Metalanguage Flashcards
What is an accent?
A characteristic way of pronouncing a language or a variety that is identified with national, regional, social or ethnic background.
This is sometimes confused with ‘dialect’, but it is possible to speak Standard English with an Australian, Queensland, older generation, or working class accent.
What are acronyms?
Words formed from the initials of other words.
Examples include VCAA, ATAR, NASA, RAM, LOL etc.
What are alphabetisms?
Words formed from the initials of other words, in which each letter is pronounced.
Examples include LMAO, VCE etc.
What is affixation?
A morphological process that involves the addition of bound morphemes (or affixes) to a word stem.
Examples include email, e-commerce etc (word class unchanged).
What are affixes?
Morphemes that can be added to a root/stem to form a more complex word.
Types include Prefixes (in-, un-, non-), Infixes (-bloody-), and Suffixes (-ed, -s, -ing, etc.).
What is an archaism?
Words and construction no longer employed or transferred from earlier phases of a language.
Examples include hitherto, manifold, prithee.
What is assimilation in phonetics?
The process whereby sounds become similar or even identical to neighbouring sounds.
Examples include handbag = hambag and latter = ladder.
What is dissimilation?
The process whereby sounds become dissimilar to their neighbours in a word.
Example: Latin purpur = English purple.
What is backformation?
A word formation process whereby an affix (real or imagined) is removed from another word, based on an existing word which speakers assume derives from it.
Example: ‘to verse’ is similar to ‘to curse’.
What is blending?
A word formation process resulting from the fusion/contraction of two or more existing words.
Examples include blog, netiquette, brunch etc.
What is borrowing in linguistics?
Where words (and other aspects of linguistic structure) are incorporated from one language into another.
Examples include pizza, a la mode, a la carte etc.
What is broadening in semantic change?
A type of semantic change whereby the contexts in which a word can appear are expanded.
Example: mob = group of animals/humans, now means ‘any quantity/number’.
What is code-switching?
Where speakers use more than one language or dialect in a conversation.
What are cognates?
Words historically derived from the same source.
Example: English ‘father’ and German ‘vater’.
What is compounding?
A way of forming new words by combining two or more free morphemes.
Examples include world music, thrash metal music, speed metal, techno-pop etc.
What are content words?
Words that have independent, real world meanings, as might occur in a dictionary.
What is conversion in linguistics?
A way of forming new words simply by changing the function and word class of a word.
Examples include to google, to impact, to beverage, to network, to trash, to leaflet etc.
What is a creole?
A pidgin that has become the first language of a speech community.
Example: Kriol.
What are derivational morphemes?
Derivational affixes change the category/meaning of the word to which they are added.
Examples include to run -> runner and un + happy = unhappy.
What is deterioration in semantic change?
A type of semantic shift whereby words change their emotive overtones negatively/pejoratively.
What is a diphthong?
A long vowel consisting of two sounds.
What is discourse?
Sequences of language that are larger than a sentence.
Who are EFL speakers?
The growing numbers of people speaking English as a foreign language.
In countries where English has no special status, such as China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia etc.
What is elevation in semantic change?
A semantic shift process whereby words change their emotive overtones, becoming more positive and having favourable associations.
What is ellipsis?
The deletion of items in a sentence because they either appear elsewhere or can be reconstructed from the context.
Example: Wanna go for lunch?
Who are ENL speakers?
Includes speakers who are traditionally associated with English; the language is their first language.
Who are ESL speakers?
Speakers of New Englishes that belong to the ‘outer circle’ of countries where English has a special status, often as one of the official languages.
Examples include Singapore, Malaysia, India, Nigeria, Hong Kong, etc.
What is an ethnolect?
A variety that identifies speakers by their identity; usually influenced by their L1 language or that of their families.
What is etymology?
The study of the history of words (their forms and meanings) and word origins.
What is an expletive?
Exclamation or oath, especially one that is profane, vulgar or obscene.
Example: **!
What is a flap in phonetics?
A consonant produced by the rapid contact between two organs of articulation.
Example: latter -> ladder.
What are hedges?
Mitigating devices that speakers use to lessen the impact of an utterance.
Examples include like, I mean, sort of, you know, etc.
What is insertion in phonetics?
The addition of sounds where they previously didn’t exist.
Example: Film = fillum.
What is intonation contour?
The patterns of changes in pitch in speech.
What is jargon?
Language shared by those who belong to a profession, trade or other occupational group.
It can be distinguished by lexical, phonological, grammatical and discourse features, and often characterised by its distinctive vocabulary.
What is lexicology?
The study of words and vocabulary.
What are metaphors?
Non-literal use of language.
Examples include ruby lips, raven hair, emerald eyes, teeth of pearl, etc.
What is metathesis?
Switching/re-ordering of the sequence of sounds in a word.
Examples include aks = ask and psketti = spaghetti.
What are morphemes?
The smallest meaningful units in the grammar of a language.
Example: unfriendly = un- + friend + -ly.
What is morphology?
The study of word formation.
What is narrowing in semantic change?
A type of semantic change whereby the contexts in which a word can appear are reduced.
Example: liquor = liquid => alcoholic beverage.
What is a neologism?
A newly coined word.
Examples include LOL and pwn.
What are New Englishes?
New varieties of English that have emerged around the world as official/co-official languages.
Example: Singapore English.
What is obsolescence in linguistics?
When words drop from our mental lexicon because the objects, ideas or institutions no longer exist/are no longer important to us.
Examples include to frush a chicken, to unlace a rabbit, to barb a lobster etc.
What are other Englishes?
English-based pidgins and creoles around the world.
These are contact varieties that have their own distinctive linguistic features.
What is overgeneralisation?
Where children extend word meanings or grammatical rules beyond their normal use.
Examples include ‘boy’ to refer specifically to brother and goed, bringed etc.
What are paralinguistic features?
Features of speech that are marginal to language, including aspects of body language such as stance, gestures and gaze.
What is phonology?
The study of sounds in a language.
What is pragmatics?
Pertaining to the communicative intent and effects of utterances and discourse.
It is the study of language use and the factors that affect a person’s choice of language in any social interaction.
What is a predicate?
The part of a sentence that provides the information about the subject.
Examples: He [is a teacher], She [washed the car].
What are prosodic features?
Pertaining to loudness, pitch, tempo, and speech rhythm.
What is register in linguistics?
Any socially defined variety of language; language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation or subject matter.
Example: a register of scientific or religious English.
What is a schwa?
An unstressed vowel [ə] made in the middle of the mouth.
Example: [faðə] = father.
What is semantic change?
The changes in meaning of words over time through processes such as broadening, narrowing, shift, elevation and deterioration.
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in language.
What is a declarative sentence?
Sentence type in which you make a statement.
What is an interrogative sentence?
Sentence type in which you pose a question.
What is an imperative sentence?
Sentence type in which you issue a directive/command.
What is an exclamative sentence?
Sentence type in which you make an exclamation.
What is shift in semantic change?
A semantic change that entails the total alteration of contexts; a word comes to mean something completely different.
What is Standard English?
An idealised variety of English that constitutes a notional set of norms generally adopted by educated speakers of English.
There are many varieties of Standard English, according to age, generation, and national origins.
What is syntax?
The study of how words combine to form sentences.
What is a variety in linguistics?
A sub-set of people sharing regional origin (regional origin/dialect) or social characteristics (social variety/sociolect).
What are word classes?
Sets of words showing the same grammatical properties.
Ten in English: Verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, determiners and auxiliaries.
What is word addition?
How words are created.
What is word loss?
How words are lost.
What is an interjection?
A minor part of speech involving words that have emotional meaning.
Examples include **! Wow! D’oh!
What are expletives?
Exclamation or oath, particularly one that is profane, vulgar or obscene.
Example: **!
What is ellipsis in linguistics?
The deletion of words/parts of sentences because they either appear elsewhere or can be reconstructed from the context.
The speaker leaves words out.
What is semantic shift?
This refers to the complete change in meaning of a word.
Example: dags, once meant lumps of matted wool, dirt and dung.
What are connotations?
The emotional implications and associations that a word may carry.
They arise from the personalities, beliefs, experiences of people and will differ from person to person.
What is elevation in connotation?
A type of connotation in which a word takes on a better connotative meaning than its denotative meaning.
Examples include terribly, horribly, awfully = very.
What is deterioration in connotation?
A type of connotation in which a word takes on a worse connotative meaning than its denotative meaning.
Example: artful, crafty, cunning.
What is commonisation?
When proper names are taken over to replace a general class of phenomena.
Examples include kleenex, playdough etc.
What is sound reduction?
In rapid speech, sounds are left out/reduced.
Unstressed vowels often deleted; function words often prone to reduction.
What is sound addition?
Sounds are added where they previously didn’t exist.
Examples include film = fillum and umbrella = umberella.
What is assimilation in phonetics?
Sounds change according to the company they keep, or the sounds they are near.
Example: Handbag = hambag.
What is dissimilation in phonetics?
Sounds change according to the company they keep, but they become less similar to the words to which they are near.
Example: glamour and grammar historically the same word.
What is metathesis?
A re-ordering of sounds within a word.
Examples include spaghetti = psketti and ask = aks.
What is a schwa?
An unstressed vowel made in the middle of the mouth with neutral lips.
What does obsolete mean?
Describes words that are also archaic, words no longer used in a language or lexicon.
These words are in danger of no longer being used in official languages.
What is semantic shift?
A word comes to mean something completely different from what it once meant.
Examples include gay, cool, dag, hot, fit.
