informal spoken Flashcards
What is Register?
The level of formality or informality in language, determined by the context, purpose, and relationship between speakers.
Influences vocabulary, syntax, and style.
Define Tenor.
The nature of the relationship between participants in a conversation, reflecting factors such as familiarity, power dynamics, and social roles.
What are Face Needs?
The interpersonal requirements that speakers manage during communication.
Includes positive face (the desire to be liked) and negative face (the desire for autonomy).
What is a Discourse Marker?
Words or phrases (e.g., ‘and,’ ‘so,’ ‘but’) used to organize speech, signal transitions, or indicate the speaker’s attitude.
Define Turn-Taking.
The system by which speakers negotiate who speaks and when, involving cues like pauses, overlaps, and minimal responses.
What are Minimal Responses?
Brief utterances such as ‘Mmm’ or ‘Oh right’ that indicate understanding, agreement, or encouragement without taking over the conversation.
What does Prosody refer to?
The rhythm, intonation, stress, and pitch patterns of speech that convey meaning beyond the words themselves.
Define Non-Fluency Features.
Characteristics of spontaneous speech such as hesitations, pauses, fillers (e.g., ‘um,’ ‘uh’), repetitions, and repairs.
What is Colloquial Language?
Informal, everyday language including slang, idioms, contractions, and non-standard grammatical forms.
What is Metalanguage?
The specialized vocabulary used to describe and analyze language features.
Define Spontaneity in speech.
The quality of being unscripted and natural in speech, often marked by irregular structures and non-fluency features.
What is Jargon?
Specialized language or terminology used by a particular group or profession.
What are Discourse Functions?
The roles that language serves in communication, including conveying information, persuading, and building interpersonal relationships.
List the components of the Phonetics and Phonology sub-system.
- Speech sound production: consonants and vowels
- Connected speech processes: assimilation, vowel reduction, elision, insertion
- The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- Prosodic features: pitch, stress, volume, tempo, intonation
- Phonological patterning: alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme
What are Morphemes?
- Root
- Stem
- Free
- Bound
- Affix (prefix, suffix, infix)
- Inflectional
- Derivational
What does Morphological over-generalisation refer to?
The incorrect application of regular morphological rules to irregular forms.
List the types of Word Classes.
- Nouns (including pronouns)
- Verbs (including auxiliary and modal verbs)
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Prepositions
- Conjunctions (coordinators, subordinators)
- Determiners
- Interjections
What are the functions of Clauses?
- Subject
- Object
- Predicate
- Complement
- Adverbial
What is the significance of Word Order?
It determines the structure of sentences including subject, verb, object arrangement.
Define Paralinguistic Features.
- Vocal effects (e.g., whispers, laughter)
- Non-verbal communication (e.g., gestures, facial expressions, eye contact)
What is Code Switching?
The practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation.
What are the factors that contribute to a text’s cohesion?
- Lexical choice (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, hypernymy)
- Collocation
- Information flow
- Anaphoric and cataphoric reference
- Deictics
- Repetition, substitution, ellipsis
- Conjunctions and adverbials
What are the types of Semantic Change?
- Broadening
- Narrowing
- Shift
- Elevation
- Deterioration
What is a Euphemism?
A mild or indirect word or expression used to replace one that may be considered harsh or blunt.
