Formal Language

Question 1

What are phonological formal features?

Answer 1

Assonance, consonance, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration (literative techniques used for entertainment purpose)

Question 2

What are lexical features of formal language?

Answer 2

1. Archaic lexemes
2. Lexemes of French/Latin etymology
3. Jargon
4. Politically correct language

Question 3

What are morphological features of formal language?

Answer 3

1. Standard English grammar
2. Nominalisation
3. Conversion

Question 4

What are formal semantic features?

Answer 4

1. Euphemisms
2. Dysphemisms
3. Double speak

Question 5

What are formal syntactic features?

Answer 5

1. Coordination and subordination
   2 complex sentences and compound complex sentences
2. Declaratives
3. Passive voice
4. Antithesis
5. Parallelism
6. Standard English syntax and formulaic expressions

Question 6

What are features of coherence?

Answer 6

1. Logical ordering
2. Logical consistency and relevance
3. Definition of jargon
4. Jargon if addressed to specific audience
5. Simple lexicon and Simple sentences
6. Referencing and substitution (to reduce lexical density)
7. Paragraphing
8. Headings, subheadings and dot points
9. Capitalisation, bold, underline, italics
10. Cultural or contextual inference

Question 7

What are features of phonological features of cohesion?

Answer 7

Alliteration
Rhythm 
Rhyme 
Assonance 
Consonance

Question 8

What are morphological cohesion features?

Answer 8

Repetition of root morpheme

Repetition of suffix, prefix or infix

Question 9

What are features of lexical cohesion?

Answer 9

Repetition of lexemes

Tricolon and tripling

Question 10

What are semantic cohesive features?

Answer 10

1. Synonymy
2. Antonymy
3. Hyponymy (superordinate/ hypernym and subordinate/cohyponyms)
4. Collocation
5. Lexemes from same semantic field

Question 11

What are syntactic cohesive ties?

Answer 11

1. Parallelism
2. Antithesis
3. Listing
4. Ellipsis and sentence fragments (help link to previous reference)

Question 12

What are discursive cohesive features?

Answer 12

1. Information flow (old-new-old-new)
2. Connecting conjunctions and adverbs
   (Additive, Adversative, Clausal and temporal)
3. Substitution and referencing

Question 13

What are typical features of written mode?

Answer 13

1. Highly scripted
2. Delayed or no feedback
3. Prestigious
4. Permanent
5. Addressed to broad audience
6. Less ambiguous, more clear
7. Non spontaneous
8. Complex syntax
9. Nominalisation
10. Passive voice

Question 14

What is nominalisation used?

Answer 14

1. To reinforce and maintain social distance
2. To focus on concept rather than action
3. Depersonalise

Question 15

Why is passive voice used?

Answer 15

1. Subject Unknown
2. Subject unimportant
3. Focus on object
4. Manipulate and obfuscate
5. Build expertise
6. Reduce blame
7. Hide something

Question 16

What are functions of formal language?

Answer 16

1. To clarify, manipulate and obfuscate
2. To maintain social harmony and negotiate social taboos
3. To establish expertise and authority
4. To reinforce social distance or create social distance
5. Persuasive (declaratives, exclamatives)
6. Instructional (law, recipe books, manuals)
7. Social (not so much)- e.g. Letter
8. Entertain- narratives, stories