Terminology

Question 1

phonemes

Answer 1

the smallest contrastive units of speech sound in a language

Question 2

graphemes

Answer 2

visual representations of sounds

Question 3

digraph

Answer 3

two letters that represent a single speech sound

Question 4

trigraph

Answer 4

three letters that represent a single speech sound

Question 5

consonant cluster

Answer 5

where two or more consonant speech sounds occuring in sequence are represented by two or more letters

Question 6

onset

Answer 6

consonantal beginning of a syllable

Question 7

rime

Answer 7

rhyming end part of a syllable, containing a vowel

Question 8

segmenting

Answer 8

breaking a word down into phonemes

Question 9

blending

Answer 9

putting individual speech sounds together to make a word

Question 10

morphology

Answer 10

the study of word structure

Question 11

morpheme

Answer 11

smallest unit of meaning in a word

Question 12

root

Answer 12

core unit of meaning in any word

Question 13

inflection

Answer 13

suffix that performs a grammatical function

Question 14

determiner

Answer 14

a cluster of words which precede the noun (phrase) and determine definiteness, quantity, number or possession. a, the, every, my.

Question 15

abstract noun

Answer 15

nouns that refere to ideas, emotions or concepts

Question 16

concrete noun

Answer 16

nouns that have observable or measurable referents

Question 17

adverb

Answer 17

modifies a verb (walked quickly), or an adjective (deliciously soft), or a pronoun (almost everyone) or another adverb (He moved ridiculously slowly).

Question 18

relative pronoun

Answer 18

Used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. who whom whose which what that

Question 19

finite verbs

Answer 19

inflects (changes ending) to show person, number and tense

Question 20

non-finite verbs

Answer 20

the infinitive, the present participle and the past participle–does not inflect to show changes in person, tense or number

Question 21

clause

Answer 21

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

Question 22

phrase

Answer 22

a related group of words

Question 23

transitive verb

Answer 23

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

Question 24

intransitive verb

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

coordinating conjunction

Answer 25

a conjunction placed between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of equal rank

Question 26

subordinating conjunction

Answer 26

a conjunction that connects an independent clause to a subordinating clause

Question 27

prepositions

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

conjunctions

Answer 28

A conjunction links two words or phrases together.

Question 29

perfect

Answer 29

The verb tense used to indicate a completed, or “perfected,” action or condition. Ex: “Has gone to lunch” or “Had gone to lunch.”

Question 30

subordinate clause

Answer 30

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)

Question 31

word family

Answer 31

The words in a word family are normally related to each other by a combination of morphology, grammar and meaning.

Question 32

fronted adverbials

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

adverbial

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

relative clauses

Answer 34

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

Question 35

modal verbs

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

relative pronoun

Answer 36

Pronoun that demonstrates a relationship

Question 37

subjunctive

Answer 37

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.

Question 38

cohesive devices

Answer 38

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.

Question 39

ellipses

Answer 39

Ellipsis is the omission of a word or phrase which is expected and predictable.

Question 40

auxiliary verb

Answer 40

A verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. The auxiliary verbs are: be, have, do, and the modal verbs.

Question 41

complement

Answer 41

A word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression. Ex: He is being LAZY.

Question 42

participle

Answer 42

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 ).