English Language A-Level Vocab

Define lexis:

All the words and phrases available (dictionary).

Define graphology:

The writing of a language, as well as other visual elements on the page.

Define grammar:

The rules of appropriate language use. Syntax is part of grammar.

Define syntax:

The order of words in a sentence

Define orthography:

The part of language concerned with letters and spelling.

Define phonology:

The pronunciation and sound patterns which affect understanding of words.

Define morphology:

The structure of words with their meaning. (Ex. prefixes like hydro- and suffixes like -ing).

Define pramatics:

How the (social context) in which words and phrases are used affects their meaning.

Define semantics:

The meaning of words

Define archaism:

A word no longer in use (belonging to the past)

Define obsolete:

Word is no longer used or understood

Define coinage:

Inventing completely new words.

Define neologism:

A newly created word.

Define derivation:

New words are formed from existing words, usually by adding a suffix or prefix.

Define eponym:

Words from names of people/places.

Define acronym:

A word formed from the initial letters (or sometimes initial syllables) or a series of words and pronounced as a word.

Define conversion:

Creating a new word by changing its part of speech

Define compounding:

Making a new word by joining two or more words.

Define blending:

Forming a new word by joining the beginning of one word to the end of another.

Define reduplication:

Words are repeated with only slight change.

Define borrowing:

Introduction of specific words, constructions, or morphological elements from one language to another.

Define pejoration:

When a word takes on a more negative meaning.

Define amelioration:

When a word takes on a more positive meaning.

Define broadening:

When a word expands from its original meaning and becomes more general.

Define narrowing:

When a word takes on a more restricted meaning.

Define etymology:

The roots, the history of the word, where it came from.

Define descriptivism:

The belief that language should be described as people actually use it, rather than judged as right or wrong.

Define prescriptivism:

The belief that language should follow established rules and standards, and that some forms of language are more correct or appropriate than others.

Define contraction:

Two words becomes one / An apostrophe is inserted where letters are omitted.

Define corpus:

A corpus is a large, structured collection of texts, often stored digitally, and used for linguistic research.

Define corpus data:

The texts inside the corpus, may include books, newspapers, spoken transcripts, and online writing. Provides ‘real-world’ language examples.

Define corpus linguistics:

The study of a language using corpus data. Allows linguists to identify patterns not obvious in small samples.

Define sample:

A subset of data from a corpus, important for studying manageable sections, and must be representative.

Define diachronic:

Study of language change over time.

Define synchronic:

Study of language at a particular point in time.

Define quantitative language data:

Data that can be counted and measured/supports statistical analysis. Ex. Frequency of a word, collocation strength.

Define word sketch:

A summary of a word’s behavior in a corpus. Shows collocations, grammatical relations, and usage contexts.

Define lemma:

A base word and all its inflected forms. Example: lemma = run so it includes runs, ran, and running.

Define collocation:

Words that frequently appear together/shows natural word partnerships. Collocates are the words that commonly appear near (or alongside) a particular word in natural language use. Ex. Commit a sin/commit a crime/commit an offense.

Define n-gram:

A sequence of n-words that appear together. Bigram = 2 words (in fact), trigram = 3 words (by the way)

Define n-gram graph:

A visual representation of the frequency of n-grams over time. Ex. tracking popularity of phrases across decades.

Define concordance:

A list showing every occurrence of a word/phrase in a corpus / Displays it in context (surrounding words).

Define concordancer:

The software tool that generates concordances. Ex. Sketch Engine, Antconc

Define Mutual Information Score:

A statistics showing the strength of collocation. High MI = words occur together more often than by chance. Ex. Rancid butter (rare but strongly associated)

Define Functional Theory:

Language changes to meet new communicative and societal needs. Words can be forgotten/made based on the needs of the users. Ex. Thou & Thee to you

Define Cultural Transmission Theory:

Language changes because people imitate and reproduce the language of their communities, especially high prestige groups. Social interactions/adopts to reflect society.

Define Random Fluctuation Theory:

Changes happen through random mistakes, mishearing, or inconsistencies.

Define Substratum Theory:

When languages come into contact, the less dominant influences the dominant.

Define Theory of Lexical Gaps:

New words arise when a concept needs naming. Ex. Blog/Vlog

Define Wave Model:

Change spreads outward gradually like ripples across regions/social groups. (More fluid/continuous) Linguistic innovations begin in one community or region and they gradually diffuse to surrounding areas and groups.

Define Tree Model:

Language branches from common ancestors. (Family tree, Darwin Evolution). Languages split and diverge systematically and related languages share common ancestral features.

Define unfolding of language:

Change happens through innovation for economy, expressiveness, and analogy. Ex. didn’t.

Define S-Curve Model

Change spreads slowly, then rapidly, then slowly again, following an s-shaped curve.

Define Language Change & Technology

Technology accelerates and reshapes language by encouraging speed, informality, abbreviation, and new registers. This change is natural, not decay. Language change is natural and gradual, like the tide. Older forms retreat while new ones roll in. Ex. Pantaloons to trousers.

What happened in 1066?

Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror of Normandy took over England.

What happened in 1476?

William Caxton brought the first printing press to England.

What happened during the 1400’s-1600’s?

The Great Vowel Shift (pronunciation shifts)

What happened in 1755?

Samuel Johnson wrote his dictionary.

What happened in 1795?

Murray’s English Grammar emerged.