simple moral lesson. Apologues are often told through the use of animal characters with symbolical elements. The word apologue (pronounced ap–uh-lawg, -log) is derived from the Greek phrase apologos, meaning “narrative.” Apologues are prominent stories in children’s bedtime books. Apologues are prominent pieces of literature, as Aesop’s fables are still widely read today. More modern versions with the same ideas are still being written today.
Apologues provide a moral lesson in a concise and enjoyable way which appeals to children. They quickly and convincingly convey a moral lesson. Because of this, apologues are considered rhetorical devices that serve to convince and persuade listeners to view a certain problem as having a specific solution or to view certain actions as immoral or moral, dangerous or safe, and intelligent or unintelligent. Apologues are teaching tools for parents and their young readers.
Example 1:
The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare
The tortoise and hare were in a race, and the hare was winning by a large margin. The tortoise, though, wins when the hare becomes cocky and takes a nap. The moral is “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Example 2:
The Lion and the Mouse
The mouse promised to do something for the lion if he did not eat him. Later, the mouse saved him by chewing through ropes of a trap. The moral is “Little friends may become great friends.”
Example 3:
The Ants and the Grasshopper
The ants work hard to save food for winter while the grasshopper plays. When winter comes, the grasshopper begs the ants for food. The moral is “To work today is to eat tomorrow.”
Example 4:
Aesop’s “The Dog and the Shadow”
A dog, crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh in
his mouth, saw his own shadow in the water and took it for that
of another dog, with a piece of meat double his own in size. He
immediately let go of his own, and fiercely attacked the other
dog to get his larger piece from him. He thus lost both: that
which he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and
his own, because the stream swept it away.
The moral was “Grasp at the shadow and lose the substance.”
Example 5:
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”
I trust that every animal here appreciates the sacrifice that Comrade Napoleon has made in taking this extra labour upon himself. Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?
In Animal Farm, the story of pigs serves as a moral warning about real-life issues in the Russian Revolution of 1917 with Stalin’s dictatorship.
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