Key Terminology - Types of Language Flashcards
Main Verb
The verb in a main clause or the head of a verb phrase - Olivia studied for her exam.
Auxiliary Verb
A verb that determines mood, tense, voice or an aspect of another verb in a verb phrase -
Active Voice
When the subject of a verb is the agent performing the action (The police caught the burglar)
Assonance
When the vowel sounds in the middle of two or more words are similar
Complex Sentence
A sentence containing a main clause and one of more clauses of less importance
Compound Sentence
Two or more simple sentences joined together by a coordinating conjunction (‘and’ / ‘but’ / ‘so’)
Declarative Statement
A sentence that makes a statement
Deixis
Utterances that cannot be understood unless the context is known
Determiner
A word used before a noun to indicate quantity, identity or significance
Estuary English
An accent that originated in London and the south-east and that has spread outwards to other parts of the country.
Adjacency Pairs
A back and forth conversation
Blend
A word formed by combining parts of other words
Coinage
The creation of a completely new word
Adverbial
A group of words acting as an adverb, giving information about Time, Place and Manner
Amelioration
A change in the meaning of a word that gives it a more positive meaning
Collocation
Groups of words that are commonly found alongside each other
Compound
A word formed from a combination of other words (e.g blackbird)
Conjunction
A word which joins together different parts of a sentence (‘and’, ‘or’. ‘but’)
Euphemism
A mild / indirect expression use instead of one that is considered offensive, painful or unpleasant
Filled Pause
Hesitation such as ‘um’ or ‘er’.
Hyponm
A word that is specific eg, rather than ‘colours’ you could say ‘blue’ / ‘yellow’.
Hypernym
A word that is a category of other words eg ‘cutlery’ / ‘colours’
Imperative
A sentence that is a command
Idiom
An expression with a meaning that cannot be understood by just looking at the words that make up the expression
Infinitive
A form of a verb that does not specify a person or a number. Eg ‘to lift’ or ‘to run;’
Interrogative
A question
Inflection
A letter or group o letters at the end of a word which serve a grammatical function
Jargon
Specialist vocabulary associated with a certain occupation or activity
Lexis
Words
Metaphor
A comparison describing something as something else
Morpheme
Smallest unit of language
Morphology
Study of the structure of words
Non-fluency features
Features that interrupt the flow of a persons’ speech
Parallelism
Occurs when phrases or sentences have a similar structure or pattern
Passive voice
When the subject of the sentence undergoes the action of the verb (The burglar was caught by the police)
Pejoration
A shift in the meaning in the word so that the word becomes less positive
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound in language
Pidgin
A language combining two or more other languages, allowing members of different communities to communicate
Pragmatics
The study of the part language plays in social situations and relationships
Preposition
A word that relates one word to another (under, over)
Prescriptivism
An approach to the study of language that favours rules identifying correct and incorrect language use
Prosody
Non verbal aspects of speech - Tone, volume, intonation
Register
A form of language appropriate for a particular situation
Semantics
Word meanings
Simple sentence
A sentence containing only one clause
Sociolect
A variety of language used by one particular social group
Subordinate Clause
A clause in a main sentence that is less important than the main clause
Superlative
An adjective indicating the highest degree (coldest, harshest)
Syndetic Listing
Listing using conjunctions
Taboo Languae
Words avoided because they are considered offensive, embarrassing or unpleasant
Transitive verbs
Verbs which require an object
Proper Nouns
Nouns with a capital letter - people / places
Common nouns
Types of people, places, feelings. Subheading for concrete, abstract and collective nouns.
Abstract nouns
Refer to things that do not exist physically - Sadness / anger / democracy
Collective nouns
Groups of animals or people - Team / flock
Concrete nouns
Things that exist physically
Modal verbs
Used in conjunction of a main verb - Can / will / shall
Primary verbs
Be, have. do
Possessive pronoun
Show possession ‘this is hers
Reflexive pronoun
Indicate an object os a verb is the same as the subject (usually ends in self)
Demonstrative pronoun
Pronouns that have a sense of pointing at something or someone (this, that, these)
Indefinite pronouns
Pronouns that don’t refer to a specific person or thing. (someone, anything)
Relative pronouns
Linking words in a sentence. Placed after the noun it refers to (who, whom, whose - referring to people - which and that - referring to things)
Definite article
The
Indefinite article
A/an
Posessive determiners
Ours, his
Demonstrative determiners
This, that, those
What makes demonstrative determiners and demonstrative pronouns different?
Determiners preceed nouns - (Pass me that book)
Pronouns replace nouns - (Pass me that)
Head Word
The main word in a phrase
Premodifiers
Words giving more information about a head noun - come before the noun.
Post modifiers
Words giving more information about a head noun - come after it
Noun phrase
Has a noun / pronoun as the head word.
Examples - The beach. The sandy beach. The long, sandy beach. Squirrels eat nuts.
Verb phrase
Contains a main verb and accompanying auxiliary verbs
Examples - I may see them. I will see them.
Compliment
Gives more information about a subject
Complex sentence
One or more of the clauses in the sentence is considered less important than the other clauses.
Adverbial clauses
Act as adverbials and explain where, when or why something happened
Relative clauses
Include relative pronouns who, whose, which or that
Subordinate clauses
Clauses that do not make sense on their own
Exclamatory sentences
Emphatic sentences indicated by an exclamation mark.
Monosyllable
Words with one syllable
Polysyllable
Words that are mutiple syllables
Paralinguistic Communication
Gestures
Phatic Expression
Small talk
Back channeling
Words, phrases or utterances used to give feedback and make the speaker feel like they are being understood
Heterophones
Words with the same spelling but different meanings and pronunciation - Read / Read
Homophones
Words with same pronunciation but have different meanings and spellings - Here / Hear
Sibilance
A pattern of repeated fricative sounds for effect
Referential Utterances
Utterances that provide information
Expressive Utterances
Utterances that convey feelings
Transactional
A verbal exchange with an emphasis on getting something done
Interactional
An exchange with the emphasis being on a relationship between the speakers
Anthropomorphism
Giving animals / objects human qualities
Virtous Error
Error by applying logic
