english language technical terms for text analysis

Abbreviation:

a shortened form of a word or phrase

Example: ASAP- as soon as possible

Abstract noun:

describe conceptual things that cannot be physically sensed

Example: love, anger, Monday

Accent:

the way something is said

Example: the scouse accent

Acronym:

words formed from initials but said as a word

Example: PIN- personal identification number

Active voice:

where the subject of a sentence performs the action

Example: She threw the ball

Addition:

when a child adds a completely new phoneme to a word

Example: saying “puhlay” to mean “play”

Adjacency pairs:

two utterances by two speakers, the first one provoking the second one as a response

Example: “what are you doing this weekend?” followed by, “I’m going out”

Adjective:

word that describes a noun

Example: sweet, red, large etc.

Adjective phrase:

a group of words that includes an adjective, that acts as an adjective in a sentence

Example: ‘extremely scary’, the word ‘scary’ is the head adjective

Adverb:

a word that modifies a verb

Example: slowly

Adverbial phrase:

a group of words that work in a sentence as an adverb

Example: in a while, very quickly

Affixation:

adding prefixes or suffixes to an existing word to make a new one

Example: reuse, quickly

Affricate:

a plosive phoneme followed by a fricative

Example: ‘ch’ as in chair, ‘j’ as in jar

Alliteration:

two or more words that start with the same sound are used repeatedly in a sentence

Example: poorly punctuated

Amelioration:

a word gains a more positive meaning

Example: ‘sick’ used to mean ill and now sometimes means good or cool

Anaphora:

the last word or words of a sentence, line or phrase is repeated at the beginning of the next

Example: When we win, we win big.

Anaphoric referencing:

when a writer uses a pronoun to refer back to something previously mentioned

Example: I saw my friend, she looked great.

Approximant:

a phoneme produced when parts of the mouth are brought together but don’t touch

Example: ‘r’ as in rug, ‘w’ as in word, ‘y’ as in yet

Assimilation:

when a phoneme in a word becomes more like a nearby phoneme as it is easier to say

Example: ‘hambag’ instead of ‘handbag’

Assonance:

the repetition of vowel sounds in words close together in a sentence

Example: chips and dips

Asyndetic list:

when words are listed but separated by a comma instead of a conjunction

Example: I need to buy apples, oranges, pears and bananas.

Attributive adjective:

adjective directly next to the noun or pronoun that it describes

Example: big dog

Babbling:

producing repeated syllable sounds in the speech of children

Example: “dadda”

Back-channeling:

when a listener in a conversation gives feedback to the speaker to show that they are understanding what’s being said

Example: “yeah”, “mm-hmm”, “ok”, “totally”, “I get it”

Behaviourism:

the belief that children learn to speak through mimicry and positive and negative reinforcement

Bilabial:

phoneme formed by bringing the lips together

Example: ‘p’ as in ‘place’, ‘b’ as in ‘bee’, ‘m’ as in ‘make’

Blaspheme:

talking badly about god or a sacred thing (taking the lord’s name in vain)

Example: Oh my god

Bleaching:

the reduction of a word’s meaning through semantic change

Example: ‘awesome’ no longer actually inspiring awe

Bound morpheme:

a morpheme that doesn’t have meaning by itself

Example: -ing, -ion

Cataphoric reference:

when a writer uses a pronoun to refer to something not yet mentioned

Example: this work takes too long.

Clause

a group of words containing a subject and a predicate

Example: ‘when it rained’

clipping

creating a new word by reducing the number of syllables in a word

Example: ‘Information’ to ‘info’

Codification:

the process by which a language change becomes official

Collocation:

a combination of words that are closely linked to each other

Example: blonde hair- not many other items are described as blonde

Common noun:

a generic name for things, people and places

Example: dog, car, city

Complement:

a word or noun that modifies the subject of a sentence

Example: This dress is new.

Complex sentence

a sentence that contains an independent clause and at least one subordinate clause

Example: We won’t go outside, if it rains

Compound (word not sentence)

a word created by joining two separate words

Example: seafood

Compound sentence

two or more simple sentences joined by a conjunction

Example: The sun was shining so I walked the dog.

Conjunction

a word that combines two words together

Example: and, but, or

Consonance

repeated consonant sounds in a phrase or sentence

Example: Mike likes his new bike.

Consonant cluster reduction

when a child removes consonant sounds from the word

Example: saying ‘hans’ instead of ‘hands’

Convergence

when a person changes their language to become more similar to those around them

Conversationalisation

the process by which conversations become more informal

Conversion

when a word changes its word class

Example: ‘text’ originally being a noun but has become a verb, ‘to text’

Cooing

the sounds a baby makes before being able to form words

Coordination

using coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) to join two clauses to form a compound sentence

Example: The sun was shining so I walked the dog.

Copula verb

a verb that links the subject of a sentence to its complement

Example: to be- The dress is new. I was sad. I am scared

Covert prestige

prestige gained through recognition from a peer group by using non-standard forms (changing your language to fit in)

Deixis

a word only understood in context, the denotation varies across every piece of text

Example: the meaning of ‘I’ changes depending on who is writing, the meaning of ‘now’ changes depending on when the text was written

Deletion

when a child omits a word altogether in a sentence

Example: Where gone?

Demonstrative pronoun

used to point to something in a sentence

Example: this, there, these

Denotation

the dictionary definition of a word

Deontic modality

language that suggests a sense of necessity or possibility

Example: We need to fix this

Derogation

when a word’s meaning becomes worse over time

Example: cougar, slut, wench

Descriptive adjective

adjectives that describes a noun’s appearance or quality

Example: evil, beautiful, blue

Descriptivism

a non-judgemental approach to language which focuses on what is actually said rather than what should be said, does not state whether language usage is right or wrong

Determiner

a word that modifies, describes or introduces a noun, clarifies what a noun refers to or indicates its quality

Example: the, your, every, several

Dialect

the words a person uses based on social factors (e.g. location, age, class etc.

Diminutive

the addition of a morpheme to give the sense that a noun is smaller

Example: ‘doggie’, ‘blankie’

Diphthongs

one phoneme that is made up of two distinct sounds

Example: ‘ea’, ‘oo’, ‘ay’

Direct object

a noun that receives the action of the verb that was carried out by the subject

Example: She ate the cake.

Discourse marker

a word or phrase that is used to organise the parts of a text or introduce the next idea

Example: However, Although, Next, Firstly

Discourse structure

the way a text is structured (e.g. chronological, non chronological, problem- solution, instructions etc.)

Disjuncts

an adverb that doesn’t express information essential to the sentence but conveys an attitude towards the content of the sentence

Example: frankly, honestly, surely, generally

Divergence

when a person changes their language to become less similar to those around them

Dynamic verb

a verb that shows the action is continuous and will continue to be ongoing (in the progressive aspect)

Example: running, going, drinking

Dysphemism

a blunt way of saying something

Example: ‘pig’ to refer to a policeman

Echoing

when a caregiver repeats what a child says

Elaborated code

a way of speaking that is clear and understandable (often standard english)

Elision

omission of phonemes or syllables in speech

Example: ‘I’m gonna go home’

Ellipsis

omitting words in a sentence to be more efficient because you don’t have to repeat them

Example: ‘That sounds logical to me’ becomes ‘Sounds logical’

Embedding

when a clause is added to a sentence medially to add extra information but is not necessary for the sentence’s meaning

Example: the milk, which had gone out of date, was thrown away

Emotive language

language that provokes emotion from the reader because it has a strong feeling attached to it

Example: appalling, adored, viciously

end focus

when a clause is placed at the end of a sentence for emphasis

Example: She broke up with me, on my birthday.

Epistemic modality

language that suggests a sense of probability or certainty

Example: may, might, must

Eponym

when a person’s name (typically the creator) is used to form a word

Example: Dickensian

Evaluative adjective

an adjective that expresses a judgement on the noun

Example: stupid, smart, silly

Expansion

filling in a child’s unfinished utterance by restating it correctly, providing them a correct model to follow

Example: ‘him hurt.” adult response; ‘is he hurt?’

Face

the personal and social value a person possesses

Face threatening act

an utterance that imposes on a person’s face (see: Brown and Levinson face theory)

Example: Interruptions, insults

False starts

the speaker attempts to start speaking but then stops and retries

Example: “I think-, Actually I think…”

Fatherese

the language a father uses when addressing their child, it typically contains more interrogatives and commands and they accommodate their language less

Finite verb

a verb that shows agreement with the subject and marked to show its tense

Example: I love, she loves, they are loving

Formulaic phrase

a commonly used expression (not just idiomatic phrases)

Example: ‘In this day and age’, ‘small fish in a big pond’

Fricative

a consonant sound made by forcing air through narrow lips

Example: ‘f’, ‘v’

Fronted adverbial

words or phrases placed at the front of the sentence that describes how a verb was carried out

Example: ‘Without warning, the door slammed’

Grapheme

the written representation of a phoneme

Example: /k/, /n/

Graphemic cluster reduction

a group of letters being omitted from a word

Example: ‘spider’ being pronounced as ‘pider’

Graphemic cluster substitution

a group of letters being replaced in a word

Example: ‘yellow’ being pronounced as ‘lellow’

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence

where the sounds match the letters

head noun

the main noun in a noun phrase

Example: the man

Hedging

language used to express uncertainty suggests they are less confident in their ideas

Holophrase

when a child utters just one word

Example: “go” “mine”

Homophone

words that sound the same but are spelt differently

Example: “their” and “there”

Hypernym

a word with a broad meaning creating a category of words

Example: “colour” is a ? of “red”

Hypophora

when a speaker raises a question and then immediately answers it

Hyponym

a word more specific than its hypernym

"Example: “spoon” is a hyponym of “cutlery”

Hypotaxis

a sentence where the main clause is built upon by phrases or subordinate clauses

Example: “ I am tired because it’s hot”

imprecise references

ambiguity and vagueness in language