| A | B |
|---|
| tall tale | folk tale that contains highly exaggerated elements |
| fairy tale | story that deals with mischievous spirits and other supernatural occurrences, often in medieval settings |
| parable | short story that teaches a religious or moral lesson |
| spiritual | religious song from the African-American folk tradition |
| proverb | traditional saying |
| myth | story that explains objects or events in the natural world as resulting from the action of some supernatural force |
| legend | story from the past, often based on real events or characters from older times |
| folk tale | short story passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation |
| fable | short story that has animal characters and expresses a moral |
| folk song | traditional song with a simple melody - passed down from generation to generation |
| epic | long story, often told in verse, involving heroes and gods |
| suspension of disbelief | when the reader sets aside his/her skepticism to particpate imaginatively in a story |
| moral | practical or moral lesson to be taken from a story - usually related to the principles of right and wrong |
| motif | any element that recurs in literary works - theme |
| symbol | a thing that stands for or represents itself and something else |
| dialect | a version of a language spoken by the people of a particular place, time, or social group |
