Metalanguage

Context

The circumstances that occur with a text.

Situational Context

Refers to who, what, where, when, and how in communication.

Cultural Context

Involves characteristics like experiences, beliefs, and identity that shape communication.

Tenor

The relationship between participants in a language activity, including social distance and formality.

Mode

The channel of communication, either spoken or written.

Field

The content or subject matter of a communication, related to semantics.

Text Type

Refers to various forms of writing or speaking, with conventions supporting their purpose.

Proximity

Describes the closeness between participants in a communication.

Power

Refers to the power dynamics between participants in communication.

Position

Describes the identity of participants in a communicative context.

Metalinguistic function

Discusses language itself, such as definitions and clarifications.

Referential function

Conveys information, such as factual statements.

Phatic function

Establishes social connection through greetings and small talk.

Emotive function

Conveys feelings and emotions, often through exclamations.

Poetic function

Focuses on aesthetic aspects of language and expression.

Conative function

Aims to engage the addressee, often through commands.

Lexicology

The study of words and their meanings.

Lexeme

The smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand alone.

Open-class words

Content words that can accept new members, like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Closed-class words

Function words that structure sentences, with a fixed number, like articles and conjunctions.

Concrete nouns

Nouns that represent tangible objects, such as 'apple' or 'dog'.

Abstract nouns

Nouns that represent intangible concepts, like 'love' or 'freedom'.

Collective nouns

Nouns that refer to a group of entities, such as 'team' or 'flock'.

Count nouns

Nouns that can be counted and have plural forms, like 'book/books'.

Mass nouns

Nouns that cannot be counted and do not have a plural form, like 'water' or 'sand'.

Direct object

Noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb.

Indirect object

Noun or pronoun that receives the direct object in a sentence.

Adverb

A word that modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Preposition

A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence.

Determiner

A word placed before a noun to provide information such as quantity or ownership.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning in a word.

Compound sentence

A sentence that contains two or more main clauses connected by coordinating conjunctions.

Complex sentence

Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Phrase

A group of words that forms a single unit of meaning.

Semantic field

A set of related words grouped by meaning.

Inference

A conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning.

Code-switching

Switching between different linguistic codes or languages.

Paralinguistic features

Aspects of spoken communication beyond words, such as tone and gestures.

What is Politeness in communication?

Politeness centers on the awareness of the public and/or personal image of another individual, involving face needs—either positive (the need to be well regarded) or negative (the need for autonomy) and employs strategies to mitigate face-threatening acts.

What are Face Needs?

Face needs refer to a person's public self-image and sense of value in social situations, including positive face needs (need to feel well regarded) and negative face needs (need for freedom to act without imposition).

What are Positive Face Needs?

The need to feel well regarded, which includes the desire to feel liked, accepted, valued, and appreciated by others.

What are Negative Face Needs?

The need to have the freedom to act without imposition and as one wishes, encompassing the desire for autonomy.

What are Positive Politeness Strategies?

Strategies used to attend to another's positive face needs, such as compliments, terms of respect, expressions of solidarity, and fostering inclusion.

What are Negative Politeness Strategies?

Strategies used to attend to another's negative face needs, including being indirect, providing choices, making apologies, and asking rather than telling.

What are Euphemisms?

Terms that avoid taboo language by using more positive connotations, like 'let go' instead of 'fired'.

What are Dysphemisms?

Derogatory or unpleasant terms used in place of more neutral terms, such as 'loony bin' for 'mental hospital', often aimed at hurting or offending.

How do communities change their attitudes toward taboo topics?

Communities can normalize previously taboo topics over time, making them more acceptable, while also reversing the acceptance of once innocuous terms as they become used offensively.

What role does profanity play in language?

Profanity can serve various purposes, such as emotional expression, solidarity within a group, or as a stylistic choice to enhance vividness.

What is the difference between colloquial language and slang?

Colloquial language is informal speech common in geographic regions, often widely accepted, while slang is very informal and specific to particular social groups, frequently evolving and less widely understood.

What is Phonological Patterning?

Phonological patterning involves techniques such as rhyme, alliteration, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, and assonance that create sound patterns in language to enhance communication and engagement.

What is Morphological Patterning?

Morphological patterning refers to the structural aspects of words, including affixation, compounding, abbreviation, blending, initialism, shortening, backformation, acronyms, conversion of word class, and contraction.

What is Semantic Patterning?

Semantic patterning involves the use of figurative language, lexical ambiguity, and other techniques such as irony, metaphor, hyperbole, oxymoron, personification, puns, and similes to convey deeper meaning or reinforce ideas in communication.

What is the purpose of using rhyme in communication?

Rhyme serves aesthetic purposes, creating memorable phrases, and is often found in songs and poetry to enhance the overall auditory experience.

What is alliteration and its purpose?

Alliteration is the occurrence of the same sound at the beginning of closely connected words, often used in headlines to create a catchy, memorable tone.

What is onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia refers to words that phonetically imitate or resemble the sound they describe, adding a vivid, sensory experience to language.

What does ‘context-specific graphemes’ mean?

Context-specific graphemes are written symbols, typically punctuation, that provide additional meaning based on the context in which they are used, such as the interpretation of ‘#’ as a number or a topic marker.

How does emoji use relate to communication?

Emojis can convey covert connotations and emotions, enhance rapport between participants, and may relate to cultural expressions, such as queerness, in communication.

What are non-fluency features in spoken discourse?

Non-fluency features include repairs, repetitions, pauses, filled pauses, voiced hesitations, and false starts that indicate natural speech patterns and can impact the flow of conversation.

What is 'turn-taking' in conversational strategies?

Turn-taking refers to the methods by which speakers alternate turns in discussion, involving the dynamics of taking, holding, and passing the conversational floor to manage interaction effectively.

What are adjacency pairs in spoken discourse?

Adjacency pairs are composed of sequential utterances by at least two speakers, where the first utterance prompts a second response that is often expected and contextually appropriate.

Non-Fluency Features

Elements of spoken discourse that indicate natural speech patterns, including repairs, hesitations, and repetitions.

Repair

The process by which a speaker corrects their previous utterance, for example, 'we went… I mean, I went to the shops'.

Repetition

The process of repeating what was previously said due to a lack of preparation, hesitation, or finding the right words.

Pauses

Gaps between speech that indicate a break, which can be deliberate or non-fluent.

Filled pauses/Voiced hesitations

Noises made to fill pauses, such as 'um' or 'uh'.

False starts

When a speaker starts to say something, cuts themselves off, and continues without repeating themselves.

Discourse Markers and Particles

Linguistic elements that do not carry semantic meaning on their own but organize discourse, indicate speaker intention, and hold language together.

Types of Discourse Particles

1. Interrogative: Added to the end of declaratives to encourage agreement or check understanding (e.g., 'right?', 'you know'). 2. Discourse Marker: Marks a shift in discourse (e.g., 'anyway', 'so', 'well'). 3. Hedger: Softens the force of a statement to maintain politeness (e.g., 'I mean', 'well', 'like'). 4. Emphasis: Highlight the importance of statements (e.g., 'legit', 'actually', 'defs').

C TMT Strategies

Strategies for managing communication through methods like code-switching and turn-taking.

Code-Switching

Switching between languages by participants who share a cultural or linguistic background, which can indicate group membership, strengthen social bonds, and differentiate the group.

Turn-Taking

Methods by which speakers alternate turns in discourse, involving control over the conversational floor.

Taking the Floor

Gaining control of the conversation from another speaker, such as through overlapping speech or increased volume.

Holding the Floor

Maintaining one's turn and control over the conversation, which can involve pause fillers or repetitions.

Passing the Floor

Transferring focus and control to another speaker, often through adjacency pairs or discourse particles.

Managing Repair Sequences

The process by which speakers identify and correct communication problems in spoken discourse, addressing issues like pronunciation, grammar, and misunderstandings.

Repair Sequence Types

1. Self-initiated self repair: Speaker corrects immediately without intervention. 2. Self-initiated other repair: Speaker invites listener to propose a correction. 3. Other-initiated self repair: Listener indicates a problem; speaker corrects. 4. Other-initiated other repair: Listener indicates a problem and provides a correction.

Topic Management

The ways in which topics are introduced, developed, shifted, and terminated in discourse.

Initiating

Introducing a new topic in a conversation.

Developing

Elaborating or expanding on a topic in discourse.

Shift

Moving between topics that have a coherent link.

Change

Changing from one topic to another without links.

Loop

Returning to a previous topic in discourse.

Termination

The end of a conversation.