English Language - Definitions

English Language is alright ig mate

Prescriptivism

The belief that there is a right way and wrong way to use language.

It can be both an activity and an ideology and includes judging and correcting language.

This can be very harmful, especially towards minority dialects but can also be helpful, especially towards languages with not many speakers, as helps to help it alive

Nouns

Labels for places, people, things, ideas or concepts

Proper Nouns

Nouns that are specific (e.g. Sarah’s mum or Tesco) and are signified by capital first letters

Common Nouns

Anything that isn’t a proper noun

Countable Nouns

Nouns that you can place a number in front of (e.g. coins)

Non-countable nouns

Nouns that you cannot place a number in front of (e.g. money)

Concrete nouns

Things that you can measure and see (e.g. cow)

Abstract nouns

Unobservable ideas (e.g. justice)

Verbs

Actions, occurrences or a state of being

Main Verbs

Verbs that express the main action or state of being (most verbs)

Modal Auxiliary verbs

Verbs that imply the likelihood of an event (e.g. will, might, should, could, etc.)

Auxiliary Primary verbs (Helper verbs)

Verbs that show time and contiunity (e.g. be, have, do) and are used to construct compound tenses

Tenses

Past, Present, Future

Aspects

Simple, Progressive, Perfect, Perfect Progressive

Expected Written Word Aspects

Planned, Distant, Formal, Permanent, Transactional, Delayed, Standard

Expected Spoken Word Aspects

Spontaneous, Close, Informal, Ephemeral, Interactional, Immediate, Non-standard

Superlatives

An adjective or adverb that expresses being more in particular quality than anything else of that same type (e.g. finest, greatest, worst)

Representation

The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way

Tenor

The relationship between the writer and reader

Field

the content of the text

Mode

How the text is produced (spoke, written, mixed mode)

Adjectives

Words that modify nouns (answer questions like, what kind, which one, how many/much, whose etc)

Attributive/Pre-modifying adjectives

Adjectives placed before the noun (e.g. the hungry girl)

Predicative/Post-modifying adjectives

Adjectives placed after the noun (e.g. the girl was hungry)

Descriptive adjectives

Literally most traditional adjectives (e.g. comfortable, pink, large etc)

Articles (adjectives)

Definite: The

Indefinite: A, An

Determiners (adjectives)

Demonstratives: This, That, These, Those

Pronouns + Possessive Determiners: My, Your, Her, It's, Our, Sarah's

Quantifiers: a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most

Numbers: one, ten, thirty

Lexis

The words used in text or spoken data

Choices of lexis

Euphemisms, dysphemisms, archaisms, jargon, slang, dialect, colloquialism, swearing, taboo terms, cliches

Morphology (grammar)

Refers to the way words are formed and structured

Syntax (grammar)

The arrangement of words and phrases to create sentences

Collocations

Common language phrases e.g. takes your breath away

Graphology

Visual aspects of technical design and appearance of a text that help to communicate meaning.

Discourse

Extended stretches of communication occuring in different genres, modes and contexts

Phonetics, phonology, prosodics

How speech sounds are articulated and analysed

Hermeneutical disarmament

The process in which a person is rendered less able to communicate ideas and experiences due to drastic linguistic meaning change

Register

A type of language used for a particular purpose or setting (about the speaker’s choice of lexis)

Semantics

How meaning is created through words (by context and association)

Idiolect

The individual’s unique way of speaking (comparable to style in writen language)

Sociolect

Describes the variety used by a speaker in their speech communication and written networks (friendship groups, occupations, social class etc.)

Genderlect

An outdated term to describe the lexical choices made between men and women