CSET English Subtest II: Language, Linguistics, and Literacy

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering linguistics, grammar, literacy strategies, and language history from the CSET English Subtest II study guide.

Chronology

A term introduced in the English language via the work of Renaissance scientist William Gilbert.

Snark

A word created by combining the words snake and shark.

Old English Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns and adjectives that were originally gender-specific and determined by inflection.

Middle English Pronouns

The period where demonstrative pronouns/adjectives became fixed, gender-neutral forms such as this, that, these, and those.

One fell swoop

A Shakespearean expression that successfully entered the common English vernacular.

Great Vowel Shift

A 15th-century change where English long vowel pronunciation shifted, but spellings remained the same, causing modern sound-symbol discrepancies.

Universal Grammar

A set of principles applying to all languages that are unconsciously accessible and innate to every human language user.

Creolization

The development of a language through the merging of two or more different languages, becoming more complex over time as it is learned as a first language.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning in a language that cannot be further subdivided into meaningful linguistic parts.

Free Morpheme

A unit of meaning that can stand alone as a complete word, such as 'bag'.

Bound Morpheme

A unit of meaning that must be attached to another word, such as the inflectional ending 's'.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of speech sound that, when combined with others, forms a word.

Overt Inflectional Ending

A suffix like the 's' in 'pretends' that marks tense or number without changing the word's part of speech.

Derivational Suffix

A suffix that changes the part of speech of the base word, such as '-ive' changing 'talk' to 'talkative'.

Pragmatics

The study of language as communication, focusing on the uses of utterances in various contexts and speaker intention.

Code-switching

The linguistic behavior where a speaker alternates between separate language dialects according to the social situation or for effect.

Interlanguage

An intermediate systematic set of rules internalized by a second-language learner to speak and understand the target language.

Critical Period Hypothesis

The theory that the capacity to acquire language peaks in early childhood and diminishes after age five or the onset of puberty.

Affective Factor

An emotional variable, such as the fear of embarrassment, that influences the success and speed of second-language acquisition.

Acculturation

The degree to which a second-language learner integrates into and feels accepted by the target culture, correlating with language proficiency.

Semantic Feature Analysis

A reading activity where readers use a grid to organize information, analyze categories, and make comparisons between key vocabulary words.

Repeated Oral Reading

A practice where a reader reads a short text aloud multiple times at an independent level to improve fluency and reading rate.

Automatic Word Recognition

The ability to identify words quickly and effortlessly, which is reinforced through repeated reading practices.

Context Clues

A metacognitive strategy where a reader uses surrounding text to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

Visual Imagery

A comprehension strategy where readers use background knowledge to form vivid mental images related to word meanings.

Synthesizing

A high-level comprehension strategy where a reader integrates information from a text to understand key concepts rather than just recalling facts.

Independent Clause

A group of words with a subject and verb that can stand alone as a complete sentence.

Coordinating Conjunction

A word used to connect two independent clauses, such as 'but' in 'Last January was cold, but February was colder'.

Prepositional Phrase

A unit consisting of a preposition and its object, such as 'during the game,' which can function as an adverb modifying a verb.

Appositional Phrase

A phrase that identifies or describes a nearby noun, such as 'my favorite writer' describing 'Gabriel García Márquez'.

Embedded Appositional Phrase

An appositional phrase set within the body of a sentence rather than at the beginning or end.

-ize

A derivational suffix typically used to change an adjective into a verb, such as 'modernize'.

Noncount Noun

A mass noun like 'water' that represents a concept or substance indivisible into countable units.

Noun Phrase

A syntactic unit that functions as a noun, such as the infinitive phrase 'To run an entire marathon' serving as a sentence subject.

Adverb Clause

A phrase beginning with a subordinating conjunction that modifies a verb, such as 'when the earth thawed'.

Modals

A set of auxiliary helping verbs including 'can', 'would', and 'must' used with other verbs to express mood or tense.

Verbal

A word formed from a verb but not used as a verb in a sentence, such as a participle or infinitive.

Participial Phrase

A verbal phrase used as an adjective to modify a noun, such as 'wearing the blue suit'.

Latin Root: prehendere

A root meaning 'to seize or grasp,' found in the words 'get' and 'apprentice'.

Greek Root: bios

A root meaning 'mode of life,' found in the word 'biosphere'.

Greek Root: sphaira

A root meaning 'ball,' found in the word 'biosphere'.

Greek Root: photo

A root meaning 'light,' found in the word 'photosynthesis'.

Greek Affix: syn

An affix meaning 'together' or 'with,' found in the word 'photosynthesis'.

Latin Root: pendere

A root meaning 'to hang,' shared by the words 'appendix' and 'perpendicular'.

Roundabout

In 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', a context clue indicates this word refers to a jacket or loose piece of clothing.

Truck

Slang used in 19th-century literature meaning 'stuff' or miscellaneous items.

Content (Stress Shift)

A word where syllable stress changes based on syntax; it is stressed on the first syllable as a noun and on the second as an adjective.

Hypercorrection

A linguistic behavior often used as a distractor, involving the over-application of a perceived grammatical rule.

Back-formation

A term for the creation of a new word by removing an affix from an existing word.

Deep Structure

A linguistic concept referring to the underlying semantic representation of a sentence.

Morpheme: /g/, /r/, /a/

The three distinct phonemes that comprise the word 'gray'.

Hypo-

A prefix meaning 'too little,' as seen in the word 'hypocritical'.

Latin Root: illustris

The origin of the English word 'illustrious'.

Old English: cniht

The origin of the English word 'knight'.

Middle French: galant

The origin of the English word 'gallant'.

Eponym

A word based on a person's name, such as 'quixotic' from the character Don Quixote.

Reasonable

An adjective formed by adding '-able' to the noun 'reason'.

Gender-neutral occupations

Terms like 'committee chairperson', 'flight attendant', and 'mail carrier' used in contemporary American English to reflect modern employment.

Open-ended narratives

Oral storytelling styles that develop through association or analogy, often influenced by sociocultural factors.

Topic-focused narratives

Oral storytelling styles that center on a single topic or conclusion.

Brain Lateralization in Infancy

The specialization of the left hemisphere for language starting from the time of infancy.

Phoneme Discrimination

The innate ability of infants to distinguish all human speech sounds, which diminishes as they specialize in their environmental language.

Automaticity

The goal of repeated reading, allowing readers to read more quickly and in a natural, fluid manner.

Prior Knowledge: Folktales

Understanding specific genre narrative structures (plot, setting) to enhance comprehension of specific cultural texts.

Coordinating Conjunction: but

A conjunction used to join two independent clauses to form a compound sentence.

Subordinating Conjunction: when

A word that introduces an adverb clause, such as 'when the earth thawed'.

Infinitive Phrase as Subject

A verbal phrase beginning with 'to' that acts as the noun subject of a sentence.

Mass Noun construction

Indefinite constructions preceded by 'some' or 'much' rather than 'a' or 'one'.

Verbal Phrase: wearing

In 'The man wearing the blue suit', 'wearing' is a participle forming an adjective phrase.

Prepositional Phrase: during the game

A phrase that functions as an adverb to modify the verb 'ate'.

Latin: tribunus

The Latin root for the English word 'tribunal'.

Latin: miscellanea

The Latin root for the English word 'miscellany'.

Latin: species

The Latin root for the English word 'specific'.

Scroll (Verb)

The 1973 expansion of a 15th-century noun to describe moving text on a screen.

Hover (20th Century Meaning)

The expansion of a word meaning 'to remain suspended' to describe a computer user's action.

Browse (20th Century Meaning)

The expansion of a word meaning 'to look over casually' to describe digital navigation.

Digraph: ti

The sound-symbol correspondence in 'fraction' where 'ti' is pronounced as /sh/.

Digraph: wr

The sound-symbol correspondence in 'wreath' where 'wr' is pronounced as /r/.

Digraph: kn

The sound-symbol correspondence in 'knives' where 'kn' is pronounced as /n/.

Reliable sound-symbol correspondence

Words where letters follow predictable pronunciation rules, such as 'marvel'.

Syntactic Diagramming

A method of representing sentence structure by dividing it into noun and verb phrases.

Second-language interlanguage

The result of a learner internalizing their own systematic set of rules for the target language.

Standard English Dialect

The dialect a speaker may choose to use with strangers as part of situational code-switching.

Phonics and Syllabication

Skills applied by a reader to sound out an unfamiliar word in print.

Oral Vocabulary match

The process where a reader identifies a word's meaning after sounding it out by matching it to a known spoken word.

Bio-

A Greek root meaning 'mode of life'.

Sphere-

A Greek root derived from 'sphaira' meaning 'ball'.

Photo-

A Greek root meaning 'light'.

Syn-

A Greek affix meaning 'together'.

Biosphere Definition

The part of the world where life can exist, derived from Greek roots for life and ball.

Photosynthesis Definition

The process by which radiant energy aids in the combination of chemicals, derived from Greek roots for light and together.

Pendere

The Latin root which means 'to hang'.

Narrative Story Components

Plot, setting, characterization, and point of view used to predict and remember story development.

Independent Clause Example

'Last January was very cold'.

Adverb Phrase Function

A prepositional phrase like 'during the game' used to modify the verb 'ate'.

Participial Phrase Function

A phrase like 'wearing the blue suit' used to modify a noun like 'the man'.

-ness Suffix

A suffix used to form nouns from adjectives, mentioned as a distractor.

-ous Suffix

A suffix used to form adjectives, mentioned as a distractor.

-ence Suffix

A suffix used to form nouns, mentioned as a distractor.

Modal Auxiliary Verbs

A set of verbs (can, would, must) used with other verbs to express mood or tense.