englang

paralinguistic features

non-vocal signals used in a spoken conversation

code-switching

switching between different languages within a conversation

adjacency pairs

conversational routines that speakers take to relate to each other or to elicit or a response from the other

overlapping

a common feature in spontaneous discourse which is usually indicated in transcripts with square brackets

interrogative tags

a signal that the speaker is relinquishing the floor to another person

topic management

a discourse strategy that is used to control the topic of conversation

minimal responses

a discourse strategy that is used to indicate that we are listening to and following the speaker

anaphoric referencing

a type of substitution that occurs to refer back to something mentioned earlier

cataphoric referencing

a type of substitution that occurs to refer forward to something that will be mentioned later

deictics

a type of substitution that relies on contextual information

repetition

used to create cohesion by reinforcing a topic

ellipses

occurs when information that is known is omitted from the text

free morphemes

words that stand alone

bound morphemes

morphemes that can’t stand alone

inflectional morphemes

provide additional grammatical information

derivational morphemes

change the meaning or words and can sometimes change the word class

prefixes

morphemes that are added to the front of a word

suffixes

morphemes that are added to the end of a word

affixes

process of adding morphemes to a word

infixes

adding morphemes in the middle of a word

suffixation

process of creating new words by shortening and adding suffixes to a word

root morpheme

semantic base or centre of a word, the smallest unit around which new words are built

function words

words that convey a grammatical relationship between words in a sentence

content words

words that convey real-world meaning

nouns

words that name people, places, and things

common nouns

classify things into types or general categories

proper nouns

words that refer to specific people and places, with the first letter being capitalised

abstract nouns

words that refer to ideas, processes, occasions, times, and qualities

collective nouns

words that name groups of people, animals, and things

adjectives

words that function as modifiers of nouns

adverbs

words that modify verbs

lexical verbs

verbs that express the meaning in a verb phrase

finite verbs

verbs that change their form to show contrasts of number, tense, and person

non-finite verbs

verbs that do not change their forms and are used to form participles or followed by ‘to’

auxiliary verbs

words that are used to modify and change some aspects of a main verb

modal verbs

verbs that carry additional information such as possibility or obligation

determiners

define or modify nouns

pronouns

words that substitute a noun

prepositions

words showing relationships between nouns/pronouns and other words in a sentence

interjections

words that express a sudden or strong emotion or feeling

conjunctions

words that connect words or sentences

neologisms

newly coined words, expressions, or usage

blends

words that are formed by using parts of two words

initialisms

using initial letters of a series of words, uttered as a series of letters

acronyms

creating a new word as a result of using first letters of a series of words

shortenings

words formed by dropping letters

compounding

words that are formed by putting two free morphemes together

collocations

words that always appear together

commonisation

words that are formed from proper nouns

archaism

words that are not in common use

pitch

‘height’ of a sound, from high to low

stress

degree of strength used to produce a syllable

volume

loud or soft sound

tempo

speed with which we speak

intonation

pattern of pitch changes in speech

assimilation

when sounds change to become more like neighbouring sounds

vowel reduction

when vowels are reduced to a schwa sound

elision

omission of sounds in connected speech

insertion

addition of sounds where they do not belong

alliteration

repetition of an initial consonant sound

assonance

repetition of identical vowel sounds within words

consonance

repetition of consonant sounds within words

onomatopoeia

words formed by the imitation of a sound

rhythm

pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in speech

rhyme

repetition of word endings that have the same or similar vowel and consonant sounds

dysphemism

word or phrase that magnifies an unpleasant meaning

oxymoron

a type of phrase that combines two apparently contradictory words for special effect

idiom

fixed phrases with non-literal meaning

irony

when a speaker or writer states one thing but actually intends the audience to understand an opposing or contradictory meaning

elevation

when a lexeme takes a more positive meaning than it once had

lexical ambiguity

when it is not possible to determine the meaning of a particular lexeme

metaphor

a figure of speech in which one thing is said to be another

broadening

when a lexeme widens its meaning

animation

a figure of speech that transfers life or movement to inanimate objects, but the qualities that are transferred are not necessarily human and can be associated with other living things

narrowing

when a lexeme narrows its meaning

personification

a figure of speech that gives non-humans human qualities or abilities

euphemism

word or phrase that masks an unpleasant meaning

simile

a figure of speech that explicitly connects one thing to the other in order to make a comparison

pun

a play on words

synonym

lexemes that have similar meaning

connotation

refers to the additional emotional associations or values that attach themselves to a word over time

antonym

lexemes that have contrasting meaning

semantic field

when lexemes are grouped with others that have interrelated meanings

shift

when a lexeme takes a new meaning and loses its original meaning

denotation

the literal meaning of a word as defined in a dictionary

deterioration

when a lexeme takes a more negative meaning than it once had

figurative language

lexemes that have a meaning other than a literal meaning

phrase

collection of words that have a complete meaning, but they may lack either a subject or verb

clause

consists of a subject and a verb

independent clause

a clause that can stand alone as a sentence

dependent clause

a clause that can’t stand alone as a sentence

fragment

a sentence with no clauses

simple sentence

a sentence with one clause, containing no joining clauses

compound sentence

a sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions

complex sentence

a sentence with one independent clause, but one or more dependent clauses joined by subordinating conjunctions

compound-complex sentence

a sentence that contains three or more clauses, with at least one coordinating conjunction and one subordinating conjunction

nominalisation

occurs when a noun is created from a word from any other word class, particularly verbs

subject

person or object that is involved in the action

object

is affected by the action, but is not directly involved

direct object

the noun or noun phrase that takes the action indicated by the predicator