Lexis Flashcards
What is ‘Lexis’?
Refers to the entire vocabulary of a language
What is a ‘Lexeme’?
It’s the smallest, meaningful unit of lexis that make up a lexicon, such as headwords in a dictionary
What are the aspects of ‘Formality’?
Formality aspects include:
- Colloquialisms
- Slang
- Taboo Lexis
What are ‘Colloquialisms’?
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
What is ‘Slang’?
A collection of words often considered non-standard, and always considered informal. Slang lexicons might differ between social groups
What is ‘Taboo Lexis’?
Words considered impolite, offensive or vulgar, such as swear words
What are ‘Hypernyms’?
Words that are categories. For example, the category of ‘Trees’.
What are ‘Hyponyms’?
Words within categories. E.g. Oak, Birch, Palm
What is ‘Onomastics’?
Study of proper nouns and names
What are ‘Ethnonyms’?
Ethic groups names
What are ‘Toponyms’?
Place names
What are ‘Eponyms’?
Something named after a person, object or location
What is ‘Codeswitching’?
Bilingual speakers might switch between languages or monolingual speakers might switch between dialects
What is ‘Intersentential’?
Codeswitching in adjoining sentences
What is ‘Intrasentential’?
Codeswitching within the same sentences
What is ‘Inter-turn’?
Codeswitching in separate turns
What is ‘Crossing’?
Occurs when one speaker uses small aspects of a language they cannot claim ‘ownership’ of (Have no tie to it their ancestry)
What is ‘Dialect’?
A variety of language distinguished by social groups or geographical locations
What is ‘Sociolect’?
A variety of language used by a particular social group, e.g. age, class, ethnicity
What is ‘Idiolect’?
Variety of language used by an individual speaker
What is ‘Register’?
Variety of language used in certain contexts
What is ‘Vernacular’?
A dialect used by a specific group; often describes an informal dialect variant
What are the ‘Lexical Change Processes’?
The Lexical Change Processes Include:
- Borrowing
- Compounding
- Blending
- Clipping
- Neologism
- Acronym
- Initialism
What is ‘Borrowing’?
It’s when we borrow words from other languages as a result of language context
What is ‘Compounding’?
Combining existing words to create new meanings
What is ‘Blending’?
Blending (or coalesce) words
What is ‘Clipping’?
Clipping (or elide) words to make them shorter, in which we can gain a new meaning
What is ‘Neologism’?
Coining new words - creating them without necessarily deriving them from another term
What is ‘Acronym’?
Taking the first letter of words to create an abbreviation, that is a pronounceable word
What is ‘Initialism’?
Taking the first letter of words to create an abbreviation, where each letter must be pronounced individually
