glossary Flashcards
mode
the mode of the text is the form in which it is delivered; typically texts can be categorised into 4 different modes: spoken, written, mixed mode (has 2 modes) and multimodal (more than 2 modes – another typical mode is visual)
morpheme
The smallest unit of meaning. E.g. ‘water’ is a single morpheme, whereas ‘deindustrialisation’ has 5 morphemes. You can also use the terms prefix (on the front of a word, like ‘de-’) and suffix (on the end of a word (like ‘tion’)
Modern technology is often prompting new words by adding morphemes to old words (e.g. ‘message’ became a verb and then took the ‘-ing’ morpheme – ‘messaging’)
grammar
What linguists see as the structure of the language (not to do with statements like ‘your grammar is terrible’ which you might hear from relatives or the media!)
word class
Types of word which indicate what they do grammatically. There are 8 of them: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, determiners, conjunctions. The first four are called content words as they are ‘open’ word classes and can be added to. The second four are called function words as they are ‘closed’ word classes and can’t be added to.
nouns
concrete
abstract
proper
collective
words which name people, places, things, ideas and concepts. This word class can be divided into
refers to objects that have physical existence.
refers to states, feelings and concepts that have no physical existence e.g. pain, happiness
refers to names of people, places, days, months e.g. Susan, Wednesday
a noun which groups other nouns together e.g. herd of elephants
adjectives
words that modify nouns
gradable vs non-gradable adjective
Gradable adjectives can have suffixes added to them to form a new word. E.g. ‘bigger’. Non-gradable adjectives can’t be added to because they are binary, e.g. ‘dead’
comparative and superlative adjectives
the form of an adjective that designates comparison between two things, generally made by adding the suffix -er to its base form (e.g. ‘this is a faster car’)
Expresses the highest level of the quality represented by the adjective, generally made by adding -est to its base form (‘the fastest car’) Note – crops up in persuasive writing!
determiner and quantity and possessive determiners
Determiners are a companion word class to nouns. Most will tell you the number (singular or plural) and/or status of the noun.
A determiner that tells you how many/much there are/is of something e.g. several tables.
Show who the noun belongs to (‘that’s my pen’). Used to be called a possessive pronoun.
definite and indefinite article
‘the’ – subdivision of determiners. Comes in front of a noun, suggesting that you already know about it (‘there’s the house’)
‘a’ or ‘an’
Comes in front of a noun and refers to things that are new to you (‘there’s a woodpecker’)
verbs
Used to describe:-
A physical action (e.g., to swim, to write, to climb).
A mental action (e.g., to think, to guess, to consider).
A state of being (e.g., to be, to exist, to appear).
modal verbs
A modal verb indicates possibility, probability, degree or obligation. These can be divided into deontic modals, expressing obligation e.g. You must/should/could do the essay and epistemic modals, expressing likelihood e.g. I might/will/can’t come to the party.
auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb assists the main verb. These could be modal or primary (to show tense).
primary verbs
be, have, do
verb “to be”
Subject Verb to be
past tense present tense future tense
I was am will be
You were are will be
He / She / It was is will be
We were are will be
You were are will be
They were are will be
‘be’ expresses state of being – most common verb of all
transitive and intransitive verbs
Acts on something (i.e., it has a direct object). ‘I kicked the chair.’
Does not act on anything (I.e. does not require a direct object) e.g. I slept.
finite and non-finite verb
Has a subject (most verbs) e.g. I dance
Doesn’t have a subject e.g. Running down the street
material, mental, relational, dynamic, stative verbs
Action verbs: they are typically more associated with men e.g. run
Verbs that are associated with feelings, thought processes or emotions, typically linked with women, e.g. Thinking
Describes a state of being e.g. appear, seem
A verb that changes state over time e.g. paint, digest
Verbs that don’t change state over time e.g. hold, believe
copula
Verb that is used to join a subject with a complement e.g. I am happy
gerund
Verb that can act as a noun e.g. the learning
infliction
A bound morpheme added to the end of a word to change its meaning e.g. ‘s
conjugation
How a subject links to a verb illustrated through an inflection e.g. I run, She runs
regular, irregular, infinitive verbs
Follows the usual rule for forming its simple past tense and past particle -ed
Unusual rule of forming past tense verbs, e.g. ‘Ran’ for ‘run’
Verbs in their base form
e.g. “to run” “to jump”
prepositions
Used to link nouns, pronouns or phrases to other words within a sentence eg after, with, at
adverbs of manner, time, place, degree, frequency
Describes/modifies a verb or adjective e.g. quickly ran, entirely useless
How the verb is being carried out e.g. quickly
When the verb process has taken place, e.g. yesterday
Where the action has been completed e.g. there
Describe to what extent something happened e.g. very, fairly, extremely
Describe how often something occurs, e.g. ‘daily’, ‘all the time’
conjunctions, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
Used to connect words, phrases or clauses. The most common ones are: and, but, or.
Begins a coordinate clause e.g. and/but. It is non-standard to begin sentences with these.
Begins a subordinate clause, e.g. ‘while’
pronouns, reflexive, relative, subject, object, interrogative, demonstrative, possessive pronouns
A word that refers to participants in the discourse. E.g. You, I
A pronoun ending in –self or –selves. E.g. themselves or himself.
A pronoun that connects clause elements together and stands in place of the noun (starts a relative clause) e.g. the man, who was wearing red, smiled briefly.
Stands in place of a subject e.g. ‘she’
Stands in place of an object e.g. ‘it’
Pronouns that used to ask a question. E.g. who, which or what.
A pronoun that indicates distance e.g. this/that, these/those.
A pronoun indicating possession, for example mine, yours, hers, theirs.
etymology
The origins of words and the historical development of the word. We generally divide this into Germanic words which are likely to be monosyllabic, have consonant clusters, be irregular verbs and have silent letters e.g. lamb. French words usually have an even consonant vowel pattern and have particular noticeable suffixes e.g. -tion, -esse. Latinate words were introduced in the 16th/17th centuries in light of scientific discoveries and advancements. They use a Latin root and add affixes to make them polysyllabic. Over 350 languages have contributed to English including Italian (piazza), Hindi (bungalow) and Old Norse (yacht).
syllable length of lexis
Monosyllabic words have one syllable e.g. egg whereas polysyllabic words have more than one syllable e.g. exemplary
frequency of lexis
How often a word appears in use: high frequency lexis will often be lower in formality, extremely high frequency lexis would be words such as ‘the’ as it appears all the time. Low frequency lexis is associated with higher formality e.g. ‘simultaneous’ would be a low frequency word as it appears less frequently in usage.
register
Register can be analysed in terms of formality from low (informal) to high (formal) with mixed register including elements of both.
It can also be analysed in terms of genre e.g. academic, journalistic
formality of lexis
Based on how formal a text is, spoken language is more associated with informal lexis, and text messaging therefore will be more informal than an academic piece of writing
expletives
swear words
taboo lexis
refers to a words that is inappropriate
colloquial lexis
The language of casual communication and slang usually found in spoken language e.g. kids
compound and blending and clipping
Adding two free morphemes together to form a new word, e.g. ‘classroom’
A way new words are made, joining the beginning of one word and the end of another to make a new one e.g. brunch
The reduction of a word to a part, often to one syllable e.g. maths for mathematics
homophone and homonym
Two words that sound the same but are spelt differently e.g. red/read
When two or more words have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings e.g. bank
clauses
Clauses are the next grammatical stage on from phrases. They involve key clause elements including a subject (the person/thing doing the verb), a verb and an object (the person/thing receiving the verb). Sometimes, they include additional detail through an adverbial (more about the verb) and a complement (more about the subject/object).
main clause, coordinate clause, subordinate clause
A main clause can stand on its own and is therefore independent. It is the same as a simple sentence and has a SVO structure e.g. I went to the park.
A coordinate clause begins with a coordinating conjunction and has to be attached to a main clause (therefore dependent) e.g. and I danced in the club
A subordinate or dependent clause usually provides extra information to an independent clause and has to be attached to it. Subordinate clauses are often located between commas, brackets or dashes (known as parenthesis) and these are specifically referred to as embedded clauses. Clauses that begin with a relative pronoun are called relative clauses and those that begin with ‘if’ are called conditional clauses. Those that begin with a verb are called non-finite subordinate clauses. E.g Leaving your homework to the last minute is not good.
active and passive voice
Most clauses are in ‘active voice’ where the subject is also the actor (the one doing the verb) and the object is also the goal (the one receiving the verb process) e.g. I kicked the chair.
This is where the subject of the sentence is not actually performing the action. It’s using the formula: [subject]+[some form of the verb to be]+[past participle of a transitive verb]+[optional prepositional phrase]
e.g. The chair was kicked by me. Sometimes, the agent is omitted to remove blame e.g. The 17:05 service to Portsmouth Harbour has been cancelled by South West Trains. The preposition phrase ‘by South West Trains’ contains the agent ‘South West Trains’– they are doing it. Removing it helps them to avoid damaging their image
minor, simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
Minor A minor sentence is actually below a clause in terms of structure as it doesn’t have a verb process present e.g. Hello
A simple sentence has one independent clause. In a declarative sentence, you have a subject doing or being something. E.g. ‘Clara finished her presentation.’
(They can be doing more than one thing: ‘She bought the car and drove away in it’) . The simplest form of simple sentence would be one verb ‘Eat!’ (In this case in the imperative mood). It could also include an object e.g. ‘Eat the chocolate!’ Alternatively, it could be SV (I dreamt.) or regular SVO ‘I broke the plate.’
A compound sentence is a main clause joined to a coordinate clause through a coordinating conjunction e.g. I went to the park and fell asleep.
A complex sentence has a main clause with a subordinate clause connected to it e.g. Whilst I was asleep, a bee stung me.
A compound-complex sentence has a main clause with at least one subordinate clause and one coordinate clause e.g. Despite wanting to be alone, his mother knocked on his door and asked whether he wanted to come downstairs to chat about it. If in doubt, call sentences with multiple clauses in them multiclausal.
left and right branching sentences
A sentence where the main clause is left until the end and dependent clauses/modification come at the beginning e.g. Stumbling as she creaked at the knees, Joan managed to bring over the tray of cakes.
This is the opposite of a left-branching one where the main clause is first followed by dependent clauses/modification e.g. Joan managed to bring over the tray of cakes, stumbling as she creaked at the knees. Notice how significant the placement of clauses is to prioritise what information is provided to the receiver.
verb mood and what the 4 types are –> imperative, interrogative, declarative, subjunctive
Verb mood refers to the function of a clause or a sentence: imperative, interrogative, declarative
An imperative is an instruction/command and won’t have a subject beginning with a verb ‘Get out!’ Sometimes, imperatives are mitigated e.g. ‘Please leave the building’
A question e.g. How are you? A tag question is a specific type of interrogative where a declarative statement is first followed by an interrogative e.g. It’s nice weather, isn’t it?
A declarative is a statement of fact/feeling (this will always have the subject first) e.g. I think he is misunderstood.
A rare verb mood, often used in hypothetical conditions. You can recognise it through the use of non-standard subject verb conjugation. E.g. If I were you… Here, given that the first person is used, in standard English we would use ‘was’ as the conjugated form of the verb ‘to be’. However, in this mood, the plural ‘were’ is used.
