my vocabulary

1. Humanities 30-1 Vocabulary: 2009 - 2010<br />Cassy Johnston<br />September <br />Abstract: thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances<br />Active Voice: One of the two “voices” of verbs (see also passive voice). When the verb of a sentence is in the active voice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence “Kevin hit the ball.” Kevin (the subject of the sentence) acts in relation to the ball.<br />Ad Hominem Fallacy: means quot;
against the manquot;
or quot;
against the person.<br />Ad misericordiam Fallacy: (argument from pity or misery) the fallacy committed when pity or a related emotion such as sympathy or compassion is appealed to for the sake of getting a conclusion accepted<br />Apostrophe: the direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition.<br />Archetype: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form<br />Artistic unity:<br />Bibliography (Works cited list): a list of source materials that are used or consulted in the preparation of a work or that are referred to in the text.<br />Catharsis: the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.<br />Character foil: a character used as contrast to the protagonist or main character<br />Citation: a quotation showing a particular word or phrase in context<br />Cliché: a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse<br />Coherence: logical interconnection; overall sense or understandability.<br />Colloquialism: characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal<br />Comic Relief: an amusing scene, incident, or speech introduced into serious or tragic elements, as in a play, in order to provide temporary relief from tension, or to intensify the dramatic action.<br />Critical analysis: <br />Critical Essay: An essay written strictly from your point of view and about your opinions and views on the essay. <br />Dues ex machina ending: (literally quot;
god out of a machinequot;
)) is an improbable contrivance in a story. The phrase describes an artificial, or improbable, character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot (such as an angel suddenly appearing to solve problems). The term is a negative one, and it often implies a lack of skill on the part of the writer.<br />Didactic: intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry<br />Documentary: Consisting of, concerning, or based on documents.<br />Editorial: an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors<br />Elegy: a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead.<br />Essay: a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.<br />Eulogy: a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, esp. a set oration in honour of a deceased person.<br />Exposition: the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining<br />Expository: of the nature of exposition; serving to expound, set forth, or explain: an expository essay; expository writing<br />Extended metaphor: a metaphor that is extended through a stanza or entire poem, often by multiple comparisons of unlike objects or ideas<br />Figurative language: speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning, speech or writing employing figures of speech<br />Formal essay: comparatively brief literary creation in prose, in which a writer considers a topic, ordinarily limited in scope, or intends to convince the reader to admit a certain point of view.<br />Genre: a class or category of artistic endeavour having a particular form, content, technique, or the like: the genre of epic poetry; the genre of symphonic music. <br />High culture: the culture of an elite such as the aristocracy or intelligentsia. It is contrasted with the low culture or popular culture of barbarians, philistines or the masses.<br />Informal essay: it is less a formal statement than a relaxed expression of opinion, observation, humour or pleasure. A good informal essay has a relaxed style but retains a strong structure, though that structure may be less rigid than in a formal paper<br />Informational essay: an essay that provides the reader with information about a specific idea or topic. <br />In medias res: in the middle of things.<br />Language arts: the skills, including reading, composition, speech, spelling, and dramatics, taught in elementary and secondary schools to give students a thorough proficiency in using the language.<br />Low culture: is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture. The term is often encountered in discourses on the nature of culture<br />Metacognition: awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking<br />Passive voice: One of the two “voices” of verbs (see also active voice). A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in “The ball was thrown by the pitcher,” the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice. The same sentence cast in the active voice would be, “The pitcher threw the ball.”<br />Personal Essay: a short composition that deals with a subject drawn directly from the writer’s life<br />Rhetorical Device: a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance) <br />Rhetorical question: a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”<br />Sarcasm: A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule; harsh or bitter derision or irony<br />Sardonic: characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering: a sardonic grin. <br />Satire: the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.<br />Stream of consciousness story: a variant of the third person point of view, in which the narrator relates only what is experienced by a character’s mind from moment to moment.<br />Tragedy: a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or sombre theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction.<br />Tragic Flaw: the character defect that causes the downfall of the protagonist of a tragedy; hamartia.<br />Tragic Hero: a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy<br />Verisimilitude: something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.<br />Weasel words: a word used to temper the forthrightness of a statement; a word that makes one's views equivocal, misleading, or confusing<br />Works cited list:<br />Writers handbook:<br />Writing prompt:<br />Art (visual) essay: an essay this instead of words is put into a form that people can see or watch. <br />Aerial shot: Camera shot taken from the air. <br />Cinematography: the art or technique of motion-picture photography.<br />Close-up shot: A camera shot that shows a close and small amount of an object. <br />Composition: he organization or grouping of the different parts of a work of art so as to achieve a unified whole.<br />Dollying: a small wheeled platform, usually having a short boom, on which a camera can be mounted for making moving shots.<br />Director: the person responsible for the interpretive aspects of a stage, film, or television production; the person who supervises the integration of all the elements, as acting, staging, and lighting, required to realize the writer's conception.<br />Eye level shot: Much like the medium shot, an eye-level shot puts the viewer on equal footing with the subject being filmed.<br />High angle shot: when the camera is located high. With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus often get quot;
swallowed upquot;
by the setting.<br /> <br />Panning: to photograph or televise while rotating a camera on its vertical or horizontal axis in order to keep a moving person or object in view or allow the film to record a panorama.<br />Long shot: a camera shot taken at a relatively great distance from the subject and permitting a broad view of a scene.<br />Low angle shot: a shot taken with the camera placed in a position below and pointing upward at the subject.<br />Medium shot: a camera shot in which the subject is in the middle distance, permitting some of the background to be seen.<br />Photo essay: a group of photographs, usually with supplementary text, that conveys a unified story and is published as a book or as a feature in a magazine or newspaper.<br />Playwright: the texts of plays that can be read, as distinct from being seen and heard in performance<br />Screen play: The script for a movie, including descriptions of scenes and some camera directions.<br />Script: the manuscript or one of various copies of the written text of a play, motion picture, or radio or television broadcast.<br />Stage Directions: an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements<br />Tracking:<br />Voice over: any offscreen voice, as that of a character in a narrative.<br />Coherence: logical interconnection; overall sense or understand ability.<br />Controlling idea: The controlling idea is your story's meaning. This is what your readers or audience will say, when someone asks them, quot;
What's it about?quot;
This is the foundation of your story. <br />Diction: style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words: good diction. <br />Implied thesis: An implied thesis is indirect and does not specifically state a set thesis. (overall point) <br />Matters of Choice:<br />Matters of correctness: <br />Syntactic: consisting of or noting morphemes that are combined in the same order as they would be if they were separate words in a corresponding construction: The word blackberry, which consists of an adjective followed by a noun, is a syntactic compound.<br />Syntax: the study of the patterns of formation of sentences and phrases from words.<br />Thesis: a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, esp. one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections: He vigorously defended his thesis on the causes of war. <br />Thesis statement: thesis statement' is just a fancy term for a one sentence summary of what the main purpose or point of your paper is.<br />Social Vocabulary<br />#! Identity<br />Liberalism: a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, non-violent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavour, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.<br />Individualism: individual character; individuality<br />Common good: the largest group of people (majority)<br />Collectivism: The principles or system of ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively, usually under the supervision of a government.<br />Ideology: The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture.<br />Progressivism: the principles and practices of progressives; the doctrines and beliefs of the Progressive party.<br />Individual rights and freedoms: refer to the rights of individuals, in contrast with group rights. An individual right is the sanction of independent action<br />Competition: the rivalry offered by a competitor: The small merchant gets powerful competition from the chain stores.<br />Economic freedom: Economic freedom is defined as the quot;
absence of government coercion or constraint on the production, distribution, or consumption of goods and services beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself <br />The rule of law: The rule of law does not have a precise definition, and its meaning can vary between different nations and legal traditions. Generally, however, it can be understood as a legal-political regime under which the law restrains the government by promoting certain liberties and creating order and predictability regarding how a country functions. In the most basic sense, the rule of law is a system that attempts to protect the rights of citizens from arbitrary and abusive use of government power. <br />Private property: Property that belongs to an individual owner or group.<br />Public property: Property that all people are welcome on. <br />Collective responsibility and interests:<br />Cooperation: an act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit; joint action.<br />Economic equality: Equality between nations on their economic level.<br />Collective norms: Formal rule or standard laid down by legal, religious, or social authority against which appropriateness (what is right or wrong) of an individual's behaviour is judged.<br />Human rights: The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.<br />Feminism: the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.<br />Communism: a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.<br />Fascism: a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.<br />Expansion: The act or process of expanding: the new nation's expansion westward.<br />Containment - Truman Doctrine: The Truman Doctrine is a set of principles of U.S. inland policy created on March 12, 1947 by President Harry S Truman. In his speech to Congress, Truman declared that the United States, as quot;
leader of the free worldquot;
, must support democracy worldwide and fight against communism. <br />Domino Theory: a foreign policy theory during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. The domino effect suggests that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end.<br />Deterrence: Measures taken by a state or an alliance of states to prevent hostile action by another state.<br />Brinksmanship: the technique or practice of manoeuvring a dangerous situation to the limits of tolerance or safety in order to secure the greatest advantage, esp. by creating diplomatic crises<br />Détente: a relaxing of tension, esp. between nations, as by negotiations or agreements.<br />Non-alignment: a national policy repudiating political or military alliance with a world power, as the U.S. or the People's Republic of China.<br />Liberation movements: organization fighting a rebellion against a colonial power, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperialist outlook.<br />Neo-conservatism: An intellectual and political movement in favour of political, economic, and social conservatism that arose in opposition to the perceived liberalism of the 1960s: quot;
The neo-conservatism of the 1980s is a replay of the New Conservatism of the 1950s, which was itself a replay of the New Era philosophy of the 1920squot;
<br />Environmentalists: any person who advocates or works to protect the air, water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.<br />Post-modernism: any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism, esp. a movement in architecture and the decorative arts running counter to the practice and influence of the International Style and encouraging the use of elements from historical vernacular styles and often playful illusion, decoration, and complexity.<br />Extremism: a tendency or disposition to go to extremes or an instance of going to extremes, esp. in political matters: leftist extremism; the extremism of the Nazis. (One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, especially in politics)<br />Racism: hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.<br />Pandemics: prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area.<br />Terrorism: the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.<br />Censorship: the act or practice of censoring.<br />#2 Resistance to Liberalism<br />John Locke: 1632–1704, English philosopher.<br />Baron De Montesquieu: was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Era of the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He was largely responsible for the popularization of the terms feudalism and Byzantine Empire.<br />Adam Smith: Scottish political economist and philosopher. His Wealth of Nations (1776) laid the foundations of classical free-market economic theory.<br />John Stuart Mill: British philosopher and economist known especially for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism. His many works include A System of Logic (1843), Principles of Political Economy (1848), and The Subjection of Women (1869).<br />Laissez Faire Capitalism: quot;
to let people do as they wish.quot;
Thus, supporters of laissez-faire capitalism do not want the government to interfere in business matters, or if governments do involve themselves in business matters, to keep government influence to a minimum<br />Industrialization: to convert to the ideals, methods, aims, etc., of industrialism<br />The Class System: The system of defining people by there wealth and categorizing them according. <br />Limited Government: a type of government in which its functions and powers are prescribed, limited, and restricted by law<br />Classic Conservation:<br />Marxism: the system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, esp. the doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a classless society.<br />Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.<br />Welfare Capitalism: refers either to the combination of a capitalist economic system with a welfare state or, in a strictly American context, to the practice of businesses providing welfare-like services to employees<br />Labour Standards: are conventions, treaties and recommendations designed to eliminate unjust and inhumane labour practices<br />Unions: something formed by uniting two or more things; combination<br />Universal Suffrage: suffrage for all persons over a certain age, usually 18 or 21, who in other respects satisfy the requirements established by law.<br />Welfare State: a state in which the welfare of the people in such matters as social security, health and education, housing, and working conditions is the responsibility of the government.<br /> <br />#3 Contemporary Liberalism<br />Consensus: general agreement or concord; harmony<br />Direct Democracy: a form of democracy in which the people as a whole make direct decisions, rather than have those decisions made for them by elected representatives<br />Representative Democracy: a type of democracy in which the citizens delegate authority to elected representatives<br />Authoritarianism: favouring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom: authoritarian principles; authoritarian attitudes. <br />Command Economies: An economy where supply and price are regulated by the government rather than market forces. Government planners decide which goods and services are produced and how they are distributed. The former Soviet Union was an example of a command economy. Also called a centrally planned economy.<br />Free Market Economies: A free market economy is an economy in which the allocation for resources is determined only by their supply and the demand for them. This is mainly a theoretical concept as every country, even capitalist ones, places some restrictions on the ownership and exchange of commodities. <br />Traditional Economies: an economic system in which resources are allocated by inheritance, and which has a strong social network and is based on indigenous technology and methods.<br />Mixed Economies: an economy in which there are elements of both public and private enterprise.<br />American Bill of Rights: The Bill of Rights establishes basic American civil liberties that the government cannot violate. <br />Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.<br />Quebec Charter of human rights and freedoms: is a statutory bill of rights and human rights code passed by the National Assembly of Quebec on June 27, 1975. <br />War measure Act: was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers. The definition of the War Measures act is: An act to confer extraordinary powers upon the Governor in Council in the event of quot;
war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended.quot;
<br />Patriot Act: a U.S. law enacted in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which gave law-enforcement officials greater ability to tap telephones and track Internet users; also called [The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001<br />Debt: something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another: a debt of $50. <br />Poverty: the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence.<br />#4 Citizenship<br />The human condition: refers to the distinctive features of human existence. As finite and mortal entities, there are series of features that are common to most human lives, and some that are inevitable for all. These features and the human response to them constitute the human condition. However, understanding the precise nature and scope of what is meant by the term quot;
human conditionquot;
is itself a philosophical problem.<br />Dissent: to differ in sentiment or opinion, esp. from the majority; withhold assent; disagree (often fol. by from): Two of the justices dissented from the majority decision. <br />Civility: Courteous behaviour; politeness<br />Civil Disobedience: the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy, characterized by the employment of such non-violent techniques as boycotting, picketing, and non-payment of taxes. <br />Political participation: Participation in things political such as government or voting. <br />Citizen advocacy: A citizen advocate is a valued and competent citizen who freely chooses to enter a relationship with a person with a disability, called a protégé, to understand, respond to and represent the protégé's interests as if they were their own. Advocates should be unpaid and free from conflict of interest.<br />Humanitarian crises: an event or series of events which represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area<br />Civil rights movements: The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of non-violent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963.<br />Anti-war movements: Action against war <br />McCarthyism (red scare): the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, esp. of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.<br />Pro-Democracy Movements: Action supporting the movement of democracy. <br />Collective and individual action: Collective action is when people collectively work for something, and individual is when one person or single group is working for something. <br /> <br />