Language, context + interaction (Topic 3)

predicate

The part of a sentence or clause that tells what the subject is or does

clause

A group of words containing a subject and a predicate. It can form a simple sentence or a part of a larger, complex sentence

passive clause

The original object becomes the grammatical subject while the original subject gets moved into an optional prepositional phrase

e.g. "The window was broken" or "The house is being painted" where the subject receives the action

existential clause

Involves a dummy subject using the pronoun there, which allows the subject to appear at the end of the clause as new information

e.g. "There is a..." "There are..."

discourse analysis

The study of how people use language to communicate ideas, build relationships, and create meaning in verbal or written communication

principle of end-focus

The order for new important information to occur at the end of the clause

principle of end-weight

New information is typically longer and more complex than old information, and is better placed late in a sentence

front focus

Breaking the normal sentence structure and putting new important information at the start to draw the listener's or reader's attention

given-new principle

A sentence starts with "given" information and ends with new, more important information

discourse markers

Words or phrases that connect ideas, signal transitions, or manage the flow of conversation but often do not change the basic meaning of a sentence e.g. but, however, because, for example

adjacency pairs

A basic unit of conversation made of two connected parts spoken by two different people.

e.g. A: How are you? B: I'm fine, thanks. And you?

interlocutor

A conversation partner

transition relevance place

A point in a conversation where it makes sense for a change in the speaker to occur

existential sentence

A sentence that tells us something exists, often used when presenting new information e.g. "There is a cat on the bed"

non-existential counterpart

The non-existential counterpart expresses the same idea as an existential sentence but makes the noun the subject instead of using "there is" e.g. "The cat is on the bed". When information is already known to the interlocutor it is more natural to switch to non-existential

clefting

Splitting a single clause into two clauses to highlight specific information

e.g. it-cleft "Maya bought a new car on Tuesday," becomes "A new car was what Maya bought on Tuesday"

it cleft

A subtype of cleft sentence that starts with the pronoun "it" plus a form of the verb "be"

e.g. "Maya bought a new car on Tuesday," becomes "It was Maya who bought the new car on Tuesday"

fronting

A word order change e.g. moving something to the front of the sentence to give it special focus

inversion

Inverting the order of the sentence e.g. the subject after the verb

dislocation

Moving an element to the left or right of a sentence, to focus the topic or to provide clarification

left-dislocation

A noun phrase is moved to the front of a sentence (the left side) and replaced inside the main clause by a matching pronoun

e.g. "I love this book" becomes "This book, I love it"

right-dislocation

A noun phrase is moved to the end of a sentence (the right side) and replaced inside the main clause by a matching pronoun

e.g. "I love this cake" becomes "I love it, this cake"

cohesion

The grammatical and lexical relationships that link clauses and sentences together in a cohesive way

cohesive devices

conjunctions, anaphora (using pronouns in place of proper nouns)

coherence

A piece of text that is logically and semantically connected. Text can be cohesive but not coherent e.g. the grammar is correct but sentences in a paragraph are unrelated

anaphora

A word or expression that refers back to a previously mentioned person, object or idea

e.g. Further reference to 'Maria' becomes 'she' or 'her'

extraposition

The subject of a sentence is moved from its initial position and replaced with the "dummy subject" it

e.g. without extraposition: "To learn a new language takes time," vs with extraposition: "It takes time to learn a new language"

minimal responses

Also known as back-channelling, when the listener makes encouraging noises or uses brief utterances to signal that they are hearing or are interested in what the speaker is saying

reflexive pronouns

Pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence e.g. myself, itself, yourself, herself. They are used when the person or thing doing the action is the same person or thing receiving the action and can be used to clarify that there is not another unknown person

deixis

The use of words or expressions whose meaning depends on the speaker, time, place or situation