English Language terminology Flashcards
Accent.
Distinct pronunciation of people.
Accomadation.
Where a speaker adapts to another accent, dialect or sociolect.
Acronomy.
Abreviation using first letters of a group of words e.g. GCSE
Agenda setting.
Where speaker sets up conversation topic.
Article
Determiner such as ‘a’ or ‘the’
Asymmetrical power
Imbalance of power between people.
Audience.
Person/people, reading or hearing text.
Backchanneling
Supportive terms. e.g. ‘really’ and ‘and’
Bald-on-record
Blunt speech e.g. ‘sit down’,’shut up’
Bias
A form of predudice for or against an idea.
Catenative
Chain like structure in a sentence. So we…and then… and then we.
Closer
Spoken expressions to end conversation.
Codifacation.
Standardising a language.
Collocation
Words found together in a phrase. E.g. Back to front.
Conditioning.
Learning from positive reinforcement the correct word or term to say.
Connotation
Assosciated meanings we individually have with words.
Context
Where, when, and how a text is produced or recieved.
Convergence.
Where a speaker changes to another speaker’s accent, dialect, or socialect.
Convert prestige.
High social status through use of non standard forms.
Declarative statement.
Type of sentence that provides information.
Definite article
‘the’
Deixis
Terms that are in context.
Denotation
Accepted definition of a word.
Determiner
Words determining the status of a noun.
Dialect
Language, lexis, and grammer particular to a region. Non-standard language e.g. regional dialect of Sheffield.
Discourse
Structure of any text longer than a sentence.
Discourse marker
Change in direction of an extended piece of writing e.g. nevertheless
Discourse structure
The way the text is structured according to features of the text’s genre.
Dismissal Formula
Device used to close a converastion.
Dispreferred response
Unexpected response that can come across as rude.
Divergence
Where a speaker distances themselves from another speaker by using their own dialect.
Downward convergence.
Making accent or lexis more informal.
Exophoric reference
Refering to something beyond the conversation culturally.
Field
Words used in text relating to its subject matter.
Flouting a maxim
When someone defies the conversation’s maxims.
Formality
The degree to which the text keeps its focus on the subject and stays formal and impersonal.
Framing
Directing and controlling the conversation’s agenda.
Genre
Type of text.
Gestural
Communication through movement and body language.
Glottan stops.
Emphasising your point by misforming your words.
Grammar.
Structure of sentences and how they go together.
High frequency lexis.
Re-appearing everyday words.
Hospitality token
Polite utterance relating to context putting speakers at ease.
Hypernyms
Any category of conversation. E.g. animals.
Hyponyms
Examples within Hypernyms e.g, Horses if the hypernym is animals.
Idiom
A common non-literal expression
Idiolect
Your own individual way of speaking.
Imperative
A sentence where the subject is usually left out and the verb is in its bare form.
Indefinite article
‘a’ or ‘an’
Inflection
ending of ‘-ed’,’-s’ or’-ing’ to change the tense, number or make nouns plural.
Interrogative
A question thats a type of sentence where the subject and the verb are swapped. E.g. Are you happy? Rather than You are happy. Also it can be used in single question words e.g. Who, what, when, how. Or just by use of a question mark.
Intertextuality/intertextual reference.
Subtle reference to another text as it creates shared context because they have similiar or the same pragmatics. It creates a sense of imagined closeness in the readders mind.
Intonation
The pitch of your voice.
Juxtaposition.
The placement of two contrasting ideas or things next to each other. This can be words used in an unexpected combination or in a multimodel text like a sentence.
Labelling
Attaching words to objects. Directly links to children learning to speak.
Lexical field
The main subject matter of the text.
Lexicon
Vocabulary of a language.
Lexis
Words and their origins.
Loanword
English word that has come into use being borrowed from another language. E.g. Vice versa.
Low-frequency lexis
Words that appear rarely. Normally specialist terms from certian fields. E.g. terms in medicine. (Often used with divergence and convert prestige)
Mainstream dialect
The dialect that spans the whole english nation.
Manner
Used to express how formal or informal a text is.
Manner Maxim
A co-operative principle in what you say, so you avoid being obscure and be orderly.
Mixed mode
Features of speech and writing in the same text.
Mode
Texts in spoken mode (conversation), text in written mode (english essay), or mixed mode (political speech is written to be spoken).
Modifier
Any word that describes a noun
Morphological derivation
Creating a new word out of an old word or affix. E.g -ly changes adjectives into adverbs such as ‘nice’.
Multimodal
A text that uses more than one mode. Often used for texts that have a combination of text and images.
Negative face
Our desire to avoid something we dont want to do.
Negative politeness
Being polite with negative constructions and a indirect hedged approach. E.g You couldn’t take the bins out for me, could you?
Neologism
A newly formed or coined word
Neutral comment
Speaker makes a comment on something neutral in the surroundings. like the weather.
Nonce formation.
A nonsense new word created for a special occasion. E.g. Before lunch feeling ‘hungry-ish’
Number homophones
Where numbers are used to replace all or part of a word whose sound they resemble. Usually used in electronic text. E.g. 2-to, great-Gr8.
Off-record
A use of an indirect insult/threat, not to someone’s face. E.g. This rooms pretty messy isn’t it.
Opener
Expressions that open a conversation. E.g. So what are your holiday plans this Summer?
Other related comment.
Speaker comments about another speaker.
Overt prestige
Dialect used by a culturally powerful group.
Pace
The speed at which you talk.
Perlocutionary act
What happens as a response to something that is said.
Phatic talk
Speech without a significant meaning that just maintains social relationships and starts conversations. E.g. ‘Hi there’
Polysemic
A word with more than one meaning. E.g. set
Polysemy
Multiple meanings of a word.
Positive face
Our need to maintain self esteem. Threatened when we are criticised.
Possessive determiner
Determiner that shows who the noun belongs to. E.g. My book.
Positive politeness
Informal approach assuming the other party will agree. E.g. I think that about wraps it up, don’t you?
Pragmatic failure
When the implied meaning is misunderstood by the listener.
Pragmatics
What we mean in the context of what we say and write.
OR
The contextual aspects of language use.
Pre-start.
A word or phrase that clears the air before a new speaker’s turn begins. E.g. well…
Privation
The absence of social relationships.
Prosodics
How we use rhythm, stress, intonation and pace in speech to create particular effects.
Purpose
Describes why the text was produced or uttered.
Quality maxim
A co-operative principle that requires that you do not say what you believe to be false.
Quantity maxim
A co-operative principle that requires you are careful in what you say. Be just as informative as is needed and no more.
Recieved Pronunciation.
A prestige form of English pronunciation.
Register
The type of variety of language that the writer or speaker has chosen to use.
Relation maxim
A co-operative principle that requires that you make what you say relevant to the last speaker’s turn.
Self-related comment
Speaker makes a comment about him/herself
Semantic field.
A pattern of words with similiar meanings found across a text or texts.
Semantic shift
The change in a meaning of a word.
Semantics.
Meaning of words in relation to themsleves and to the other words in the text.
Semiotics.
The study of signs and symbols, especially in images, sounds, music and patterns.
Sex
Biological differences between males and females.
Gender
Behaviors constructed through early socialisation and continues throughout life.
Sociolect
A variety of language that is that is characteristic of the social background or status of its user.
Stress
Where volume is raised to place emphasis on a particular syllable.
Synchronicity
Events that occur simultaneously, such as communication.
Synchronous
At the same time. E.g. face to face conversation is synchronous discourse.
Tag question
Interrogative clause added to end of a declarative to make a question. E.g. we’re meeting for lunch today, aren’t we?
Topic management.
The way topics in a conversation are organised or handed from speaker to speaker. Can also be called Agenda setting.
Turn taking
The process of taking turns in a conversation, where only one pseaker speaks at a time.
Upward convergence
Changing your accent or lexical choices to something you percieve as more prestigious.
Vernacular
Everyday regional language spoken by people.
Vernacular writing.
Informal, non-standard writing.
Violating a maxim.
Subtle failure of someone to observe a maxim. E.g. Going on about a topic for a bit too long.
Vocative.
Directly addressing someone in conversation by their name.
How do you avoid flouting the maxim of Quantity.
- Make your contribution to the conversation as informative as necessary.
- Do not make your contribution to the conversation more informative than necessary.
How do you avoid flouting the maxim of quality?
- Do not say what you believe to be false.
- Do not say something for which you lack adequate evidence.
How do you avoid flouting the maxim of relation?
- Be relevant.
How do you avoid flouting the maxim of manner?
- Avoid obscurity of expression.
- Avoid ambiguity.
- Be brief.
- Be orderly.
Define Acrolect.
Most formal a speaker’s language can be.
Basilect.
The worst form a speaker’s language can be, e.g. poor grammar, slang, swearing.
Mesolect.
Speech in the middle of basilect and acrolect.
