Technical Terminology Flashcards
To review technical terminology useful for the exam.
Morphemes.
These are the building blocks of all words, some only make sense when added to other words, these are bound morphemes, others exist independently, these are free morphemes… They can all be combined. So care-ful-ly; boost-er.
Proper nouns
(capital letters) Sometimes common nouns are made into proper nouns for comic, or other, effect.
Common nouns 1) concrete nouns
(things you can touch )
abstract nouns
(ideas and feelings)
collective nouns
(to collectively name individuals: an equivocation of English teachers)
Nouns can be pre or post-modified to create noun phrases.
pre-modifiers are usually adjectives and post-modifiers are usually prepositions…
The massive fat black spider beneath your foot.
hyponyms
They operate on a hierarchical system though: if the hypernym is colour then a hyponym is green; if the hypernym is green then a hyponym is olive; if the hypernym is olive then a hyponym might be dark olive etc etc….
Pronouns
replace nouns – ‘you’ ‘we’ ‘I’ ‘they’ etc. Usually used for a specific effect so look at them carefully, e.g. inclusive pronouns used in charity letters.
Adjectives
come in three forms: base, comparative, superlative (hot, hotter, hottest) They describe nouns. You can refer to them as pre-modifiers because they modify the way that you see a noun: tomato, rotten tomato, ripe tomato etc.
modal auxiliary verbs
Modals express the likelihood of something happening and are useful to comment on / use in persuasive writing.
Adverbs
describe verbs (in the same way that adjectives describe nouns), they often, but not always, finish with ‘ly’. He finished reading hurriedly.
Prepositions
talk about where something is, either in space or time: under the table, behind the book, after the lesson.
Declarative
(statement) Probably the most common form, Often used because they suggest that the reader knows what they are talking about.
Imperative
(order) These start with the base form of a verb. Often found in persuasive writing.
Interrogative
(question) Most commonly form mentioned in analysis would be the Rhetorical Question: these are asked for effect only: either the answer is unimportant, already known or, we assume, will be answered by the author.
exclamative
(an exclamation) Note that any of the above can also be an exclamative.
minor sentence
is a sentence without a verb, they are labelled as ‘fragment’ on the Word 97 spellcheck. They are usually descriptive. Politicians use them too to make statements with no possibility of action: ‘A better future.’
simple sentence
A sentence that has just one clause, with one thing happening
compound sentence
If conjunctions are used then it is a compound sentence: The dog bit the man
complex sentence
If there are embedded clauses then it is a complex sentence: The dog, a member of the vicious Chihuahua breed, bit the man on the leg and then ran away.
fronting
as made famous by Yoda; it’s when the most important part of the sentence is moved to the front of the sentence to ensure that readers understand its importance:
The best subject, English is.
instantaneous present
The instantaneous present is used when the action is going on at the same time the description is being made, it is used a lot to give excitement to live commentaries: He passes the ball; he runs to the end of the field, he shoots; it’s a goal!
historic present
The historic present can be used to describe the past as though it were happening now: I hear that you are not very well. I realise that the cake is burned. This is often used in literature (and texts for analysis!) to give a sense of dramatic immediacy (i.e. using the historical present for dramatic immediacy): We look out of the door and we see an old man.
Progressive aspect
Progressive aspect: indicated by a form of the auxiliary ‘to be’ (be, am, is, are – don’t forget past forms too) and the present participle of the lexical verb (the ‘ing’ form). It can occur in the present or past:
I am running, I have been reading, We are cooking etc.
Perfective aspect
Perfective aspect: uses a form of ‘have’ to indicate that actions which are complete.
I have opened, She has cooked, They have read.
Active voice
Subject does something: ‘I broke the jug.’
Passive Voice
Something is done to something with no subject doing the action: ‘The jug was broken.’
polysyndetic list
Lots and ands
asyndetic
commas
incremental auexesis
(sometimes as a list of three, but not always) where you exaggerate more each time: I’m peckish; I’m hungry; I’m starving.
parenthetical phrasing
where a clause is isolated within (usually, but not always) a pair of commas… Or parenthesis (brackets)
Syntactically parallel phrases
or sentences have similar structures but with one or two differences: the reader’s attention is drawn to the differences so emphasising the point being made. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. You call a spade a spade, I call a cloud a collection of condensed water vapour..
elliptical phrasing
Where elements of a sentence are missed out, often pronouns, for speed or to give the impression of speed, often in speech or first person narrative.
Alliteration
is when you have the same sound at the beginning of lots of words, different letters create different effects, usually used for humour: ‘Wacky Welders Want Work’.
Sibilance
is alliteration on an ‘s’ sound.
Assonance
is when you have the repetition of the same vowel sound.
Consonance
is repetition of consonant sounds (not at the start of words, obviously) remember the ‘t’ sounds in ‘Salome’
Onomatopoeia
is when a word sounds like what it is describing - SLAP! Whether a word is onomatopoeic or not really depends on personal interpretation. Try to justify your ideas: ‘slap’ is onomatopoeic because the short vowel sound and the plosive ending reflects the sound of an object hitting something else.
Monosyllables
are often used to emphasise something - ‘One thick black patch…’
Plosive sounds
are ones that you can ‘spit out’, ones with ‘b’ and ‘p’ sounds. They can be particularly effective if used sparingly.
mimesis
This one is feeling increasingly dodgy. I was taught, by someone in the past, that mimesis refers to words whose sound reflects the meaning of the word rather than the sound (as in onomatopoeia) so particularly effective for names like Mr Gradgrind (a baddie). However, I have searched and I can’t find reference to it anywhere although various books refer to mimesis as a process where a word mimics something else… I’m still searching. UPDATE: apparently Japanese and Korean languages have lots of mimesis and it is a valid term, albeit a possibly underused one… Decide whether you want to use it or just say the sound mimics the meaning. (One is, obviously, more efficient than the other!)
Emotive writing
is used to get a reaction from the reader: positive or negative, it’s the difference between saying someone is ‘slim’ and ‘skinny’. You could also refer to it as Loaded writing.
pun
(one word with two meanings - usually humorous),
Incongruous
things that don’t quite fit, usually for a humorous effect: ‘Mr and Mrs Genghis Khan.’
polysemy
The technical term for a word having two meanings is polysemy.
Repetition
Repetition usually gets an idea across by repeating things until you can’t ignore them anymore. This can be through repeating something using different words each time or repetition of a particular word ‘Education, Education, Education’
Bathos
Bathos is a classic humorous device: the reader’s expectations are built up and then deflated.
hyperbole
If an idea is exaggerated (usually for comic effect, sometimes for the sake of persuasion) then you could talk about the writer using hyperbole.
Lexical ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity comes about when a sentence cannot be understood without a context. This happens when a word has polysemy - more than one meaning. For example, in a classroom with thirty students and a teacher how many pupils are there? 30 or 62?
Grammatical ambiguity
Grammatical ambiguity is when the structure of a sentence is ambiguous: she collected up the flies in her slippers. (Where are the flies? What is she wearing on her feet?)
collocation
This is the idea that certain phrases fit together so ‘Happy…’ is normally followed by ‘Birthday’. If you said ‘Happy Deathday’ you’re subverting.
Allusions
Allusions only work if you know what is being alluded to: they can be humorous: ‘He did a full Monty last night!’, serious or even ironic such as this as a title for a poem about abortion: ‘Unto Us…’ (Recognise the allusion? ‘Unto Us A Child Is Born’, hence the irony.)
Juxtapose
Some writers Juxtapose ideas, that is, present two ideas simultaneously that do not seem to match. Sometimes this is done for irony, and so you get an Ironic Juxtaposition. Plath uses one in ‘Medallion’ when she talks about the belly of a dead snake writhing with life; the movement comes from maggots, which are eating the snake..
Denotation
The Denotation of a word is its dictionary meaning
connotations.
more often, a writer will use a word for its associations, its connotations.
Pathetic Fallacy
Pathetic Fallacy is where the weather reflects the mood of the piece. A hot day for a fight or thunder and lightning for scary stuff.
Metaphor
- a comparison, when one thing is something else. Usually quite powerful: He was an oak of a man.
Simile
a comparison but when one thing is like something else.
Personification
Personification - used to make something sound human, usually to create sympathy but also to make things easier to understand: ‘Death was always present..’
