Glossary

Question 1

Aboriginal Australian Englishes

Answer 1

A continuum ranging from language use very close to Standard Australian Englis to something closer to a creole.

Question 2

What are the features of Aboriginal Australian Englishes?

Answer 2

Elements of non-standard Englishes, features from first contact and colonial language, and features of many of the First Nations languages in Australia

Question 3

Accent

Answer 3

Broad, General, Cultivated
Represent various sounds made by speakers of Standard Australian English
Regional, age related and social differences

Question 4

Acronym

Answer 4

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of the words in a phrase and said as a word
eg. Goat, Anzac, UNESCO

Question 5

Active Voice

Answer 5

A grammatical construction in which the subject is the ‘actor’ of the verb in a clause.
e.g. The prime minister spoke with his cabinet

Question 6

Adjacency Pairs

Answer 6

Pairs of utterances that require turn-taking where the first utterance prompts a response

Question 7

Adjective

Answer 7

A word that describes or modifies a noun

Question 8

Adverb

Answer 8

A word that describes/intensifies/ modifies the action of a verb or meaning of an adjective, or another adverb.

Question 9

Adverbial

Answer 9

A lexeme or phrase that modifies a verb phrase. Relates to time, manner or place

Question 10

Affixation

Answer 10

A morpheme that is attached to stems. Can be a prefix, suffix or infix

Question 11

Agentless Passive

Answer 11

A passive voice construction where the agent Noun Phrase is ellipted. There is no “by” revealing the agent.

Question 12

Alliteration

Answer 12

The repetition of the same consonant sound in the initial position of nearby words
eg. reduce, reuse, recycle

Question 13

Anaphor

Answer 13

A form of referencing in which a pronoun or noun phrase points backwards to something mentioned earlier in the discourse
eg. Ben said he was there

Question 14

Animation

Answer 14

A semantic feature that gives life or movement to inanimate objects, ideas or places. Animate qualities that are transferred are not specifically human and can be associated with other living things. Eg. the sand-filled wind clawed and snarled.

Question 15

Antithesis

Answer 15

Juxtaposition of words and ideas within parallel phrases or clauses to create balance or contrast. e.g. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Question 15

Antonymy

Answer 15

Words that are opposite or contrasting (and therefore connected) in meaning.

Question 15

Archaism

Answer 15

A form of word loss whereby a word becomes considered old-fashioned or outdated
e.g. whereby, whilst

Question 16

Article

Answer 16

A word that determines whether a noun is definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)

Question 17

Assimilation

Answer 17

The way in which sounds of one word can change/modify the sounds within it and of neighbouring words to ease place or manner of articulation

Question 18

Assonance

Answer 18

Repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds
e.g. The stream meandered easily along

Question 19

Audience

Answer 19

The (group of) people that a text is aimed at, targeting or reaching out to

Question 20

Auxiliary

Answer 20

The verb that precedes the participle (lexical) verb in a verb phrase. All modal verbs act as auxiliaries

Question 21

Backchanneling

Answer 21

AKA minimal response

Question 22

Blend

Answer 22

A word composed of the parts of more than one word e.g. guesstimate, blog

Question 23

Borrowing

Answer 23

A word from one language is adapted for use in another
e.g. focaccia, salsa

Question 24

Bound morpheme

Answer 24

A morpheme that cannot stand alone

Question 25

Cataphor

Answer 25

A form of referencing in which a pronoun or noun phrase points forward to something mentioned later in the discourse.
e.g. It was lovely, a day to remember

Question 26

Clause

Answer 26

A syntactic phrase made up of at least a subject (NP) and a predicate (VP)

Question 27

Clefting

Answer 27

Splitting a single clause idea into two connected clauses, each with its own verb.

Question 28

Closings

Answer 28

The deliberate ending of a spoken discourse, often related to conventions
e.g. Catch you later, Thank you, Goodbye

Question 29

Code-switching

Answer 29

The practice of moving back and forth between languages in a single interaction is a normal and natural feature of the conversations between speakers who know the same two (or more languages)

Question 30

Codification

Answer 30

The process of developing a norm for a language can involve developing a writing system and official rules of orthography, pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary