MetaLanguage Flashcards
1
Q
Abbreviation
A
A word formed from the initial letters of a series of words that refer to an entity of concept. It is pronounced as the letters.
VCR-Video cassette recorder
2
Q
Aboriginal English
A
An umbrella term used to cover the many varieties of English that aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples speak.
3
Q
Accent
A
Procreation patterns that are advocated with a particular set of speakers.
4
Q
Acronym
A
A word formed of the initial letters of a series of words that refer to an entity or concept. It is pronounced phonetically.
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
5
Q
Active sentence
A
A grammatical contrast, generally voice, in which the agent or ‘appears as the subject’
Active: The dog ate the homework
Passive: The homework was eaten by the dog
6
Q
Adjacency Pairs
A
Adjacent turns in spoken interaction that have a close relationship with each other
‘Hello’ and ‘how are you’
7
Q
Adjective
A
A part of speech that refers to qualities or states.
Green: the green bed
Article: the, Adjective: green, Noun: bed
8
Q
Adjective phrase
A
A phrase that is constructed around an adjective.
Very happy, (very)
Really bright, (really)
9
Q
Adverb
A
A part of speech that refers to the manner, place, time, frequency, or degree in which an event occurs.
Slowly,
Often,
Can be used to modify adjectives:
My hair is very long (adverb: very) (adjective: long)
10
Q
Adverb phrase
A
A phrase that is constructed around an adverb.
So quickly, (quickly)
Very often, (both)
11
Q
Adverbial
A
The name of the function of an element in a clause that carries information about manner, place, time, frequency, or degree. Adverb phrases, prepositional phrases and some noun phrases can function as adverbials.
That was truly my favourite meal (truly)
12
Q
Affix
A
A bound morpheme that is added to the root to form a new word.
13
Q
Affixation
A
Th process of combining a root and an affix.
Root: truth +ful=truthful +ly=truthfully
14
Q
Affricate
A
A sound produced by initially blocking the oral cavity completely, then releasing the blockage only partially so that a fricative quality is heard.
Ch-cheese-tʃ
J-joke-dʒ
15
Q
Agentless passive
A
A passive sentence in which not only the patient or ‘undergoer’ appears as the subject instead of the agent or ‘doer’, but the agent has also been omitted.
Uranium was discovered in 1789, by Marie Curie
|
\/
Uranium was discovered in 1789
16
Q
Alliteration
A
A type of sound pattern that involves the use of identical consonants or consonant clusters at the beginning of a word.
17
Q
Alveolar
A
A sound made by using the tip or blade of the tongue and the alveolar ridge.
/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, and /n/
18
Q
Alveolar ridge
A
The roughly textured ridge the runs around the top jaw behind the teeth. This area is used when producing alveolar sounds.
19
Q
Anaphora
A
A feature of grammatical structure in which a lexical term such as a pronoun refers back to something already expressed.
20
Q
Anaphoric reference
A
Refers to a relationship between a pronoun and its referent.
21
Q
Animation
A
A type of metaphor that involves the transfer of animate qualities rather than strictly human qualities to things, concepts, animals, and natural phenomena. Juxtaposing with personification.
22
Q
Antithesis
A
A type of syntactic patterning that involves the setting of one lexical expression or clause against another to which it is opposed. It is a particular form of parallelism as it expresses a semantic relationship of antonymy between elements in a sentence.
23
Q
Antonymy
A
Refers to the sense relation between words that are opposites or near opposites of each other.
24
Q
Approximant
A
A consonant produced by two speech organs being brought very close to each other, but not so close as to produce turbulence. AKA semi-vowel
25
Article
The English articles are: an, a, and the and they belong to the determiner part of speech. They are used to indicate weather a noun is definite or indefinite.
26
Articulation
Refers to the way in which sounds are produced.
27
Aspect
A grammatical category associated with verbs. Aspect encodes the duration of completeness of an event with respect to a certain point in time.
28
Assimilation
A phonological process in which a sound is changed to become more similar to a neighbouring sound (typically its place or manner of articulation). This process makes sequences of sounds easier to produce.
29
Assonance
A type of sound pattern that involves the use of identical vowel sound with in words.
Note it says sounds not letters
30
Audience
The person or people that the speaker/writer/signer is addressing. The audience may also include unintended addressees as is the case when people eavesdrop on a conversation.
31
Australian English
An unrelated term for the English Language as used in Australia, covering the many varieties of English that Australians speak, including those under the umbrella term Aboriginal English.
32
Auxiliary
A part of speech that refers to a group of words that precede verbs in certain forms and express distinctions of time, aspect, modality and voice.
33
Back
The area of the tongue before the tongue root. The back of the tongue is used in producing velar sounds.
34
Back channel signal
A short response such as hmm, ooh, right, by the audience in a spoken interaction to indicate that they are listening. Also know as minimal response
35
Back formation
The formation of a new word that occurs when speakers reinterpret a simple root as a root plus a affix. By dropping the so called affix a new word is formed.
Root plus affix: Enthusiasm
Root: Enthuse
36
Back vowel
A vowel formed by the position of the tongue towards the back of the mouth that is used in naming these vowels.
/u/
37
Base form
Another name for a infinite verb.
38
Basic clause
A structurally complete clause, consisting of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase. A basic clause makes a grammatical utterance.
39
Bilabial
The name given to the sound created using both lips. In English, the lips meet and block the air flow.
/b/, /p/, and /m/
40
Blade
The area of the tongue behind the tip. The blade of the tongue is used in producing dental, alveolar, and palato-alveolar.
41
Blend(int)
A process of word formation in which parts of two independent words are combined and used as a new word.
Smoke + Fog = Smog
42
Borrowing
A process of aquiring new words of grammatical features from another language.
Arabic: Giraffe, and Lute
Spanish: Cargo, Cigar, Vanilla
43
Bound morpheme
A morpheme that cannot stand alone, typically an affix.
Affix: ing
Some roots are also bound morphemes and must be combined with an affix in order to produce a word.
Receive, deceive, conceive.
Bound morpheme: ceive
44
Broad accent
The Australian accent most frequently stereotyped as working class or 'ocker' Australian.
45
Cataphoric reference
Refers to a relationship between a pronoun and its referent in which the pronoun is referring forward to a referent that is coming up later in the text.
46
Central vowel
A vowel sound formed by the position of the tongue at the centre of the mouth that is the naming of these vowels.
/ə/
47
Centre
The area of the tongue between the front and the back.
48
Clause
A larger unit than a phrase and usually contains a verb. A complete clause may stand alone as a simple sentence or be part of a compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence.
49
Cliché
An expression that has become so overused it has lost its power to inform and to enliven.
Cliché: Not to beat around the bush
50
Codex
A set of rules, conventions and principles set down about lexical usage and standards of pronunciation.
51
Coherence
The implicit logical connectedness within a text. To have coherence the concepts and relationships expressed within a text should be relevant to each other, enabling the audience to make plausible inferences about the underlying meaning.
52
Cohesion
The explicit language features that connect or bind a text together.
Features: lexical choice, reference, ellipsis, substitution, connecting adverbials and conjunctions.
53
Co-hyponyms
A set of lexical items that express a common sense relationship of inclusion in that their senses can be included in that of more a general word.
Co-hyponymy: Whale, kangaroo, horse, human.
Domain: mammals
54
Collocation
A pairing of words that are conventional or closely associated in the minds of speakers.
On the bookshelf, not in the bookshelf
Handsome man, beautiful woman
55
Colloquialism
A lexical item from the informal localised slang, or taboo elements of the lexicon that has the effect of making a spoken or written occurrence of language use more personal, more direct, more sincere, more sociable, more blunt, more playful, and/or more amusing.
56
Comment
The part of a clause that makes some sort of statement about the topic.
57
Communicative function
One of the uses we make of language.
Social purpose: greetings
Expressive purposes: poetry, rap
Metalinguistic features: spelling something
58
Comparative
An inflectional suffix that indicates on of three degrees of comparison for many adjectives and some adverbs.
Shorter, harder
Can also be a word that indicates the same thing.
More fantastic
59
Complex sentence
A sentence containing two or more clauses, where the relationship between the clauses is one of subordination. A subordinating conjunction may occur as a marker of a subordinate clause.
60
Compound-complex sentence
A sentence containing both two or more coordinated clauses and one or more subordinating clauses.
61
Compound noun phrase
A noun phrase consisting of two or more nouns
| Fruit flavour
62
Compounding
The creation of a new word by combining two already existing words.
Car+port=Carport
63
Compound sentence
A sentence containing two or more clauses of equal status, where the relationship between the clauses is one of coordination. Compound sentences make use of coordinating conjunctions
64
Conjunction
A Aprt of speech that refers to a group of words that are used to link words, phrases and clauses together.
And
65
Connecting adverbial
An adverbial which functions to connect two sentences within a text .
However
66
Connotation
Refers to the social meanings or emotional associations triggered by a word.
Mother- the birther of a person (denotation)
Mother- loving caring person (connotation)
67
Consonance
A type of sound pattern that involves the use of identical consonants or consonant clusters at the end of words
68
Consonant
The class of sounds produced by blocking the flow of air through the mouth in some way. Blockage may be momentarily complete (stops, nasals and affricates) or partial (fricative psychology, liquids and approximates.
69
Contents
The message of the communication, the information being conveyed.
70
Content word
A word that carries lexical meaning, that refers to something in the real world. The following classes contain content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
71
Context
The social situations in which communication takes place.
72
Contraction
A reduced form of one or more words, especially when spoken language is represented in writing.
73
Conversation
The process of creating a new word that belongs to a different part of speech than the original words without affiliation.
74
Cooperative principal
A unstated agreement people adopt when they communicate: they try to get along with each other by following certain conversations or 'maxims' that underlie the efficient use of language
75
Coordinating conjunction
Conjunctions used to link together language units, such as phrases and clauses, that are joined together by means of a coordinating conjunction such as 'and' 'or' 'but'
76
Coordination
The relationship between two language units of the same sort, such as phrases or clauses, that are joined together by means of coordinating conjunction.
77
Copula
A verb that functions as a link between a subject and predictive complement.
78
Cultivated accent
The Australian accent closest to the standard British pronunciation of English
79
Declarative
The sentence type uses to make a statement. They have the structure of a basic clause, where subject proceeds the verb.
80
Definite determiner/article
The article 'the' is a definite determiner. This means we use it when referring to something we expect the audience will recognise because it has already been mentioned, or because it will be easy for them to figure out.
81
Deictic
When the interpretation or reference of a lexical item such as pronoun is directly tied to the personal, temporal, or locational characteristics of the context of use.
82
Deixis
A feature of grammatical structure in which the interpretation or reference of a lexical item such as a pronoun or an adverb is directly tied to the personal, temporal, or locational characteristics of the context of use.
83
Deletion
A phonological process in which sounds are omitted in connected speech. AKA elision
84
Demonstrative pronoun
In English the forms 'this' 'that' and 'those', which refer to things by pointing to location in time and/or space.
This is the one I want
Vs
That is the one I want
85
Denotation
Refers to the core meaning of a word. That beings its codified definition/s.
Mother- the birther of a person (denotation)
Mother- loving caring person (connotation)
86
Dental
The name given to sounds created using the tongue tip and the teeth. In English the fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ are made by partially blocking the airflow in this way.
87
Dependant clause
Dependant clause: a clause that is part of a larger clause or sentence. It can have a function such as subject or object in the larger language unit.
88
Derivational (morpheme)
An affix that, when added to a word, can change its meaning to create a new word.
89
Descriptivism
An approach to language that aims to characterise objectively how people use language.
90
Determiner
A part of speech that expresses the grammatical categories of definiteness, number, and possession. Determiners reflect the grammatical categories of the nouns they precede.
91
Diacritic
A mark or sign added or attached to a letter or character to distinguish it from another and to give it a particular phonetic value or to indicate stress or length.
92
Dialect
The set of grammatical, lexical, and pronouciation features that mark that variety of language used by a speech community or an individual. Widespread difference in accent are also associated with dialects.
93
Dialect atlas
An atlas showing how the distinctive features of an accent, dialect, or language variety are distributed geographically.
94
Dialect geography
The study of the geographical distribution of the distribution of the distinctive features of an accent, dialect, or language variety.
95
Diminutives
A form denoting smallness, familiarity, affection or triviality.
- let in piglet
- o in smoko
96
Diphthong
A vowel sound that is articulated differently as it is being pronounced. The start and end points of the diphthong are indicated in the phonological representation.
The diphthong /æ/ is usually articulated as /a/ but ends in /ɪ/
97
Direct object
The function of an element in a clause. In English, the direct object follows the indirect object is most affected by the verb; typically it is transferred from the subject to the indirect object.
98
Discourse Analysis
The study of written, spoken, and signed texts that considers units larger than individual sentences. Discourse analysis concerns itself with questions about how people use language to structure and communicate meaning.
99
Discourse function
The purpose of a particular language construction or element in discourse serves in structuring and communicating meaning.
Such as: Marking shifts focus, a change in players and beginnings and ends of sentences.
100
Discourse particle
Words and small expressions that are used in a text to communicate to the audience information such as changes of topic or scene.
I mean, well, yep, you know, sort of
101
discriminatory language
Language that reflects or imposes hierarchical distinctions between people.
Miss and Mrs reflect distinction between marriage status.
102
Domain
A contextual sphere of communication such as home school work medicine, or religion where a specific set of language conventions is used marking a register.
103
Doublespeak
Euphemisms used for the purpose of confusing the audience and obscuring meaning to create social distance.
104
Dummy subject
A word without any referent that is placing-holding the subject position.
Subject dummy: It
Example: It is blood cold today
AKA: empty subject
105
Dysphemism
The use of a word or expression that emphasises harshness, abusiveness or offensiveness
106
Elective regional
A lexical item that is used more than a nation wide synonym in a particular region, but not the same degree as an obligatory regional term
107
Elision
A phonological process in which sounds are omitted in connected speech
108
Ellipses
The omission of words or phrases that aren't required in order to communicate in a particular context, because the speaker and hearer can make use of particular information from the previous utterances in the discourse or they can infer the information from the context.
109
Emoticon
An image used to represent facial expressions that is constructed using that standard keyboard. Emoticons are used in the text types: Emails, and SMS messages.
To communicate paralinguistic information that is lost in the transition of speaking to writing.
110
End-focus
The situation in which new information is presented at the end of a sentence.
111
End-weight
The tendency for the most lengthy, complex components of a sentence to be introduced at the end of the sentence.
112
Epenthesis
A phonological process in which a sound is introduced between other sounds making sequences of sounds easier to produce
113
Ethnic accent
The umbrella term for the Australian English accent that encompasses the varieties that have emerged through contact with indigenous and migrant languages
AKA Ethnic Broad
114
Ethnolect
Variation within a language that is associated with a group of speakers who identify with the same ethnic group
115
Etymology
The study of the origin and historical development of words
116
Euphemism
The strategy of referring to taboo subjects using general or indirect language
Example
Go to the toilet from dedicate or urinate
117
Exclamative
The sentence type typically used to express an exclamation. It usually begins with what or how, it is characterised by an exclamation mark.
Example
What a beautiful picture you drew!
118
Expression
The words, phrases and sentences used to communicate a message.
119
Expressive word order
The placement of language elements in a sentence that reflects principals of information structuring rather than reflecting grammatical relationships. This is most widely used in languages that do not require fixed or grammatical word order.
120
False generic
```
The use of a masculine form to refer to women as well as men
Example
He, him, fathers, brothers and sons.
Who's there?
He better square up
```
121
False start
When a speaker, having already started on an utterance, hesitates or changes their mind about what they want to say. A false start is most common in unplanned discourse
122
Figurative language
Words or sentences of words that take on unusual or striking meanings which involve an extension, liking or transfer of literal meaning.
Example
The figurative sense of see & hear to mean 'understand'
The figurative sense of stand to mean 'tolerate, sustain, maintain'
123
Finite verb
A verb that carries tense, person and number marking in an agreement with the subject of the clause
124
First person
The speaker, signer or writer
125
Fixed expression
A sequence of words or an expression that is used frequently for fixed purposes
Examples
G'day, Caio, how are you, no worries, s'truth
126
Flap
A consonant sound. The term flap is used to indicate that the articulation is very quick, the obstruction created by articulators is momentary
127
Floor
The right to speak that is held at each point in a spoken interaction by a particular participant in preference to the other participants.
128
Foregrounding
To make some part or parts of a sentence or text more conspicuous through, for example, a particular ordering or unusual choice of lexical items, or the use of particular syntactic patterns
129
Form
The appearance, part of speech category or structure of a word or morpheme.
Example
The form of a pronoun, for example depends on its position in a clause.
Compare the use of the first person and third person in the following sentences
"I gave it to her" "She gave it to me"
130
Formality
The formality of an utterance can be discussed in terms of a scale of language use relating situations that are socially careful or correct where highly formalised language is appropriate at one end and situations that are very informal and relaxed where non-Standard slang is appropriate at the other.
131
Formulaic opening
A set beginning to a particular type of discourse that signals to the audience what is to come and allowing the audience to know how to respond.
132
Formulaic utterance
Utterances that are used frequently in a particular context for a fixed purpose.
Examples
G'day, I'm bid, I sentence you to..., let us pray
133
Free morpheme
A morpheme that can be used as a word without any modification, it can stand on its own.
Example
Tuna, drive, quick.
134
Fricative
The Name given to sounds created when two organs of speech partially block airflow, creating turbulence.
These sounds include
/f, v, s, z/
135
Front
The area of the tongue behind the blade/tip. It is used in production of palatal sounds
136
Front-focus
The situation in which information is presented at the beginning of a sentence rather than later on in the sentence in order to give it greater prominence.
137
Front vowel
The vowel sound formed by the position of the tongue towards the front of the mouth is used in naming these vowels.
/i/ is a front vowel
138
Function
The grammatical role an element is filling.
Example
Function: subject- Harry, verb-ate, object-chips
Harry ate a lot of chips
139
Function word
A word that carries grammatical meaning only.
Example
Pronouns, Prepositions, and conjunctions
140
Function of language
The intended purpose of communication. This may include giving directions, asking questions, telling stories and so on.
141
Genderlect
Variation within a language that is associated with a group of speakers of either masculine or feminine gender.
142
General accent
The Australian English accent that is the middle of the continuum between a cultivated and broad accent. It is the accent that is becoming most widespread in Australia.
David crystal said 60% a while ago, then more recently Dr Felicity Cox has said that the accents are all converging into general
143
Genre
Any variety of language that has a specific purpose, such as persuasion or narrative, uses a distinguishable set of language features and has a typical pattern for structuring of information.
AKA text type
144
Given information
Information that is already familiar to the audience, either because the information has already been presented earlier in the text or because the information is already a part of the audience's background knowledge.
145
Glottal
A sound that is made by using the glottis as the main articulator. In English the sound /h/ is made by slightly closing the vocal folds over the glottis.
146
Glottis
The opening between the vocal folds in the larynx
147
Grammar
The study of structure of language in general, or of the structure of sentences in particular. In this second sense grammar is mainly concerned with syntax and morphology
148
Hard palate
The bony portion of the roof of the mouth, beginning behind the alveolar ridge and extending back to the velum, or soft palate. Sounds that are made using the hard palate are called palatal sounds.
149
Hedging expression
A phrase that is used in order to reduce the force of an utterance. They are a strategy for removing social distance between the speaker and the audience by reducing the authoritativeness of the speakers tone.
For example
You know, Sort of, A bit
150
High considerateness style
A style of conversational interaction in which speakers seem to wait for the floor to be empty be free they take their turn
151
High involvement style
A style of conversation in which speakers interject numerous questions and comments and in which there is a high occur acne of overlaps and spontaneous speech.
152
High-rising terminal (HRT)
The use of high rising intonation at the end of a statement. HRT sounds similar to the intonation used in English questions but actually is used for a range of other discourse functions such as seeking empathy, and regulating conversational interaction
153
High vowel
A position of the tongue high in the mouth that is used in naming these vowels.
/l/ is a high vowel
154
Hyperbole
A type of stylistic device that involves a form of exaggeration and is used to intensify the expression of feelings or impressions.
155
Hypernym
A lexical term that expresses a sense relationship of inclusion in that is includes other lexical terms in its meaning.
For example
Plant->vegetable->carrot (plant, and vegetable)
Vehicle->truck (Vehicle)
156
Hyponym
A lexical term that expresses a sense relationship of inclusion in that it's sense can be included in that of a more general word.
For example
Plant->vegetable->carrot (vegetable and carrot)
Vehicle->truck (truck)
157
Hyponymy
Refers to the sense relation of inclusion between specific and general words when the former are included in the later.
158
Idiolect
Variation within a language that is associated with individual speakers
AKA personal variation
159
Idiom
A sequence of words that forms a single unit of meaning
Example
Burn your bridges
Meaning
To act in a way that commits you to a single course of action
160
Imperative
The sentence type typically used to express a command or directive. Imperatives typically do not contain a subject
161
Impersonal construction
Refers to syntactic construction with an unspecified agent. Non-referential subjects 'it' and 'there' are called dummy or empty subjects as their primary subject is to place-hold an otherwise empty subject.
Example
Agentless passive or a sentence with a non-referential subject as in
'It is raining' or 'there were big tires'
162
Inclusive language
Language usage which ensures that different opinions, lifestyles, choices and experiences are recognised and validated.
Lexemes under this category include:
Us, we, ours
163
Indefinite determiner or article
The articles 'a' and 'an' are indefinite determiners. They are used when introducing something new to the audience.
164
Indirect object
The function of an element in a clause. In a transitive clause in English, the indirect object follows the verb and proceeds the direct object. The indirect object codes the recipient or goal of the verb.
Example
'Sarah' in
I gave Sarah a new pencil case
165
Inference
Something that has been deducted or concluded, often by using implicit situational or cultural knowledge in addition to explicit information
166
Infinitive
The base form of the verb. Infinitive verbs are not inflected for tense, number or person. This is the form used as the headword in a dictionary entry. In sentences, infinitives may be preceded by 'to'.
Example
'To' in
I like to gaze out the window
167
Infix
A bound morpheme that occurs within the root to which it is attached.
Example
'Bloody'
Fanbloodytastic (fantastic being the original)
168
Inflection
The creation of. A different grammatical form of a word by the addition of an inflectional morpheme.
169
Inflectional (morpheme)
An affix that is assed to a word to express harm magical relationships without changing the meaning of the word or its part of speech.
Example
-s 'plural inflection' -er 'comparative inflection' -ed 'past tense inflection'
170
Informational flow
The ways in which language users vary the structural features of sequences of sentences within larger texts in order to create cohesion, show shifts in topic and focus, changes in participants, beginnings and ends of scenes and so on.
171
Informational text
A text type whose purpose is to help the audience gain knowledge
Example
Text book.
172
Instructional type
A text type whose purpose is to tell the audience how to do something
Example
Cook book, style guide
173
Insertion
A phonological process in which a sound is introduced between other sounds making sequences of sounds easier to produce
AKA Epenthesis
174
Intensifier
A word of phrase that adds force or emphasis
Example
Very and really in
I worked really hard, that test was very easy
175
Interactional style
Patterson of relating to other participants in a conversational setting.
176
Interjection
A part of speech containing words that are used to express feelings and emotion. With the exception of quoted speech, interjections do not combine with other word to form larger phrases or clauses. This property sets interjections apart from other parts of speech.
Example
Ouch, yuck, ugh, he-he
177
Interrogative
A sentence type typically used to ask questions. Interrogatives usually have subject-auxiliary inversion. This means that the subject and the auxiliary verb order is reversed when compared with basic clauses.
Example
Declarative: you can come
Interrogative: can you come?
178
Interrogative tag
A type of question formed by attaching an element to the end of a statement
Example
It sure is bright, isn't it?
179
Intonation
The way in which pitch changes during speech. English speakers tend to use rising intonation when asking questions.
180
Intonation pattern
The pattern of pitch changes in an utterance
181
Intonation unit
A unit of speech identified by its own intonation contour. Intonation units can be distinguished by the pauses between them and the changes in pitch they contain
182
Intransitive
```
A verb that does not occur with an object
Example
I sneezed (sneezed is the intransitive)
```
183
Intrusive-r
In a non-rhotic variety of English, a [r] that is pronounced between adjacent vowels when there is no r in the spelling
Example
Law 'n order
/lɔr/ /ən/ /ɔdə/
184
Irregular verb
Verbs that create past tense and/or past participle forms by internal modification rather than taking an inflectional affix.
Example
Sing changes to sung
185
Irony
A type of figurative language in which the real meaning of the message is different from the literal meaning of the words used. Irony is produced when the reality of the which language is written or spoke makes the statement untrue in some way.
186
Jargon
A set of lexical terms associated with a discrete occupational or social group such as airline pilots, jazz fans, and linguistics. It can also be the use of specialised language to obscure meaning and exclude non-members.
187
Labial
Sounds produced using the lips as articulators. This includes bilabials /b, p, m/ and the labio-denials /v/ and /f/.
188
Labio-dental
Sounds created using the upper teeth and lower lip. In English the fricatives /f, v/ are made by partially blocking airflow in this manner.
189
Language change
Change within a language over time. The change may occur in any subsystem of the language system
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Language system
All of the different aspects of language that work together in order to communicate meaning.
AKA subsystems
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Larynx
The larynx contains an opening known as the glottis. Air passing through the Kings enters the larynx and passes through the glottis.
AKA Adam's apple, or voice box
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Lateral
A sound made by using the tongue to block the centre of the mouth so air can escape only around one or both sides of the tongue. The /l/ sound is a lateral
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Length
Refers to contrast between long and short vowels
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Lexical ambiguity
When a lexical item can be interpreted with more than one meaning.
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Lexical choice
The lexical items that are selected to be used in the expression of a particular message.
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Lexical item
A basic unit of meaning in a language that may be a single word, as with 'dog'; less than a word, as with the bound root morpheme 'cran-'; or more the a one word as with the multi word idiom 'see eye to eye'
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Lexicology
The study of the word stock, or lexicon of a language
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Lexicon
The entire word stock or vocabulary of a language
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Lingua Franca
Is used for communication between speakers with no common language. English is the Lingua Franca used in international business communication.
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Linguistic deviation
Refers to the practice of breaking conventional patterns of language. Linguistic deviation can occur across each of the subsystem of the language system
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Linking-r
In non-rhotic variety of English, an r that occurs between two vowels in the spelling and is pronounced.
Example
Clear argument /klɪər ɑɡjəmənt/
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Liquid
The name of a manner of articulation that covers the sounds /l/ and /r/
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Listing
A type of syntactic patterning that involves the repetition of lexical items or grammatical structures as a list. Listing is a particular form of parallelism.
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Local management system
A set of conventions for how conversation is conducted that governs getting turns, keeping them or giving them away
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Long vowel
Found in languages with a distinctive contrast between long vowels and short vowels. Long vowels are marked in some way, such as with colon or a bar over the vowel, to distinguish them from short vowels.
Example
The short vowel /e/ is in contrast with the long vowel /e:/.
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Loudness
The relative volume of a speaker's voice
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Low vowel
A vowel sounds formed by the position of the tongue low in the mouth that is used in naming these vowels. The vowel /a/ is a low vowel.
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Main clause
A clause that can stand on its own and can als be called an independent clause.
Example
I went to the beach on Friday
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Manner of articulation
All consonant sounds may be labelled according to the way airflow is modified in order to create them.
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Maxim
A convention for how communication is conducted
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Maxim of manner
The conversion that when people communicate their contribution should be orderly and brief avoiding obscurity and ambiguity.
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Maxim of quality
The convention that when people communicate their contribution should be true. They should not say what they believe to be false, nor should, they say anything for which they lack adequate evidence.
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Maxim of quantity
The convention that when people communicate their contribution should be as informative as possible as required. They should say neither too much nor too little
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Maxim of relevance
The convention that when people communicate their contribution should clearly relate to the purpose of interaction
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Metalanguage
The terminology used to describe, analyse and discuss language.
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Metaphor
A type of figurative language in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable, in order to suggest a resemblance
Example
A whale of a problem
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Metonymy
A Type of figurative language that involves the replacement of the subject or referent by an associated quality, person or thing. The term metonymy comes from a Greek word meaning 'change of name'
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Mid vowel
A vowel sound formed by the position of the tongue between the high and low in the mouth that is used in naming these vowels. The vowel /ɛ/ is a mid vowel
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Minimal response
A short response by the audience in a spoken interaction to indicate that they are listening. Also know as Backchannel signal
Examples
hmm, yeah, ooh, and right
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Modal auxiliary
```
An auxiliary that expresses modality. Modal auxiliaries do not show information about the person, number or tense and occur with an infinitive verb form.
Example
Main verb: laugh
Modal: can
I can laugh louder than you
```
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Modality
The range of meanings including possibility, permission, necessity, and ability that are expressed by modal auxiliaries and by some adverbs
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Mode
The way communication is accomplished. The three basic modes of communication are speaking, writing and signing.
Other modes include
Multimodal
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Monophthong
A simple vowel. A vowel sound made of only one vowel.
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Mood
A grammatical category associated with verbs. Mood gives information about the reality of an event or situation. In English, mood is distinguished through the usage of modal auxiliaries.
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Morpheme
The smallest meaningful unit in a language. A word consists of one or more morphemes
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Morphology
The study of the structure of words.
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Narrative text
A type of text whose purpose is to entertain by telling about events, experiences or the like, whether true or fictionous.
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Nasal
The name given to a nasal sound
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Nasal cavity
The area inside the nose used in production of nasal sounds
