English Language Exam Revision of Metalanguage

What are the connected speech processes

Assimilation, vowel reduction, elision, insertion

Assimilation

pronunciation of a phoneme becomes more similar to a neighbouring phoneme to increase ease of pronunciation

Vowel reduction

Reduction of pronounced vowel phonemes to ease pronunciation

Elision

the omission of consonant or vowel phonemes to ease pronunciation

Insertion

A phoneme is added to a word to ease pronunciation

What are the prosodic features

pitch, stress, volume, tempo, intonation

pitch

how high or low pronunciation is

stress

emphasis of particular phonemes

volume

how loud or soft an utterance is

tempo

the speed of an utterance

intonation

the rising or falling sounds usually at the end of an utterance suggesting question, certainty or interest

what are the phonological patterns

alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme

Alliteration

Multiple of the same consonant phoneme at the beginning of neighbouring words

Assonance

Repetition of vowel phonemes in neighbouring words in similar areas of a word

consonance

repetition of consonant phonemes but the phonemes arent required to be in the same section of surrounding words

onomatopoeia

Giving a name to a sound (BAM)

Rhythm

overall pattern of stressed an unstressed sounds

rhyme

using similar phonemes in surrounding phrases for aesthetic purpose

Morphological patterning

affixation, abbreviation, shortening, compounding, blending, backformation, conversion of word class, initialism, acronym

Affixation

adding word fragments to the start, inside or end of a word (prefix, infix, affix)

abbreviation

letters from a word create a new shorter version (eg. cm, or kg)

Shortening

removing part of a word but keeping the meaning

compounding

combining full words together

blending

adding parts of words together to form a new word

backformation

creating a new shorter word by removing what appears to be an affix

conversion of word class

keeping the same spelling and pronunciation of a word but changing it from noun to verb for example

acronym

initials of a set of words pronounced as a word (NASA)

initialism

using initials of a phrase to make a new word, pronounced as each letter individually (eg. FBI)

Hypocrisms

suffixs added to the end of words to show endearment or a socially close tenor

Word classes

noun, pronoun, verbs, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction (coordinating/ subordinating), determiners, interjectors

preposition

describes position eg. over, under

coordinating conjunction

FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), connect independent clauses

Subordinating conjunctions

connect dependant to a main clause

determiners

words which show possession, definiteness proximity or quantity eg. the, my, some, these

Types of determiners

possessive, demonstrative, article, quantifier

possessive determiner

show possesion eg, your, my

article determiner

demonstrate the nature of definiteness, can be definite or indefinite (specific or unspecific when referring to a particular object) eg. the, an, a

demonstrative determiner

indicates which specific object someone is talking about eg. this, that, those

Quantifier (determiner)

indicate quantity and can include numbers eg. six muffins, but can also be: some, several, many, any

Interjectors

Intense outburst of emotion eg, oh, wow, wtf

what are the word formation processes

Neologism, borrowings, communisation, nominalisation

neologism

Refers to any new word which has been invented from no prior word, or words which have gone through word formation processes eg. rizz from charisma

Borrowings

words which belong to other languages and have been adopted into english eg. sushi, matcha, tsunami

commonisation

a proper noun becomes a common noun, eg. vaseline as a pose to petroleum jelly

nominalisation

when a verb, noun or adjective become an abstract noun, used to create ambiguity eg. adult to adulting

what are the phrase types

noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, adverbial phrase

Features of clauses

subject, object, predicate, complement, adverbial

types of clauses

coordinating and subordinating

coordinating/ main clause

can stand alone as a sentence and denote complete ideas

subordinating/ dependant clause

to make sense must be paired with a coordinating clause and begin with a subordinating conjunction

types of intransitive verbs

transitive, ditransitive, copular and catenative, complex transitive

transitive verbs

verbs which require a subject and object eg. Adam hit Bill similar with kiss, smell, and like, you cannot act out these verbs without an object to accompany it

Ditransitive verb

subject and two objects eg, i sold my car to him, use of one direct object the thing being acted on (car) and indirect object, the recipient of the action (him)

copular vs catenative

copular is followed by an adjective where as Catenative is followed by another verb

common catenative verbs

want, need, try, start, stop, keep, hope, decide, seem

common copular verbs

is/ are

complex transitive verb

sentences which complement accompanying objects eg. i find her annoying, usually considered to be formal

subject

the noun of a sentence

predicate

the phrase denoting an action but does not include the subject

direct vs indirect object

direct receives the action, indirect substitutes the recipient with an indirect recipient eg. to whom did she give the apple (indirect) rather than she gave me the apple (direct)

Sentence structures

fragments, simple, compound, complex, compound complex

sentence fragment

doesnt convey a full idea

simple sentence

one coordinating clause

compound sentence

two coordinating clauses

complex sentences

one main clause and one or more subordinating with one or more subordinating conjunctions and NO coordinating conjunctions

compound complex sentence

two or more main clauses and one or more subordinating, has both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions

sentence types

declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamative

Active vs passive voice

Active- agent is the subject, passive- agent receives the action eg. Zach saw a ladybug (active) or A ladybug was seen by Zach (passive)

Agentless passive

Action with no agent eg. the ladybug was seen

Syntactic patterning

antithesis, parallelism, listing

Antithesis

contradicting or opposing ideas paired together, eg. hope for the best prepare for the worst

Parallelism

Two similar syntactic structures are paired, appears poetic eg. i cam, i saw, i conquered or one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Listing

polysyndeton and asyndeton (convey the exhaustive and extent of the chore)

polysyndeton

listing with multiple conjunctions eg. i got the pens and the books and the ice and the chairs

asyndeton

listing with no conjunctions, eg. i got the pens, books, ice, chairs

paralinguistic features

Vocal effects, nonverbal communication, creakiness, breathiness

Code switching

demonstrating a common trait thereby signalling in group membership and belonging

Cohesion

conjunctions, adverbials, lexical choice, information flow (clefting, front/ end focus), deictics/ deixis, ellipsis, collocation, substitution, referencing (cataphoric/ anaphoric), repetition

clefting

certain information is ‘clefted’ to the beginning of a sentence to give greater weight, eg. ‘Greg made soup for you’ becomes ‘It was soup Greg made for you’ (it was soup not something else)

front/ end focus

shifting elements to the start/ end of the sentence Convention: English favours on end focus/ weight at the end of a sentence. eg. ‘Molly is the most impressive ballet dancer in Australia’ -back focus , standard for SAE

deictics/ deixis

when a speaker uses inferential words to gesture to things around them eg. here, there

ellipsis

part of a sentence which would be repetitive are omitted to reinforce connection with the text

collocation

words which are often paired together eg. burst into tears, is assumed rather than blow up into tears

substitution

replacing part of a sentence with a shorter reference eg. ‘is jenny coming to the party’ ‘i hope so’, ‘so’ replaces the earlier, lengthier information

Cataphoric referencing

referring to an object with a pronoun before introducing the object

Anaphoric referencing

referring to a previously established object with a pronoun

repetition

repeated use of the same lexeme to create lexical link or memorabilia

Coherence

cohesion, inference, logical ordering, formatting, conventions

inference

information found without the full contextual details eg. what times the SAC?, the inference is to what exact SAC the speaker is referring to

logical ordering

the way in which a text is ordered for the reader to be informed in the correct sequence and finish reading the text with a sense of competition

formatting

the way a text is formatted to make it easier to read

conventions

expected features according to text type, eg. prices next to a menu or dear… in letter

features of spoken discourse

openings/ closings, adjacency pairs, minimal response/ backchannels, overlapping speech, discourse markers/ particles, non fluency features

non fluency features

pauses, filled pauses/ voiced hesitations, false starts, repetition, repairs

openings/ closing

expected ways to start and end an interaction, eg. thank you 9when taking the floor) as an opening and goodnight as a closing

adjacency pairs

phrases and common responses eg. how are you- im good thanks how are you

overlapping speech

interruptive, collaborative, backchannel

interruptive overlapping speech

common feature in informal speech and demonstrates spontaneity, often rude and used to take the floor

collaborative overlapping speech

another interlocutor finishes another’s sentence, or can aid and assist in continuing or helping to finish an idea

backchanneling overlapping speech

when another speaker uses sounds or words of affirmation to demonstrate they are following and supporting the speaker’s discourse