Metalanguage (copy)

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Phonetics

The study of how we make speech sounds and how we organise these sounds.

Phonology

The study of the patterns that speech sounds form within a language.

Morphology

the study of words and their parts. Each word is made up of morphemes.

Morphemes

the smallest units of meaning within a word.

Lexicology

the study of words and how they behave within a language.

Syntax

the study of how words are ordered into phrases, clauses and sentences.

Discourse

written or spoken texts that are longer than a sentence. 

Pragmatics

the study of how language is used within a

given context, and how context contributes to meaning.

Semantics

the study of understanding and meaning in communication, including both logical meaning and lexical meaning.

Assimilation

when a speech sound changes to become more like a neighbouring sound. This

change can be in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation or voicing.
"handbag” → “hambag”

Vowel reduction

in unstressed syllables, vowels often become less distinct and are reduced to a more central vowel,

typically a schwa /ə/.

Elision

the omission of a sound or syllable in spoken language, such as in the contraction of

phrases

Insertion

the addition of sounds. This often happens for ease of pronunciation.
‘warmth’ → extra /p/ sound inserted → ‘warmpth’

Prosodic features of speech

elements of our voices that affect whole sequences of syllables.
Volume
Intonation
Pitch
Tempo
Stress

Pitch

Prosodic features of speech

the relative height, ranging between high and low, of auditory sound.

Intonation

Prosodic features of speech
the patterns of pitch variation across phrases, clauses and sentences.

Stress

Prosodic features of speech

the intensity that is placed upon a syllable within a word. The speaker may increase the

length, volume or pitch of the syllable compared to its surrounding syllables, to create emphasis.

Tempo

Prosodic features of speech

the pace an intonation unit is delivered.

Volume

Prosodic features of speech

the relative increase or decrease in decibels across an intonation unit.
Increasing volume on a single syllable can create stress.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

a system of symbols that are used to represent the sounds in human speech. 

Affixation

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

the use of affixes (including either prefixes or suffixes) to create new words

(neologisms). 

Abbreviations

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

shortened forms of words or phrases.
Include:
Shortenings

Initialisms

Acronyms

Shortening & example

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

the abbreviation of a word by reducing its length.

‘pram’ from ‘perambulator’

Compounding & E.g.

 Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

the process of joining two or more whole words to create a single word.

E.g: swimsuit, bookcase

Blending & e.g.

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

the process of combining two or more words, where at least one word has

undergone a form of abbreviation before being joined.

E.g: breakfast + lunch → Brunch

Backformation & example

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

the process of creating a new word by removing what is falsely perceived to be an affix from an existing word.

televise’, which was backformed from ‘television’.

Conversion of word class & example

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

changing the class or role of a word, without changing its

morphology.

‘email’, which was once only a noun, now also a verb.

Initialism & e.g

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

a form of abbreviation, formed by taking the first letters of words in a string of words and pronouncing them as letters or a combination of letters and other symbols. The initialism cannot be pronounced as a whole word.

E.g: VCE

Acronym & E.g

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

a form of abbreviation, formed by taking the first letter of each word in a string of

words and pronouncing them as a new word.

‘ANZAC’

‘lol’.

Contraction & eg

Morphology
Word formation processes / morphological patterning

A word formed by removing some letters from words and marking the missing letter/s

with an apostrophe.
She has → she’s

Word classes & List them

a categorisation based on how a word behaves grammatically.

Adjectives
Verbs
Interjections
Conjunctions (coordinators, subordinators)
Adverbs

Nouns
Auxiliary verbs (primary Auxiliary verbs & modal Auxiliary verbs)
Prepositions
Determiners

AVICA NAPD
“AVICII NAPPED”

Nouns

Lexicology, word classes

words that name places, people, things, qualities, ideas or concepts.

Pronouns

Lexicology, word classes

replace nouns and noun phrases (a group of words consisting of a noun and words that

modify the noun) within a sentence.
Not nouns!

Verbs

Lexicology, word classes

express actions, states or occurrences. 

Auxiliary verbs

Lexicology, word classes

‘helping’ verb – one that supports the main verb of a sentence. 

Primary auxiliary verbs
Modal auxiliary verbs

Primary auxiliary verbs & examples

Lexicology, word classes, auxiliary verbs

usually used to construct tenses that could not otherwise be conveyed by inflectional morphemes on the main verb alone.

Coupled with main verb = primary auxiliary verb
- primary auxiliary verbs can be main verbs

Three primary auxiliary verbs: Be, have, do

Modal auxiliary verbs & examples:

Lexicology, word classes, auxiliary verbs

express the possibility, ability, intent, obligation or necessity of an action occurring. They modify verbs to change their mode – the state in which they exist.

fixed number of modals in English:

C can, could (2)
O ought
W will, would (2)
S shall, should (2)

M may
M might
M must

These can also take the negative form, such as ‘will not’ or ‘won’t’.

Adjectives

Lexicology, word classes

words that describe or modify nouns and pronouns, providing more information

about them. indicate characteristics of a noun

Adverbs

Lexicology, word classes

modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs or entire sentences. They provide information

about elements time, place, manner, frequency, degree, and cause and effect.
T

E

M
P


D
C
F

Prepositions

Lexicology, word classes

words used before nouns, pronouns or phrases to indicate elements such as

direction, time, place, location and spatial relationships.
P
S
T
L
D

“pistoled”

Coordinators

Lexicology, word classes, conjunctions

link words, phrases or clauses of equal rank. 

FANBOYS

Subordinators & exmaple

Lexicology, word classes, conjunctions

introduce subordinate (dependent) clauses and link them to main clauses.

because’, ‘although’, ’if’, ‘while’ and ‘since’.

Determiners & examples

Lexicology, word classes

words that are placed in front of nouns to help clarify the noun, specify quantity or

indicate possession. 

Quantifiers (‘some’, ‘many’)

Possessives pronouns (‘my’, ‘your’)
Articles (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’)
Demonstratives (‘this’, ‘that’)

Q - PAD

Interjections & examples

Lexicology, word classes

words or phrases that express emotions and sometimes requests.
Tend to indicate strong emotions

“Wow!”
“That’s amazing!”

Neologism

a newly coined word or expression, or a new usage of language. 

Borrowings

Words that have been adopted from one language into another.
Often occur when:
Contact between cultures with different languages,
Need to express concepts or objects that exist in one culture but not in the other. 

Commonisation & example

 The process by which proper nouns become common nouns.

‘bandaid’ has been commonised to refer generically to any small adhesive bandage, not just those produced by the Band-Aid brand

Nominalisation & example

when words (usually verbs or adjectives) are changed into nouns.

Often involves adding suffixes to the original word

Such as ‘-tion’ (‘decision’ from ‘decide’)

Syntax START HERE

The study of how words are ordered into phrases, clauses and sentences.

Phrases

a group of words that acts as a single unit within a sentence but does not include both a

subject and predicate (main verb and its modifiers), which a clause does.

Noun phrase

consists of a noun and its modifiers

Verb Phrase

includes the main verb and its modifiers,

Prepositional phrase

begins with a preposition

Adjective phrase

centers around an adjective,

Adverb phrase

built around an adverb,

Clauses

a group of words that contains both a subject and a predicate.

Subjects

the person, place, thing or idea that is performing the action or being

described

Predicates

is the part of the clause that tells us what the subject is doing, or what is being done

to the subject.

Objects

the entity that is affected by the action of the subject. Objects can be direct

or indirect. 

Direct object

receives the action of the verb directly 

Indirect object

indirectly affected by the action and typically represents

to whom or for whom the action is done (

Complements

a word or group of words that completes the meaning of a predicate.

subject complements

describe or identify

the subject

object complements

follow and modify or refer to the

object 

Adverbials

a word (typically an adverb), phrase or clause that provides extra information about a

verb.

Combining clauses

We often combine clauses in order to vary sentence structure, provide appropriate amounts of

information and reduce repetition. There are two main methods for combining clauses: by

subordinating a clause and by coordinating a clause.

Sentences

a set of words that expresses a complete thought. It typically consists of a subject and

a predicate. 

Declarative sentence

makes a statement

Interrogative sentece

asks a question,

Imperative sentence

gives a command or request

Exclamative sentence

expresses strong emotion,

Sentence structures

determined by whether the sentence comprises a complete clause, how many

clauses are within the sentence, and the conjunctions that join those clauses together.

Simple sentece

contains one independent clause

Compound sentece

consists of two or more independent clauses connected by a

coordinator

Complex sentence

includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause

connected by a subordinator

Compound-complex sentece

contains at least two independent clauses joined together by a

coordinator, and at least one dependent clause joined by a subordinator

Fragment sentece

an incomplete sentence, missing either the subject or the predicate;

however, it still makes sense within the text as a whol

Paralinguistic features

elements of communication that are outside of the actual words used, but

are essential in conveying meaning and emotion in spoken language.

Vocal effects

variations in voice quality that convey information or emotion. 

Non-verbal communication

aspects of body language that contribute meaning in

communication.

Creakiness/vocal fry

a low, creaky vibration of the vocal cords. It occurs at low pitch

and can signal the end of an utterance or be used stylistically in speech.

The relation of meaning and sign

A sign consists of two parts: the signifier, the

physical form of the sign, and the signified, the

concept that the signifier represents. Meaning and

communication occur because of the relationship between the signifier and the signified.

Semantic domain

a specific area of meaning and the set of words and expressions that

have related meanings or cover the relevant subject matter. 

Inference

the process of drawing a logical conclusion from one or more statements or facts, using

existing knowledge.

Register

Stylistic variation of language, defined by its use. It can involve all

features of language and levels of formality.

Tenor

The relationships between participants in a communicative

exchange.

Audience

The intended listener/s or reader/s of a text.

Cultural Context

Aspects of the context that relate to the culture in which the

author/speaker and/or audience exists. These include attitudes,

values and beliefs of the author/speaker and/or audience.

Situational context

Everything outside of a text that shapes the language used

within the text. This includes the field, tenor, language mode,

setting and text type.

Field

The subject matter under discussion. The field of a text helps to

determine how specific the language will be.

Language mode

The medium of the text – whether it is written or spoken.

Setting

Where a text is placed in relation to space and time, i.e. its

physical surroundings and when it occurs.

Type text

The type or nature of a text (e.g. report, article, social media post,

lecture, conversation, opinion piece or performance).

Authorial intent

What an author intends to do or achieve with a text. This

influences the language used as well as the text’s level of

preparedness.

Preparedness

The amount of preparation involved in a text’s construction.

Some texts, particularly spoken texts, are spontaneous – they

are constructed and delivered immediately. Others are carefully

prepared, edited and refined before delivery. The level of

preparedness of a text can vary depending on the intent of the

author and on the text’s functions.