Key Terms Flashcards
Nouns
Proper, abstract, concrete (countable or mass e.g. doesn’t Take a plural form), collective
Verbs
Material, relational, mental/stative, verbal, dynamic, transitive, intransitive, modal, auxiliary, modal auxiliary, copular, deontic modal, epistemic modal
Material verb
Show actions or events e.g. hit, jump, wash, build, write, watch
Relational verb
Identify properties or show states of being e.g. be, appear, seem, become. STATIVE verbs in a non-continuous stats e.g. you wouldn’t say ‘I am owning a Hummer’ ‘I own a hummer’, ‘my car needs a battery, ‘my car is needing a battery’
Mental/ stative Verb
Perceptions, cognitive processes and feelings e.g. think, feel, believe
Verbal verb
Shows external processes of communicating through speech e.g. say, shout, scream, whisper
Dynamic verb
Actions which have definite starts and ends e.g. run, watch
Transitive
Have a direct object- ‘I went for a run’ went, rather than ‘I ran’? Requires an object to receive the action e.g. discuss
Intransitive
Doesn’t have a direct object- I ran
Modal
Verbs which indicate a level of possibility or obligation e.g. may, can, must
Auxiliary/ primary auxiliary
Verbs which assist the main verb- be, do, have e.g. have eaten
Modal auxiliary
Verbs which both assist the main verb and indicate possibility and obligation- may eat, could go
Copular
Linking verb- be, is, was- ‘the stew smells good’, connects a subject to its compliment
Deontic modal verb
More certainty ? Obligation, permission, requesting, granting and commanding. ‘You must do this’ ‘Would you stop’, ‘you can go’, ‘you may do it’
Epistemic modality
Express a speaker’s opinion about a statement. ‘I would like’ ‘I think it may be raining’ Decide whether it is deontic or epistemic based on context
Adjectives
Base, comparative, superlative , attributive predicative post/pre modifying
Adverbs
Time, place, manner, frequency
Adverb of time
Indicates when something occurs- later, soon, yesterday
Adverb of place
Indicates where something occurs- near, far, close
Adverb of manner
Indicates how something occurs- bold, lively, highly
Adverb of frequency
How often something occurs- always, never, sometimes
Pronouns
Personal, demonstrative (when it doesn’t modify a noun), indefinite
Personal pronoun
I- first person singular, you- 2nd person singular/plural, she- third person singular, they- third person plural
What can you break personal pronouns into further
Subject/ object- I = first person singular subject pronoun, me= first person singular object pronoun AND gender e.g. ‘she’ is feminine
Demonstrative pronoun
Sense of pointing, pronoun unless modified a noun, then a determiner
Possessive pronoun
Mine (singular 1st person), ours (plural 1st person), yours (2nd person singular/plural), his hers its (singular 3rd person ), theirs (plural 3rd)
Indefinite pronoun
Refers to a person, object or idea that is non-specific- someone, anybody, everything
Reflexive pronoun
Myself, ourselves, yourselves, himself herself itself, themselves - can also be split into 1st person singular etc
Possessive determiners
My, our, your, his/her/its, their
Determiners
Possessive determiners, demonstrative determiners, definite article (the), indefinite article (a/an), quantifiers (one, some, any, a few)
Conjunctions
Correlative (either… or), co-ordinating (equal clauses), sub-ordinating (one clause dependent on other e.g. because, although, while)
Semantics
Semantic field, Denotation, connotation, synonym/antonym, collocation, euphemism/ dysphemism, hypernym (umbrella term like animals)/hyponym (part of a larger term, dog)
What is ‘animal’
Hypernym
What is ‘animal’
Hypernym
Is it a hyponym or a hypernym that is the umbrella/ generic term like ‘planets’
Hypernym
What is syntax
The study of phrases, clauses and sentences
Affixes
Suffix, prefix, inflectional function (show tense -s), derivational function (un- etc)
Qualifier
An additional word/ phrase that adds some further detail to the noun e.g. in the corner
Phrases
Noun phrase, verb phrase
Auxiliary verb types
Primary auxiliary verb, modal auxiliary verb
Clauses
Subject, object, complement, adverbial. Can be coordinate or subordinate
Complement
Modifies or describes subject/ object
Adverbial clause
A subordinate clause that functions as an adverbial. Explain time, place, manner and purpose
Noun clause
A subordinate clause that functions as a subject, object or compliment
Active voice
‘Beast seriously injured baby’ This gives prominence to the fox and its actions, emphasised by the verb phrase being modified by the adverb seriously
Passive voice
‘Baby is mauled by fox’, prominence is given to the victim of the attack
What does it show when passive constructions omit the agent entirely?
Places even more emphasis on the entity affected by the verb and/or avoids drawing attention to the person responsible for the action. May be done for many PURPOSES- to sensationalise an event or to tactically avoid identifying the cause of an action
Examples of passive omitting agent
The children’s playground was closed- focus is on event, removes any possible sense of agency or blame as closure is shown as a completed action
A sentence marked by a capital letter and full stop but containing no verb
Orthographic sentence- give a punchy, emphatic stress to an idea/feeling. E.g. ‘Bump bump. Pause’ said to emphasise the increasing sound of a strange noise and his own increasing terror
Relative pronouns
Who(m), which, that, whose
Relative clause
A clause which adds more information and is introduced by a relative pronoun- ‘the dog, whose name is Milo,’ (this is in an embedded subordinate clause)
A clause which exists in brackets
Parenthetical clause
Minor/fragment sentence
Incomplete sentence (missing one or more of SVO)
Sentence functions
Interrogative, declarative, imperative, exclamative
Disguised imperative/ mitigated imperative
It’s quite cold in here= shut the window
Ellipsis
Omission of words ‘what would you like for lunch? Ham sandwich’ ‘I would like’ is ellipted
Hegemony
How one social group can use language to get to their people to accept its way of seeing the world as natural
Pejorative term
A judgemental term that usually implies disapproval or criticism
Ideology
System of ideas
Linguistic relativity
The idea that the language we use to talk and write about things can determine the way we think about them
Stigmatise
To mark something or someone out as disgraceful or shameful
Reappropriating
Reclaiming a word or phrase that has come to mean something insulting and using it as if it were normal or even complimentary
Immediate/ wider context example
Article criticising Nicole Kidman/ ‘celebrity culture’, intense public interest in the private lives of famous people, and differences in society’s attitudes towards women and towards men
Homophonic representation
The use of single letters and numbers to represent words based on a similarity in sound (M8)
Difference between acronym and initialism
Acronym sounds like a word initialism pronounced letter by letter
Deviant spelling
Deliberately non-standard spelling for effect
Over-lexicalisation
Using more words that you really need to convey an idea, to add emphasis
Copular verb:
- A copular verb links the subject to a noun or adjective that complements the subject.
- The most common copular verb is the verb ‘is’ (and all of its conjugations like am, were and are).
- Other examples are: appear, seem, look, sound, smell, taste, feel, become and get.
Copular examples
- The food tastes amazing.
- Here, ‘food’ is the subject and ‘amazing’ is the adjective complementing the ‘food’. So ‘tastes’ is the copular verb.
- Henry is bad at football.
- Here, ‘Henry’ is the subject and ‘bad’ is the adjective complementing ‘Henry’. So ‘is’ is the copular verb.
- Margaret feels angry.