metalanguage

Phonological patterning- purposes?

• Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Rhythm, Rhyme, Onomatopeia (AACRRO)

• Purpose:
  -Engage the audience
  -Be playful or creative
  -Draw attention to word choices and make them memorable

Alliteration

• Same phoneme used at the beginning of multiple words

• Vowel or consonant phoneme

Assonance

Same vowel phoneme is used through multiple words

Consonance

Same consonant phoneme is used throughout multiple words

Rhythm

• Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

• Think of stressed syllable as a beat

Rhyme

Words which have the same final vowel phoneme and consonant phoneme

Onomatopoeia

A lexeme which has been formed based on the sound it makes

Lexical patterning- purposes?

• Repeated use of the same lexeme throughout a text

• Includes the use of the same stem or root morpheme with or without affixes

• Consists of content words, rather than function words

Purpose
-Supports the purpose of a text
-Relate the the semantic field or other contextual factors
-Act as a cohesive tie, which can in turn aid coherence

Syntactic patterning

Parallelism, Antithesis, Listing (PAL)

Parallelism- purposes?

• Repetition of syntactic structures such as phrases or clauses

• Considered a rhetorical device

Purpose:
-Emphasise
-Persuade
-Provide balance
-Provide a sense of rhythm

Antithesis- purposes?

• Type of parallelism

• Rhetorical device which uses contrasting ideas

• Can be within one sentence or in different parts of a text

Purpose:
-Emphasis a contrast and can be used as a persuasive technique

Listing

• Used to group items

• Ellipses the repeated syntactical elements in order to present the content in a concise and cohesive manner

Rhetoric

• Effective use of language to persuade or influence an audience

• Includes syntactic patterning, semantic patterning, jargon, etc

• Any feature which is designed to persuade, emphasis or manipulate

Jargon- purposes?

• Formal, technical or specialised language that is associated with a particular profession or group

• Often hard for outsiders to understand jargon

Purposes:

• Can mislead or confuse

• Precise and efficient among in-group members-can be a marker of solidarity

• Can be used as a means of achieving social aspirations, such as establishing a credible image or to intimidate

Euphemism- purposes?

Expressions which allow for the discussion of taboos in a polite way

Purpose:

• Can obfuscate

Double speak

• Language which is deliberately misleading, evasive or vague

• Designed to obfuscate, manipulate or distort

Non-discriminatory language

• Promotes inclusion and respect

• Can shape the way we perceive different groups as well as our own identity

Clarifying

Making language coherent or accessible for the audience

Obfuscation

Language which obfuscates or hides the meaning

This can include:

• Euphemisms

• Jargon

• Double speak

• Ambiguous language

• Highly formal/elevated language which is not well understood

Factors that contribute to coherence-FLICCC

Formatting

Logical ordering

Inference

Consistency

Conventions

Cohesion

Formatting

How the text is laid out in a document and the design choices that are made→impacts readability

E.g:

• Font size

• Line spacing

• Paragraphing

• Bullet points

• Bold text

Logical ordering

Ordering of ideas can help a reader understand a text

E.g:

• Chronological order

• Sequential order

• Causes then effects

• Problem then solution

• Ranking

Inference

Where individuals make sense of language, even if there are details omitted. People can use information provided to make educated guesses or assumptions

Consistency

Consistent approaches helps maintain clarity

E.g:

• Formatting

• Tense

• Register

• Semantic domain

• Pronouns

• Lexical choices

Conventions

Feature which relate to the text type. By following conventions, people will be more likely to understand and anticipate what will come next in the text

Cohesion- SCAREDCCASHFACE PS

• Synonymy

• Collocation

• Antonymy

• Repetition

• Ellipses

• Deictics

• Clefting

• Conjunctions

• Anaphoric referencing

• Substitution

• Hyponymy

• Front focus

• Adverbials

• Cataphoric referencing

• End focus

• Patterning

• Semantic field

Hyponymy

Hierarchical relationship between lexemes
E.g. Dog(hypernym)→Retriever(hyponym)

Collocation

Words which often appear together in a text

Information flow

How information is ordered in a sentence

End focus

Adverbials and dependent clauses are positioned at the end of the sentence

Front focus

Adverbs and dependent clauses at front of sentence

Clefting

Splitting one clause into two clauses in order to emphasise one element in the sentence

Anaphoric referencing

Using a deixis to refer back to previous information

Cataphoric referencing

Where a word/phrase refers to something that appears later in the text

Deictics

Words which have a context-dependent meaning

Repetition

Creates links between sentences and paragraphs

Ellipses

Omission of lexemes that can be understood in the context. Can make the text sound conversational and engaging and aid in efficiency

Substitution

Replacing one word with another

Conjunctions

Connects items in a list or clauses

Adverbials

A word or phrase functioning as a major clause constituent and typically expressing place

Signals order of events or relationship between events

Semantic patterning-FILM O SHAP LAP

Figurative language

Irony

Metaphor

Oxymoron

Simile

Hyperbole

Animation

Personification

Lexical ambiguity

Puns

Figurative language

Non literal language

Irony

Situation where the outcome or meaning is completely opposite to what is expected. E.g. sarcasm

Metaphor

States that one thing is another thing. It equates those things for the sake of comparison or symbolism

Oxymoron

Phrase which contains words that have completely different meanings

Simile

Figure of speech which compares two things that are alike in some way

Hyperbole

Exaggerated language such as slang

Animation

Giving movement to something that doesn’t normally move

Personification

Giving person-like qualities to something that isn’t a person

Lexical ambiguity

When the meaning of the words is unclear

Pun

The use of words that either have multiple meaning or sound like other words

Nominalisation

Forming nouns from verbs or noun groups/phrases from clauses

Active voice

Subject of action comes before verb

Passive voice and agentless passive

BE verb+past particle
Do-er comes after verb
Agentless passive- do-er not mentioned at all

Prosodic features

Intonation- Involves pitch, stress and volume, e.g

-> Stressed word ______

-> Downward pitch \

-> Loudly [L]

-> Upward pitch /

Pitch- Can change from high to low as we utter the phonemes of individual words, or across whole utterances. E.g. when we raise the pitch at the end of an utterance when we ask a questions

Stress- It is used when we put emphasis on a syllable in a word

Volume- Loudness or softness of the voice

Tempo- The speed of an utterance

Connected speech processes

Assimilation - If the phoneme has changed, and the new phoneme is a consonant

Elision - If the phoneme has gone missing

Vowel reduction - If the phoneme has changed, and the new phoneme is a vowel

Insertion - If a phoneme has been added

Morphological patterning

Repeated use of word formation processes

Lexical word formation processes

Neologisms, borrowing, commonisation, nominalisation

Commonisation

Process where a proper noun (a name) is transformed into a common noun, losing its capitalization and becoming a generic term

Sentence structures

• fragment- NO CLAUSES

• simple- ONE CLAUSES; NO CONJUNCTIONS JOINING CLAUSES

• compound- Contain ATLEAST two main clauses; joined together by a coordinate conjunction.

• complex- Contain a single main clause and ONE OR MORE subordinate clauses. ONLY SUBORDINATING/COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS JOINING CLAUSES

• compound-complex- Have AT LEAST three clauses in total, with AT LEAST two main clauses and AT LEAST one subordinate clause. AT LEAST ONE COORDINATING CONJUNCTION AND AT LEASE ONE SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION JOINING CLAUSE

Paralinguistic features

Vocal effects and non-verbal communication

Features of spoken discourse

Openings, closings, adjacency pairs, overlapping speech, backchanneling, discourse particles, non-fluency features

Adjacency pairs

• Turns which are found sequentially and have a close relationship with each other

• Open and close conversations

• Regulate turn taking

• Exchange information, seek elaboration and clarify doubts

• Provide immediate feedback or confirmation

• Request followed by granting or refusing

Discourse markers/particles

Small words which do not contribute to the propositional content of the utterance which they modify.

• They can signal:

  topic changes

  openings and closings

  politeness

  Reformulations / repairs

  discourse planning

  Stressing / emphasising

  hedging

  backchanneling / minimal response

  They can be used to heighten the speaker's attitude; often one of disagreement or surprise

  They can be used to diminish the effect of otherwise exaggerated or intense language (hedging)

Non-fluency features

• Pauses- short breaks in conversation, indicated with (…)

• Filled pauses/voiced hesitations- e.g. um, er

• False starts- when the speaker starts to say one word and changes to another, e.g. I’ll see you on Thur- I mean Friday

• Repetition- accidentally repeating the same word or phrase, e.g. I I don’t think

• Repairs- speaker says something, and then re-states using. different words to clarify intended meaning, e.g. I’ll pick him up at 5pm. I mean, I’ll pick William up not Sam

Spoken strategies

• Topic management

• Turn-taking

• Management of repair sequences

• Code switching

Topic management

Methods participants use to shift, maintain or loop domain

Strategies include:

• Minimal responses or backchanneling to encourage the other participant to continue with the same topic by showing interest

• Discourse particles can signal that the topic is about to change or loop back to a previous idea

• Interrogatives can be used to directly shift the topic or maintain the semantic domain

• Imperatives can be used to prompt the other participants to discuss the new topic, or to continue with a similar idea

• Declaratives can be used to shift topics

• Exclamatives can express excitement or surprise, thus prompting a shift in semantic domain

Turn-taking

• Taking the floor

• Holding the floor

• Passing the floor

Management of repair sequences

Participants realise that there is an error, miscommunication or problem in their own utterance or another persons contribution and repair their sequence with:

• Discourse particles, e.g. I mean

• Interrogatives, e.g. what did you mean by…?

• Declaratives, e.g. that doesn’t make sense

• Substitution of a word or phrase with an alternative which may be more precise or appropriate

• Re-phrase the utterance using different words

semantic domain

The conceptual area or subject matter that is related to a particular term or topic, defining its meaning and context.

Idiom

A phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the literal definitions of the words that compose it, often carrying a figurative meaning. E.g. break a leg

Ethnolect

A variety of a language associated with a certain ethnic or cultural subgroup

Sociolect

A variety of a language which is thought of as being related to the speakers social background

Idiolect

An individual’s unique use of language

Over and covert norms

• Overt norms- language features that are generally recognized and valued in society as "correct" or "prestige" forms of language

• Covert norms- language features that are valued within specific social groups, often outside of mainstream society

Slang

Informal lexemes or phrases which are often specific to a particular subgroup.

Colloquial language

Informal language commonly used in interactions where people have a closed or relaxed relationship or wish to mark solidarity

!!it is standard english!!