Lexis & Semantics

Question 1

noun

Answer 1

a word that names a thing or concept

Question 2

proper noun

Answer 2

refers to names of people or places

Question 3

abstract noun

Answer 3

refer to states, feelings and concepts that do not have a physical existence

Question 4

concrete noun

Answer 4

refer to objects that have a physical existence

Question 5

verb

Answer 5

a word that shows a state of being, action or concept

Question 6

material verb

Answer 6

show actions or events

Question 7

relational verb

Answer 7

identify properties or show states of being

Question 8

mental verb

Answer 8

show internal processes such as thinking

Question 9

verbal verb

Answer 9

show external processes of communicating through speech

Question 10

Main Verb

Answer 10

the verb that shows the action or state of being of the subject

Question 11

Auxiliary Verb

Answer 11

also called a helping verb, is a verb that is used with another verb (or two other verbs) in a verb phrase

Question 12

adjective

Answer 12

a word that modifies a noun

Question 13

adverb

Answer 13

a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb

Question 14

base adjective

Answer 14

the basic form of an adjective or adverb, modifying another word

Question 15

comparitive adjective

Answer 15

a form used to compare two instances either adding ‘-er’ or using ‘more’

Question 16

superlative

Answer 16

a form used to compare more than two instances, identifying a best example

Question 17

pronouns

Answer 17

a word that substitutes for a noun

Question 18

personal pronoun

Answer 18

a word we use as the substitute for a persons name without having to say it over and over again e.g I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us,

Question 19

demonstrative pronoun

Answer 19

A demonstrative pronoun is a word used to stand in for a noun. They are used to point to something or someone specific (e.g., “this is my sister”)

Question 20

indefinite pronoun

Answer 20

a pronoun that does not refer to any person, amount, or thing in particular, e.g. anything, something, anyone, everyone.

Question 21

determiner

Answer 21

Determiners help clarify what a noun is referring to and are typically placed before descriptive adjectives

For example, in the sentence Would you like to buy this new book?, the word this is a determiner.

Question 22

Article

Answer 22

Articles are words that define a noun as specific or unspecific

After the long day, the cup of tea tasted particularly good. By using the article the, we’ve shown that it was one specific day that was long and one specific cup of tea that tasted good.

Question 23

possessives

Answer 23

Possessives are forms that we use to talk about possessions and relationships between things and people

Question 24

quantifiers

Answer 24

A quantifier is a word that usually goes before a noun to express the quantity of the object; for example, a little milk.

Question 25

preposition

Answer 25

A preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, or location

Some examples of prepositions are words like “in,” “at,” “on,” “of,” and “to.”

Question 26

conjunction

Answer 26

a word used to connect words, phrases and clauses

Question 27

co-ordinating conjunction

Answer 27

join two main clauses, “and” “but” and “or”

Question 28

sub-ordinating conjunction

Answer 28

A subordinating conjunction is a word or phrase that links a main clause to a subordinate clause

Question 29

lexis

Answer 29

the total stock of words in a language.

Question 30

semantics

Answer 30

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words.

For example, “destination” and “last stop” technically mean the same thing, but students of semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning

Question 31

lexical field

Answer 31

The term lexical field refers to vocabulary that is related by topic.

For example the words rain, windy, fog, cold, clouds, umbrella, rain, sunshine, storm and stormy can be grouped in the lexical field the weather.

Question 32

semantic field

Answer 32

They are a collection of words which are related to one another

For example, if a writer is writing a poem or a novel about a ship, they will surely use words such as ocean, waves, sea, tide, blue, storm, wind, sails, etc…

Question 33

collocates

Answer 33

collocation refers to a natural combination of words that are closely affiliated with each other.

Some examples are “pay attention”, “fast food”, “make an effort”, and “powerful engine”.

Question 34

fixed expression

Answer 34

groups of specific words that are always used together to convey a specific meaning

Examples include:
My brother is a couch potato. …
I can’t believe she let the cat out of the bag. …
Sarah’s new boyfriend really rubs me the wrong way

Question 35

synonym

Answer 35

A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word (or nearly the same meaning).

For example, beautiful and attractive are synonyms of each other because they both refer to someone or something that looks good

Question 36

euphemism

Answer 36

A euphemism is a word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic. It uses figurative language to refer to a situation without having to confront it.

For example, if someone was recently fired, they might say they are between jobs, a common euphemism for being unemployed.

Question 37

dysphemism

Answer 37

Conversely, dysphemisms refer to sensitive topics in a harsh or rude way.

For example, “passed away” and “departed” are euphemisms for death, while “croaked” and “six feet under” are dysphemisms for death

Question 38

antonyms

Answer 38

Antonyms are words with opposite meanings. For example, good and bad. Synonyms are words with similar meanings.

For example, tiny & small.

Question 39

hyponym

Answer 39

a relation to a more generic word. A hyponym can be part of a group of words on a similar level that can all be replaced by the same hypernym.

For example, pigeon, crow, eagle and seagull are all hyponyms (co-hyponyms) of bird (their hypernym). In turn, bird is a hyponym of animal.

Question 40

metaphor

Answer 40

a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison

Question 41

Metonymy

Answer 41

words which are closely associated with each other that you can interchange

Eg, suits = businessmen, heart = emotion / love, Washington = the US government.