English language levels

Abstract nouns

names of ideas concepts rather than tangible things eg love happiness bravery

Accent

distinct pronunciation patterns groups of people such as regional or social class related, scouse, rp

accommodation

giles, the convergence with or divergence from one speakers accent/dialecr/sociology with another's

acronym

an abbreviation made up from the initial letters of a group of words that is pronounced as a single word

active voice

in a clause, the subject of the verb is the agent/actor of the verb (the one doing the verb) eg jane< kicked the ball

adjacency pair

two utterances in a conversation that often go together eg how are you, i'm fine

adjective

describing words that modify nouns only eg blue, cheerful

adjective

words that modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs eg revise< well, unusually< large house

adjunct

elements in a clause that are not essential to convey its main meaning and could safely be left out, often adverbials, eg i'm happy to help (whenever you need)

adverbial

a clause element that is a word, phrase or other clause that modifies the verb element of the clause eg we revised effectively<, we danced (under the moonlight)

affix

a bound morpheme that cannot stand on its own, but must be added to another word to convey meaning, eg un+happy

affordance

opportunities for language use provided by technology eg texting emails pictures sound clips video clips websites

agenda setting

setting of main conversation topic by a speaker (linked to power)

agent

the subject in the active voice (the person or thing that performs the action of the noun) eg Tracy

amelioration

a word whose meaning has shifted to become more positive than before, opposite of pejoration eg nice originally meant foolish, now means kind/caring

💖analogical overextension

💖extending a words referents to include things which are not actually related but have something in common such as both being heavy or blue

anaphoric reference

referring back to something already mentioned in a text, often through the use of pronouns referring back to a previously cited noun, (The student) looked for the book. (She) found it by (her) computer.

antonym

words that have distinctly contrasting or opposite meanings eg hot/cold

archaism

a word that is no longer in general modern usage, or a particular meaning of a word that is no longer generally used eg apothecary-medical chemist

article

a type of determiner that conveys the level of definiteness of a noun eg a and an indefinite cause they can refer to any example of a noun, the is definite as it refers to a specific examole

aspect

a modification to a verb indicating whether it's ongoing or completed (continuous vs perfect tense, eg they are calling vs they have called)

assimilation

joining together adjacent phonemes for ease of uttering eg got you-gotcha

asymmetrical power

In a conversation where different participants have different levels of power usually with someone dominating the others

asynchronous discourse

in an online conversation (for example) a situation in which there is a delay between utterances and their responses, perhaps even by months

audience

the person or people any text (spoken/written) is aimed at, or the actual people reading/hearing it.

audience positioning

Language that implies the text receiver already does or should accept a particular set of beliefs or opinions

auxiliary verb

added to the main verb to "help" or add meaning to them, to form tenses, moods and voices eh be do am, primary auxiliaries and may might can would, modal auxiliaries

backchanelling

Supportive terms such as 'oh' and 'really' (interest, attentiveness, reassuring)

back formation

removing a morpheme that was never affixed in the first place to form a new word it's usually creating a verb from a noun eg donation-donate editor-edit

balanced sentence

use two (or more-parallelism) similarly constructed clauses to create emphasis. Monday was brutal, but Tuesday was alright.

bald on record

Where a speaker is completely blunt and direct (e.g. 'Sit down son!') generally only with friends and family or inferior employees or causing offence:

behaviourism

language acquisition through copying others usage via positive and negative reinforcement

bleaching/weakening

where a words original meaning is reduced over time, awful used to mean worthy of respect/fear now just means bad

blend

two words fused together eg chill and relax - chillax

borrowing or loan word

A word that has been taken directly from another language and used. eg chocolate from chocolat french

broadening

opposite of narrowing, a word adds extra meaning to its original, cool used to be a genre of jazz now just means admired/respected as the genre was

categorical overextension

Inappropriately extending the meaning of a label to other members in the same category eg a hyponym is used to function as a hypernym and eg referring to all animals as cats

Catenative

often used by young children, series of statements joined like a chain eg and then.. and then.. then... so we... and

cataphoric reference

referring forward to something yet to occur in a text eg when he left, zakzel said goodbye

Child directed speech

a lot at that carers and parents speak to young children focused on a single song intonation, slower pace, exaggerated pitch modulation, repetition, use of simple questions etc

clause

A grammatical unit that contains at least both a subject and a verb. but can also include other elements (objects: adverbials, complements)

clipping

a new word created by shortening a longer one usually of the same word class eg advert from advertisement

code switching

speaker's shift from one language or dialect to another in general language use

codification

language standardisation process eg dictionary

cognitive theory

Piaget, that language acquisition can only take place when the cognitive needs of the child require it

cohesion and coherence

Various features used in texts to keep everything clearly linked together (cohesion), following a well signposted structure (coherence) and part of a recognisable whole eg connecting words and phrases, more over, another example, furthermore, use of pronouns to refer back, use of synonyms to refer back

coin

creation of a completely new word

collocation

two or more words often used together, salt and pepper

Colloquialism

A word or phrase that is informal used in everyday conversation and informal writing including idioms. different from slang because used more broadly (eg not just by specific groups or specific contexts) but that is often inappropriate in formal writing (y'all, ain't)

comparative

compare one thing with another, created either by adding the suffix er or adding the words more or less

complement

any part of a clause that is essential to complete its meaning eg the girl was (strong)

complex sentence

contains one main clause and at least one subordinate clause eg when you revise carefully (you learn most effectively)

compound word

two words (maybe three) joined together to form a new word eg race horse = racehorse

compound sentence

contains two or more main clauses with and but it so yet not for or a semicolon eg i revise carefully (so) i can remember the facts

compound complex sentence

compound sentence with at least one subordinate clause added eg i revise carefully so i can remember the facts (because i want to pass the exam)

concrete nouns

tangible physical things rather than ideas or concepts eg girl table ship

conjunction

words that join clauses together eg and because

connotation

associated meanings we receive from particular words that are not denoted semantically but are often conveyed owing to the context in which a word is used eg red can mean blood passion love anger

consonant

a phoneme produced by some sort of restriction/ real ease of breath eg fricatives eg /s/,//f/,/p/

consonant cluster

two or more consonants adjacent to each other in a word which are more difficult for children to utter so often appear later on in speech acquisition eg prostrate umbrella

constraints

restrictions for lamgUge use provided by technology eg absence of emotional paralinguistic spoken forms from text conversations, emojis partially replace

context

the situation in which a text is produced or received which has an impact on what meanings are communucated and what language choices are made by producer eg when where who's present what's happening or about to happen significant contemporary events