METALANGUAGE - ALL

Acronym

A word formed from the first letter of each word in a series

active voice

The subject of the sentence performs the action

adjacency pairs

Regular two turn exchanges in spoken discourse. e.g.: A: How are you? B: I'm fine, thanks. And you?

Adjective

a word that modifies a noun or pronoun

Adverb

A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb

Adverbial

A word or group of words working as an adverb, usually giving information about time, place or manner

Affix

a prefix or suffix

Affixation

process of forming words by adding affixes to morphemes

agentless passive

A passive without an agent or doer of the action.

Alliteration

the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

Ambiguity

The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.

anaphoric reference

A word or expression in a text that refers back to another part of the text.

Antonym

a word that means the opposite of another word

Archaism

use of an older or obsolete form

Article

a, an, the

Assimilation

the process by which a speech sound becomes similar or identical to a neighbouring sound

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity

Auxiliary

a verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs.

back channeling

includes active listening prompts such as "all right", "go on", or ""uh

Borrowing

taking words from other languages

cataphoric reference

A word or expression in a text that refers forward to another part of the text.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

cleft construction

A focus device that splits off part of a sentence to give it prominence, usually involving It + the verb to be, followed by the highlighted constituent, followed by a relative pronoun/ clause

code switching

switching back and forth between one linguistic variant and another depending on the cultural context

coherence

the semantic connections that exist within a text to make it meaningful

cohesion

the linguistic connections and ties that exist between words and sentences to give structure to the text

collocation

Two or more words that co

Colloquialism

A word or phrase (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't)

complex sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause

compound sentence

a sentence with two or more coordinate independent clauses, often joined by one or more conjunctions

compound-complex sentence

a sentence having two or more coordinate independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

Fragment

an incomplete sentence

Connotation

an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

Consonance

Repetition of a consonant sound within two or more words in close proximity.

Coordination

Grammatical equivalence between parts of a sentence, often through a coordinating conjunction such as and, or but.

creative word formation

Includes the processes by which new words are made; e.g. compounding, shortening, affixation and so on

declarative sentence

a sentence that makes a statement or declaration

demonstrative pronoun

points out a person, place, thing, or idea eg that, those, this

derivational affixation

occurs when affixes are added to root or base words, which modify meaning and function [adding

inflectional affixes

Word endings that serve various grammatical purposes but don't change the meaning of a word.

Determiner

a functional category that serves as the specifier of a noun (ex: a, the, these)

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Diminutive

affix added to a common or proper noun, indicating smallness; usually expresses affection but sometimes does not!

Diphthong

The sound produced by combining two vowels in to a single syllable or running together the sounds.

Discourse

sequences of language that are larger than a sentence

discourse marker/ particle

DISCOURSE Also called pragmatic markers. Words or expressions that normally come at the beginning of an utterance, and function to orient the listener to what will follow. Can indicate some kind of change of direction in the talk or appeal to the listener in some way.

Domain

a sphere of activity, concern, interest or field

Doublespeak

deliberate use of evasive or ambiguous language

Dysphemism

A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one

Elision

the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking

Ellipsis

the omission of a word or phrase which is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context

Ethnolect

a dialect associated with a particular ethnic group

Euphemism

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Exclamative

a sentence that has an expressive function and ends with an exclamation mark

face needs

important components of one's desired public image with others (BROWN AND LEVINSON)

false start

This is when the speaker begins an utterance, then stops and either repeats or reformulates it. Sometimes called self

figurative language

Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.

filled pauses

Interruptions in the stream of speech content that are filled with audible sounds such as uh, er, ah, stuttering, and even slips of the tongue or repetitions

fronting

Involves simple word order change eg Cricket I love

hedging

a mitigating device to lessen the impact of an utterance

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims

Hyponymy

The way of viewing the relationship between more general (eg dog) and specific (eg poodle) words

Idiolect

Language use that is typical of a particular person

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally.

imperative sentence

sentence used to command or enjoin

implicature

An implied meaning that has to be inferred as a result of a conversational maxim being broken

inference

A logical interpretation based on prior knowledge and experience.

information flow

refers to how speakers and writers go about 'packaging' their messages

intensifiers

increase the intensity of the adjectives and other adverbs they modify (ex. awfully, extremely, kind of, more, most, pretty, quite, rather, really, somewhat, sort of, and too)

interjection

minor word class involving words that have emotional meaning and stand by themselves eg Wow!

Interlocutor

someone who participates in a conversation

interrogative tags

Are used to tack onto a statement, thus turning it into a question: It sure is bright, isn't it?

Intonation

the rising and falling pitch of the voice

Irony

device wherein the actual meaning is very different to the literal meaning

Jargon

technical, subject specific terminology

lexical items

words or vocabulary

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied directly to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

minimal response

also known as back channelling

modal

A helping verb (e.g., can, could, may, might) that indicates ability, intention, or probability.

Mode

the medium of communication (usually either spoken or written)

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)

Neologism

a new word, expression, or usage

Nominalisation

The process of turning verbs (actions or events) into nouns (things, concepts or people).

Orthography

a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.

Paralinguistics

all aspects of spoken language except the words themselves; includes rate, volume, pitch, stress

Parallelism

Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other

passive voice

The subject of the sentence receives the action.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Phonetics

the study of the production of speech sounds

Phonology

the study of speech sounds in language

Phrase

A group of words with a meaning; an expression

Pluricentric

Languages with multiple standard forms

Political Correctness

the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

Pragmatics

the implicit rules, skills, and concepts which regulate the behaviour of speakers and listeners in conversation

Preposition

A word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word

overt prestige

Positive value assigned to language forms based on the value of the form in larger society

covert prestige

A form of high status given to non