Introduction

You are now ready to examine a range of sound effects or phonological devices. These are very important features to comment on when analysing texts because they contribute a great deal to tone, mood and atmosphere. Again, some of this will be familiar from (I)GCSE, but you will also learn some additional terms in this topic and will expand your critical vocabulary further.

You should have the glossary from Mastering English Literature to hand as you study this topic and make a note of any additional terms as they come up in your reading. You will also find the list of Useful Terminology for Analysing Prose Texts from Topic 1.1 provides a helpful checklist.

Terminology Tips

From (I)GCSE you should already be comfortable with the following terms:

Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia (Note the spelling!)
Sibilance

Some possible new terms at AS and A Level include:

Consonance
Plosives
Fricatives
Aspirants

N.B. Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you some sense of terminology which you may encounter as you read around your texts.

Tasks

Review the definitions of the terms above using the glossary in Mastering English Literature on pages 501 to 512 and the online glossaries of literary terminology from General Resources:

EXPLORE – Literary Devices and Terms (LitCharts)

EXPLORE – Literary Devices and Terms (Literary Devices)

The following website is also helpful. It refers specifically to sound in poetry, but many of the same effects can be created in prose texts too:

EXPLORE – Sounds in Poetry (A Teacher Writes)

You don’t need to learn every single term now, but it’s helpful to be aware of some of the new terminology that you could be bringing into your essays.

Terminology Tips

When writing about phonological effects, it is usually helpful to describe the quality of the sound itself and link this directly to tone and/or mood, e.g.
- ‘Here, the hissing sibilance evokes a menacing atmosphere…’
- ‘The alliteration of the harsh plosives reinforces the shock of her discovery…’
- ‘In this description, the gentle aspirants echo the sound of the wind in the trees…’
Make sure you understand any new literary terminology covered in this topic. You may like to make flashcards of key terms now, to help you with revision later on.