AP LanguageFlashcard Set 2

antecedents Is a noun; a clause; or phrase which a pronoun

or other part of speech refers to Good writers assure that every pronoun clearly

refers to a specific word or phrase Example: When Jasmine discovered that HER bicycle was not in the garage, SHE immediately wondered if HER friend Doreen had borrowed it.

Test tip When a question on the AP English Lang

exam asks you to find an antecedent, the answer will probably not be simple. Be prepared to look beyond the immediate sentence. Use the strategy of asking questions such as WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? And WHY?

Antecedent practiceRead the following passage and look for the antecedent of the pronouns in bold type

First, it is important to note that men and women regard conversation quite differently. For a women it is a passion, a sport, and activity even more important to life than eating because it doesn’t involve weight gain.

--Merrill Markoe,What the Dogs Have Taught Me

answers The first pronoun IT refers to the noun

conversation, while the second pronoun IT refers to the noun activity. (The activity, of course, is making conversation.)

A tougher antecedent question

Read the following passage and look for the antecedents of the pronouns in bold type.

The contrast would be too painful, the shock too great, but for the intervention of the Fool, whose well-timed levity comes in to break the continuity of feeling when it can no longer be borne, and to bring into play again the fibres of the heart just as they are growing rigid from over-strained excitement. The imagination is glad to take refuge in the half-comic, half-serious comments of the Fool, just as the mind under the extreme anguish of a surgical operation vents itself in sallies of wit. The character was also a grotesque ornament of the barbarous times, in which alone the tragic ground-work of the story could be laid. In another point of view it is indispensable, inasmuch as while it is a diversion to the too great intensity of our disgust, it carries the pathos to the highest pitch of which it is capable, by sowing the pitiable weakness of the old king’s conduct and its irretrievable consequences in the most familiar point of view.

--William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays

Answers for the previous slideThis passage is complex, as it is written in an ornate style of the early 19th Century. It’s fairly easy to identify the antecedent of the pronoun THEY: it refers to the noun FIBRES. To find the antecedent of the pronoun IT, you might ask yourself, “What is indispensable and why?” Here the pronoun IT refers to the noun CHARACTER—Hazlitt is saying that the character of the Fool, with its comic relief, is indispensable to Shakespeare’s play King Lear. However, the pronoun ITS refers to the nearby noun CONDUCT, and not the word CHARACTER.

A similar type of questionFor Example…an AP-type question might…

The word “character” is used as another name of which of the following?

a. levityb. imaginationc. commentsd. the Foole. sallies of wit

Rationale: the word ‘character’ refers to ‘the Fool”, a character in the play. Several questions on the AP test will ask you to identify similar connections between words and phrases.

Clauses…yep…grammarAP assumes you know the following clauses:1. Independent (or main) 2. Dependent (subordinate)

But there are more and I feel you should at least be aware of them…

Adjective clauseEveryone recognized the actress who emerged from the limousine at the premier.

The gift, which had been purchased months before, was wrapped and gathering dust in the corner.

Adverb clauseOnce the game went into overtime, the crowd rose to its feet and maintained a continuous roar.

The fans realized, once the winning touchdown was scored, that they had witnessed a classic.

**a Phrasal Modifier can also function as an adj. or an adv. In a sentence.

Prepositional phrase as an adjectiveThe singer in the sequined dress performed a program of wonderful jazz songs.

Hailstones began falling, threatening the windshield of his new sports car.

appositivesA noun or noun phrase that renames another noun nearby….

An accomplished chef, Ricardo prepared delicious meals for visitors.

Austin learned a great deal about the rigors of Olympic training from Natalya, a former gymnast

I played with Lollipop, our neighbors’ spritely little pug, for a few minutes each evening.

Verbal phraseMade up of a verbal (a verb that also functions as another part of speech) and all of its modifiers and objects…verbals can be a participial phrase, a gerund phrase, or an infinitive phrase.

Washing her car in the driveway, Betsy noticed a scratch on the hood. (The phrase in italics is a participial phrase that functions as an adj. modifying BETSY.)

Washing her car is the last thing Betsy has to do today. (The phrase in italics is a gerund phrase that functions as a noun and the subject of the sentence.)

Betsy likes to wash her car on sunny summer afternoons. (The phrase in italics is an infinitive phrase that functions as a direct object in the sentence.)

Absolute phraseA word group that modifies that modifies an entire sentence and consists of a noun plus at least one other word …

His jacket red amidst the white snowfall, the hunter could be seen from miles away.

The hunter could be seen from miles away, his red jacket glowing amidst the white snowfall.

The hunter, red jacket almost glowing in the snow, could be seen from miles away.

Sentence typesIt is assumed you know the following: Simple sentence Compound sentence Complex sentence Compound-complex sentence

Coordinating conjunctions You know… And But Or Nor For Yet So Or the semi-colon

Parallel structureThe particular man aims to be somebody; to set up for himself; to truck and higgle for a private good; and, in particular, to ride that he may ride; to dress that he may be dressed; to eat that he may eat; and to govern, that he may be seen.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

AP exam might ask you to identify the parallel elements in the Emerson sentence, or to choose an edit that would improve the parallel structure. What’s parallel in the passage above?

Practice…Which word is grammatically and thematically parallel to the word TONE in the following sentence?

a. pulpitb. stage-declamationc. solemnityd. venturee. liberty

The answer is C….because????

Periodic sentenceIndicate and define the periodic in this…

For when the greatest of all wars broke out and a multitude of dangers presented themselves at one and the same time, when our enemies regarded themselves as irresistible because of their numbers and our allies thought themselves endowed with a courage that could not be excelled, we outdid them both in a way appropriate to each.

--Isocrates, Panegyricus

Cumulative sentenceReverses the order of the periodic sentence. Instead of withholding the main idea until the last clause, the writer states it immediately and then expands on it with examples, details, and/or clarifications.

“Her moving wings ignited like tissue paper, enlarging the circle of light in the clearing and creating out of the darkness the sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, the green leaves of jewel-weed by my side, the ragged red trunk of a pin.”—Annie Dillard

Inversion sentenceThe typical subject-verb order is reversed. Consider the sentence, "Gone are the days when everyone had read the same books, seen the same movies, and dined at the same restaurants.”…the typical order would be, “The days when everyone had…are gone.” Because inversion is infrequently used in prose, it called attention to the part of the sentence that is out of typical order, and thus creates a special emphasis.

Balanced sentenceTwo coordinate but contrasting structures are place net to each other like the weights of a balanced scale. Thus, a balanced sentence creates a contrasted thought:

“Many are called but few are chosen”—Matthew 22:14

“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” (Julius Caesar)When you read a balanced sentence out loud, you tend to pause between the balanced parts. That pause is marked by some kind of fulcrum—usually a coordinating conjunction or a mark of punctuation.