Headstart Content Flashcards
Define Phonetics
Study of how we make speech sounds and how we organise these sounds
Define Phonology
Study of the patterns that speech sounds form within a language
Define Phonological Patterning
A set of phonological features in written and spoken texts
Why is Phonological Patterning’s used?
- express creativity
- persuasively
- capture and maintain attention
- act to set the tone
List the Phonological Patterning’s
- Alliteration
- Assonance
- Consonance
- Onomatopoeia
- Rhythm
- Rhyme
Define Alliteration and provide an example
Repetition of the same consonant sound in the initial position of nearby words.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle”
Define Assonance and provide an example
Repetition of vowel phonemes across phrases, clauses, or sentences.
“The stream meandered eerily along”
Define Consonance and provide an example
Repetition of consonant phonemes in phrases, clauses or sentences
“pitter, patter”
Define Onomatopoeia and provide an example
The creation of words to represent sounds
“chip chop chip chop”
What is the purpose of Onomatopoeia?
- bring vivid imagery
- sensory experience
- lively & interesting
- attract reader’s attention
- memorable
What can Alliteration create?
A playful and catchy tone
What can Assonance create?
- smoother/softer tone
- melodic feel
- slow down pace
What can Consonance create?
Percussive/rhythmic tone
Define Rhythm and provide an example
The creation of long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables.
“Double, double, toil and trouble”
What does Rhythm achieve?
- flow and emphasis
- enhance tone or mood
Define Rhyme and provide an example
Two or more lexemes end with corresponding, matching phonology. The direct manipulation of assonance or consonance
“Sam I am”
What does Rhyme achieve?
- musicality
- emphasis
- cohesion
- aesthetic appeal
List the Prosodic Features
- Pitch
- Intonation
- Volume
- Tempo
- Stress
Define Pitch
The height of sound production, either higher or lower
Define Intonation
Differences in the pitch level of the voice spoken
Define Volume
The degree of loudness in spoken discourse
Define Tempo
The rate or pace of spoken discourse
Define Stress
The degree of emphasis given to sounds or a syllable in speech.
What is an acronym used to recall phonological patterning’s?
RACORA
Define Vocal Effects
Paralinguistic feature of ‘noises’ that often accompany speech production
e.g. sighing, laughter, whispering, deliberate coughing
Define Elision and provide an example
The omission of certain sounds in connected speech.
eg. “how _bout that”
What is the purpose of connected speech processes?
- link to identity
- more efficient
- creates informality
- reflects relaxed context
- signal close tenor
Define Assimilation and provide an example
Sounds of a lexeme change to be more like the ones nearby to ease manner or place of articulation.
Only relates to spoken texts
eg. “wonchu”
Define Vowel Reduction and provide an example
Unstressed vowels are reduced to a schwa
Only appear in spoken transcripts
eg. Where did ya go”
Define Insertion and provide and example
Inserting an extra sound or syllable in a word
eg. “athalete”
Define Morphology
The study of words and their parts
Define Free Morpheme and provide an example
Morphemes that can stand alone as a lexeme
eg. Chair, Build
Define Root Morpheme and provide an example
The stem and morpheme that carries the most amount f meaning, where other morphemes are added.
Eg. Restructuring
Define Bound Morpheme and provide an example
A morpheme that cannot stand alone eg. ing, ness
What information do Inflectional Morphemes provide?
- tense
- person
- number
- possession
- comparative
- superlative
Define Comparative
Used to compare two things or people. It indicates that one thing has more or less of a quality than another
eg. “er”
Define Superlative
A superlative is used to describe the highest degree of a quality, indicating that something has the most or the least of a particular quality out of a group of three or more things.
eg. est
What are Derivational Morphemes?
Can be prefixes or suffixes. Change the meaning of words, create new words and can sometimes change word class.
eg. Singer
What are Hypocoristic suffixes?
- common in Australian English
- Alternative forms of words or names that share the same denotation
What are Hypocoristic Suffixes also known as?
Diminutive Endings
How are Hypocoristic Suffixes created and provide examples.
- Abbreviations and Suffixation
eg. Mozzie, Servo, Toasty
How do Hypocoristic use of Suffixes function?
- different connotations
- level of formality
- solidarity & playfulness
- mark in group belonging
- open-ended
What are the Morphological Word Formation processes?
- Initialisms
- Acronyms
- Abbreviations
- Shortenings
- Blends
- Compounding
- Contractions
- Conversion
- Backformation
Define Initialism and provide examples.
A word formed with the initial letters of words in a phrase, pronounced separately
eg. RACV, FYI, AFL
Define Acronym and provide examples
Words formed from the initials of other words that can be said as a word
eg. Goat, Anzac
Define Abbreviation and provide examples
Words formed by removing the middle part of the word. Could be initialisms or acronyms
eg. Dr, Dept
Define Shortenings and provide examples
One or more syllables of a word ommitted.
eg. Sec, min, exam
Define Blends and provide examples
Words formed by joining more than one lexeme, where one or both have been shortened.
eg. Blog, Chillax, Smog, e-
Define Compounding and provide examples
A word formed by joining two free morphemes
e.g. skateboard firewall
Define Contraction and provide examples
A shortened word. A standard (although less formal) feature indicated through punctuation
eg. don’t, we’ll
Define Conversion and provide examples
Lexemes are created through broadening to more than one word class
e.g. google (proper noun to verb), a post.
Define Backformation and provide examples
Words formed through the omission of perceived derivation morphemes
e.g. edit from editor
Define Affixation
A morpheme that is attached to stems. Can be a prefix, suffix or infix.
eg. deconstruct
What are the types of Open Class words?
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Interjections
(content)
What are the types of Closed Class words?
- prepositions
- pronouns
- conjunctions
- determiners
- auxiliary verbs
- modal verbs
(function)
What are the 3 tenses, and what is important to note?
- Past
- Present
- Future
Tense is not the same as time
What are the types of pronouns (draw a table)
- Subject
- Object
- Reflexive
- Possessive
Define Noun
A word class with a naming function, often a person, place or thing
What are the different types of nouns?
- Common
- Abstract
- Proper
- Collective
Define Verb
Express states, actions or processes.
Define Adjective
A word that describes or modifies a noun.
Define Word Class
Words that share similar grammatical characteristics
Define Adverb
Describes/ Intensifies/ Modifies the action of a verb or a meaning of an adjective/adverb
Define Interjection
A sudden, brief utterance that is usually not part of a syntactic structure.
Define Preposition
Denotes a positional relationship between nouns
Define Pronouns
Replaces/stands in for a noun.
Define Conjunction
Words that connect two words, phrases or clauses
Coordinating/Subordinating
Define Determiners
Specifies the number and definiteness of a noun
Define Auxiliary Verb
A verb that precedes the participle verb in a verb phrase. All modal verbs are auxiliaries.
What do Auxiliary Verbs achieve?
- help create tense
- no meaning
Define Modal Verbs
Auxiliary verbs that express obligation, possibility and prediction.
What are the lexical word formation processes.
Commonisation
Nominalization
Neologisms
Borrowings
Define Commonisation and provide examples.
A proper noun becomes a common noun through general use
eg. kleenex, bandaid
Define Nominalisation and provide examples
When a word is formed into a noun to create an abstract quality or a more formal impersonal style.
e.g. decision, prohibition
Define Neologisms and provide examples
A newly coined word or phrase e.g. selfie, photobombing
Define Borrowings and provide examples
Lexemes that have entered English from other languages
e.g. Government (French)
Define Syntax
How conventions and processes by which words are ordered create grammatically well-formed phrases, clauses and sentences.
Define Clause
A syntactic phrase made up of at least a subject (NP) and predicate (VP)
Define Phrase
A group of related words without an agreeing subject or verb. Identified through head word.
Define Sentence
A grammatical structure made up of one or more clauses
What are the types of phrases?
- noun
- verb
- prepositional (adjectival/adverbial function)
- adjectival
What is important to note about noun phrases?
the noun often but does not always go at the end or can stand alone.
How can you determine if a prepositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb?
Note: Some are ambiguous and can be interpreted in more than one way.
e.g. I shot the man with the gun
adverb: where/when
adjective: which
What are the functions in clause structure?
- subject
- object (indirect/direct)
- predicate
- adverbial
- complement
Define Subject
A noun phrase or pronoun that agrees/does the verb in a clause.
Define Object
A sentence element (usually a pronoun or noun phrase) that is affected by the action of the verb.
Define Indirect Object
A sentence element indirectly affected by the action of the verb. Can only exist if there is a direct object (can’t be on own)
eg. Bob gave his teacher a gift.
Define Direct Object
A sentence element directly affected by the action of the verb
Define Predicate
Part of a clause containing the verb and elements related to the subject. Starts at the finite verb
Define Finite Verbs
Finite verbs are those verbs that agree with the subject and express the mood, tense, number and person.
Define Non-finite Verbs
Non-finite verbs do not agree with the subject and can be used in the present participle, past participle or infinitive forms to perform different functions in a sentence.
Define Adverbial
A phrase that adds additional information. Relates to time/manner/place
Define Complement
A pronoun, NP, or adjective following a form of the verb “to be” that relates to the subject/object.
e.g. Make me a supermodel (object complement)
Define Active Voice
The subject is the actor of the verb in a clause
e.g. Frida threw the Ball.
Define Passive Voice
The subject receives the action. Alters the focus of the sentence.
Test: use by zombies
Why might passive voice be used?
- common in formal writing
- avoid specifying performer (agentless passives)
- reduce responsibility
How can you determine if an object is direct or indirect
Direct: What did S V
Indirect: Who did S V
What are coordinating conjunctions and what type of clause do they connect?
FANBOYS
Connect independent clauses.
What are subordinating conjunctions and what type of clause do they connect?
Connect dependent clauses to independent clauses.
What are fragments and how can they be analysed?
Part of a sentence with clause elements missing
- considered less formal
- economical and expressive
- create relaxed tone, build suspense, mimic spoken mode in writing.
Define Ellipsis
The omission of a grammatical element from a sentence where the meaning is still understood.
What are the sentence types?
- declarative
- interrogative
- exclamative
- imperative
Define Declarative
Expresses a statement
Define Interrogative
Expresses a question, usually where the subject and verb are inverted.
Define Imperative
Expresses a directive or command. Second person with verb first.
Define exclamative
Starts with an interrogative pronoun but is an emotive statement.
What are the sentence structures?
- simple
- compound
- compound complex
- complex
Define Compound Sentences
2 or more independent clauses, joined by a semi-colon or coordinating conjunction
Define Complex Sentences
1 independent and 1 or more dependent clause.
Define Compound Complex Sentences
2 or more independent clauses and 1 or more dependent clause.
Define Semantic Domain
Grouping of words based on shared or related meanings.
Define Denotation
Literal definition
Define Connotation
Associations/values attached to a word
List the forms of semantic patterning
- irony
- metaphor
- oxymoron
- simile
- personification
- animation
- pun
- lexical ambiguity
PALM OF SHIP
What is semantic patterning also known as?
Figurative Language
What is figurative language?
Words deviate from literal meanings for a vivid and expressive effect
Define Irony
What actually occurs goes against what is expected. eg. My hairdresser has terrible hair
How may Irony present in context?
Sarcasm, backhanded compliments, understatement
Often required to understand the situational context.
Define metaphor
One semantic domain used to explain another, describing something to be something else. Both literal and non-literal at once. e.g. Love is a battlefield.
Define Oxymoron
Juxtaposition of contradictory words. Semantic conflict e.g. Act naturally, bittersweet, deafening silence
Define Simile
Direct comparison between two things, using “like” or “as”
e.g. As good as gold
Define Hyperbole
Language that creates deliberate exaggeration for effect. e.g. it was so funny I nearly died.
Define Personification
Non-human elements are described or given human characteristics e.g. The warmth hugged and kissed my face.
Define Pun
A play on the semantics of similar sounding or related words e.g. there will be hell toupee
Define Synonymy
Different words with similar/connected meanings
e.g. happy/content
What is the function of synonymy
Help connect/communicate/contrast ideas
Define Antonymy
Words are opposite and contrasting hence connected.
e.g. up/down
Define Idiom
A playful, cultural expression that is non-literal (like metaphors but associated with informality) e.g. in a pickle
Define Euphemism
A milder or more polite word/phrase to refer to taboo or unpleasant topic, reducing impact e.g. being intoxicated - tipsy
Define Dysphemism
A harsher or more direct and impolite word or phrase that magnifies and increases impact. e.g. She’s knocked up.
What are the features of spoken discourse?
- discourse particles
- openings and closings
- overlap
- non-fluency features
- adjacency pairs
- minimal responses
Define Discourse particle
A brief word or phrase uttered to mark something within the discourse e.g. ok, well
Explain discourse particle: Well
Indicate speaker commenting, express doubt or opposing view
Explain discourse particle: You Know
Checks if listener is following, emphasises point
Explain discourse particle: Like
Example, indicate approximation, uncertainty, direct speech
Explain discourse particle: Anyway
Change or loop back to topic
Explain discourse particle: So
Conclusion/Result
Explain discourse particle: I mean
Clarifies/elaborates/express opinion
Explain discourse particle: Right
Checks understanding
Define Opening
Deliberate beginning of spoken discourse where participants establish contact to create rapport/ familiarity/solidarity signaling the intended tenor.
e.g. Hey
Define Closing
The deliberate ending of spoken discourse, signaling end point and resolution to maintain social norms and politeness
What is the purpose of openings and closings?
- ritualistic and expected
- informal or formal
- signal roles/tenor/register
Define Overlap
Two participants speak simultaneously, a natural feature not contributing to formality
- collaborative, signal close tenor, nervousness, unfamiliarity, provide support, take floor
What are non-fluency features?
- indicate unscripted and spontaneous nature
- natural, do not affect register
List the non-fluency features
- pauses
- repetition
- false start
- running repair
- voiced hesitations
Define Pauses
Used to briefly provide thinking time, gathering thoughts, hesitation, topic shift.
Also deliberate for dramatic effect
Define Repetition
A repeated feature in close proximity to the first occurrence as an unplanned utterance.
Define False Start
Interlocutor begins utterance, then makes immediate repair for self-correction, or rephrase for clarity
Define Running Repair
The correction of a mistake or misunderstanding in spoken discourse
Define Voiced Hesitations
Filled pauses uttered in spoken discourse to briefly provide thinking time and hold the floor
Define Adjacency Pairs
Pairs of utterances that require turn-taking where the first utterance prompts an expected response
What are the common types of Adjacency Pairs?
Question & Answer
Offer & Refusal
Statement & Acknowledgement
Define Minimal Responses
Backchanneling, brief utterances in spoken discourse to signal understanding, engagement, encouragement or agreement and urges someone to hold the floor.
What are the strategies in spoken discourse
- topic management
- turn-taking
- code switching
- management of repairs
In what ways can a topic be managed?
- adjacency pairs
- interrogatives/declarative
- minimal responses
- discourse particles
- pauses
In what ways is turn-taking constructed
- interrogatives
- falling intonation
- adjacency pairs
- minimal responses
- overlap
- syntactic coordination
