Lexis Flashcards
What is Lexis?
Refers to words, their classes and functions
What are the types of Lexis and what do they mean?
1) High frequency - used a lot
2) Low frequency - sophisticated
3) Field specific - associated with a particular profession
4) Standard English - no slang
5) Non- standard English - includes slang
6) Neologism - made up words
7) Archaic - old fashioned e.g thou
8) Obsolete - no longer used
9) Taboo - language deemed inappropriate
10) Vocative - a form of address e.g sir, darling
What are the word classes?
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners
What are the types of nouns and what do they mean?
- Concrete - has a tangible presence e.g table
- Abstract - intangible e.g love
- Proper - refers to names, places, people e.g Gary
- Collective - groups of the same thing e.g herd
What is the test to see if something is a noun?
Putting a determiner in front of it and seeing if it makes sense
E.g “the”, “a”, “an”, “some”
What are the types of main verbs?
Dynamic - relates to an action e.g jump
Stative - relates to a state of being e.g I amcold
What are the other types of verbs?
1) Auxillary - modify main verbs (eg have, be, do)
2) Modal - can’t exist without a main verb (eg will, can, could etc)
3) Infinitives - you create the infinitive form of a verb by adding “to” (eg to cry, to sing)
4) Present participle - if action is ongoing we show this by adding “ing” (eg I am eating)
5) Regular - if an action happened in the past you add “ED” (e.g jump —> jumped)
6) Irregular - verb changes spelling if becomes past (e.g sleep —> slept)
What are all of the modal verbs?
Will, can, ought, would, might, could, shall, must,
What are the types of adjective?
Premodifiers - go before the noun ( eg the green door)
Complements - go after the noun ( eg the table, rotten and black)
Compound - separated by hyphen (eg half-eaten)
Comparatives - compare the noun to something (eg nose was bigger)
Superlatives - express an ultimate state (eg biggest nose)
How can you tell if something is an adverb?
They modify verbs and give information
Can be:
Manner - how something is done eg quickly
Place - where something happens eg centrally
Time - when something happens
eg yesterday
Duration - how long something takes eg continuously
Frequency - how often something occurs eg weekly
Degree - how intense something is eg fiercely
Many adverbs end in “LY”
If you can’t decipher a word class for a word, it is usually an adverb
What are the types of conjunctions?
Co-ordinating - links words, phrases and clauses with equal emphasis eg and , or
Subordinating - link a dependant/ subordinating clause to a main clause eg while, because
What are determiners?
Numbers, amounts, articles
What is a preposition?
Something that goes before a noun to show direction, time, place, location etc
Eg on, in, at
