Glossary of Metalanguage for VCE English Language

Acronym

A word formed from the first letter or letters of several words, for example SCUBA- self contained underwater breathing apparatus.

Active Voice.

When a sentence has the subject before the verb. The subject directly does the verb.

Adjective

A word that describes a noun.

Adverb

A word that describes a verb, adjective or another adverb.

Alliteration

A literary device in which the writer repeats the initial consonant sounds of words close together to achieve an effect.

Antonyms

Words with the opposite meanings, eg. slow fast.

Conjunction

A word that joins two words, phrases, clauses or sentences. eg. although, and, but, when etc.

Euphemism

A mild/indirect way of saying something that is unpleasant. eg. 'he passed away' instead of 'he died'.

Hyperbole

A deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for effect: for example, I've told you a million times.' '50000 degrees outside'

Idiom

A type of figurative language that does not literally mean what it says, for example, to have a chip on your shoulder or to get cold feet.

Irony

A figure of speech where the literal meaning is different from the intended meaning; a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, between appearances and reality, or

between what we expect and what takes place. eg. A soldier survives a war and injures himself shaving.

Jargon

Specialist language that is particular to a trade, profession or other group, such as cricketers (golden duck, yorker)

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

Noun

Words that name people, places and things.

Onomatopoeia

The formation of words that echo the sounds they describe, for example, splash, quack etc.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that brings together two seemingly contradictory things

Passive Voice

The voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb

'the cake was eaten by her'

Personification

A type of metaphor in which objects are given human characteristics.

Pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun—personal pronouns take the place of nouns that name people, animals or things (me, she, he, it, they); possessive pronouns indicate possessions (yours, mine, his, her, theirs).

Pun

An amusing play on words that sound or look similar and have different meanings. Eg. many many newspaper articles have these - 'Taco Bell, need a job, just taco us about it'. - Sanchez

Rhyme

The repetition of similar or identical sounds.

Rhythm

The beat or pattern of stresses that occur in a poem.

Semantics

The study of the meanings of words.

Simile

A figure of speech that asks us to compare one thing to another, generally using the words

'like' or 'as' to make the connection. eg.'As smart as Brandon.'

Verb

An Action Word.

Phoneme

A sound in language.

Dipthong

Two vowels together.

Monothong

Single vowel sound.

Tripthong

triple vowel soung

shwa

Unstressed syllable in Australian English.

Coalescence

Two words that change phonemes when joined together: ‘going to → gonna’

Elision

The omission of phonemes when speaking (as in I'm, let's, e'en).

Assimilation

A phoneme is influenced by a future phoneme

'hand bag' -- 'hambag'

Progressive Assimilation

A phoneme that is influenced by a previous phoneme

'church street'

Liaison

The phonemes added when speaking two words

'law and order'

Epenthesis

The insertion of a sound or an unetymological letter within a word, e.g., the b in thimble.

Yod Coalescence

when a final 't' or 'd' sounds and initial /j/ following combine to form a tj or dz

‘did you → didja'

Prosodic Features

stress, pitch, intonation, volume and tempo

Plural

More than one in number.

-s

Progressive

Denoting an aspect or tense of a verb that expresses an action in progress, e.g., am writing, was writing.

's

Past Tense

A verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past.

-ed

Present Participle

The form of a verb, ending in -ing in English, which is used in forming continuous tenses, e.g., in I'm thinking

Past Participle

The form of a verb, typically ending in -ed in English, that is used in forming perfect and passive tenses and sometimes as an adjective, e.g., looked in have you looked? and lost in lost property

Comparative

Expressing a higher degree of a quality, but not the highest possible (e.g., braver; more fiercely)

-er

Superlative

Expressing the highest or a very high degree of a quality (e.g., bravest, most fiercely)

-est

Compound

A lexeme that consists of more than one stem - joining two words together

'school bag'

Blend

A word made up of the parts of others and combining their meanings, for example motel from motor and hotel

Borrowing

Words from other languages

Affixation

A morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word.

- 'unhappy' 'amazaballs'

Backformation

A shortened form that is mistakenly thought to be the origin word

'televise'

Neologism

The coining or use of new words

Initialism

An abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately 'AFL'

Conversion

The act of changing a lexemes word class, example 'to BOOK someone'

Commonisation

A word that becomes a common noun

'kleenex'

Abstract Noun

Non tangible things.

- happiness

Concrete Noun

A word that denotes something tangible or material, such as a person or place

- chair

Common Noun

A word denoting a class of objects or a concept as opposed to a particular individual

- mustard

Proper Noun

names

- paris

Modal Verb

An auxiliary verb that expresses necessity or possibility. must, shall, will, should, would, can, could, may, and might

Auxiliary Verb

A verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs

'be' 'have' 'do'

Coordinating Conjunction

1.A conjunction placed between words, phrases, clauses, or sentences of equal rank, e.g., and, but, or.

Subordinating Conjunction

A conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause, e.g., although, because, if, since

Noun Phrase

A word or group of words with one HEAD WORD that functions in a sentence as subject, object, or prepositional object

Verb Phrase

The part of a sentence containing the verb and any direct or indirect object, but not the subject

Phrasal Verb

An idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb and another element, typically either an adverb or a preposition

Prepositional Phrase

A phrase that begins with a preposition.

Adjective Phrase

A group of words in a sentence with an adjective which describes the noun

Adverb Phrase

a group of two or more words operating adverbially, when viewed in terms of their syntactic function.

Compliment

A word or phrase that gives additional information about the subject.

Adverbial

A word or phrase functioning like an adverb

when, where, how did this happen

Independent Clause

A clause that can stand on its own

Subordinate Clause

Functions as a clause element in the independent clause, cant stand on its own

Sentence Fragment

A sentence that contains no verbs

Ellipsis

A sentence without a clause: ‘dont want to’ instead of ‘i dont want to’

Simple Sentence

A sentence with no additional verbs

Compound Sentence

Two main clauses with no co-ordinating conjunction or comma

Complex Sentence

A sentence with a subordinate clause and an independent clause.

Compound Complex Sentence

A combination of both complex and compound sentences.

Declarative

A statement in the form of a declaration

Interrogative

A statement in the form of a question

Imperative

A statement in the form of an order

Exclamative

A type of structure used to exclaim surprise, delight, annoyance, etc

Active Voice

The voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb

'she ate the cake'

Colloquialisms

A word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation.

Elevation

A word that previously carries negative connotations being used in a way that denotes positive connotations

'sick'

Lexical Ambiguity

lexical ambiguity

Animation

Inanimate objects described as having animal characteristics.

Parallelism

The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning,

Assonance

The repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

Anaphoric Reference

A word, or phrase, usually a pronoun such as "it", or "he" or "that" which refers backwards in the text to a noun which has already been used

Cataphoric Reference

A word, or phrase, usually a pronoun such as "it", or "he" or "that" which refers forward in the text to a noun which has yet to be included

Dietetic Reference

A word, or phrase, which refers noun which has not been mentioned in the text

Synonymy

The semantic relation that holds between two words that can (in a given context) express the same meaning

Hyponymy

The semantic relation of being subordinate or belonging to a lower rank or class

Clefting

The act of changing a simple sentence into a complex sentence

Front Focus

The moving of the end clause element to the front

- Fronting

End Focus

The moving of a front clause element to the end

Dislocation

The subject moves from its normal location

Left Dislocation

Moving the subject to the left

Right Dislocation

Moving the subject to the right