Key Terms 2 Flashcards
Metonymy
The name of one object is substituted for something closely associated with it.
E.g. ‘the White House’ is a metonymy for the President.
Silver fox
Idiom
They are words or phrases that aren’t meant to be taken literally. For example, if you say someone has “cold feet,” it doesn’t mean their toes are actually cold.
Takes two to tango”
“Kill two birds with one stone.”
“Piece of cake”
“Costs an arm and a leg”
Semantic shift
Example: gay. Before 1900 it only meant carefree, having a happy time.
Meat used to mean food in general
Broadening/ Generalisation
Meaning becomes wider e.g. holiday used to mean holy day to mark a religious festival.
Narrowing/ Specialisation
Meaning becoming more specific
E.g. ‘meat’ used to be all types of food but now means the flesh of animals used for food
Leakage
Using a word beyond its immediate context e.g. a person is ‘default mode’ (computer language).
Amelioration
A word with very severe/ taboo connotations gradually becoming less negative and milder in it’s use.
E.g. ‘naughty’ used to mean wicked/evil person now much milder
Pejoration (opposite to amelioration)
Positive/ neutral words become more negative in their meaning e.g. ‘silly’ meant blessed and fortunate, now unwise and foolish
Gay used to mean happy
Register drift
A word thought of as slang can gain acceptance as acceptable/ other words drift in opposite way and become less acceptable. E.g. fag used to mean a nuisance/ tiring.
Political Correctness (PC)
More recent semantic change has happened due to PC.
The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
Audience construction/ positioning
Reminder of the words
Marked terms
Play is unmarked and neutral, played has the marked -ed
Host unmarked, hostess morphologically marked for femaleness
Horse unmarked, mare female
Cow unmarked, bull male
Imperative verbs
Imperative verbs are also known as ‘bossy verbs’ because they tell people what to do! e.g. shut the window or turn the kettle on
Syntax structure
Sentence structure (simple, compound etc)
Referential text/ discourse
A text which gives information
