Year 12 SQA English Literature: Vocabulary and Terminology Quick Memorisation Guide | Year 12 SQA 英语文学：词汇术语速记指南

📚 Year 12 SQA English Literature: Vocabulary and Terminology Quick Memorisation Guide | Year 12 SQA 英语文学：词汇术语速记指南

In SQA Higher English, a confident grasp of literary terminology is the cornerstone of effective critical essay writing and close textual analysis. This guide distils the essential terms Year 12 candidates must internalise, offering clear bilingual explanations, memorable examples and practical memorisation strategies to help you apply these concepts accurately under timed conditions.

在SQA高等英语课程中，对文学术语的自信掌握是写出有效批评性论文和进行细致文本分析的基石。本指南提炼了Year 12考生必须内化的基本术语，提供清晰的双语解释、难忘的例句和实用的记忆策略，帮助你在限时条件下准确运用这些概念。

1. Why Memorise Literary Terms? | 为何要记忆文学术语？

Memorising precise literary terms transforms vague impressions into rigorous analysis. When you can label a writer’s technique – such as sibilance, enjambment or dramatic irony – your commentary gains authority and meets the SQA marking criteria for ‘analysis and evaluation’.

记忆精确的文学术语能把模糊的印象转化为严谨的分析。当你能够标注作家的技巧——比如咝音、跨行连续或戏剧性反讽——你的评论就获得了权威性，并能满足SQA评分标准中“分析与评价”的要求。

Furthermore, having a ready mental bank of terminology reduces anxiety in the exam hall. Instead of struggling to explain what a poet is doing, you can instantly identify the device and discuss its purpose, saving time and sharpening your argument.

此外，脑中备好术语库能减轻考场焦虑。你不必费力解释诗人在做什么，而是能立刻识别手法并讨论其目的，既节省时间又让论证更犀利。

Ultimately, terminology gives you a shared language with examiners. It signals that you have moved beyond personal response into a critical, informed reading of literature.

最终，术语为你与考官提供了共同语言。它表明你已经超越了个人感受，进入了对文学的批评性、有见识的解读。

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2. Key Figurative Language Terms | 核心修辞手法术语

Figurative language creates layers of meaning beyond the literal. Mastering these terms allows you to unpack how writers surprise, persuade and move their readers.

修辞手法在字面意义之外创造出多层含义。掌握这些术语能让你剖析作家如何让读者感到意外、被说服并被打动。

Simile: A direct comparison between two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as’. Example: “Her eyes sparkled like diamonds in the moonlight.”

明喻：用“像”或“如”直接比较两个不同事物。例句：“她的双眼像月光下的钻石一样闪亮。”

Metaphor: An implied comparison that states one thing is another, without using ‘like’ or ‘as’. Example: “The classroom was a prison.”

隐喻：不借助“像”“如”，直接把一事物说成另一事物的暗含比较。例句：“那间教室是一座监狱。”

Personification: Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Example: “The thunder grumbled in the distance.”

拟人：赋予无生命物体或抽象概念人的特征。例句：“远处的雷声在咕哝。”

Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect. Example: “I’ve told you a million times!”

夸张：故意夸大以达到强调或效果。例句：“我跟你说过一百万遍了！”

Understatement (Meiosis): Intentional downplaying of a situation for ironic or comic effect. Example: Describing a devastating flood as “a bit of damp.”

低调陈述：有意识地轻描淡写以产生反讽或喜剧效果。例句：把一场毁灭性洪水说成“有点潮”。

Verbal Irony: Saying the opposite of what one means. Example: “What a pleasant day!” during a blizzard.

言语反讽：说出来的话与真实意思相反。例句：暴风雪中叫道：“多好的天气啊！”

Situational Irony: A contrast between what is expected and what actually occurs. Example: A fire station burning down.

情景反讽：预期与实际发生的情况之间的反差。例句：消防站被烧毁。

Dramatic Irony: When the audience knows something that the characters do not. Example: In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows Juliet is not dead, but Romeo does not.

戏剧性反讽：观众知道的某事而剧中人物不知道。例句：在《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中，观众知道朱丽叶并未死去，但罗密欧不知道。

Oxymoron: Two contradictory terms placed together. Example: “deafening silence”, “living death”.

矛盾修辞：两个矛盾的词语并列放置。例句：“震耳欲聋的寂静”、“活死人”。

Paradox: A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth. Example: “The child is father of the man.”

悖论：表面自相矛盾但揭示深层真理的陈述。例句：“儿童是成人的父亲。”

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3. Poetic Devices and Sound Patterns | 诗歌技巧与音韵模式

Sound shapes meaning in poetry. Being able to identify sonic devices demonstrates close reading and sensitivity to the poet’s craft.

声音在诗歌中塑造意义。能够识别声音手法表明你能细读并对诗人的技艺敏感。

Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. Example: “Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, he bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.”

头韵：单词开头辅音的重复。例句：“Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, he bravely broached his boiling bloody breast.”

Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within words. Example: “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”

谐元韵：词语内部元音的重复。例句：“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”

Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the ends of words. Example: “pitter-patter”; “stroke of luck”.

谐辅韵：词语内部或末尾辅音的重复。例句：“pitter-patter”；“stroke of luck”。

Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate natural sounds. Example: “buzz”, “hiss”, “sizzle”, “crash”.

拟声：模仿自然声音的词语。例句：“buzz”、“hiss”、“sizzle”、“crash”。

Sibilance: A specific form of alliteration involving the repetition of ‘s’, ‘sh’ or ‘z’ sounds, often creating a sinister or calming effect.

咝音：头韵的一种特例，重复“s”、“sh”或“z”音，常营造诡异或平静的效果。

End Rhyme: Rhyming of the final words of lines. Example: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

尾韵：诗行末词的押韵。例句：“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

Internal Rhyme: Rhyme occurring within a single line. Example: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.”

腹韵：一行诗内部出现的押韵。例句：“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.”

Rhythm: The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, creating a musical beat.

节奏：重读与非重读音节的模式，形成音乐般的节拍。

Meter: A regular pattern of rhythm. Common meters include iambic, trochaic, anapestic and dactylic.

格律：有规律的节奏模式。常见格律包括抑扬格、扬抑格、抑抑扬格和扬抑抑格。

Iambic Pentameter: A line of five iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). Example: “If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on.”

抑扬格五音步：一行包含五个抑扬格（一个非重读音节后接一个重读音节）。例句：“If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on.”

Enjambment: The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a pause. Example: “I wondered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

跨行连续：句子或分句跨过诗行末尾而无停顿地延续。例句：“I wondered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

Caesura: A strong pause within a line, often marked by punctuation. Example: “To be, or not to be — that is the question.”

行间停顿：一行诗中间的强烈停顿，常用标点标识。例句：“To be, or not to be — that is the question.”

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4. Structural Elements in Poetry | 诗歌结构要素

Understanding how a poem is built reveals its formal design and how meaning is framed line by line.

理解一首诗如何构建能揭示其形式设计以及意义如何逐行编排。

Stanza: A grouped set of lines in a poem, often separated by a space. They function like paragraphs in prose.

诗节：诗中被分组的一组诗行，常用空行隔开，其功能类似散文中的段落。

Couplet: A pair of consecutive rhyming lines. Shakespeare often ends his sonnets with a rhyming couplet.

对句：连续两行押韵的诗行。莎士比亚常以押韵对句结束他的十四行诗。

Quatrain: A stanza of four lines, one of the most common stanza forms.

四行诗节：由四行组成的诗节，是最常见的形式之一。

Sestet: A six-line stanza, notably used in the final part of a Petrarchan sonnet.

六行诗节：由六行组成的诗节，尤用于彼特拉克式十四行诗的后半部分。

Octave: An eight-line stanza, usually forming the first part of a Petrarchan sonnet, presenting a problem or situation.

八行诗节：由八行组成的诗节，通常构成彼特拉克式十四行诗的前半部分，提出一个问题或情境。

Sonnet: A fourteen-line lyric poem, often in iambic pentameter. The Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet divides into an octave and a sestet (abbaabba cdecde); the Shakespearean (English) sonnet comprises three quatrains and a final couplet (abab cdcd efef gg).

十四行诗：一首十四行的抒情诗，常用抑扬格五音步。彼特拉克式（意大利式）十四行诗分为八行诗节和六行诗节（abbaabba cdecde）；莎士比亚式（英国式）十四行诗由三个四行诗节和一个对句组成（abab cdcd efef gg）。

Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, used extensively by Shakespeare in his plays.

素体诗：不押韵的抑扬格五音步诗，莎士比亚在他的戏剧中大量使用。

Free Verse: Poetry with no regular meter or rhyme scheme, relying on natural speech rhythms and line breaks.

自由诗：没有规则格律或押韵格式的诗，依赖自然的语言节奏和诗行停顿。

Refrain: A repeated line or phrase in a poem, often at the end of a stanza, creating emphasis and musicality.

叠句：诗中重复出现的一行或短语，常在诗节末尾，以产生强调和音乐性。

Volta: A turn in thought or argument in a poem, typically occurring between the octave and sestet in a Petrarchan sonnet.

转折：诗中思想或论点的转变，在彼特拉克式十四行诗中通常发生在八行诗节与六行诗节之间。

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5. Drama and Theatre Terminology | 戏剧与剧场术语

Drama has its own lexicon. SQA candidates are expected to comment on stagecraft, character revelation and the structural devices playwrights use to generate tension.

戏剧有其特有的词汇。SQA考生应当对舞台艺术、人物揭示以及剧作家制造张力的结构手法作出评论。

Soliloquy: A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing inner thoughts. Example: Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be”.

独白：角色独自在舞台上说出的揭示内心思想的言语。例句：哈姆雷特的“生存还是毁灭”。

Monologue: An extended speech by one character to other characters on stage.

长篇独白：一个角色对舞台上其他角色的长时间讲话。

Aside: A brief remark delivered directly to the audience, unheard by other characters on stage.

旁白：直接对观众说的简短评论，舞台上的其他角色听不见。

Dramatic Irony: Where the audience possesses knowledge that characters lack, heightening tension and engagement. (Also covered in Section 2.)

戏剧性反讽：观众拥有剧中人物所不知道的知识，从而增强紧张感和代入感。（亦见第2节。）

Tragic Hero: A protagonist of noble stature whose downfall is brought about by a fatal flaw (hamartia). Example: Macbeth.

悲剧英雄：一位身居高位的男主角，其败落由致命的性格缺陷（悲剧性缺陷）导致。例句：麦克白。

Hamartia: The tragic flaw or error in judgement that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero.

悲剧性缺陷：导致悲剧英雄败落的致命性格缺陷或判断失误。

Catharsis: The emotional release experienced by the audience at the end of a tragedy, purging pity and fear.

净化：观众在悲剧结束时体验到的情感释放，悲悯与恐惧得到宣泄。

Comic Relief: A humorous scene or character inserted into a serious drama to provide temporary relief from tension. Example: The Porter scene in Macbeth.

喜剧调剂：在严肃戏剧中插入的幽默场景或人物，以暂时缓解紧张气氛。例句：《麦克白》中的看门人场景。

Stage Directions: Instructions in the script about movement, lighting, sound and setting, often crucial for interpreting subtext.

舞台提示：剧本中关于动作、灯光、音效和布景的指示，通常对解读潜台词至关重要。

Pathos: The evocation of pity, sorrow or compassion in the audience.

悲情：唤起观众怜悯、悲伤或同情的情感效果。

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6. Narrative and Prose Techniques | 叙事及散文技巧

Prose fiction utilises a range of structural and narrative strategies that SQA markers love to see candidates analyse precisely.

散文小说运用了多种结构和叙事策略，SQA

Published by TutorHao | Year 12 英语文学 Revision Series | aleveler.com

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