Terminology Flashcards
What are abstract nouns?
Abstract nouns refer to ideas and concepts that only exist in the mind.
What is back channeling?
Back channeling refers to supportive terms such as ‘oh’ and ‘really’.
What does bald on-record mean?
Bald on-record describes a speaker who is completely blunt and direct (e.g. ‘Sit down!’).
What is agenda setting?
Agenda setting is when a speaker sets up the main topic of conversation.
What is collocation?
Collocation refers to two or more words that are often found together in a group or phrase with a distinct meaning (e.g. ‘over the top’, ‘fish and chips’, ‘back to front’).
What is a compound word?
A compound is a word formed from two other words (e.g. ‘dustbin’).
What is a dismissal formula?
A dismissal formula is a device used to close a conversation.
What is a dialect?
A dialect is a non-standard variety of a language, including lexis and grammar, particular to a region.
What is downward convergence?
Downward convergence is making your accent or lexis more informal.
What does genre refer to?
Genre refers to the kind of text you have in front of you (advert, speech, song).
What is Estuary English?
Estuary English is a dialect of English that is perceived to have spread outwards from London along the South East of England. It has features of Received Pronunciation and London English.
What is an exophoric reference?
An exophoric reference is a reference to something, often cultural, beyond the text.
What is field in terms of language?
Field refers to words used in a text which relate to the text’s subject matter (e.g. the field of medicine; the field of golf, etc.).
What is an interrogative?
An interrogative is a question, indicated by the swapping round of subject and verb or the use of question words.
What are hypernyms?
Hypernyms are categories (e.g. pets, vehicles and sweets).
What are hyponyms?
Hyponyms are examples within categories (e.g. pony, truck and sherbet lemons).
What is an idiom?
An idiom is a form of common non-literal expression (e.g. ‘I was dead on my feet’).
What does juxtaposition mean?
Juxtaposition is the placement of two contrasting ideas or things next to each other.
What is a lexical field?
A lexical field identifies the main subject matter of a text (e.g. food in a recipe, money in an article on economics).
What is a loanword?
A loanword is an English word that has come into use having been ‘borrowed’ from another language.
What is modification in language?
Modification is description in the form of words, phrases or whole clauses that alters our understanding of the thing described.
What is a modifier?
A modifier is any word that describes a noun (can be an adjective, adverb or noun).
What is morphological derivation?
Morphological derivation is the process of creating a new word out of an old word or affix (e.g. the suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs).
What does multimodal mean?
Multimodal refers to a text that uses more than one mode; often used for texts that have a combination of text and images.
What is a neologism?
A neologism is a newly formed or coined word.
What is overextension?
Overextension is widening the meaning of a word so that it applies to other objects with similar properties or functions.
What is passive voice?
Passive voice is a clause construction where the subject is not the actor.
What does polysemic mean?
Polysemic describes a word with more than one meaning (e.g. ‘set’ can refer to various contexts).
What are prosodics?
Prosodics refers to how we use rhythm, stress, intonation and pace in speech to create particular effects.
What is semantics?
Semantics refers to the meanings of words, both on their own and in relation to other words in the text.
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex refers to biological differences between males and females, while gender refers to behaviors constructed through socialization.
What is a simple sentence?
A simple sentence has only one clause.
What is representation in language?
Representation is language used to present an impression of ourselves or of an event to the wider world.
What are subordinating conjunctions?
Subordinating conjunctions signal the start of a subordinate clause.
What is vernacular writing?
Vernacular writing is informal, non-standard writing.
What is turn-taking?
Turn-taking is the process of taking turns in a conversation, where only one speaker speaks at a time.
