Terminology: Language Flashcards
Received Pronunciation
An accent traditionally associated with high status (the queen’s English)
Prosodics
Overall sound we make when we speak, including rhythm, pitch, volume and intonation.
Paralanguage
The non-verbal elements of speech, refers to vocal quality and vocal effects such as whispering or laughter. It can also refer to body language.
Third person attached narrative
A third person POV focused on a single character throughout the narrative.
Colloquial register
Informal
Idioms
Catchphrases/Expressions
Static verbs
Expressing a state or condition rather than an action, relates to thoughts or beliefs. Eg: See, Own, Have etc
Dynamic verbs
They describe action. Eg: run, jump, work etc
Descriptive modifiers
They make sentences more descriptive, examples include adverbs and adjectives.
Elision
The dropping of sounds/letters in a word or phrase. Eg: goin’ instead of going.
Ellipsis
The dropping of a word in a sentence that can be understood by context clues. Eg: ‘I’m goin’ shops.’
Deictic reference
Context dependant, words we can’t see unless we are in that situation. An example would be “here” and “now” in the sentence “You read this here and now.”
Adjacency Pairs
A pair of utterances that often go together, such as question and answer; greeting and greeting and statement and response.
Insertion Sequence
An utterance that interrupts the adjacency pair.
‘Flouting the rules’
Breaking the normal expectations of an adjacency pair. Eg: A: “Hello” B: “Goodbye.”
Phatic
Small talk
Interactional
Social conversation, usually between friends or acquaintances.
Referential
Giving information
Transactional
Getting a job done, used to obtain goods, services or trades
Expressive
Relaying opinions and emotions
Expository
Explaining ideas or theories
Instructive
Giving clear instructions
Collaborative
Agreeing and showing solidarity and cooperation
Syntactic variety
Changing sentence types
Noun phrase
Pre-modifying adjective + noun e.g: big wolf
Modal verbs
Examples include: might, could, would, will, must.
Language levels: phonology
Refers to sound effects created in writing or speech
Lexis
Language or vocabulary chosen by writer/speaker
Semantics
The study of meaning in language
Denotation
Straightforward meaning
Connotation
Implication/association
Synthetic personalisation
Simulating a 1-1 interaction with the reader (it’s fake)
Discourse
Everything that puts a text together
Discourse convention
Rules or styles that a community follows to communicate
Discourse structure
The way in which an entire text is organised
Foreground
Putting a word/subject in the beginning of a sentence can give it most important, e.g: Arsenal, the greatest football team ever.
Face threatening acts
Challenging someone’s outer persona
Face
The image of ourselves that we present to others
Vague language
Imprecise or unassertive statements, e.g: ‘and so on’, ‘or whatever’, ‘whatsit’
Grice’s Maxims
QUALITY - being truthful, not giving out false info
QUANTITY - being informative as needed, but no more
RELEVANCE - staying relevant to the conversation
MANNER - being as clear and brief as possible (less ambiguity)
Flouting Maxims can lead to criticism from other participants
Accommodation theory
When people interact they adjust their speech, their vocal patterns, and their gestures to accommodate others.
Convergence
Reducing the distance between people
Upward convergence
Adjusting your manner of speaking to meet that of a higher status.
Downward convergence
Adjusting your manner of speaking when talking to children or those who don’t have an RP accent.
Mutual convergence
When both people adjust their manner of speaking to converge to each other.
Divergence
When one or both speakers emphasise the differences in their manner of speaking. Or display body language which represents conflict / confrontation.
Positive politeness
Minimises threat to hearer’s face and makes them feel good about themselves.
Examples of positive politeness:
- Compliments
- Taking an interest in people
- Making clear that we enjoy someone’s company
- Humour
Negative politeness
Avoiding imposing a threat on the hearer’s face.
Examples of negative politeness:
- Hedging: Er, could you, er, perhaps, close the, um , window?
- Pessimism: I don’t suppose you could close the window, could you?
- Indicating deference: Excuse me, sir, would you mind if I asked you to close the window?
- Apologising: I’m terribly sorry to put you out, but could you close the window?
- Impersonalising: The management requires all windows to be closed.
syntactic parallelism
words that are linked
Hypophora
Question directly followed by its own answer. E.g: Who did this? Oh right, it was Greg.
