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
- Dramatic Language ______rhyming couplets often express foreboding, or operate as a prophecy, or farewell epitaph or blessing.
- Changing language ______making up words to adapt old words and to change old meanings to new.
- 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.
- 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.
- Hyperbole ______to accumulate words or phrases, piling up of language to increase dramatic effect by intensifying description, atmosphere, or argument.
- Elision ______words that have changed their meaning since Shakespeare’s time.
- 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.
- Repetition ______gives Shakespeare’s language dramatic force adding to the emotional intensity of a moment or scene, heightening serious or comic effect.
- Lists ______extravagant and obvious exaggeration. “I’m dying for a drink.”
- Rhyme ______a non-realist, non-naturalistic language relying on conventions shared by actors and audiences, few props, elaborate costumes, and the human voice
- Blank Verse ______the actors performing the drama
- Puns ______a word that has two or more different meanings, used to create ambiguity in comedy.
- Verse ______ the text of the play containing the dialogue and stage directions
- Irony ______ verbal and dramatic; saying one thing but meaning another. “This castle hath a pleasant seat”.
- Characters ______ the main character in a tragedy
- Conflict ______the speeches of the characters, tells the story
- Plot ______ tell how the work is to be performed or staged
- Climax ______ a small unit of drama within an act
- Dialogue ______ the struggle that propels the plot
- Acts ______ the insight into life
- Scenes ______ the author of the play
- Playwright ______ the sequence of events in the drama
- Script ______ iambic pentameter – each line has five stresses. Typically, five stressed (/) syllables alternate with five unstressed (x) syllables, giving a ten-syllable line.
- Stage directions ______ movable objects that actors use on stage
- Sets ______the constructions indication where the drama takes place
- Props ______ the point of greatest tension in the drama, and is then resolved.
- Dramatic effect ______the illusion of reality created by all the elements of drama
- Theme ______ a basic unit of drama which contains any number of scenes
- Tragedy ______a type of play which shows the downfall or death of the main character
- Tragic hero ______ long speeches unrhymed often ending with a rhyming couplet signaling the end of scene or art.
- Tragic flaw ______ a regular pattern or end rhymes
- Chorus ______ a brief remark in which a character expresses private thoughts to
the audience rather than to other characters
- Comedy ______ the introduction to the play as well as the welcome to the audience
- Historical context ______ the mistaken action or defect in character which brings down the tragic hero
- Dramatic speech ______the types of conversations actors can have in front of the audience
- 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.
- Aside ______ a group of performers or a single person who sings or recites the prologue of the play
- Quatrain ______ a type of speech in which a character alone on stage reveals private thoughts and feelings that the audience is allowed to overhear
- Sonnet ______ a set of four lines of a sonnet
- Couplet ______ the rhythmical pattern in a line of poetry consisting on ten syllabus, five unstressed and five stressed
- Prologue _____ a type of play with a happy ending
- Iambic pentameter______ two lines of a sonnet, sometimes the last two lines
- Rhyme scheme ______ a fourteen-line lyric poem with formal patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and line structure
- Soliloquy ______ the background of the era in which the play is set or written