Entertainment / Literature Glossary

Archetypal Criticism: The analysis of a piece of literature through the examination of archetypes and archetypal patterns in Jungian psychology. See archetype below.

Archetype: An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life. Often, archetypes . . . View Full Definition

Arena Stage: A theater arrangement in which viewers sit encircling the stage completely. The actors enter and exit by moving along the same aisles the audience uses. This often encourages interaction bet . . . View Full Definition

Areopagus: (Greek, 'Hill of Ares.') (1) Also known as 'Mars Hill,' this location near the Acropolis served in classical times as a high court of appeal in criminal and civil cases. In early Patristic t . . . View Full Definition

Argument: A statement of a poem's major point--usually appearing in the introduction of the poem. Spenser presents such an argument in the introduction to his eclogues, Coleridge presents such in his . . . View Full Definition

Arras: In Renaissance drama, a hanging tapestry or a curtain that covered a part of the frons scenae. It hid the discovery space and may have draped around the stage's edge to hide the open area un . . . View Full Definition

Arsis: In classical metrical analysis, Greeks referred to the stressed syllable in a metrical foot as a thesis, and the unstressed syllable in a metrical foot as an arsis. Unfortunately, the Roman . . . View Full Definition

Artificial Language: Not to be confused with what linguists call grammatically synthetic (inflected) languages, artificial languages are deliberately 'made up' by a small number of individuals for some specific . . . View Full Definition

Ascertainment: The Enlightenment's desire for and obsession with standardization and regulation of the English language--i.e., making grammatical rules (often based artificially on Latin grammar or mathema . . . View Full Definition

Ash: (also spelled aesc or asc when referring to runes) The letter used in Old English to indicate the sound /æ/ as in the modern English word . The name comes from the Old Norse rune aesc.

Aside: In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other actors on stage pretend their characters cannot hear the speaker's words. It is a theatrical . . . View Full Definition

Asimovs Three Laws Of Robotics: Science fiction author Isaac Asimov originally posited Asimov's three laws in his short stories collected in I, Robot. These laws were mathematical limitations or hardwired parameters for ro . . . View Full Definition

Ask Word: In linguistics, Algeo defines this as any of the words whose historical /æ/ sound becomes the vowel /a/ in Eastern New England and in British pronunciation (313).

Aspiration: (adjective form, aspirated) A puff of breath made along with a consonant sound while vocalizing.

Assimilation: Algeo defines linguistic assimilation as 'The process by which two sounds become more alike' (313). We can see this in the word spaceship, where the /s/ sound represented by the often as . . . View Full Definition

Assonance: Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllabes) in nearby words. Assonance in final vowels of lines can often lead to half-rhyme.Deutsche notes that assonance is a co . . . View Full Definition

Asteismus: A sub-category of puns. See discussion under pun.

Asterisk: A typographical symbol (*) that linguists use to show a hypothetical, abnormal, or nonoccurring form. For instance, *dwo is a hypothetical reconstruction of the Indo-European word for two. I . . . View Full Definition

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