Glossary Flashcards
Discourse event
An act of communication involving writers/speakers and readers/listeners.
Modes
The different channels of communication which a text uses e.g. speech, writing
Genre
The way we group texts based on their expected shared conventions (the features which are commonly found in a particular type of text)
Register
A variety of language that is associated with a particular situation of use.
Situation of use
A specific place, time and context in which communication takes place.
Dialect
Variation in words and structures associated with a particular geographical region.
Accent
Variation in pronunciation associated with a particular geographical region.
Sociolect
Variation in language use associated with membership of a particular social group.
Idiolect
Variation in language use associated with an individual’s personalised “speech style”
Representation
The portrayal of events, people and circumstances through language and other meaning-making resources (e.g. images and sound) to create a way of seeing the world.
Frozen level
The use of set phrases in certain situations (safety instructions on a plane, funeral, wedding)
Formal level
Normally used by a speaker addressing an audience where interruption is not permitted.
Consultative level
Level of formality used between people who interact regularly but who are not friends or family.
Casual level
Level of interaction used by people who know each other reasonably well - can be colloquial, with some interruptions.
Intimate level
Private communication between friends and family members. Can involve codes for familiar objects.
Audience positioning
The assumptions made in a text about the reader’s background knowledge and understanding beliefs and values which are used to guide the audience.
Synthetic personalisation
Theory devised by Norman Fairclough and it explores how texts imitate the effect of someone addressing you personally.
Context
Is about the situation in which the text is understood. Or the when, where, why, who of a text.
Lexical cohesion
The way that words fit together.
Graphology
Applies to any aspect of the form and appearance of a text that modifies meaning in any way.
Semiotics
The study of signs and symbols. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) was the first person to name different types of signs.
Iconic signs
Iconic signs offer a straightforward representation of what they stand for e.g. toilet sign and phone sign.
Symbolic signs
Symbolic signs draw on association or connotation and are generally defined by cultural convention (e.g. they rely on shared context within a specific society) these type of signs need to be learned.
Pragmatics
The study of how language and meaning rely on contextual information, shared knowledge, and implication and inference.