Linguistics: Phonetics, Lexology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Discourse

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering Phonetics, Lexicology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Discourse, and general metalanguage based on the provided lecture notes.

Pitch

The auditory height of a voice; used to signal emotion or grammatical meaning.

Stress

Emphasis placed on a syllable or word.

Volume

Loudness of speech.

Tempo

Speed of speech.

Intonation

Pitch movement across an utterance where rising indicates questioning and falling indicates finality.

Assimilation

A sound becomes more like a neighbouring sound.

Elision

Deletion of sounds in casual speech.

Vowel reduction

Vowels become centralised (often schwa) in unstressed positions.

Insertion

Adding a sound to ease articulation.

Deletion

Removing a sound entirely (broader than elision).

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate natural sounds.

Cooing

Early infant vocalisations consisting of vowel-like sounds.

Babbling

Early infant vocalisations consisting of repeated consonant–vowel patterns.

Nouns

People, places, things, ideas.

Verbs

Actions, states, processes.

Auxiliary verbs

“Helping” verbs such as be, have, do.

Modal verbs

Verbs that express possibility or obligation, such as can or must.

Adjectives

Describe nouns.

Adverbs

Modify verbs, adjectives, or clauses.

Prepositions

Show relationships (e.g., in, under).

Pronouns

Replace nouns.

Conjunctions

Join clauses; categorized as coordinating (FANBOYS) or subordinating (e.g., because, although).

Determiners

Introduce nouns (e.g., this, my, each).

Articles

a, an, the.

Interjections

Emotional outbursts (e.g., oh!, wow!).

Function words

Grammatical words with structural roles.

Content words

Carry semantic meaning.

Vocatives

Names or titles used to address someone directly.

Affixation

Adding morphemes, including prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.

Prefix

Added before a root.

Suffix

Added after a root.

Infix

Inserted inside a word (rare in English).

Inflectional morphology

Grammatical changes such as tense or number.

Derivational morphology

Creates new words or word classes.

Root morphemes

The core meaning unit.

Bound morphemes

Morphemes that cannot stand alone.

Free morphemes

Morphemes that can stand alone.

Blends

Merging parts of words.

Acronyms

Shortened forms pronounced as words.

Initialisms

Shortened forms pronounced letter by letter.

Abbreviations

Shortened forms of words.

Shortenings

Clipping words.

Colloquialisms

Informal expressions.

Compounding

Combining whole words.

Contractions

Combining words with elision.

Collocations

Words that commonly co-occur.

Neologisms

Newly created words.

Morphological overgeneralisation

Applying morphological rules too widely (e.g., goed).

Main clause

A clause that can stand alone.

Subordinate clause

A clause that depends on a main clause.

Declarative

Sentence types used for statements.

Imperative

Sentence types used for commands.

Interrogative

Sentence types used for questions.

Exclamative

Sentence types used to express strong emotion.

Sentence fragment

An incomplete clause used intentionally.

Simple sentence

A sentence containing one clause.

Compound sentence

A sentence containing two main clauses.

Complex sentence

A sentence containing a main and a subordinate clause.

Compound-complex sentence

A sentence containing 2+ main clauses and at least one subordinate clause.

Ellipsis

Omission of understood elements.

Subject

The entity performing an action.

Object

The entity affected by an action (direct or indirect).

Complement

Gives extra information about the subject or object.

Listing

Grouping items for cohesion.

Denotation

Literal meaning.

Connotation

Associated meanings.

Metaphor

Non-literal comparison.

Simile

Comparison using like or as.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-humans.

Idiomatic expression

Meaning not deducible from the individual words.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration.

Puns

Humour derived from wordplay.

Semantic overgeneralisation

A child applies meaning too broadly.

Semantic undergeneralisation

A child applies meaning too narrowly.

Openings and closings

Ways conversations begin and end.

Turn-taking

Managing the floor, including holding, taking, or relinquishing.

Adjacency pairs

Paired utterances such as greeting–greeting.

Topic management

Shifting, maintaining, and looping topics.

Overlapping speech

Simultaneous talk.

Minimal responses

Short supportive utterances.

Discourse particles

Fillers marking attitude or structure (e.g., like, well).

Hedging

Softening statements.

Interrogative tags

Short tags seeking confirmation.

Pause fillers

Fillers like um or uh.

False starts

Beginning an utterance and then restarting.

Repair

Correcting oneself.

Pause

Silence for planning or emphasis.

Context

Situational and cultural factors shaping language.

Function

The purpose of a text.

Field

The subject matter.

Mode

Spoken, written, or multimodal.

Setting

Time and place.

Text-type

Genre.

Audience

Who the text is for.

Social distance

Relationship closeness.

Situational context

Immediate environment.

Cultural context

Broader norms and values.

Tenor

Relationship between participants.

Register

The degree of formality.

Semantic fields

Groups of related words.