English Language Unit 3/4 Metalanguage

Pitch

Pitch is closely related to intonation. The pitch of an utterance can be high, low or anywhere in between. It often indicates the importance of a word in comparison to words surrounding it.
You ↑know↑ I don't like going ↓there↓

Stress

Stress is the emphasis placed on syllables within an individual word or within larger units of spoken discourse. The stress placed on a syllable can often change the meaning of the word
CONtract (noun) conTRACT (verb)
INsult (noun) inSULT (verb)

Volume

The volume of an utterance will often change in conjunction with stress and intonation, where usually the louder the pitch, the more important the speaker considers it to be.

Tempo

The tempo is the speed at which a speaker speaks. It often indicates the importance of a sentence or clause in reference to surrounding clauses or sentences. For example, subordinating clauses are often spoken slightly faster as they often do not contain as much important information as main clauses

Intonation

Intonation describes the variations in a speaker's voice. Speakers rarely keep at a monotonic level, so we look at the changes in tone to identify the different functions of intonation: Expression of emotion and attitude or grammatical function; as a discourse function; and personal or social identity

Vocal effects

Vocal effects are coughs, laughter and breath. They can often indicate informal language however this is not always the case. For example, laughter can be a politeness marker in response to a joke made.

Assimilation

Assimilation is the influence on two phonemes on one another to make the sounds more alike.
E.G. When the phrase 'sweet pepper' is said together, the 'tuh' sound at the end of 'sweet' tends to change into /d/ sound

Vowel Reduction

Often vowels become weaker in their pronunciation. This often occurs when speakers are speaking quickly or more often in informal situations
E.G. 'Water'; the 'er' phoneme morphs into more an 'ah' sound when spoken.

Elision

Elision is the complete disappearance of a sound.
E.G. The phrase 'me and you' becomes more like 'me n you' when spoken

Insertion

Insertion is the opposite of elision. It is where phonemes are added to allow language to flow.
E.G. 'Drawing' is not pronounced as 'draw'+'ing'. It has an added 'r' sound to it to form 'drawring'
'Warmth' is often pronounced with an extra 'p' sound so it is more like 'warmpth'

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant, often in the first position
Help Labour build a better Britain
She sells sea shells by the sea shore

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of a vowel in a middle position in a word. Assonance is often hard to pick up on because they work subconsciously on setting the mood and are very subtle.

"And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the charred billets and chalk bones, the little calcined ribcage."
The long 'a' sound in this excerpt of Cormac McCarthy's book Outer Dark gives the passage an ominous and chilling mood

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of a consonant in the middle of final position of a word.
Short and sweet
Odds and ends

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia are words used to describe sounds
Hiss Smash Sludge Wham Oh Ugh

Rhythm

The rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables in the English language is quite regular. However speakers may alter the beat of their language depending on their audience, purpose and context. In a more formal situation, like a debate, the speaker may have a very regular and conscious rhythm pattern, while someone in an uncomfortable situation may cause a very hesitant and arrhythmic pattern. Informal conversation is likely to be at some degree between those two.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the exact or partial repetition of a sound and is usually found at the end of a poetic line
Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are

Common and Proper Nouns

Common nouns classify things into types or general categories
E.G. car dog flower chair
Proper nouns refer to specific people and places and are usually written with a capital letter
E.G. Steven Spielberg England Wales

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Concrete nouns refer to physical things like people, objects and places, things that can be observed and measured
E.G. guitar table bed
Abstract nouns refer to ideas, processes, occasions, times and qualities; they cannot be touched or seen.
E.G. happiness week birth confinement

Possesives

Where 's or ' is added to the noun to mark possession.

Auxillary Verbs

There are two types: Primary verbs and Modal verbs.
Primary verbs are 'to be', 'to have' and 'to do' however these primary verbs can become modal verbs if they convey attitudes and moods about an event taking place. Modal verbs include lexemes such as 'can', 'must', 'may', 'will' and 'shall'

Finite and non-finite verbs

Finite verbs change their form to show contrast of number, tense and person.
She lives in Europe; she previously lived in America
Non-finite verbs never change their form.
-to live

Adverbs

Adverbs (Adv) are modifying words and describe how an action is carried out. They often end in -ly. Adverbs can modify:
• Verbs: The car drove slowly.
• Adjectives: She is very pretty
• Other adverbs: The mural was painted particularly carefully.
• Sentences: I went home; my friend, meanwhile, stayed to chat.

Adjectives

Adjectives (Adj) are also known as 'describing' words and give use more information about a noun. Adjectives can be graded so nouns can be compared.
E.G. big --> bigger--> biggest
* Adding -er causes a monosyllabic (car) to become a comparative (bigger) and adding -est to a comparative, it forms a superlative (biggest)

Interjections

Interjections or exclamations are words used to express emotion. Filled pauses such as uh, um and er are also considered interjections. Interjections are often placed at the front of a sentence.

Open-classed words

Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

Closed-classed words

Prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions and determiners

Prepositions

Prepositions describe the relationship between elements in a sentence. They can convey:
• Place: at, on, by, opposite, in
• Direction: towards, past, out of, to, through
• Time: at, before, in, on
• Comparison: as... as, like
• Source: from, out of
• Purpose: for
Prepositions may have the same form but different functions
[Meet me at the library.
Meet me at 9 o'clock]
[The girl read in her room.
The rioters kicked in the door]

Pronouns

Pronouns are used in places of nouns, noun phrases or noun clauses.
First person: I, me, we/us (plural)
Second person: You (singular and plural)
Third person: he/she/it, they/them (plural)

Possessive pronouns

Are used when you need to show possession of something.
E.G. mine, ours, yours, his/hers/theirs

Co-ordinating conjunctions

Link together lexical units of equal value.
E.G. The girl and the boy
The day was wet and the trip was ruined

Subordinating conjunctions

Join a subordinate clause to a main clause. They often give information on when, where, why, if and how and action takes place.
E.G. I go to restaurants where I can get good vegetarian food.

Determiners

Determiners (det) precede nouns and have only two members: a/an and the. Definite determiners ('the') specify something in particular, while indefinite determiners ('a/an') do not
the dog/a dog the house/a house

Blends

A word composed of the parts of more than one word.
E.G. guess + estimate --> guesstimate

Acronym

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word.
E.G. NASA, NATO, ANZAC

Initialism

An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced seperately.
E.G. BBC, HBO, ABC

Collocations

Word that are associated within phrases because they are often well known and predictable
safe and sound free and easy home and dry

Neologism

The coining of new words

Simple sentences

Simple sentences contain just one clause and are described as a main clause

Complex sentences

Clauses in complex sentences do not have equal value. It is made up of one main clause and one or more subordinate or dependent clause.
E.G. (Our friend like stories) that (come from other countries)

Compound complex sentences

In a compound complex sentence, co-ordination and subordination are used together
E.G. (The police needed to discover) who (had been seen) and (then hoped to make an arrest.)

Declarative sentences

Declarative sentences are used to make statements.
E.G.The old man was content in the park.

Imperative sentences

Imperative sentences are used to address commands or orders.
E.G. Sit in the park.

Interrogative sentences

Interrogative sentences are used to address questions.
E.G.Are you okay?

Exclamative sentences

Exclamative sentences are used to convey emotion and end with an exclamation mark.
E.G. I'm so excited!

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is the omission of speech or the writing of words. It is often omitted to avoid repetition and the sentence can only be understood within the context if ellipsis is used.
E.G. (You have got more use for it than I have.) instead of (You have got more use for it than I have use for it.)

Nominalisation

Where verbs become nouns, actions becomes things and content seems more abstract.
E.G. In (Ignorance was shown in response to the inquiry on the whereabouts of the welfare housing policy') 'Ignorance' becomes a noun

Active voice

The active voice expresses the action of the verb, directly linking it to the person or thing carrying out the action.
E.G. The car stopped suddenly.
The girl picked up the book.

Passive voice

The passive voice changed the focus of the sentence by reordering the elements so that it goes from:
Subject + Verb + Object → Object + Passive verb form + Subject
E.G. The police hit the rioter → The rioter was hit by the police
The use of passive voice has several functions:
1. The delaying of the subject can create suspense
2. To prevent awkwardness of the sentences if the actor is a long phrase
3. To exclude the person/thing responsible for the action
The subject can be removed all together from a sentence to put focus on the actions rather than the person/thing.

Antithesis

Antithesis is the technique of placing two words or ideas in opposition to bring out a contrast.

Listing

Listing as an accumulative effect and enables a writer or speaker to create a range of impressions. It can create chaos and confusion or logic and reasoning depending on its context. If conjunctions are used to co-ordinate a group of words, the list is syndetic; if commas are used, the list is asyndetic.

Parallelism

Where language structures of similar construction and meaning are placed side by side so that they create a sense of balance and reasoning