VCE English Language 3/4 Exam Revision: U3AOS2

Unit 3: Area of Study 2

Semantic Patterning

The repeated or stylistic use of words and their meanings to create a particular effect.

Metaphor

Figure of speech where word or phrase is applied to object which isn’t actually applicable.

Simile

Figure of speech that directly compares two different things with like or as.

Personification

Attributing human qualities. 

Animation

Attributing living qualities

Irony

Use of words to convey a meaning opposite of its literal meaning.

Pun

A joke that exploits the different possible meanings of a word or words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Oxymoron

A phrase that combines two contradictory terms.

Lexical Ambiguity

The use of a word or phrase that has more than one meaning, causing uncertainty.

Hyperbole

Uses deliberate and extreme exaggeration for effect.

Lexical Meaning

The specific, inherent meaning of a word, or lexeme, that is stored in our mental lexicon.

Denotation

The literal, objective, and dictionary definition of a word. It is the core, standardized meaning.

Connotation

The implied, associated, or emotional meaning that a word carries.

Idiom

Involves a fixed phrase or expression with a meaning that cannot be deduced from the literal meanings of the individual words.

Phonological Patterning

The deliberate and repeated use of specific sound features in a text. 

Alliteration

The repetition of the same initial consonant sound in a sequence of adjacent or closely connected words.

Assonance

The repetition of similar or identical vowel sounds within words, phrases, or sentences.

Consonance

The repetition of similar or identical consonant sounds in adjacent or nearby words. Unlike alliteration, the repeated sound can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of the words.

Rhyme

The repetition of identical or similar stressed vowel sounds at the end of words, usually at the end of lines in poetry or song lyrics. 

Onomatopoeia

Words that phonetically imitate, resemble, or suggest the sound they describe.

Rhythm

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in speech or writing.

Morphological Patterning

Stylistic or strategic repetition of word structures to create a specific effect.

Affixation

The systematic addition of affixes to a base word. 

Compounding

The process of combining two or more free morphemes to form a new, compound word.

Blending

Combining parts of two or more words to create a new word, which often results in a neologism.

Conversion of Word Class

Where a word changes its word class (e.g. from noun to verb) without adding any morphemes.

Creative Word Formation

The processes by which new words, or neologisms, are invented or adapted. 

Lexical Choice

The deliberate selection of specific words and phrases.

Lexical Patterning

The repeated or stylistic use of specific words, phrases, and word families.

Repetition

Straightforward repetition of a single word or phrase. May be used to emphasize, memories, cohesion, conveying emotion.

Synonymy and Antonymy

The repeated use of words with similar or opposite meanings, used for emphasis or dramatic effect. 

Collocation

Words that are frequently and habitually used together (e.g. ‘heavy rain’ instead of ‘strong rain’)

Hyponymy and Hypernymy

A word that is more specific than its hypernym (e.g. apple is a hyponym of fruit), while a hypernym is a word more general (e.g. fruit is a hypernym of apple).

Nominalisation

When a verb or adjective is converted to a noun or noun phrase. Condenses information, and often is used for the purpose of manipulation and obfuscation and reinforcing authority.

Euphemism

A mild, indirect, or vague term or phrase that is used in place of a direct one that might be considered harsh, unpleasant, offensive or embarrassing. Negotiates taboos and maintains positive face.

Cohesion

The grammatical and lexical connections within a text that hold it together and create flow. Cohesion is described as the glue that links sentences, paragraphs, ideas, and making the text feel like a unified whole rather than a series of disconnected statements.

Cohesion vs Coherence

Cohesion is the linguistic features that link a text. Coherence is the overall meaning, logical organization, comprehensibility of the text. Cohesion contributes to coherence.

Anaphoric Referencing

Using pronouns, determiners, or adverbs to refer to something already mentioned.

Cataphoric Referencing

Using pronouns, determiners, or adverbs to refer to something yet to be mentioned. 

Substitution

Replacing a word or phrase with a shorter substitute to avoid repetition.

Ellipsis

The omission of words or phrases because they are obvious from the context.

Conjunctions and Adverbials

Using linking words to signal relationships between clauses, sentences, or paragraphs.

Clefting

Syntactic construction that splits a single clause into two, with each having it’s on verb. ‘It was the government that increased the taxes’ or ‘What Mary bought was a first edition’. 

Deictics

Words and phrases that cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information from the speaker, listener, and situation. Person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis, social deixis.

Front and End Focus

Syntactic strategies that manipulate the standard word order of a sentence to place emphasis on a particular element. Front moves something to the beginning thats normally later, giving extra prominence or emphasis. End to place emphasis on new information at the end.

Coherence

Overall sense and clarity of a text.

Logical Ordering

The arrangement of information in a sequence that makes sense to the audience. This can be chronological, hierarchical, or based on a logical progression of ideas. 

Inference

The assumed or implied information that an audience brings to a text. Often emitted as it is thought the audience already knows.

Formatting

Visual cues that assist in text comprehension, such as headings, subheadings, paragraphs, bolding, and images.

Consistency and Conventions

The use of consistent linguistic features, such as verb tense, point of view, and lexical choices, throughout a text.

Political Correctness

Language, policies, or practices that aim to avoid offense, exclusion, or discrimination towards members of particular groups in society. 

Jargon

The specialized language used by a particular profession, trade, academic field, hobby group, or social group.

Double-Speak

A form of language that is intentionally constructed to obscure, disguise, or reverse its true meaning.

Public Language

The variety of English used in public domains such as government, media, education, and business. Tends to follow SAE.

Rhetoric

The art of using language for a specific persuasive purpose. 

Syntactic Patterning

The strategic and deliberate repetition of grammatical structures and sentence constructions for a specific effect.

Parallelism

The repetition of similar grammatical structures in successive phrases, clauses, or sentences (e.g. he came, he saw, he conquered)

Antithesis

The juxtaposition of two contrasting or opposing ideas, often within a parallel grammatical structure (e.g. it was the best of times, it was the worst of times)

Listing

The repetition of a list of items or phrases (e.g. the dog ran down the path, across the field, and into the woods.’)