Cambridge English A Terminology #9

Code-switching

Alternating between different varieties or registers of a language

Empiricism

In linguistics, the idea that all language is learned rather than innate.

Illocutionary act

Performing a specific act by the use of certain words. For example, the utterance I deny the accusation is not merely a statement, but also the denial itself. (EX: a denial, a promise)

Locutionary act

The performance of an utterance, understood according to its surface meaning.

Perlocutionary act

A speech act notable for the effect it produces on the listener (e.g. persuading them to do something).

Perception

Recognition and interpretation through the senses.

Post-telegraphic stage

The stage in CLA when children are able to speak using multiclausal sentences and more complex grammar, typcally beginning at around 36 months.

Reduplication

Where sounds are repeated with identical or only very slight change. This may be a characteristic of infant speech (da-da) or certain other categories, including rhyming (walkie-talkie), exact (bye-bye), and ablaut (chit-chat, hip-hop) reduplications.

Self

An individual’s idea of themselves as a unique and unified entity, separate from both other people and the external world.

Speech act

An utterance that also serves a performative function, including locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts.

Telegraphic stage

The stage in CLA when children are able to speak using two-to-three word utterances which contain enough information to make sense, but no more. This stage typically occurs between 18 and 36 months.

Visual and spatial processing

The cognitive ability to understand relationships between objects and to visualize images and ideas in the imagination.

Bidialectalism

The ability to use two different dialects of the same language.

Accommodation

In a language context, the extent to which people adjust aspects of their speech to be more like the speech of others around them.

Convergence

A form of accommodation whereby speakers begin to adopt the language variety of other speaks around them.

Nonstandard English

Forms of English that differ from Standard English in some way, and which are often associated with variations in geographical or social context.

Semantic change

The process through which words take on different meanings, including amelioration, broadening, narrowing, pejoration, and telescoping.

Face

In politeness theory, an individual’s sense of their own self-image and how they are perceived in social contexts.

Politeness strategies

Methods used by speakers to minimize the negative effects of face-threatening acts.

Positive face

An individual’s self-image, and the desire that others approve of it.

Negative face

The desire to have one’s perceived rights and freedoms respected by others.

Positive politeness

Conversational strategies used to help one’s interlocutor to maintain positive face.

Negative politeness

Conversational strategies used to help one’s interlocutor to maintain their negative face.

Prescriptivism

The view that language should have a strict set of rules that must be obeyed in speech and writing.

Descriptivism

The view that no use of language is incorrect and that variations in language should be acknowledged and recorded rather than corrected.