Studied by 162 people
Morphology
The study of the structure of words.
Lexicology
The study of the form, meaning, and behaviour of words.
Syntax
The study of how words are arranged into phrases, clauses and sentences.
Semantics
The study of the meaning of words
Phonetics
The study of how we make speech sounds and how we classify them.
Phonology
The study of how speech sounds are organised and the patterns that speech sounds form within a language.
Discourse
The study of language in a social context and how we use meaning as a part of conversation, rather than just words and their definitions.
Pragmatics
The study of how language is used within a given context and how context contributes to meaning.
Functions of language: Referential
The sharing of information - ideas, facts, and opinions. The information may or may not be true, but presents it as factual.
Functions of language: Phatic
Create and maintain social connections between the addresser and the addressee. They tend to be somewhat meaningless outside a social context, and the focus is on the contact - the way the message is delivered and received
Functions of language: Emotive
Allows users to express emotions and desires. The purest demonstration of the emotive function is an interjection.
Functions of language: Conative
Typically involves directions, questions and commands. Messages with a conative function aim to cause the addressee to react in some way.
Functions of language: Metalinguistic
Used to talk about language itself. This could be to clarify something, clear up ambiguity, or to describe linguistical terms.
Functions of language: Poetic
Focuses on the formation of the message itself and the beauty or wit of the text’s composition, rather than on the addresser or addressee.
Register
Register describes the way in which an addresser intentionally alters their language to better suit the situation, changing things like their vocabulary and level of formality. These different aspects can also be merged to achieve a specific communicative purpose.
Tenor
Tenor refers to the relationship between individuals communicating with each other. This relationship could vary depending on the professional roles of the speakers, the status difference between them, and their social distance. Social distance refers to the level of intimacy or remoteness between the speakers, and status refers to their social standing/power/prestige.
Audience
The intended set of listeners or readers. Certain demographics can be targeted by use of specific language suited to that demographic.
Cultural context
Cultural context relates to the attitudes, values and beliefs of the author and the audience.
Situational context
Situational context refers to everything that works to shape the language that is being used. This includes the field, tenor, language mode, setting, and text type.
Field
The field of a text describes the subject matter under discussion. It’s closely linked to semantic domain, and it can be useful to consider when discussing register.
Language mode
Whether the text is written or spoken. Written texts have been viewed as being more formal, often using standard form of language with conventional spelling, punctuation and grammar, while spoken texts have been viewed as having more casual language, containing long and loosely connected ideas.
Setting
Setting relates to the surroundings in which the text occurs, including both location and time. The setting of a text can directly affect register, tenor, field, and language mode.
Text type
The form that the writing takes, e.g. text message, article, speech. Authors will often change their language style and register to conform to a particular text type.
Authorial intent
Authorial intent is what the author aims to do or achieve with a text. It influences the language that is used in a text as well as its level of preparedness.
Morpheme
The smallest meaningful unit of language.
Free morpheme
Stand alone and are words in their own right.
Bound morpheme / affix
Cannot stand independently, must be attached to a free morpheme.
Inflectional affix
Do not change the meaning or word class, only provide additional grammatical information such as plurality, possession or sense.
Derivational affix
Changes the meaning of words, creates new words and sometimes changes the word class.
Root morpheme
The semantic base or centre of a word, contains its primary meaning. May be free or bound.
Prefix
Affixes that are attached to the beginnings of words.
Suffix
Affixes that are attached to the ends of words. All inflectional affixes are suffixes.
Infix
Affixes that are added in the middle of a word.
Noun (n)
The name of a person, place or thing. (e.g. Daniel, London, dog)
Pronoun (pn)
Used in place of a noun or noun phrase to avoud repetition. (e.g. I, you, we, this)
Subject pronoun
Replaces a noun or noun phrase in the subject position.
Object pronoun
Replaces a noun or noun phrase in the object position.
Reflexive pronoun
Contains the suffix ‘-self’ or ‘-selves’. (e.g. himself, herself, themselves)
Possessive pronoun
Indicates possession or ownership. (e.g. his, mine, theirs, its)
Interrogative pronoun
Used to introduce a question. (e.g. who, what, why)
Relative pronoun
Helps to introduce a relative clause within a larger sentence by relating that clause to the noun that it modifies. (e.g. the train that left the station.)
Demonstrative pronoun
Refers to a particular person, place, or thing. (e.g. that, this)
Verb (v)
Shows an action or state of being. (e.g. go, speak, like, writes, running)
Main verb
The most basic form of verbs. Simply shows an action or state of being.
Participle verb
A verb ending in ‘-ing’, ‘-ed/-d’, ‘-en/-n’ or ‘-t’. Participles may function as adjectives, describing or modifying nouns.
Infinitive verb
Base form of a verb, with ‘to __’. Usually functions as a noun, or an adjective or adverb.
Primary auxiliary verb (aux)
Usually used to construct grammatical tenses. There are three primary auxiliary verbs in English, ‘be’, ‘have’, and ‘do’. These verbs, when coupled with a main verb, show aspects of tense, time, or voice.
Modal auxiliary verb (mod)
Expresses the possibility, ability, intent, obligation, or necessity of an action occurring. They modify verbs to change their mode. There is a fixed set of modals in English: ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘might’, and ‘must’.
Adjective (adj)
Describes, modifies, or gives more information about a noun. (e.g. big, beautiful, red)
Adverb
Help to describe, modify or qualify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and whole phrases or sentences. Most commonly, they are formed by adding ‘-ly’ to the end of an adjective, and they express elements such as time, place and manner; cause and effect; degree; certainty; frequency; and comment. (e.g. only, never, slowly, here)
Preposition (prep)
Expresses a relationship between a noun and another word, phrase, or element in a sentence. (e.g. with, during, against, under, apart of, between)
Conjunction (conj)
Link words, phrases, clauses and sentences together. They allow us to form complex ideas and sentences, and demonstrate relationships between words or phrases. (e.g. and, but, since)
Coordinating conjunction
A conjunction that helps to place two or more elements side by side in a way that demonstrates equality and equivalence. There are seven coordinators in English: ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘nor’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘yet’, and ‘so’ (FANBOYS).
Subordinating conjunction
A conjunction that links clauses and sentences to each other in a way that demonstrates a parent-child relationship. The ‘parent’ sentence is referred to as the independent clause, and the ‘child’ sentence is referred to as the dependent clause. (e.g. because, since, as, though, while)
Determiner
Words that are placed in front of a noun, and helps to clarify the noun, specify quantity, or indicate possession.
Article determiner
Provides information about the specificity or definiteness of the noun. (e.g. the, an, a)
Quantifier determiner
Helps to specify the quantity of a noun, using a scale of reference. (e.g. none, few, all, several, most, some)
Demonstrative determiner
Indicates specific nouns in a sentence. Helps provide information about the noun in relation to the speaker and listener. (e.g. this, that, these, those)
Possessive determiner
Used before a noun to express ownership or possession. (e.g. my, your, hers, its, our, their)
Interjection (interj)
A word or phrase that expresses feelings, or sometimes requests/demands. They tend to be highly expressive and emotive, adding colour to language. They also include greetings as part of conversational exchanges. (e.g. oh no!, wow!, hi, bye)
Phrase
A single word or group of words that are related to each other and, together, form a structural unit that conveys meaning.
Noun phrase
Contains a noun as the head of the phrase, and modifiers to that noun. (e.g. ‘the happy mouse’, ‘the mouse in my pocket’, ‘the mouse who was very happy’)
Verb phrase
Consists of a main verb and any modifiers. These modifiers include primary and modal auxiliaries, infinitives, adverbs, noun phrases acting as objects, and complements. (e.g. ‘I ate the cake’, ‘he might have seen a dog’)
Prepositional phrase
Consists of a preposition and a noun phrase that is considered to be its object, and they modify nouns, verbs or adjectives within a larger phrase, clause to sentence. (e.g. ‘the Tardis is bigger on the inside’)
Adjective phrase
Consists of an adjective as its head and may include modifiers to that adjective. Usually the modifiers are adverbs or other adjectives. This type of phrase describes a noun in a sentence. (e.g. ‘I wore a bright pink fluffy jumper’)
Adverb phrase
Consists of an adverb as its head and may include modifiers to that adverb. This phrase can a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverb phrases help to describe elements the same way adverbs do. (e.g. ‘I ate the cake very quickly’)
Clauses
A set of phrases that must, as a minimum, contain both a subject and a predicate. This means that there needs to be a main verb (predicator) and a noun phrase (subject) that acts upon that verb. Clauses can also contain objects, complements, and adverbials. They may form a complete sentence (independent clause) or part of a sentence (dependent clause).
Subject
The main actor that plays a role with the verb of a clause. Subjects are typically noun phrases. (e.g. she, the pilot, the happy owner)
Predicate
Consists of the main verb of a clause and all of its modifiers. It contains the whole of the clause that comes after the subject. (e.g. ‘the cake was baked last Tuesday’, ‘she gave a cookie to the first person she saw on her way to school’)
Object
The object of the clause provides further information about the subject and the verb. While clauses will always have a subject and a predicate, they will not always have an object.
(e.g. ‘I ate the cake‘, ‘Dylan sold his laptop’)
Sometimes, more than one object appears. When this occurs, we categorise them as direct or indirect.
Direct object
The noun phrase that is directly affected by the verb. (e.g. ‘Josh cooked dinner for his son’, ‘Paul read his daughter a story’)
Indirect object
The noun phrase that in indirectly affected by the verb. (e.g. ‘Josh cooked dinner for his son’, ‘Paul read his daughter a story’)
Complement
A word or set of words that complete the meaning of a subject or a predicate. They are essential to understanding; if the complement is removed, the sentence will no longer make sense. Complements can complete a subject or the object. (e.g. ‘The pizza felt hot.’ - subject complement, ‘The comment made everyone feel awkward.’ - object complement)
Complements come directly after a copula verb, which are a special type of verb that only appear in sentences that require complements, such as ‘be’, ‘seem’, and ‘feel’.
Adverbial
Provides extra information about a verb. They often say where, when, how, or how often something occurs. Unlike complements, adverbs provide optional information, and can be removed without affecting the overall comprehensibility of the clause. (e.g. ‘the cat was purring on my lap’, ‘she performed poorly’, ‘we are working harder’, ‘stress levels increase most often before a big life event.’)
Sentence
Conveys thoughts, ideas, and statements of fact. They must contain at least one subject and one predicate.
Declarative sentence
A statement of fact. While the statement may or may not be true, the sentence’s framing implies that it is. (e.g. ‘It’s raining outside‘, ‘the sun will not rise tomorrow’)
Interrogative sentence
Framed in the form of a question, ending with a question mark. Can be rhetorical or genuine. (e.g. ‘are you sure?’, ‘where are you going?’)
Imperative sentence
Act as commands, instructions or requests. Most of the time, due to the way they are framed, the subject is not stated, as it’s likely to be the addressee, it’s implied, or it’s understood within the context. (e.g. ‘go outside’, ‘cut the pizza into quarters’)
Exclamative sentence
Expresses emotions and adds emphasis. Will often end with an exclamation mark. (e.g. ‘what big eyes you have!’, ‘wow, look at him go!’)
Simple sentence (structure)
Contains a single clause that consists of a subject and a predicate. The clause contains all of the information required to convey meaning. (e.g. ‘I ate the pie’, ‘he cried’)
Compound sentence (structure)
Consists of two or more independent clauses that are joined together using a coordinator, therefore they are equal/equivalent. (e.g. ‘I ate the pie and she ate the cake’, ‘he cried and she laughed’)
Complex sentence (structure)
Consists of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses, joined to the independent clause using a subordinator. (e.g. ‘I ate the pie after she ate the cake’, ‘He cried because she laughed’)
Compound-complex sentence (structure)
A combination of compound and complex sentences. They contain at least two independent clauses that have been joined by a coordinator, and at least one dependent clause that has been joined by a subordinator. (e.g. 'Ben ate the croissant and I ate the pie after she ate the cake’, ‘He cried because she laughed and I did to’)
Sentence fragment (structure)
Incomplete sentences that are missing either the subject or the predicate. However, the fragment still makes sense within the text as a whole. (e.g. ‘I can’t even’, ‘How are you? not well.’)
Semantic domain
Contains a group or range of words that have related meanings. We often use words from the same semantic domain to aid comprehension; when words are lexically related, they are more easily and quickly understood. Semantic domain is closely linked to field.
Prosody
The elements of speech that exist outside single sounds such as vowels or consonants; it is the study of the acoustic elements of our voices that affect whole sequences of syllables.
Pitch
The relative height, ranging between high and low, of auditory sound. The pitch of our voice can change naturally, and on purpose.
high pitch - ↑(text)↑
low pitch - ↓(text)↓
rising pitch - /
falling pitch - \
Intonation
Relates to the patterns of pitch variation across phrases, clauses, and sentences, indicating their nature (question, statement, etc.)
continuing intonation - ,
final intonation - .
rising/questioning intonation - ?
falling intonation - \
Stress
The intensity that is placed upon a syllable/word within a phrase, clause or sentence. The speaker may increase the length, pitch or volume to create emphasis. Depending on where the stress is in the sentence, the meaning can change.
stress - word
Tempo
The speed of which something is delivered. It is often linked to the communication of emotion or intent.
fast tempo/allegro - <A (text) A>
slow tempo/lento - <L (text) L>
Volume
The relative increase, decrease or maintained level of decibels across a spoken text.
very loud/fortissimo - <FF (text) FF>
loud/forte - <F (text) F>
soft/piano - <P (text) P>
very soft/pianissimo - <PP (text) PP>
increasingly louder/crescendo - <CRE (text) CRE>
increasingly softer/diminuendo - <DIM (text) DIM>
Paralinguistic features
Features of speech that help to distinguish it from writing, but are hard to transcribe, even using the IPA. Vocal effects such as coughs, laughter, and whispering can add meaning to a conversation, as well as non-verbal communication such as body language, gaze and gesture.
Language feature: Duality of meaning
The different sounds the human voice can make and how they can be combined to make limitless meaning.
Language feature: Productivity
That the potential number of different utterances is infinite.
Language feature: Arbitrariness
There is no necessary connection between words and what they mean, but although language is arbitrary, it is also rule-driven.
Language feature: Displacement
People are not limited to talking only about things that are happening then and there.
Language feature: Reflexivity
We use language to talk and think about language.
Language feature: Cultural transmission
We learn to use language through interaction with other people, and the language we acquire reflects the cultural context we were born into.
Note 
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