AS Paper 1: Linguistic Frameworks

Question 1

LEXIS

Answer 1

The words used in text or spoken data; the words, phrases and idioms of language.

Features may include:
 Choice of lexis, e.g. jargon (specialist terms), dialect, slang, colloquialisms, swearing, taboo terms, clichés, euphemisms, dysphemisms, archaisms (deliberate use of old- fashioned terms).

Choices indicating factors such as levels of formality and education, e.g. elevated, literate, sophisticated, Latinate, unusual and polysyllabic terms (largely a reading or writing vocabulary) as opposed to simple, every-day, vernacular and monosyllabic (largely a speaking vocabulary).

 The concept of the lexeme.

 Types of word, e.g. compound, shortening, abbreviation, acronym, neologism, blend,
loan word.

 Use of recurring lexis from particular lexical (semantic) fields.
 Collocations, whether common (predictable) or uncommon (deviant).

 Use of figurative language, e.g. metaphor, simile, pun, hyperbole, personification, metonymy, oxymoron.

Question 2

SEMANTICS

Answer 2

The meaning of language. The semantics of a word is the meaning of it as given in a dictionary. The semantic meaning of a text is not always straightforward, though, because we can add layers of meaning, for example through euphemisms or dysphemisms and through imagery.

Denotation - factual and objective meanings

 Connotation - personal and subjective meanings

 Types of meaning - positive / negative, specific / vague, literal / figurative

 Contrasts in meaning - synonym, antonym, hypernym, hyponym, homonym, homophone, homograph

 Changes in meaning - amelioration, pejoration, broadening, narrowing

Question 3

EUPHEMISM

Answer 3

the substitution of a polite expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt (e.g. “spending a penny”)

Question 4

DYSPHEMISM

Answer 4

is when we use a harsh expression instead of a more neutral one (e.g. animal names when they are applied to people, such as: coot, old bat, pig, chicken, snake, and bitch). We might call someone a pig when we actually mean that his table manners are not very delicate!

Question 5

GRAMMAR

Answer 5

The way individual words are structured and arranged together in sentences.

Word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and determiners

 Features of the verb: main and auxiliary, tense, modal auxiliaries, active and passive voice

 Sentence types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory

 Sentence complexity: minor, simple, compound, complex, relative length

 Unusual word order

 Standard or non-standard forms
 Other aspects: ellipsis, pre - and post - modification, subject / object, pronoun use,
person, agreement, content and function words, noun phrase complexity

 Word structure: prefix, suffix

Question 6

Nouns

Answer 6

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature, quality, or action.
There are two main types of noun: proper and common.
Most nouns are common nouns and they can be divided up into three categories: concrete, abstract and collective.

Question 7

Adjectives

Answer 7

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something about the noun. Examples: big, yellow, thin, amazing, beautiful, quick, important

Question 8

Verbs

Answer 8

A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state (being something). You will need to find out about main verbs, auxiliary verbs, primary verbs, modal auxiliaries, active and passive verbs.

Question 9

Adverbs

Answer 9

Adverbs
An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells you how something is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened. Many adverbs end in –ly.
Examples: slowly, intelligently, well, yesterday, tomorrow, here, everywhere.

Question 10

Preposition

Answer 10

A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. Prepositions can relate to position. They join the noun to some other part of the sentence.
Examples: on, in, by, with, under, through, at.

Question 11

Conjunctions (connectives)

Answer 11

A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together. Examples: but, so, and, because, or.

Question 12

Determiners

Answer 12

These words come before nouns and refer to them directly.
The most common determiner, the, is called the definite article.
The indefinite article is a/an.

Question 13

Modal auxiliary verbs

Answer 13

• will
• shall
• might
• would
• can
• could
• must
• May
• should
• ought to

Modal verbs are used to express ideas such as possibility, intention, obligation and necessity e.g.

 I would have told you, if you had wanted me to.

 Yes, I can do that.

They are not used to talk about things that definitely exist, or events that definitely happened. These meanings are sometimes divided into two groups:

DEGREES OF CERTAINTY - certainty; probability; possibility; impossibility.

OBLIGATION/FREEDOM TO ACT - permission; lack of permission; ability; obligation.

Modal verbs are verbs that ‘help’ other verbs to express a meaning; it is important to realise that modal verbs have no meaning by themselves.

A modal verb such as would has several functions: it can be used, for example, to help verbs express ideas about the past, the present and the future.

Question 14

Sentence types

Answer 14

Declarative
Imperative
Interrogative
Exclamatory

Question 15

Declarative sentence

Answer 15

“declares” or states a fact, arrangement or opinion. Declarative sentences can be either positive or negative. A declarative sentence ends with a full stop.

Examples:

• ‘I’ll meet you at the train station.’
• ‘The sun rises in the East.’
• ‘He doesn’t get up early.’

Question 16

Imperative sentence

Answer 16

The imperative commands (or sometimes requests). The imperative has no subject as ‘you’ is the implied subject. The imperative form ends with either a full stop or an exclamation mark.

Examples:

• ‘Open the door.’
• ‘Finish your homework!’
• ‘Pick up that mess!’

Question 17

Interrogative sentence

Answer 17

The interrogative asks a question. The interrogative form ends with a question mark.

Examples:

• ‘How long have you lived in France?’
• ‘When does the bus leave?’
• ‘Do you enjoy listening to classical music?’

Question 18

Exclamatory

Answer 18

The exclamatory form emphasises a statement (either declarative or imperative) with an exclamation mark.

Examples:

• Hurry up!’
• ‘I can’t believe you said that!’
• ‘That sounds fantastic!’

Question 19

More about sentences:

Answer 19

All of these sentence types fall into three categories:

• simple sentence
• compound sentence
• complex sentence

Question 20

Simple sentence

Answer 20

Contains no conjunction e.g. and, but, or etc

Examples:

‘Jack ate his dinner quickly.’
‘Peter and Sue visited the museum last Saturday.’
‘Are you coming to the party?’

Question 21

Compound sentence

Answer 21

contain two statements that are connected by a conjunction

Examples:

‘I wanted to watch TV, but it was late.’
‘I went shopping and my wife went to her classes.’
‘The company had an excellent year, so they gave everyone a bonus.’

Question 22

Complex sentence

Answer 22

have an independent main clause and at least one other clause that is added.
They are joined by a subordinating conjunction, such as which, who, although, despite, if, since, etc.

Examples:

‘My daughter, who was late for class, arrived shortly after the bell rang.’

‘Although it was difficult, the class passed the test with excellent marks.’

Question 23

PHONETICS

Answer 23

Study of the sounds made by speakers

Question 24

PHONOLOGY

Answer 24

is the use of vocal elements to add extra force to what is being said.

Question 25

Key features phonology

Answer 25

Characteristics of normal spoken delivery, e.g. volume, stress, pitch, intonation, (pitch pattern or melody), tempo, silent pauses, voiced pauses (fillers, e.g. ‘er’, ‘erm’), alliteration, assonance. These are called prosodic features.

 Elision (partial loss of sounds from words in connected speech, indicated through spelling), e.g. I’m, can’t, ’cos, fish ’n’ chips, livin’, cuppa tea).

 Phonology can even be a characteristic of written English as well as spoken and can be spotted in certain patterns. You will be used to this with the poems that you studied for GCSE, but remember that we are not just thinking about poems anymore. The patterns can include: rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, assonance.

 Significant aspects of accent, indicated by means of deviant spelling, e.g. West Lancashire ‘th’reet mon’ (‘the right man’), Somerset ‘zo I zaid’ (‘so I said’).

Question 26

PRAGMATICS

Answer 26

The study of the meanings people are really trying to communicate.

For example, “How lovely to see you” can convey different meanings: the speaker is genuinely pleased to see the other person; the speaker is being sarcastic and would prefer not to see the other person; there might be an element of malice because of the appalling dress sense of the second person which provides entertainment; etc.

Question 27

Key features PRAGMATICS

Answer 27

Specific features of turns in speech, e.g. utterance length, speech acts, indirectives, backtracking, repairing, forms (terms) of address, repetition, reformulation, minimal responses, backchannelling, hedging, mitigating devices.

 Recognition of function (force) where different from grammatical form, e.g. use of grammatical declarative to ask question or of interrogative to command.

 Grice’s co-operative principle and four maxims.

 Politeness and face (positive v. negative), face-threatening act.

 Recognition of cultural allusions.

 Identification of implied meanings over and above the semantic or more obvious.

 Explanation and interpretation as to why speaker(s) or writer(s) make their particular choices of language in the specific context.

Question 28

DISCOURSE

Answer 28

Longer stretches of text, looking particularly at aspects of cohesion (the way different parts of a text are connected through either grammar or lexis).

The way texts create identities for particular individuals, groups or institutions e.g. the discourse of law, politics, the media.

Question 29

Key features discourse

Answer 29

The written genre

 The context of a conversation e.g. an unequal encounter or a peer group chat

 The speakers’ roles

 In a written text, the point of view: perspective and voice

 Management by speakers of turn-taking and topics, openings and closings

 Register (topic, level of formality and tone), register switching

 External coherence established through consistent reference to the real world

 Intertextuality

 Use by speakers of frames (scripts or norms of interaction), discourse markers, adjacency pairs, interruptions and overlaps

Question 30

GRAPHOLOGY

Answer 30

The visual appearance of language

Question 31

Key features Graphology

Answer 31

Nature of characters, e.g. handwritten or printed, plain or ornamental, upper or lower case.

 Font type e.g. Arial, Parisian BT, Times New Roman.

 Font style e.g. standard, emboldened, italic.

 Font size (measured in points – 72 points to the inch, e.g. eight point, ten point, twelve point).

 The concept of the grapheme, the fundamental unit in written language such as letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation marks.

 Organisation of text, e.g. headings, columns, bullet points, numeration, borders, boxes, paragraph size, line spacing, use of white space.

 Other aspects, e.g. use of colour, logos, drawings, photographs, captions, diagrams, charts.

Question 32

SEMIOTICS

Answer 32

The study of how we read signs

Question 33

MODE

Answer 33

The two main types are spoken and written, with the computer-mediated communication (CMC) also now taking its own important place.

Language varies from mode to mode, for example a letter, a phone call and an email will not use the same language even if they have the same audience, purpose and context.

Within each mode, there are variations and for the same reasons, e.g. a letter to a friend has different language compared to a letter applying for a job.

Question 34

MULTIMODALITY

Answer 34

Using more than one mode within a text

Question 35

IDIOLECT

Answer 35

The language used by an individual.

Everyone expresses themselves in their own style, depending on the influences that have been brought to bear, such as family, travel, education, region, peer group etc.

Question 36

SOCIOLECT

Answer 36

The language associated with a particular social group, produced due to the effects of education, occupation, social class, religion etc.

Question 37

DIALECT

Answer 37

This has its own distinctive vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

It is a sub-division of the main language and can exist with several other dialects within the one language; they are mutually intelligible.

Usually regional dialects are the most common; in England, you can find the Norfolk dialect, the Liverpudlian and the Geordie dialects, for example.

Question 38

ACCENT

Answer 38

not as broad as dialect as it relates only to pronunciation.

Question 39

REPRESENTATION

Answer 39

How language represents reality, such as thought, social values and so on.

Question 40

SEMANTIC FIELD

Answer 40

A semantic field is a set of words (or lexemes) related in meaning

“The words in a semantic field share a common semantic property. Most often, fields are defined by subject matter, such as body parts, landforms, diseases, colors, foods, or kinship relations….

Question 41

Juxtaposition

Answer 41

the fact of putting things that are not similar next to each other

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

Examples:

The juxtaposition of these different ideas creates a rich musical world.
The juxtaposition of the colour images stimulates the imagination.

Question 42

Juxtaposition and Oxymoron

Answer 42

Juxtaposition is pairing that which depicts either similarities or differences between the two

while an oxymoron is a pairing of contrasting statements depicting the differences.