Language and Texts

Question 1

Meanings

Answer 1

Messages that are communicated. Meanings are never fixed, but are negotiated between speakers and listeners, or writers and readers, and vary considerably according to context.

Question 2

Multimodal

Answer 2

A multimodal text employs more than one mode of communication - for example, by using images as well as words, or by drawing on an aspect of speech as well as writing.

Question 3

Salient

Answer 3

Most important, prominent, or noteworthy.

Question 4

Audience Construction

Answer 4

In language study, texts are seen as constructing audiences, not just addressing them. This means that texts create an idea of who the audience is, by ‘speaking’ to them in a certain way.

Question 5

Narratee

Answer 5

A fictional receiver; the person that the text appears to be aimed at.

Question 6

Narrator

Answer 6

A fictional ‘teller’; the apparent voice behind the text as created by the author.

Question 7

Affordances

Answer 7

Things that are made possible. For example. a website can be read by many people at the same time.

Question 8

Computer-Mediated-Communication

Answer 8

Human communication that takes place via the medium of computers.

Question 9

Hybrid

Answer 9

Hybrids are blends of two or more elements. For example, new forms of communication are often seen as having some of the characteristics of both spoken and written language.

Question 10

Interlocutors

Answer 10

People engaged in a spoken interaction

Question 11

Limitations

Answer 11

Things that are prevented or restricted. For example, an SMS has no way to convey the subtleties of non-verbal communication (hence the need for emoticons).

Question 12

Literacy

Answer 12

Literacy refers primarily to reading and writing, including the new types of writing that occur in digital contexts.

Question 13

Oracy

Answer 13

Speaking and listening, the skills required to communicate in spoken language.

Question 14

Critical Discourse Analysis

Answer 14

A type of text analysis that tries to reveal the power structures that are maintained in society through the discourses used.

Question 15

Face Theory

Answer 15

The idea that we all have a public self-image that we need to project and protect.

Question 16

FTA

Answer 16

In Face Theory, something that threatens a person’s self-image.

Question 17

Framing

Answer 17

The idea that speakers mark their understanding of the context they are in. For example, by smiling or laughing to show that they are being playful.

Question 18

Negative Face Need

Answer 18

In Face Theory, the need not to be imposed on by another person.

Question 19

Positive Face Need

Answer 19

In Face Theory, the need for positive reinforcement, a feeling that we are appreciated and liked by others.

Question 20

Subject Position

Answer 20

The perspective taken on a topic, where some aspects are emphasized while others are downplayed.

Question 21

Conversation Analysis

Answer 21

A field of analysis devised by the sociologist Harvey Sacks focusing on the routines that occur in spoken language.

Question 22

Declarative

Answer 22

A clause or sentence that has a statement function.

Question 23

Modal Verbs

Answer 23

Modal verbs accompany main verbs and are often used to express degrees of certainty, desirability or obligation.

Question 24

Monostylistic

Answer 24

Having only one style of communication

Question 25

Rhetorical question

Answer 25

A question that is posed for its persuasive effect and not because the speaker really expects an answer.

Question 26

Rhetoric

Answer 26

Rhetoric is the study of persuasive language, an area of study dating back to ancient Greece.

Question 27

Possessive determiners

Answer 27

Determiners, as the name suggests, help to determine that a noun refers to - in this case, ownership (my, our).

Question 28

Active Voice

Answer 28

This is when the person or thing doing the action specified by the verb is subject of the sentence ‘I ate a good dinner’, ‘I’ is the subject, doing the eating. ‘A good dinner’ is the object (person or thing affected by the action of the verb).

Question 29

Disjunct

Answer 29

An adverb that expresses a writer’s or speaker’s attitude, such as ‘frankly’, ‘fortunately’.

Question 30

Noun Phrase

Answer 30

A phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its main word (called the head word).

Question 31

Passive Voice

Answer 31

Use of the passive voice turns elements around, so that the thing or person being acted upon goes at the front. so, when changing the active sentence ‘I ate a good dinner’ to a passive, it becomes ‘A good dinner was eaten (by me)’. The last part is brackets because it can be left out and the sentence still makes sense.

Question 32

Complex Sentence

Answer 32

A sentence involving at least one main or independent clause and a subordinate clause. For example, in the sentence ‘When I came into the house, I saw the flood damage’, the first clause is subordinate and the second is the main clause.

Question 33

Nominalisation

Answer 33

The process of turning different grammatical elements into nouns or noun phrases. For example, the TV show Feed My Funny, the adjective ‘funny’ as been turned into a noun.

Question 34

Colloquial

Answer 34

Colloquial expressions are items of everyday language used in informal contexts

Question 35

Compound Sentences

Answer 35

Two main clauses joined by a connective. For example ‘I came into the house and I saw the flood damage’.