English Language (Metalanguage SAC 1)

Colloquial language

Def: A type of casual/relaxed informal language more widely accepted/used in the community —> considered standard English

Eg: ‘A cold one’ —> referring to a beer

Slang

Def: Newly-formed words/phrase found in informal contexts of a particular group

Eg: Teenage slang such as ‘slay’ or ‘bet’

Pur: Decreases register, signal group membership and builds rapport & intimacy between participants of discourse

Taboo language

Def: Language considered inappropriate/insulting by a large portion of society

Eg: ‘Take a piss’ instead of ‘go to the bathroom’

Dysphemism

Def: A phrase used in place of a more neutral word to intensify impact

Eg: ‘snake’ to refer to a deceptive person

Pur: Used around close friends/family to signal closeness and to be humorous

Phonological patterning (AACORR)

The deliberate repetition of specific sounds for stylistic effect —> common in planned texts rather than spontaneous discourse

Alliteration

Def: Repetition of an initial consonant/vowel sound at the beginning of words close to each other

Eg: ‘The slippery snake slithered” repeats the “s” sound

Pur: Makes phrases more memorable, gives a text rhythm, and grabs readers’ attention to a particular part of a text.

Assonance

Def: The repetition of vowel sounds across phrases

Eg: “Hot dog” repeats the “o” sound

Pur: Contributes subtle rhythm to the text, making it easier and more engaging to read/listen.

Consonance

Def: The repetition of consonant sounds, not necessarily at the beginning of the word

Eg: “Home time” repeats the “m” sound

Pur: Contributes subtle rhythm to the text, making it easier and more engaging to read/listen.

Onomatopoeia

Def: Words that are created from the sounds they represent

Eg: ‘Bang’, ‘boom’, ‘smack’, ‘crash’

Pur: Used when telling a story and attempting to paint a vivid image (imagery) in the reader’s mind

Rhythm

Def: When the intonation of words is repeated across two or more phrases

Rhyme

Def: The repetition of words with similar/same sounds at the end.

Eg: “Fat cat”

Pur: Often used in advertising to draw attention/make more memorable to a viewer to a particular part of the text.

Syntactic patterning (PAL)

The use of particular sentence structures and arrangements to create a pattern within the text

Parallelism

Def: The repetition of grammatical structures two/more times in succession

Eg: “Work hard, stay focused” (verb + adjective repeated structure)

Pur: Creates rhythm and memorability, and may be used in informal speech to create catchy phrases which are easy to remember.

Antithesis

Def: Two contrasting ideas near one another in parallel structures

Eg: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (antonymy creates contrast)

Pur: Creates a balance between opposing ideas and emphasising the contrast

Listing

Def: Presents a set of related items in a similar grammatical form

Eg: “We need eggs, bread and milk”

Pur: Builds excitement/suspense or to emphasise the amount of tasks someone needs to/or has completed.

Semantic patterning (FLAMPOPISH)

Semantic patterns that have an impact on style & register of the text

Figurative language

Def: Language that is non-literal, deviating from their original meaning

Pur: Often used to story-tell and create a vivid image for the reader, or evoking emotions toward non-human objects to give it a sense of character.

Irony

Def: when a speaker states one thing but means another, typically the opposite meaning

Eg: “Oh great another SAC, just what I needed”

Pur: Makes sense to a listener only if the appropriate meaning is inferred.

Metaphor

Def: Describes/compares one thing as another

Eg: “Love is a battefield” suggests love can be challenging

Pur: Shows contrast between two lexical items.

Simile

Def: Compares elements using ‘like’ and ‘as’

Eg: “The water was cold like ice” compares water and ice

Pur: To highlight similarities between items.

Oxymoron

Def: Contradictory words/phrases used in combination to create a contrasting effect

Eg: “Bittersweet”, “virtual reality”

Pur: Evokes irony, humour, or a paradoxical situation

Hyperbole

Def: A figure of speech involving exaggerated claims, not meant to be taken literally.

Eg: “I’ve told you a thousand times”

Pur: To emphasise how greatly the action being exaggerated is

Personification

Def: Attributes human qualities to non-human entities

Eg: “The old house groaned”

Pur: Makes non-human concepts more engaging and relatable to the reader

Animation

Def: Bringing inanimate objects to life through motion and expression language

Eg: “The words danced off the page.”

Pur: Use visual storytelling and movement to present information in a visually appealing way

Lexical ambiguity

Def: Multiple meanings within a word/sentence

Eg: “She visits the bank regularly” —> what type of bank?

Pur: May be used deliberately in puns to create humour or add depth by allowing multiple interpretations depending on the context.

Puns

Def: Uses lexical ambiguity that exploits multiple meanings for humor.

Eg: ‘Santa Claus’ helpers are known as ‘subordinate clauses’.

Pur: Often used to make headlines stand out and catch viewers’ attention

Positive face needs

Def: Being liked, respected, treated as a member of the group —> relates to intimacy, solidarity, equality

Positive politeness strategies

Strategies that reflect how another person is valued/respected by others

Strategies: emphasising similarities, humour, showing interest, complimenting, inclusive language

Negative politeness strategies

Strategies that respect another individual’s autonomy and reduce constraints on freedom

Strategies: hedging, being indirect, low modality verbs, apologising

Discourse features (OCODAN)

Def: Common features of spoken conversation

Openings

Def: how speakers begin a conversation, setting the topic

Eg: “Hello everyone!”

Pur: In informal contexts, it builds dynamic conversation with fewer restraints on conventions

Closings

Def: How speakers signal a conversation is ending

Eg: “I’ll see you later!”

Adjacency pairs

Def: Pairs of interaction in a text that come one after enother

Eg: Q&A, G&R

Pur: Builds rapport between the participants to ensure others are valued in the conversation, meets positive face needs

Back-channeling

Def: Short utterances that acknowledges the speaker without taking the floor

Eg: “Yeah?”, “I see”

Pur: supports the purpose of building rapport between participants, signals active viewer engagement, and used for agreement.

Overlapping speech

Def: When multiple participants speak at the same time, can be cooperative (speakers w/
reduced social distance) or uncooperative (disregarding the other speaker)

Eg: “Hmmmm…” “Should we get pizza?”

Discourse particles

Def: Filler words with little meaning on their own

Eg: “like”, “well”, “so”, “anyway”

Pur: Used to organise and maintain the flow of conversation, by holding the floor, topic management, hedging, even quotative functions

Non-fluency features

Def: discourse features present in spontaneous speech

Eg: Pauses, filled pauses, repetition, false starts, voice hesitations, repairs

Pur: Used to hold the floor to ensure conversation is maintained

Discourse strategies (TTMM)

Def: Strategies used to ensure the interaction flows and is cooperative, instead of constant interruptions

Topic management

Def: Methods speakers use to manage a topic in a conversation

Includes initiation, development, shift, change, loop, termination

Pur: What language feature is used to bridge topics? How is it cohesive and coherent?

Turn-taking

Def: Methods speakers use when alternating turns when talking

Pur: Prevents people from talking over each other, maintaining cohesive conversation

Repair sequences

Def: When speakers identify and correct communication mistakes in conversation

Can be self-initiated (realisation of mistake) self repair, self-initiated other repair, other-iniitiated self-repair, and other-initiated other repair

Code-switching

Def: When a speaker alternates between two or more languages in a conversation

Pur: Reflects one’s cultural background and identity, and indicates group membership in people who speak that language

Cohesion (SCAREDCCASHFACE)

Def: The creation of links within a text via cohesive devices to create meaning

Synonymy (lexical choice)

Def: Using words that have very similar meaning

Eg: “Little/small”

Pur: The consistency in similar meanings help to achieve cohesion

Antonymy (lexical choice)

Def: Using words that have contrasting/opposite meaning

Eg: “Little/big”

Pur: Contrast between the words creates a link between them that contrributes to cohesion

Hyponymy (lexical choice)

Def: Words that belong to a larger category of terms

Eg: ‘pink lady’ is a hyponym of ‘apple’

Hypernymy (lexical choice)

Def: A category of terms in which hyponyms belong

Eg. ‘fruit’ is a hypernym of ‘apple’

Ellipsis

Def: The omission of part of a sentence due to contextual information being known

Eg: “He will help, and she will [help] too."

Pur: Improves the efficiency of conversation, or used to be curt/distant, reducing social distance when you don’t want to talk.

Repetition

Def: Using the same word to reiterate an idea

Eg: ‘Again, again, and again.’

Pur: Emphasise an idea to bring it to the attention of the reader.

Collocation

Def: Words that are typically next to each other

Eg: ‘Safe and sound’, ‘fork and knife’, ‘salt and pepper’

Pur: Seeing words expected to be seen together allows readers to predict the next word, hence strengthening cohesion

Adverbials/conjunctions

Def: Words/phrases that provide information in relation to time, place and manner

Includes additives (add info), contrastives (add contrast), cause and effects, timing

Pur: To help link parts of a text, hence contributing to cohesion

Front focus (information flow)

Def: Placing important information to the front

Eg: ‘He seemed happy to us’ vs. ‘To us, he seemed happy'

Pur: Shifts the focus of the sentence, for example it emphasises their perspective and it may not be universally true

End focus (information flow)

Def: Placing important information at the END

Eg: “I was committed fully.’ vs ‘I was fully committed’

Pur: Shifts the focus of th sentence, either to emphasise the degree of the subject, or to create a sense of anticipation/suspense

It-cleft (information flow)

Def: Begins with ‘it’ referring to the important information

Eg: ‘I washed the cat’ vs. ‘It was the cat I washed’

Pseudo-cleft (information flow)

Def: Begins with a ‘wh-’ relative pronoun while ending with the important information

Eg: ‘THIS is important’ vs. ‘What’s important is THIS’

Anaphoric referencing (referencing)

Def: something PREVIOUSLY mentioned is referenced —> usually through the use of pronouns

Eg: ‘I gave Pei her coat’

Pur: Avoids repetition and redundancy

Cataphoric referencing (referencing)

Def: something that WILL be mentioned is referenced

Eg: ‘He promised to help, but Sam never showed up.’

Pur: Builds suspense and sets expectations for the viewer.

Coherence (FLICCC)

Def: The logical organization of a text which makes sense through language features

Includes cohesion as a feature

Inference (FLICCC)

Def: The meaning the audience makes when considering information that is NOT OVERTLY PRESENT

Eg: ‘dog’ is inferenced as the ‘furry, four-legged creature that humans have in their houses’

Pur: Relevant for achieving coherence as appropriate meanings must be inferred, otherwise coherence is not achieved as unknown terminology would not make sense to the reader.

Logical ordering (FLICCC)

Def: Arranging information that will maximise understanding (includes chronological, sequential, and categorical)

Eg: The steps in a recipe, Essays with intro, body then conclusion

Pur: Achieves coherence by organising information logically so that the text makes sense.

Formatting (FLICCC)

Def: includes font style, spacing, alignment, headings, etc.

Pur: Gives prominence to the main features of the text, makes it easier to navigate and read, hence achieving coherence as it is easier to understand what’s important to read.

Conventions (FLICCC)

Def: Established rules for how texts are organised and what we expect, with respect to formatting

Consistency (FLICCC)

Def: Maintaining a consistent theme or referring to concepts in the same way throughout the text

Eg: Different topics in a conversation don’t make sense, which can be inconsistent and jarring for the listener.

Prosodic features (VPITS)

Def: Refers to the different ways in which we say the same thing

Pitch (VPITS)

Def: How high or low a sound is

Intonation (VPITS)

Def: Refers to the rise & fall in pitch —> may affect meaning

Rising pur: Holds the floor, signal uncertainty, asking questions

Falling pur: Pass the floor, signal the end of a conversation, or signal a sense of certainty

Stress (VPITS)

Def: The emphasis placed on particular words/syllables

Eg: Water vs. Water —> place stress in different syllables

Pur: Draws the audience’s attention to a particular part of the text —> what are they trying to signal?

Volume (VPITS)

Def: Refers to how loud or soft the speech is

Eg: Words can convey different meanings depending on how loud/soft the speech is.

Pur: Soft volume adds dramatic effect and suspense, or sincerity. Loud volume express emotion (eg. frustration, anger, surprise) or to interrupt and take the floor from another speaker.

Tempo (VPITS)

Def: Refers to how fast or slow the speech is

Pur: Fast speech can add extra information that is not relevent to the topic without deviating from the topic, and can also mean excitement/nervousness.

Pur: Slow speech can emphasise and draw the audience’s attention to parts of the text —> why that part? It can also signal certainty, confidence, calmness.