Lexis

Question 1

What is ‘Lexis’?

Answer 1

Refers to the entire vocabulary of a language

Question 2

What is a ‘Lexeme’?

Answer 2

It’s the smallest, meaningful unit of lexis that make up a lexicon, such as headwords in a dictionary

Question 3

What are the aspects of ‘Formality’?

Answer 3

Formality aspects include:

• Colloquialisms
• Slang
• Taboo Lexis

Question 4

What are ‘Colloquialisms’?

Answer 4

It’s a catch-all phrase for any kind of informal language, such as the kind of language we’d expect to hear in conversation

Question 5

What is ‘Slang’?

Answer 5

A collection of words often considered non-standard, and always considered informal. Slang lexicons might differ between social groups

Question 6

What is ‘Taboo Lexis’?

Answer 6

Words considered impolite, offensive or vulgar, such as swear words

Question 7

What are ‘Hypernyms’?

Answer 7

Words that are categories. For example, the category of ‘Trees’.

Question 8

What are ‘Hyponyms’?

Answer 8

Words within categories. E.g. Oak, Birch, Palm

Question 9

What is ‘Onomastics’?

Answer 9

Study of proper nouns and names

Question 10

What are ‘Ethnonyms’?

Answer 10

Ethic groups names

Question 11

What are ‘Toponyms’?

Answer 11

Place names

Question 12

What are ‘Eponyms’?

Answer 12

Something named after a person, object or location

Question 13

What is ‘Codeswitching’?

Answer 13

Bilingual speakers might switch between languages or monolingual speakers might switch between dialects

Question 14

What is ‘Intersentential’?

Answer 14

Codeswitching in adjoining sentences

Question 15

What is ‘Intrasentential’?

Answer 15

Codeswitching within the same sentences

Question 16

What is ‘Inter-turn’?

Answer 16

Codeswitching in separate turns

Question 17

What is ‘Crossing’?

Answer 17

Occurs when one speaker uses small aspects of a language they cannot claim ‘ownership’ of (Have no tie to it their ancestry)

Question 18

What is ‘Dialect’?

Answer 18

A variety of language distinguished by social groups or geographical locations

Question 19

What is ‘Sociolect’?

Answer 19

A variety of language used by a particular social group, e.g. age, class, ethnicity

Question 20

What is ‘Idiolect’?

Answer 20

Variety of language used by an individual speaker

Question 21

What is ‘Register’?

Answer 21

Variety of language used in certain contexts

Question 22

What is ‘Vernacular’?

Answer 22

A dialect used by a specific group; often describes an informal dialect variant

Question 23

What are the ‘Lexical Change Processes’?

Answer 23

The Lexical Change Processes Include:

• Borrowing
• Compounding
• Blending
• Clipping
• Neologism
• Acronym
• Initialism

Question 24

What is ‘Borrowing’?

Answer 24

It’s when we borrow words from other languages as a result of language context

Question 25

What is ‘Compounding’?

Answer 25

Combining existing words to create new meanings

Question 26

What is ‘Blending’?

Answer 26

Blending (or coalesce) words

Question 27

What is ‘Clipping’?

Answer 27

Clipping (or elide) words to make them shorter, in which we can gain a new meaning

Question 28

What is ‘Neologism’?

Answer 28

Coining new words - creating them without necessarily deriving them from another term

Question 29

What is ‘Acronym’?

Answer 29

Taking the first letter of words to create an abbreviation, that is a pronounceable word

Question 30

What is ‘Initialism’?

Answer 30

Taking the first letter of words to create an abbreviation, where each letter must be pronounced individually