Englang full metalanguage table

Alliteration

Repetition of phonemes at the beginning of words. E.g., Those are pretty practical pants you're wearing.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel phonemes across phrases or clauses. E.g., The fleet of jeeps drove through the streets.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant phonemes, often at syllable-final boundaries. E.g., The bees in the trees buzzed with ease.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe. E.g., The crow squawked loudly, causing a rustle in the bushes.

Rhythm

Repetition of intonation patterns across phrases. E.g., Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.

Rhyme

Repetition of similar phonemes at the ends of words. E.g., The potato cake was fake

Morpheme

Smallest unit of meaning in a word. E.g., 'unhappy' contains two; 'un' and 'happy

Affixation

Addition of prefixes or suffixes to a root word. E.g., 'disagree' or 'happiness'

Abbreviation

Shortened form of a word or phrase. E.g., 'vic' for 'Victoria'

Shortening

Dropping one part of a longer word. E.g., 'phone' from 'telephone'.

Compounding

Combining two words to make one. E.g., blackboard' or 'toothpaste'.

Blending

Combining parts of two words into one. E.g., 'brunch' (breakfast + lunch).

Initialism

An abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately. E.g., 'RSPCA', 'ABC'.

Acronym

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word. E.g., 'QANTAS', 'NATO'.

Backformation

Creating a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another word. E.g, 'edit' from 'editor'.

Conversion of word class

Changing a word's grammatical category/class without changing its form. E.g., 'email' (noun) becoming 'to email' (verb).

Contraction

A shortened form of a word or group of words, with omitted letters. E.g., 'don't' from 'do not'.

Noun

A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. E.g., 'dog', 'Melbourne', 'happiness'.

Verb

A word that expresses an action or a state of being. E.g., 'run', 'is', 'think'.

Auxiliary verb

A verb used in forming tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. E.g., 'have', 'be', 'do'.

Modal verb

A type of auxiliary verb expressing necessity or possibility. E.g., 'can', 'must', 'should'.

Adjective

A word that describes a noun or pronoun. E.g., 'happy', 'blue', 'fast'.

Adverb

A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. E.g., 'quickly', 'very', 'yesterday'.

Preposition

A word placed before a noun or pronoun to show its relation to another word. E.g., 'in', 'on', 'at', 'by'.

Pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun. E.g, 'he', 'they', 'it'.

Conjunction

A word that joins words, phrases, or clauses. E.g., 'and', 'but', 'because'.

Determiner

A modifying word that determines the kind of reference a noun has. E.g., 'the', 'a', 'some'.

Interjection

A word or phrase that expresses emotion or exclamation. E.g., 'oh!', 'wow!', 'oops!'.

Neologism

A newly coined word or expression. E.g., 'selfie', 'google' (as a verb).

Borrowing

Taking words from other languages. E.g., 'sushi' (from Japanese).

Commonisation

A proper noun becoming a common noun. E.g., 'esky', 'hoover'.

Nominalisation

Turning other word classes into nouns. E.g., 'decide' → 'decision'.

Phrase

A group of words that act as a single unit in a sentence. E.g., 'The fast runner'

Noun phrase

A phrase that has a noun as its main word. E.g., 'The red balloon'

Verb phrase

A phrase built around a main verb. E.g., 'has been running'

Adjective phrase

A phrase that describes a noun using an adjective. E.g., 'extremely happy'

Adverb phrase

A phrase that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. E.g., 'very quickly'

Prepositional phrase

A modifying phrase beginning with a preposition. E.g., 'on the table'

Sentence fragment

An incomplete sentence lacking a main clause. E.g., 'Because I said so.'

Simple sentence

A sentence with one independent clause. E.g., 'She smiled.'

Compound sentence

Two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction. E.g., 'I came and I conquered'

Complex sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. E.g., 'Although it rained, we went outside.'

Compound-complex sentence

A sentence with at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. E.g., 'Although it rained, I ran and she walked.'

Ellipsis

Omission of words when meaning is clear from context. E.g., 'Want some?' instead of 'Do you want some'

Modifier

A word or phrase that adds detail to another word. E.g., 'The tall boy' - 'tall' modifies 'boy'.

Coordination

Joining words or clauses of equal rank. E.g., 'She ran and he walked.'

Subordination

Linking clauses to show dependency. E.g., 'She left because she was tired.'

Declarative

A sentence that makes a statement. E.g., 'The sky is blue.'

Imperative

A sentence that gives a command. E.g., 'Close the door.'

Interrogative

A sentence that asks a question. E.g., 'Did you see that?'

Exclamative

A sentence expressing strong emotion. E.g., 'What a day!'

Subject

Performer of the action in a sentence. E.g., 'John threw the ball.' - 'John' in this case

Object

Receiver of the action in a sentence. E.g., 'John threw the ball.' - 'ball' in this case

Complement

Completes the meaning of the predicate. E.g., 'She is a doctor.' - 'a doctor' in this case

Adverbial

Phrases that modify the verb by giving more info. E.g., 'In the morning', 'quickly', 'with enthusiasm'.

Active voice

The subject performs the action. E.g., 'The cat chased the mouse.'

Passive voice

The subject receives the action. E.g., 'The mouse was chased by the cat.'

Agentess passive

Passive without stating the agent. E.g., 'The window was broken.'

Listing

Creating a list to add rhythm or detail. E.g., 'We bought apples, oranges, and bananas.'

Antithesis

Juxtaposing contrasting ideas. E.g., 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Parallelism

Repeating grammatical structures. E.g., 'I came, I saw, I conquered.'

Paralinguistic features

Non-verbal cues that accompany speech. E.g., Smiling while saying 'hello'

Vocal effects

Non-verbal sounds during speech. E.g., 'Umm', sighs, laughter

Whispers

Soft-spoken voice tone. E.g., 'He whispered a secret.'

Laughter

Audible expression of amusement. E,g., 'Haha, that's funny!'

Non-verbal communication

Communication without words. E.g., Gestures or facial expressions

Gestures

Movements of the body to convey meaning. E.g., A thumbs up

Facial expressions

Movements of facial muscles. E.g., Frowning to show displeasure

Eye contact

Looking directly into someone's eyes. E.g., Used to show attention or confidence

Creakiness

A rough or strained vocal tone. Often associated with vocal fry.

Breathiness

Soft, airy vocal quality. Used for softness or vulnerability.

Formatting

The way text is arranged visually to support comprehension. E.g., Bullet points, headings, and paragraphing.

Logical ordering

Sequencing information in a way that makes sense. E.g., Introduction → body → conclusion.

Inference

Understanding meaning that is implied but not stated. E.g., He grabbed his coat - implies he's leaving.

Consistency

Using the same style and format throughout a text. E.g., Same verb tense and point of view.

Conventions

Agreed norms or rules for how texts are structured. E.g., A recipe lists ingredients before instructions.

Synonymy

Use of words with similar meanings to aid cohesion. E.g., 'Buy' and 'purchase'.

Antonymy

Use of words with opposite meanings for contrast. E.g., 'Hot' and 'cold'.

Hyponymy

Specific word within a broader category. E.g., 'Oak' is a hyponym of 'tree'.

Collocation

Words that frequently go together. E.g., 'Fast food', 'make a decision'.

Clefting

Splitting a sentence for emphasis. E.g., 'It was John who broke the window.

Front-focus

Moving a clause element to the front for emphasis. E.g., 'Quickly she ran to the door.'

End-focus

Placing the most important info at the end of a sentence. E.g., 'She ran to the door quickly.'

Anaphoric reference

Refers back to something mentioned earlier. E.g., 'Sarah lost her keys. She was upset.'

Cataphoric reference

Refers to something that appears later. E.g., 'Before he entered, John knocked.'

Deictics

Context-dependent words pointing to time/place/person. E.g., 'Here', 'you', 'now'.

Repetition

Repeating words or phrases. E.g., 'So, so, what do you mean?

Substitutions

Replacing one word/phrase with another. E.g., 'I want the red one.' (instead of 'red car')

Conjunctions

Words that connect clauses or sentences. E.g., 'And', 'but', 'because'.

Opening

The start of a spoken interaction. E.g., 'Hi, how are you?'

Closing

The end of a spoken interaction. E.g., 'See you later!'

Overlapping speech

When two or more speakers talk at once. E.g., A: 'I think—' B: 'Yeah, same!'

DIscourse particle

Short words that organise or express attitude. E.g., 'Well', 'like', 'you know'

Adjacency pair

Two-part exchanges in conversation. E.g., Q: 'How are you?' A: 'Good, thanks.'

Pause

A short silence in speech.

Filled pause

Vocalised hesitation noises. E.g., 'Um', 'er', 'uh

Voiced hesitation

Sounds or words expressing hesitation. E.g., 'I was... I mean, I think...'

False start

Beginning a sentence then restarting. E.g., 'I— I mean, we should go.'

Repair

Fixing a mistake or misunderstanding in speech. E.g., 'He is— they are coming.'

Topic management

How speakers introduce, change, or maintain topics. E.g., 'Anyway, did you hear about...'