Download Shakespeare`s Language

Shakespeare’s Language
Dramatic Language – a non-realist, non-naturalistic language relying on conventions
shared by actors and audiences, few props, elaborate costumes, and the human voice.
Invented language – making up words to adapt old words and to change old meanings to
new.
Changing language – words that have changed their meaning since Shakespeare’s time.
Prose - Found in proclamations, written challenges or accusations, letters; lines spoken
by low-status characters such as servants, clowns, or drunks; to express madness; and for
comedy.
Hyperbole – extravagant and obvious exaggeration. “I’m dying for a drink”.
Elision – to shorten a word by omitting a vowel or to combine two words into one by
hiding a letter or letters. Used to shorten words, so that fewer syllables are spoke to
achieve the ten-syllable rhythm.
Antithesis –the opposition of words or phrases against each other. In ‘To be or not to
be…’ ‘To be’ is the thesis, ‘not to be’ is the antithesis.
Repetition – gives Shakespeare’s language dramatic force adding to the emotional
intensity of a moment or scene, heightening serious or comic effect.
Lists – to accumulate words or phrases, piling up of language to increase dramatic effect
by intensifying description, atmosphere, or argument.
Rhyme- rhyming couplets often express foreboding, or operate as a prophecy, or farewell
epitaph or blessing.
Blank Verse – long speeches unrhymed often ending with a rhyming couplet signaling
the end of scene or art.
Puns - - a word that has two or more different meanings, used to create ambiguity in
comedy.
Verse – iambic pentameter – each line has five stresses (‘penta’ is from Greek for five).
Typically, five stressed (/) syllables alternate with five unstressed (x) syllables, giving a
ten-syllable line.
Irony – verbal and dramatic; saying one thing but meaning another. “This castle hath a
pleasant seat”.
Thibo
English 9
Drama Terms and Shakespeare’s Language
Directions: Match the term to its definition or its example
1.
Dramatic Language
______rhyming couplets often express foreboding, or
operate as a prophecy, or farewell epitaph or blessing.
2.
Changing language
______making up words to adapt old words and to change
old meanings to new.
3.
Invented language
______ to shorten a word by omitting a vowel or to
combine two words into one by hiding a letter or
letters. Used to shorten words, so that fewer
syllables are spoke to achieve the ten-syllable rhythm.
4.
Prose
_____the opposition of words or phrases against each
other. In ‘To be or not to be…’ ‘To be’ is the
thesis, ‘not to be’ is the antithesis.
5.
Hyperbole
______to accumulate words or phrases, piling up of
language to increase dramatic effect by intensifying
description, atmosphere, or argument.
6.
Elision
______words that have changed their meaning since
Shakespeare’s time.
7.
Antithesis
_____ Found in proclamations, written challenges or
accusations, letters; lines spoken by low-status
characters such as servants, clowns, or drunks; to
express madness; and for comedy.
8.
Repetition
______gives Shakespeare’s language dramatic force adding
to the emotional intensity of a moment or scene,
heightening serious or comic effect.
9.
Lists
______extravagant and obvious exaggeration. “I’m dying
for a drink.”
10.
Rhyme
______a non-realist, non-naturalistic language relying on
conventions shared by actors and audiences, few props,
elaborate costumes, and the human voice
11.
Blank Verse
______ the actors performing the drama
12.
Puns
______ a word that has two or more different meanings,
used to create ambiguity in comedy.
13.
Verse
______ the text of the play containing the dialogue and stage
directions
14.
Irony
______ verbal and dramatic; saying one thing but meaning
another. “This castle hath a pleasant seat”.
15.
Characters
______ the main character in a tragedy
16.
Conflict
______the speeches of the characters, tells the story
17.
Plot
______ tell how the work is to be performed or staged
18.
Climax
______ a small unit of drama within an act
19.
Dialogue
______ the struggle that propels the plot
20.
Acts
______ the insight into life
21.
Scenes
______ the author of the play
22.
Playwright
______ the sequence of events in the drama
23.
Script
______ iambic pentameter – each line has five stresses.
Typically, five stressed (/) syllables alternate with
five unstressed (x) syllables, giving a ten-syllable line.
24.
Stage directions
______ movable objects that actors use on stage
25.
Sets
______the constructions indication where the drama takes place
26.
Props
______ the point of greatest tension in the drama, and is then resolved.
27.
Dramatic effect
______the illusion of reality created by all the elements of drama
28.
Theme
______ a basic unit of drama which contains any number of scenes
29.
Tragedy
______a type of play which shows the downfall or death of the main
character
30.
Tragic hero
______ long speeches unrhymed often ending with a
rhyming couplet signaling the end of scene or art.
31.
Tragic flaw
______ a regular pattern or end rhymes
32.
Chorus
______ a brief remark in which a character expresses private thoughts to
the audience rather than to other characters
33.
Comedy
______ the introduction to the play as well as the welcome to the audience
34.
Historical context ______ the mistaken action or defect in character which
brings down the tragic hero
35.
Dramatic speech
_______the types of conversations actors can have in front of the audience
36.
Monologue
______one type of dramatic speech in which a long, uninterrupted speech
is delivered by a character to other characters who are onstage but
remain silent.
37.
Aside
______ a group of performers or a single person who sings or recites the
prologue of the play
38.
Quatrain
______ a type of speech in which a character alone on stage reveals
private thoughts and feelings that the audience is allowed to
overhear
39.
Sonnet
______ a set of four lines of a sonnet
40.
Couplet
______ the rhythmical pattern in a line of poetry consisting on ten
syllabus, five unstressed and five stressed
41.
Prologue
_____ a type of play with a happy ending
42.
Iambic pentameter______ two lines of a sonnet, sometimes the last two lines
43.
Rhyme scheme
______ a fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm,
and line structure
44.
Soliloquy
______ the background of the era in which the play is set or written