Terminology Flashcards
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phonemes
the smallest contrastive units of speech sound in a language
graphemes
visual representations of sounds
digraph
two letters that represent a single speech sound
trigraph
three letters that represent a single speech sound
consonant cluster
where two or more consonant speech sounds occuring in sequence are represented by two or more letters
onset
consonantal beginning of a syllable
rime
rhyming end part of a syllable, containing a vowel
segmenting
breaking a word down into phonemes
blending
putting individual speech sounds together to make a word
morphology
the study of word structure
morpheme
smallest unit of meaning in a word
root
core unit of meaning in any word
inflection
suffix that performs a grammatical function
determiner
a cluster of words which precede the noun (phrase) and determine definiteness, quantity, number or possession. a, the, every, my.
abstract noun
nouns that refere to ideas, emotions or concepts
concrete noun
nouns that have observable or measurable referents
adverb
modifies a verb (walked quickly), or an adjective (deliciously soft), or a pronoun (almost everyone) or another adverb (He moved ridiculously slowly).
relative pronoun
Used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. who whom whose which what that
finite verbs
inflects (changes ending) to show person, number and tense
non-finite verbs
the infinitive, the present participle and the past participle–does not inflect to show changes in person, tense or number
clause
a grammatical unit which operates at a lower level than the sentence but at a higher level than words or phrases–CONTAINS A VERB, may be a sentence or may not be able to be independent
phrase
a related group of words
transitive verb
has two characteristics. First, it is an action verb, expressing a doable activity like kick, want, paint, write, eat, clean, etc. Second, it must have a direct object, something or someone who receives the action of the verb
intransitive verb
has two characteristics. First, it is an action verb, expressing a doable activity like arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, die, etc. Second, unlike a transitive verb, it will not have a direct object receiving the action.
coordinating conjunction
a conjunction placed between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of equal rank
subordinating conjunction
a conjunction that connects an independent clause to a subordinating clause
prepositions
A preposition links a following noun,pronoun or noun phrase to some other word in the sentence. Prepositions often describe locations or directions, but can describe other things, such as relations of time.
conjunctions
A conjunction links two words or phrases together.
perfect
The verb tense used to indicate a completed, or “perfected,” action or condition. Ex: “Has gone to lunch” or “Had gone to lunch.”
subordinate clause
A clause which is subordinate to some other part of the same sentence is a subordinate clause;
for example, in The apple that I ate was sour, the clause that I ate is subordinate to apple (which itmodifies). Subordinate clauses contrast with co-ordinate clauses as in It was sour but looked very tasty. (Contrast: main clause)
word family
The words in a word family are normally related to each other by a combination of morphology, grammar and meaning.
fronted adverbials
A word or phrase that normally comes after the verb may be moved before the verb: when this happens, we say it has been ‘fronted’. For example, a fronted adverbial is an adverbial which has been moved before the verb.
adverbial
An adverbial is a word or phrase that is used, like an adverb, to modify a verb or clause. Of course, adverbs can be used as adverbials, but many other types of words and phrases can be used this way, including preposition phrases and subordinate clauses.
relative clauses
A relative clause is a special type of subordinate clause that modifies a noun. It often does this by using a relative pronoun such as who or thatto refer back to that noun, though the relative pronoun that is often omitted
modal verbs
Modal verbs are used to change the meaning of other verbs. They can express meanings such as certainty, ability, or obligation. The main modal verbs are will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must andought.
relative pronoun
Pronoun that demonstrates a relationship
subjunctive
Relating to or denoting a mood of verbs expressing what is imagined or wished or possible
Ex: If Zoë were the class president, things would be much better.
cohesive devices
Cohesive devices are words used to show how the different parts of a text fit together. In other words, they create cohesion. Includes determiners and pronouns, which refer back to earlier words; conjunctions and adverbs, which can make relations between words clear; and ellipses of expected words.
ellipses
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected and predictable.
auxiliary verb
A verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The auxiliary verbs are: be, have, do, and the modal verbs.
complement
A word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression. Ex: He is being LAZY.
participle
A word formed from a verb (e.g. going, gone, being, been ) and used as an adjective (e.g. working woman, burnt toast ) or a noun (e.g. good breeding ).
