OCR a level English glossary

abstract nouns

refer to ideas and concepts that only exist in the mind

accent

the distinct pronounciation pattern of a group of people

accommodation

where a speaker adapts to another speaker's accent, dialect or sociolect

Acronomy

abbreviation using the first letter of a group of words pronounced as a single word (e.g. OPEC, NASA, RAM)

active voice

clause construction where the subject is also the actor (they are doing or have done something to somebody/something)

adjacency pair

a pair of utterances in a conversation that go together (e.g. greeting and reply, question and answer, etc)

adjective

a word that modifies a noun (e.g. 'the orange sky')

adverb

a word that modifies a verb telling you how, where or when an action takes place; can also modify adjectives, telling you how much (e.g. 'I am really delighted)

adverbial

words, phrases or clauses which act as adverbs and which identify where, when and how when modifying the verb

affordance

linguistic and behavioural choices provided by technology

agenda setting

where a speaker sets up the main topic of conversation

analogical overextension

associating objects which are unrelated but which have one or more features in common (e.g. both being the same colour)

anchored relationship

an online relationship where two participants know each other in the offline world

article

a determiner such as 'a' or 'the'

asymmetric power

an imbalance of power between people

asynchronous

there is a delay between utterance and response. Responses posted on a forum, which may occur moths or even years after the original post, are an example of discourse that is asynchronous

audience

the person or people reading or hearing the text

auxiliary verb

assists the main verb; primary auxiliary verbs do, have and be denote changes of tense

avatar

an image used by a user that accompanies a username

backchannelling

supportive terms such as 'oh' and 'really'

bald on-record

where a speaker is completely blunt and direct (e.g. 'sit down!')

bias

a form of prejudice in favour of or against an idea, person or group, expressed through language/images and so on. It can take obvious or implicit forms, or a mixture of the two, and can arise from what is omitted as well as from what is stated or shown

bidialectalism

a speaker's ability to use two dialects of the same language

categorical overextension

the most commonly occurring form of overextension in a child's language and relates to confusing a hypernym (a broad category like fruit) with a hyponym (a specific example like an apple)

catenative

chain-like structure in a sentence ('so we... and then... and then we...')

chaining

a speaker responds and sets up the other speaker's next utterance in a chain that runs on past an adjacency pair

child-directed speech (CDS)

speech patterns used by parents and carers when communicating with young children

clause

a structural unit that contains at least one subject and one verb - it can include other features as well such as an object, complement and adverbial.

closer

spoken expressions which are designed to close (a conversation)

codification

a process of standardising a language

cohesion

the many parts of a text that help to draw it together into a recognisable whole. For example, the headline, picture and caption in a news article will all have words/images that link together in terms of the meaning and subject matter of the article.

collocation

two or more words that are often found together in a group or phrase with a distinct meaning (e.g. 'over the top')

comparative adjective

the form of an adjective that designates comparison between two things, generally made by adding the suffix -er to its base form (e.g. 'this is a faster car')

complement

a clause element that tells you more about the subject or the object

complex sentence

has two or more clauses, one of which is a subordinate clause

compound

a word formed from two other words (e.g. 'dustbin')

compound sentence

has two or more clauses, usually joined to the main clause by the conjunctions 'and' or 'but' and depends on the main clause to exist

compound-complex sentence

a sentence that has three or more clauses, one of which will be a subordinate clause and one of which will be a coordinate clause

concrete nouns

refer to things we touch or can experience physically

conditioning

the process by which humans (and animals) are taught or trained to respond, and learn by positive reinforcement (e.g. praise from an adult) for whatever is deemed to be appropriate learning within that specific context - for choosing the correct word or for politeness for example.

conjunction

a word that joins clauses together

connotation

the associated meanings wee have with certain words, depending on the person reading or hearing the word, and on the context in which the word appears

consonant clusters

groups of consonants that depend more muscular control than single consonant or vowels, so tend to appear later in the baby's utterances

constraints

linguistic and behavioural restrictions provided by technology

context

where, when and how a text is produced or received

convergence

where a speaker moves towards another speaker's accent, dialect or sociolect

cooing

sounds a baby will make like 'goo' and 'ga-ga', generally around the age of 6-8 weeks. It is believed that during this period the child is discovering their vocal chords

coordinate clause

a clause beginning with a coordinating conjunction and is essentially a main clause joined to another main clause

coordinating conjunctions

these signal the start of a coordinate clause

Copular Verb

a verb that takes a compliment (such as 'seems' 'appears' or a form of the verb 'to be')

corpus

a collection of written texts

covert prestige

describes high social status through use of non-standard forms

declarative

a statement - a type of sentence which gives information and where the subject typically comes in front of the verb

definite article

'the'

deixis

terms that point towards something and place the words in context

denotation

the literal, generally accepted, dictionary definition of a word

determiner

words determining the number or status of the noun

diachronic change

refers to the study of historical language occurring over a period

dialect

a non-standard variety of a language, including lexis and grammar, particular to a region

digital technology

the technique of storing, transmitting and processing data used for mobile phones and computers among others

direct object

the part of the clause that is directly acted upon by the subject

discourse

describes the structure of any text (or segment of the text) that is longer than a single sentence

discourse marker

marks a change in direction in an extended piece of written or spoken text (e.g. 'nevertheless' or 'to sum up')

discourse structure

the way a text is structured, according to the typical features of the text's genre

dismissal formula

a device used to close a conversation

dispreferred response

a response that is unexpected, although not necessarily rude if phrased appropriately (e.g. speaker A - 'Dinner's ready at 7.' Speaker B - 'not dinner, I only just had breakfast!')

divergence

where a speaker actively distances himself/herself from another speaker by accentuating their own accent or dialect

downward convergence

making your accent or lexis more informal

empirical approach

gaining knowledge by direct and indirect observation or experience

estuary English

a dialect of English that is perceived to have spread outwards from London along the south east of England. It has features of received pronounciation and London English.

Etymology

the history of a word, including the language it came from, if appropriate, and when it began to be used regularly

exophoric reference

a reference to something, often cultural, beyond the text

extra-linguistic variables

factors that affect the way you speak (e.g. age, where you live, etc)

feral children

children who are raised without human intervention ('feral' meaning existing in a wild/natural state, as opposed to domesticated). There are examples of children having been raised by animals such as dogs.

field

words used in a text which relate to the text's subject matter (e.g. the field of medicine, gold, etc)

flaming

making an offensive and insulting post in a chatroom

flouts a maxim

where someone obviously does not obey the conversational maxims that have been suggested by Grice

formality

describes the degree to which texts stick to certain conventions and to how impersonal they are. The more spoken mode features a text has the more informal it will tend to be.

framing

controlling the agenda of a conversation (its direction and subject); or making utterances that encourage a child to fill in the blanks

French/Latinate lexis

words derived from French or Latin, or both that are more rarely used; often seen as having a higher status and/or being more specialist

genre

the kind of text you have in front of you (e.g. advert, speech, song, etc)

gestural

a way of communicating that relates to movement and/or body language, either instead of words (as would be likely in a multimodal media text) in addition to them

glottal stops

a form of stop consonants made at the back of the throat to replace the 't' sounds (e.g. 'wha?' instead of 'what')

grammar

the building blocks of sentences (words, phrases, clauses, etc.) and how they go together to mean something to the reader or listener

grammarian

a scholar of grammar

grapheme-phoneme relationship

the correspondence between the written shape of a letter and its sound

head noun

the main noun at the centre of a noun phrase

high-frequency lexis

words that appear often in everyday speech

holophrase

a single word representing a more complex though generally created by a child. For example the word 'juice' may be used to signify 'I want some juice' - in this context. 'juice' would be a holophrase.

hospitality token

a polite utterance relating to context designed to put speakers at their ease

hyperlink

an electronic link embedded in a text that takes the reader to another website

hypernyms

categories (e.g. pets, vehicles and sweets) are all hypernyms

hyponyms

examples within a category (e.g. pony, trick and sherbet lemons) are all hyponyms

idiom

a form of common non-literal expression (e.g. 'I was dead on my feet')

idiolect

your own individual way of speaking

illocutionary act

implying something in what we say

imperative

a command - a type of sentence where the subject is usually left out and the verb is in its bare forms (e.g. 'give the hat to me')

indefinite article

'a' or 'an'

indirect object

receives the action

inflection

an ending such as -ed, -s, or -ing added to change a tense or number, or in the case of nouns to make a plural