A level quiz 1

camrbidge

Antonym

A word with the opposite meaning to another word.

Connotation vs Denotation

The range of associated meanings brought to mind by a particular word, beyond its essential

meaning (or denotation).

Figurative Language

Language which expands upon the basic or literal meaning of a word or phrase (e.g. simile or

metaphor).

Hypernym vs Hyponym

Words for the categories into which hyponyms may be grouped (e.g. furniture is a hypernym of

table).

Idiom

Phrases generally understood in a language but which do not directly translate (e.g. I caught the

train by the skin of my teeth = I only just caught the train in time).

Intensifier

A word, often an adverb or adjective, which has little meaning by itself but is used to add force to

other phrases (e.g. really, very).

Jargon

Words and phrases known primarily by a group of people – often within a particular profession –

which enable them to exchange complex information efficiently. Jargon may be unintelligible to

people outside the group who use it.

Lexis

The complete vocabulary of a language.

Root

The primary form of a word and word family, without prefixes or suffixes, which bears the major semantic contenct (the root of unwanted is want)

Semantic

Related to the meaning of words in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words. For example, "destination" and "last stop" technically mean the same thing, but students of semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning.

Semantic field

a lexical set of semantically related items, e.g., verbs of perception. For example, words like rain, thunder, clouds, and storm form a semantic field related to weather

Active vs. Passive voice

Active voice emphasizes the doer of the action, making sentences clear and concise. Passive voice emphasizes the receiver of the action, often used when the doer is unknown or unimportant

Adjunct

An optional or less-important part of a clause or sentence (e.g. on the floor in the sentence Idropped the glass on the floor).

Clause

Part of a sentence, containing (at least) a subject and a verb phrase.

Coordination vs subordination

Connecting two or more independent clauses through the use of coordinating conjunctions vs Connecting two or more clauses, only one of which is independent.

grammar

Has a wide meaning, but generally relates to rules for the organisation of meaning in a language.

Head Word

The main word in a phrase (e.g. the noun boy in the noun phrase the happy boy).

Mode

The format through which ideas or content are communicated to an audience. Modes include

spoken (e.g. a conversation, a spontaneous speech), written (e.g. a novel, the text of a leaflet),

electronic (e.g. an email, a blog), and image (e.g. a photograph), and can be combined in a variety

of mixed modes (e.g. a prepared speech, a podcast).

Modification (Premodification & Postmodification)

Adding words to a head word in order to give more detail, either before (premodification) or after (postmodification).

Mood

A grammatical feature through which a speaker or writer can express modality (i.e. an attitude

towards the content of an utterance), usually involving modal verbs such as can, ought or might.

Moods include the indicative/declarative (making a statement), the interrogative (asking a

question), the imperative (making a command), and the subjunctive (expressing wishes or

uncertainty).

Alternatively, ‘mood’ can also refer to the emotion or feelings evident in a text and the language

used to create these feelings.

noun phrase

A word (or group of words working together) which names a person, place or thing.

object

In grammar, the object is the thing or person acted upon by the subject (e.g. the phrase the meal in

the sentence The girl ate the meal).

prefix vs suffix

A group of letters, usually conveying a particular meaning, which are added to the front of a word

to give a new meaning (e.g. un-, pre-, and with-). vs A group of letters, usually conveying a particular meaning, which are attached to the end of a word

to modify its meaning.

sentence

Generally, a set of words that is grammatically complete, consisting of a main clause and

sometimes one or more additional subordinate clauses.

syllable

A single unit of pronunciation, containing a single vowel sound, which may form part of all of a

word (e.g. rain has one syllable, while sunshine has two).A single unit of pronunciation, containing a single vowel sound, which may form part of all of a

word (e.g. rain has one syllable, while sunshine has two).

syntax

The way words are ordered in a sentence.

tense

A grammatical feature (usually an inflection of a verb) that shows the relation in time between an

event or action and an utterance about it (e.g. We run is in the simple present tense, while We

were running is in the past progressive tense). Compare with Aspect.