English Language terminology and child language

Back Channelling

A way of showing a speaker that you are following what they are saying and understand, often through interjections like I see, yes, OK and uhu.

Tag Questions

Changing a declarative or imperative sentence mood into an interrogative. Some theorists see this as a sign of inferiority on the part of women.

Comment Clause

A short word group (such as "you see" and "I think") that adds a parenthetical remark to another word group.

Hyperbole

An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as "to wait an eternity."

Stative Verbs

Verbs that express a state rather than an action. They usually relate to thoughts, emotions, relationships, senses, states of being and measurements.

Fillers

A sound produced by speakers to keep a conversation going and avoid silence. eg. urmmm, uhhh.

Antonyms

Words with opposite semantic value.

Abstract Nouns

A noun denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. eg. love

Acronym

A word composed of the initials of other words.

Asyndetic Listing

is a series of items separated by commas, rather than conjunctions like "and".

Syndetic Listing

A listing of items with the use of the conjunction "and".

Adjective

A word that describes a noun.

Abbreviation

A shortened form of a word or phrase.

Collective Nouns

A count noun that denotes a group of individuals.

Pronoun

A word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this).

Concrete Noun

You experience them through your five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. If you cannot see, hear, taste, touch, or smell something, it is not this.

Dynamic Verb

Verbs where the situation described by the verb process changes over time and it involves a dynamic process.

Personification

The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

Pre-modifier

A word, especially an adjective or a noun, that is placed before a noun and describes it or restricts its meaning in some way In 'a loud noise', the adjective 'loud' is a pre-modifier.

Proper Nouns

A word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things common noun, or to name a particular one of these proper noun.

Accent

The specific way words are pronounced according to geographical region.

Simile

A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

Prefix

An affix attached to the front of a root word that creates a new word.

Conjunction

A word which joins together different parts of a sentence.

Active Voice

When the verb of a sentence is in this voice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence "Kevin hit the ball." Kevin (the subject of the sentence) acts in relation to the ball.

Coinage

The creation of a completely new word.

Dialect

The language variety of a geographical region or social background, revealed by a variation in lexical and grammatical terms.

Genre

The form of the text.

Graphology

The study of written and printed symbols and of writing systems.

Jargon

Language that may only be understood by those who are part of that particular lexis.

Phonology

The system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language.

Noun Phrase

A word or group of words containing a noun and functioning in a sentence as subject, object, or prepositional object.

Register

The level of formality in language register is determined by the context in which it is used. For example, a casual register is used in everyday language, while a formal register is used in proper speech.

Sociolect

The dialect of a particular social class.

Superlative

Expressing the highest or a very high degree of a quality.

Phonetics

The science and study of speech sounds and their production, transmission and reception.

Low Frequency Lexis

Words that are not commonly used in the English Language.

High Frequency Lexis

Words that are commonly used in the English Language.

Syntax

the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences and the relationship of their component parts

Vernacular

The natural informal speech patterns used by persons indigenous to a certain area.

Transitive Verb

It directs action toward someone or something named in the same sentence.

Intransitive Verb

It does not direct action toward someone or something.

Interrogative

The sentence mood which is in the form of a question.

Exclamatory

The sentence mood that is expressing surprise, strong emotion, or pain.

Declarative

The sentence mood that takes the form of a simple statement.

Imperative

The sentence mood that denotes the mood of a verb that expresses a command or exhortation.

Accomodation

Giles' theory that suggests we adjust our speech to suit who we are talking to.

Auxillary Verb

A verb placed in front of the main verb.

Blend

A word formed by combining parts of other words e.g. smog is formed from the nouns smoke and fog.

Borrowing

A word or expression taken from another language.

Portmanteau

Another word for a blended word.

Broadening

When a word retains its old meaning(s) but also acquires new ones.

Clause

A group of lexical items centred round a verb phrase.

Complex Sentence

A sentence containing a main clause with one or more subordinate or dependent clauses, often connected with a subordinating conjunction.

Compound Sentence

A sentence containing two or more main clauses, connected by coordinating conjunctions, or sometimes just separated by punctuation (semi-colon).

Connotation

An associated, symbolic meaning relying on culturally shared conventions.

Convergence

When speech styles move close together.

Euphemism

A socially acceptable work or phrase used to avoid talking about something potentially distasteful.

Discourse

Reference to the language in which a specific area of knowledge is discussed. It is a key framework.

Hyponyms

Members of a catagory

Irony

A very general term descriptive of any piece of writing in which we assume a difference between what is said and what is meant.

Imagery

The use of figurative language for imaginative and emotional reasons.

Intertextuality

When one text echoes another.

Metaphor

A comparison where the similarity is assumed.

Neologism

Using an old word in a new way.

Pejoration

The denotation of a word has become more negative.

Pun

Play on words that have several meanings.

Symbolic

Has both literal and metaphorical meanings.

Symbol

An item or activity that has relevance on both literal and metaphorical levels.

Satire

Literature that explores vice or folly and makes them appear ridiculous; usually morally censorious.

Verbs

A word indicative of doing or being.

Word Class

The category in which a given word fits, can be dependent on the context/use of the word.

Auxiliary Verb

A verb that supports or "helps" another, it shows tense or modality.

Modal Auxiliary Verb

Is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality - that is, likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation. Examples include the English verbs can/could, may/might, must, will/would, and shall/should.

Cohesion

A measure of how well a text fits together as a whole, its internal logic and construction.

Colloquialism

An established set of informal terms used in everyday language.

Compound-Complex Sentence

A sentence containing at least two main clauses and at least one subordinate clause.

Descriptivism

An approach to language study that focuses on actual language use.

Discourse Community

A group with shared values and approaches to reading.

Discourse Marker

A word or phrase that indicates a change in topic, or a return to a previous topic.

Passive Voice

The noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence (such as Our troops defeated the enemy) appears as the subject of a sentence.

Elision

The missing out of sounds or parts of words in speech or writing.

Ellipsis

The missing out of a word or words in a sentence.

Ideology

A set of belief systems, attitudes or a world view held by an individual or groups.

identification

When the text producer identifies themselves in the text

Juxtaposition

Positioning words, ideas or images next to each other in a text to create certain effects.

Lexis

A general term for the words of a language.

Narrative Voice

The point of view a text is written from.

Oxymoron

A phrase that brings two conflicting ideas together.

political correctness

avoiding language and actions that insult, exclude or harm people who are already experiencing disadvantage and discrimination.

Pragmatics

The study of how language functions in social situations.

Received Pronunciation

An accent traditionally associated with educated people and the upper class.

Semantics

The study of how the meanings of words are created and interpreted.

Slang

Informal, non standard vocabulary used in casual speech.

Standard English

A dialect of English considered "correct" and "normal" because it has distinctive and standardised features of spelling etc.

Sub Genre

A group of similar texts that combine with others to create a complete genre.

Subordinate Clause

A clause that gives extra information about the main clause, but can't stand alone and still make sense.

Subordinating Conjunction

A linking word like "although" that connects a clause to the main clause.

Symbolism

When a word or phrase represents something other than its literal meaning.

Loan Words

Words that are taken from other languages.