ENGLANG METALANGUAGE (MORPHOLOGY + LEXICOLOGY)

Nouns (word class)

Words that refer to ‘things’ (people, places, qualities).

Concrete vs Abstract nouns (Word class) L

Concrete nouns can be perceived through the five senses, while abstract nouns cannot.

e.g. ‘dog’ is concrete because you can touch the dog. ‘Love’ and ‘kindness’ are abstract nouns because you cannot touch, smell or hear them.

• keep an eye out for abstract nouns in a text and ask ourselves ‘what connotations do the abstract nouns have and why has the author chosen to use it?

For example, abstract nouns with positive connotations of duty and self-sacrifice such as ‘nobility’ and ‘heroism’ may be used in a text to honour a particular group of people and attend to their positive face needs or to build a desirable and favourable brand image.

Proper nouns (word class) L

Proper nouns are names of places or people that are capitalised.

Verbs (word class) L

Doing/action words.

e.g. he ran, she swam, they ate, he runs, she swims, they eat

Auxiliary verbs (word class) L

Verbs that change/modify the main verb.

e.g. ‘we are going to swim’; the ‘are going’ is helping to conjugate the main verb ‘to swim’.

Modal verbs (word class) L

Modal verbs (modal auxiliary verbs) are a type of auxiliary verb that expresses one of the following: ability, likelihood, obligation, responsibility, permission, possibility, probability.

• modal verbs can sometimes establish an authoritative tenor (which we can link to making the register more formal) an are commonly used in terms and conditions or when rules/guidelines are given.

Adjectives ( word class) L

Adjectives are describing words. They help describe nouns.

• they’re often used to p vivid storytelling. Further, depending on the connotations of the adjective, they can be used to make our perception of something more positive or negative

Adverbs (word class) L

Adverbs are describing words that help describe verbs or adjectives.

Prepositions (word class) L

Prepositions indicate the relationship/position of nouns in time/space.

• relied upon during storytelling

Pronouns (word class) L

pronouns are words that stand in the place of a noun. They can play a role in establishing cohesion in a text.

• consider the effect of using pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ in a text. They can sometimes personalise a text for a reader/listener and make them feel as though they are a apart of the team

Possessive pronouns (word class) L

In place os a possessive noun.

e.g. using ‘mine’ instead of ‘puneet’s’

Demonstrative pronouns (word class) L

Words used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others.

e.g. ‘woah, that is crazy’, ‘that’ refers to the situation.

Relative pronouns (word class) L

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause.

e.g ‘whoever learns this metalanguage will ace the exam’. Here ‘whoever’ refers to an undefined noun ( group of undefined people)

Coordinating conjunction (word class) L

Conjunctions that link 2 main clauses together. 

• FANBOYS

• coordinating conjunctions are used in spontaneous texts where we’re constructing our sentences on the go.

Subordinating conjunctions (word classes) L

Conjunctions that link a subordinate clause with a main clause.

e.g that, rather than, whether, as much as, whereas, before, now that, since, until, while, though…

Determiner (word class) L

They are the words that come before a noun, excluding the insertion of an adjective.

Demonstrative (word class) L

‘this’ and ‘that’

Interjections (word class) L

Words that express sudden/strong emotion.

e.g. ‘ouch’, ‘oh’, ‘sorry’, ‘wow’

Blending (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Putting together parts of two words together to create a new one.

e.g. ‘Bromance’ from brother and romance

Initialism (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

An initialism is a form of abbreviation, formed by taking the first letters of words in a string of words and pronouncing them as letter.

e.g. ‘RSPCA’

Acronyms (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Same as an initialism but you pronounce the letters as a whole word.

e.g. ‘QANTAS’

Shortenings (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Reducing the length of a word.

e.g. ‘caps’ instead of ‘capitals', ‘fridge’ instead of ‘refrigerator’

Compounding (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Joining two or more whole words to create a single word.

e.g. ‘facebook’, ‘bookcase’, ‘swimsuit’…

Contraction (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Squeezing two words into one with the use of an apostrophe.

e.g. can’t, I’ll, they’ve…

• contractions play a key role in aiding the fluency of our speech. In the spoken mode, they have very little influence on the register of a text. However, when used in the written mode, they can be used stylistically or deliberately so as to make the tone of a text more casual and relaxed, giving the reader the impression they’re having a conversation with the writer - can decrease formality

Backformation (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

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

e.g. televise is backformed from television

Hypocoristic use of suffixes

Neologism (word formation processes) L

Newly coined words, expression or usage.

e.g. Delulu

Conversion (word formation processes/morphological patterning)

This refers to moving a word from one word class to another.

e.g. google, originally a noun, is now used as a verb; to google something. Email was also a noun, now a verb as well

Borrowing (word formation processes) L

Refers to the integration of a word or expression from another language.

e.g. ‘mi casa su casa’, ‘champagne’, ‘sushi’, ‘ciao’

Commonisation (word formation processes) L

The turning or proper nouns into everyday lexicon.

e.g. Esky was actually a brand name, but now ew say ‘esky’ instead of ‘cool box’. Band-aid (adhesive bandage), thermos (vacuum flask)

Affixation ((word formation processes/morphological patterning)

Morphemes added to the beginning, middle or end of a word to modify its meaning.

Nominalisation (word formation processes) L

the process of converting other parts of a speech, like verbs or adjectives into nouns. Often by adding suffixes.

e.g. “the decision of the board was final” (decide) “her arrival was unexpected” (arrive)

• in formal texts it serves to condense information when trying to sound more authoritative or knowledgeable.