Glossary Flashcards
Acronym
a word made up out of the initial letters of a descriptive phrase or a proper name
Adverbial
words, phrases or clauses that functions as adverbs
Alliteration
the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more words (used in tongue-twisters, nicknames, collocations)
Analogy
a change that affects a language when regular forms begin to influence less regular forms
Analytic
descriptive characterization of a type of language, words are invariable (English is mostly analytic, Czech is synthetic)
Anaphora
a linguistic unit referring back to something already expressed
Apposition
a noun or a noun phrase placed next to another noun with the same meaning and the same grammatical status
Arbitrariness
the absence of similarity between the form of a linguistic sign and what it relates to in reality
Archaism
and old word or phrase no longer in general spoken or written use
Articulation
the physiological movement involved in modifying a flow of air to produce speech sounds
Assimilation
the influence exercised by one sound upon the articulation of another sound in the same or the next word so that the sound become more alike
Baby talk
a simplified speech style used by adults in talking to very young children
Back-formation
a process of word formation where a new word is formed by removing an imagined affix form another word (to televise from televison)
Bilingual
a person witch a command of two languages
Blend
the result of two elements fusing to form a new word or construction (smog from smoke and fog)
Body language
communication using body movement, position and appearance (nonverbal communication)
Borrowing
taking a word or phrase from one language into another
Clipping
word formation in which a new word is produced by shortening (advertisment –> ad)
Closed class
includes only a limited number of elements, the items are only exceptionally extended by the creation of additional member (determiners, pronouns, modal verbs)
Coherence
the functional or logical connectedness of a text
Cohesion
the formal linking between the elements of a text (The man left. He left.)
Collocation
the co-ocurrence of words in a text (smoker collcates with heavy)
Comparative linguistic
the study of the historical relationship between languages (comparative philology)
Connotation
the personal or emotional associations aroused by words (pure as a lily)
Context
the non-linguistic situation in which language is used
Conversion
a type of word formation in which an item changes its word class without the addition of an affix (noun cook to verb cook, also know as functional shift or zero derivation)
Cyrillic
alphabet used for Russian and other Slavic languages
Derivation
a major process of word formation i which affixes are added to simple words to produce new words (act –> action)
Diachrony
the study of language from the historical point of view
Dialect
a language variety in which use of grammar and vocabulary identifies the regional or social background
Discourse
a continuous stretch of language longer than a sentence
Elision
the omission of sounds in connected speech (bacon’n’eggs)
Ellipsis
the omission of part of a sentence (A nice day, isn’t it)
Emoticon
a symbol formed from punctuation symbols
Etymology
the study of the origins and history of the form and meaning of words
Folk etymology
guessing and altering an unfamiliar word to make it more familiar (asparagus –>sparrow grass)
Fronting
articulation of a sound further forward in the mouth OR moving a constituent to the front (Smith his name was)
Germanic
branch of indo-european –> Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Homonym
words with the same form but different meanings
Icon
a sign that physically resembles the entity to which it refers
Idiom
a sequence of words that is a unit of meaning (fixed or frozen expression)
Inflection
an affix that signals a grammatical relationship (girl’s, walked)
Intrusion
the use of sounds in connected speech that do not appear when the words or syllables are heard in isolation
Jargon
the technical language of a special field
Language acquistion
the process of learning a first language in children
lexicography
the art and science of dictionary-making
Lingua franca
a medium of communication for people who speak different first languages
Linking
a sound introduced between two syllables or words (linking r)
Malapropism
an inappropriate word used because of its similiarity in sound to the intended word
Marked
a marked unit has a feature (play is unmarked and played is marked)
Metaphor
a figurative expression in which one notion is described in terms usually associated with another
Metonymy
the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related or of which it is a part (the Crown for monarchy)
Neologism
the creation of a new word out of existing elements
Onomatopoeia
words that imitate the sounds of the world (moo, cockoo)
Open class
a class of words in which new items are constantly being created (nouns, full verbs, adjectives)
Operator
the first auxiliary ver in the verb phrase (it is the form that operates as the question-forming word)
Phonetics
the science of speech sound
phonology
the study of the sound systems of languages
Pleonasm
the use of more words than are necessary to say something
Polysemy
multiple meaning
Prefix
an affix added initially to a root (un happy)
Productivity
the potential to a linguistic rule to produce many instances of the same type
Prosody
the linguistic use of pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm
Purism
the view that a language needs to preserve traditional standards of correctness and be protected from foreign influence
Reference
the relationship between linguistic forms and entities in the world
Root
the base form of a word
schwa
an unstressed vowel
Simile
a phrase that describes something by comparing it to something else using a word like or as
Sociolinguistics
the study of the relationship between language and society
Spelling
the rules that govern the way letters are used to write the words of speech
Spoonerism
a slip of the tongue which involves the exchange of initial sounds
Stem
the element in a word to which affixes are attached
Stress
the degree of force with which a syllable is uttered
Structuralism
an approach that analyses language into a set of structures
Subjunctive
the mood which traditionally expressed doubt, or a wish or a hypothetical statement
Suffix
an affix added at the end of a word to form a derivative
Symbol
a type of sign which is based on learned conventional relationship between the form of the sign and the object
Synchronic
said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical point in time
Synonym
a word that shares the same denotation with another word
Synthetic
a type of language which express its grammatical relations thourgh inflections rather than trough word order
Tautology
an unnecessary repetition of a word or idea
Unproductive
linguistic feature that is no longer used in the creation of new forms
Voice
a grammatical system varying the relationship between subject and object of the verb (active and passive)
Word
the smallest unit of grammar that can stand alone
