Metalanguage is language that describes language. The simplest way to explain this is to focus on part 3 of the English exam – Language Analysis. In Language Analysis, we look at the author’s writing and label particular phrases with persuasive techniques such as: symbolism, imagery or personification. Through our description of the way an author writes (via the words ‘symbolism’, ‘imagery’ or ‘personification’), we have effectively used language that describes language. For a detailed discussion, see What is metalanguage?
Character
- Protagonist
- Antagonist
- False protagonist
- Secondary character
- Supporting character
- Major character
- Minor character
Genre
- Adventure
- Comic
- Crime
- Epistolary
- Fantasy
- Historical
- Horror
- Mystery
- Philosophical
- Political
- Romance
- Satire
- Thriller
Form
- Non-fiction
- Novel
- Novella
- Plays
- Poetry
- Short stories
Language form
- ProseIambic pentameter
- Blank verse
- Free verse
Narrative mode
- First person view
- Second person view
- Third person view
- Third person objective
- Third person
- Third person omnipresent
- Third person limited
- Alternating narrative view
- Stream-of-consciousness
- Linear narrative
- Nonlinear narrative
Narrative tense
- Past
- Present
- Future
Plot
- Anti-climax
- Climax
- Conflict
- Denouement
- Dialogue
- Exposition
- Subplot
- Trope-cliché
- Turning point
Setting
- Culture
- Historical
- Geographical
- Social
- Dystopia
- Utopia
Other literary techniques
- Active voice
- Allegory
- Alliteration
- Allusion
- Ambivalence
- Ambiguity
- Antithesis
- Antonyms
- Bildungsroman
- Characterisation
- Cliffhanger
- Colloquialism
- Complex sentence
- Compound sentence
- Connotation
- Context
- Denouement
- Diachronic
- Dialect
- Dialogue
- Elision
- English (American)
- English (Australian)
- Enjambment
- Epilogue
- Epiphany
- Euphemism
- Flashback
- Flash forward
- Foreshadowing
- Formal
- Hyperbole
- Idiom
- Imagery
- Informal
- Irony
- Juxtaposition
- Lamb
- Metaphor
- Meter
- Mood
- Morphemes
- Motif
- Neologism
- Onomatopoeia
- Oxymoron
- Paradox
- Parody
- Passive voice
- Pathos
- Periphrasis
- Personification
- Positioning
- Prefix
- Prologue
- Rhetoric
- Rhythm
- Simile
- Simple sentence
- Slang
- Soliloquy
- Stereotype
- Symbols
- Synonyms
- Tautology
- Tone
- Tragedy
- Vernacular
