Literature and Linguistics pessimism ڌ` It was easy to feel the author's pessimism. optimism yڌ` The play gave me a feeling of optimism. mood C Most of his books have a very dark mood. tragedy ԥ Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. rhyme C The words cat' and rat' rhyme. poetry The verses in poetry often rhyme. myth _b The ancient Greeks had many myths. irony The story was filled with irony. criticism ] It is best not to be afraid of criticism. satire His new movie is a satire on the fashion industry. narrative Ԑ The author uses a lot of narrative in her stories. context Use the context of the sentence to guess at unknown words. nuance ɫ The nuance of that word is a bit negative. metaphor Bg The author's use of metaphors was very clever. autobiography ک` His autobiography was 1000 pages long. bibliography ԣ^ The professor handed out a 10 page bibliography. biography `L Most famous people have biographies written about them. euphemism UԐ@It's a euphemism to say that the bosozoku are not quiet. paradox tƈ What a paradox; it rained on my desert holiday while it was sunny at home. propaganda Ǝ` Some governments use propaganda for political purposes. proverb All that glitters (shines) isn't gold is an English proverb. pun Advertisers often use puns to sell their products. slang Ԑ The word ain't' is a slang form of the word isn't'. synonym `Ԑ The word begin' is a synonym of the word start'. tautology d "All women are female", is an example of a tautology. redundant A word that isn't needed in a sentence is said to be redundant. verse C Many poems are written in verse. prose U Prose is writing that is not in verse. theory _ Darwin's theory of evolution is widely accepted today. thesis _ I'm writing my thesis on Shakespeare's use of metaphor. Confucianism ژI Confucianism comes from China 2,500 years ago. Adjectives biased 筸 Teachers should try not to be too biased. logical _I His argument was very logical. literal 歏 It was easy to understand the literal meaning. figurative gIThe figurative meaning of the sentence is more important. symbolic I I completely misunderstood the symbolic meaning. ambiguous ʭ The meaning of the sentence was ambiguous. vague ʭ The meaning of the passage was rather vague. masculine jIThe author tried to make the character very masculine. feminine I His character seemed quite feminine. appropriate K This book is not appropriate for our class. objective qI When grading students, teachers should be objective. subjective ڌI I found his viewpoints a bit too subjective. obscure sBefore he wrote the best seller, he was an obscure author. moral He refused to join the army for moral reasons. platonic OI Their love affair was completely platonic. Verbs exaggerate ԅ⣭᭎ The author exaggerated to make her point. persuade ƈ㲭᭎The author persuaded me with his quiet confidence. memorize L᭎ The teachers asked the students to memorize the words. emphasize ӭ᭎I'd like to emphasize the importance of this point. Linguistics acquisition l Second language acquisition is more difficult than first. colloquial ԞԐ I use more colloquial language with my friends. dialect Բ I could not understand her dialect. accent His accent was quite different but I could understand him. inflection Ԑ` Japanese is a language that uses many inflections. intonation Intonation is very important in English. noun People, places and things are all nouns. verb A verb often describes an action. adverb An adverb modifies a verb. adjective `e Adjectives modify nouns. syllable ƈ The word understand has three syllables. stress The stress on the word happy is on the first syllable tense Ƥ The past tense of the word go is went. semantics _ Semantics deals with the meaning of words. idiom ɵpьIdioms are difficult for second language learners. syntax Ԑ_ Syntax deals with the structure of a sentence.