12ENC Terminology

Diglossia

Two official languages. Eg. Arabic (formal) vs. dialect (home).

Onomatopoeia

Sound word. Eg. "Buzz."

Participle

Verb as adjective. Eg. "The running man."

Phonetics

Study of speech sounds. Eg. Pronouncing "cat" as /kæt/.

Standard English

Prestige dialect. Eg. "I am" (vs. "I be" in some dialects).

Subjunctive Mood

Wishes/uncertainty. Eg. "I wish I were there."

Hyponym

Specific category member. Eg. "Rose" (under flower).

Declarative

Statement. Eg. "It is sunny."

Interrogative

Question. Eg. "Is it sunny?"

Compounding

Combined words. Eg. "Notebook."

Alliteration

Initial sound repetition. Eg. "Peter Piper picked…"

Register

Style for context. Eg. Formal (job interview) vs. slang (friends).

Coinage

New word creation. Eg. "Selfie."

Noun Phrase

Group around noun. Eg. "The big black dog barked."

Headword

Main word in phrase. Eg. In "very fast car," "car" is headword.

Pragmatics

Language use in context. Eg. Sarcasm changes meaning.

Narrative

Story sequence. Eg. Novels, folktales.

Perspective

Point of view. Eg. First-person ("I") vs. third-person ("he").

Denotation

Literal meaning. Eg. "Snake" = legless reptile.

Homophone

Same sound, different meaning. Eg. "There/their."

Polysyllabic

Multiple syllables. Eg. "Beautiful" (3 syllables).

Metonymy

Associated term for whole. Eg. "The White House announced…"

Grapheme

Smallest written unit. Eg. Letter "A."

Graphology

Study of writing systems. Eg. Font choices in ads.

Diphthong

Vowel glide. Eg. "Coin" (oi sound).

Consonant

Non-vowel sound. Eg. /b/, /t/, /k/.

Vowel

Open sound. Eg. /a/, /e/, /i/.

Collocation

Common word pairings. Eg. "Heavy rain" (not "strong rain").

Deixis

Words requiring context. Eg. "This, here, now."

Ellipsis

Omitted words. Eg. "She went to Paris; he, to Rome."

Archaism

Old-fashioned term. Eg. "Thou" for "you."

Neologism

Newly coined word. Eg. "Blog" (web + log).

Portmanteau

Blended word. Eg. "Brunch" (breakfast + lunch).

Non-finite Verb

Untensed verb. Eg. "To go," "running."

Gerund

Verb as noun (-ing). Eg. "Swimming is fun."

Determiner

Introduces noun. Eg. "The, a, some."

Quantifier

Specifies quantity. Eg. "Many, few, some."

Predicative Adjective

After linking verb. Eg. "The sky is blue."

Attributive Adjective

Before noun. Eg. "The blue sky."

Complement

Completes meaning. Eg. "She is a doctor."

Appositive

Renaming phrase. Eg. "Paris, the capital of France."

Coherence

Logical flow. Eg. Clear paragraph structure.

Cohesion

Linguistic links. Eg. Pronouns connecting ideas.

Anadiplosis

Repeat end/start. Eg. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate."

Chiasmus

Reversed structure. Eg. "Ask not what your country can do for you…"

Epistrophe

End repetition. Eg. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Litotes

Understatement. Eg. "Not bad" for "very good."

Meiosis

Deliberate understatement. Eg. "It's just a scratch" (for severe injury).

Syllepsis

One word governs others. Eg. "He lost his coat and his temper."

Zeugma

One verb for two clauses. Eg. "She broke his car and his heart."

Antimetabole

Repeated reversal. Eg. "Eat to live, not live to eat."

Copula Verb

Linking verb. Eg. "She is happy."

Ditransitive Verb

Two objects. Eg. "She gave him a gift."

Transitive Verb

Needs object. Eg. "She kicked the ball."

Intransitive Verb

No object. Eg. "She sleeps."

Phrasal Verb

Verb + particle. Eg. "Give up."

Prepositional Verb

Verb + prep. Eg. "Look after."

Finite Clause

Can stand alone. Eg. "She left."

Non-finite Clause

Depends on main clause. Eg. "To win, you must practice."

Relative Clause

Adds info about noun. Eg. "The book that I read."

Adverbial Clause

Adds time/place/manner. Eg. "When it rains, we stay inside."

Dialect

Regional variety. Eg. Southern U.S. "y'all."

Sociolect

Social group variety. Eg. Teen slang.

Idiolect

Individual speech style. Eg. A person's unique word choices.

Pidgin

Simplified contact language. Eg. Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea.

Creole

Stabilized pidgin. Eg. Haitian Creole.

Lingua Franca

Common language. Eg. English in global business.

Code-switching

Alternating languages. Eg. Spanglish.

Borrowing

Adopted foreign words. Eg. "Sushi" from Japanese.

Calque

Literal translation. Eg. "Flea market" from French "marché aux puces."

Double Negative

Non-standard. Eg. "I don't know nothing."

Turn-taking

Conversation exchange. Eg. Pauses between speakers.

Adjacency Pair

Linked utterances. Eg. Question → Answer.

Backchanneling

Listener feedback. Eg. "Uh-huh," "I see."

Hedging

Softening language. Eg. "Perhaps," "maybe."

Tag Question

Seeks confirmation. Eg. "It's nice, isn't it?"

Deictic Expression

Context-dependent. Eg. "This, here, now."

Face-saving

Politeness strategy. Eg. Indirect requests.

Presupposition

Assumed knowledge. Eg. "When did you stop?" assumes you did stop.

Implicature

Implied meaning. Eg. "It's cold here" → Please close window.

Speech Act

Language as action. Eg. "I promise" = act of promising.

Proto-language

Ancestral language. Eg. Proto-Indo-European.

Grimm's Law

Sound shifts. Eg. Latin "pater" → English "father."

Great Vowel Shift

English vowel changes (1400-1700).

Etymology

Word origins. Eg. "Salary" from Latin "salarium" (salt money).

Orthography

Writing system. Eg. English alphabet vs. Chinese characters.

Phoneme

Distinct sound unit. Eg. /p/ vs. /b/ in "pat/bat."

Allophone

Variant pronunciation. Eg. "L" in "lip" vs. "pool."

Minimal Pair

One sound difference. Eg. "Ship/sheep."

Isogloss

Dialect boundary line. Eg. "Pop" vs. "soda" regions.

Lexicography

Dictionary-making. Eg. Oxford English Dictionary.

Metalanguage

Language about language. Eg. "Noun," "verb."

Paralinguistics

Beyond words. Eg. Tone, volume, gestures.

Prosody

Speech rhythm/melody. Eg. Question rising pitch.

Schwa

Neutral vowel sound. Eg. "A" in "about" (/ə/).

Suppletion

Irregular form. Eg. "Go/went."

Synchronic

Study at one time. Eg. Modern English analysis.

Diachronic

Study over time. Eg. Old → Modern English changes.

Adverb

Describes a verb (how, when, where). Eg. She ran quickly.

Metaphor

Direct comparison without "like/as." Eg. "Time is a thief."