Master Notecard Vocab

acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of a series of words, usually pronounced as a word, such as "NASA."

clipping

A process of word formation in which a longer word is shortened without changing its basic meaning, such as "advertisement" becoming "ad."

collocation

A combination of words that commonly occur together and sound natural to speakers of a language, such as "heavy rain" or "strong coffee."

computer-mediated discourse

Language and communication that takes place through computer-based technologies, such as emails, text messages, online chats, and social media.

concordance

A list or collection of examples showing how a particular word or phrase is used in a body of texts, often used to study patterns of language use.

conversion

A process of word formation in which a word changes its grammatical category without changing its form, such as the noun "email" becoming the verb "to email."

corpus

A large, organized collection of written or spoken language used for studying how language is actually used.

creole

A stable, fully developed language that develops from a mixture of languages, often emerging when speakers of different languages need to communicate.

descriptivism

An approach to language that describes how people actually use language rather than judging whether their usage is correct or incorrect.

diachronic linguistics

The study of language and how it changes over time.

grammar

The system of rules and patterns governing how words are formed, arranged, and used in a language.

graphology

The study of the writing system and visual features of written language, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and typography.

hypothesis

A proposed explanation or prediction that can be tested through observation, evidence, or research.

inflection

A change to the form of a word that expresses grammatical information, such as tense, number, person, or case, without creating a new word.

language family

A group of languages that developed from a common ancestral language.

lemma

The basic dictionary form of a word, representing all of its different grammatical forms; for example, "run" represents "run," "runs," "ran," and "running."

lexis

The vocabulary or collection of words used in a particular language, variety, subject, or context.

morphology

The study of the structure and formation of words, including roots, stems, prefixes, suffixes, and other morphemes.

n-gram graph

A visual representation showing patterns or relationships between sequences of words or other linguistic units, often based on their frequency or co-occurrence in a corpus.

neuter

A grammatical gender that is neither masculine nor feminine; it can also describe a word or grammatical category that does not belong to either gender.

orthography

The conventional system used for writing a language, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and other writing conventions.

phonology

The study of the sound system of a language, including how sounds are organized and function within that language.

pidgin

A simplified language that develops when speakers of different languages need a means of communication; it typically has no native speakers initially.

pragmatics

The study of how meaning is affected by context, including the speaker's intentions, the relationship between speakers, and the situation in which language is used.

prescriptivism

An approach to language that establishes or promotes rules about how language should be used, often distinguishing between "correct" and "incorrect" usage.

protolanguage

A hypothetical ancestral language from which a group or family of related languages is believed to have developed.

semantics

The study of meaning in language, including the meanings of words, phrases, sentences, and texts.

synchronic linguistics

The study of a language at a particular point in time, without focusing on how it has changed historically.

syntax

The study of how words are arranged and combined to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.

word sketch

A summary of the typical grammatical and collocational behavior of a word, usually generated from a corpus to show how the word is commonly used.

amelioration

A process of language change in which a word develops a more positive, favorable, or elevated meaning.

archaic/archaism

A word or expression that is no longer commonly used because it belongs to an earlier period of the language.

backformation

A process of word formation in which a new word is created by removing what is mistakenly or correctly interpreted as an affix from an existing word.

blending

A process of word formation in which parts of two or more words are combined to create a new word, such as "smog" from "smoke" and "fog."

borrowing

The process of adopting a word or expression from another language into a language.

broadening

A process of semantic change in which a word's meaning becomes more general and applies to a wider range of things than it originally did.

coalescence

A process of language change in which two separate words, sounds, or linguistic elements merge and become one.

coinage

The creation of a completely new word or expression, often to name a new product, concept, or invention.

compounding

A process of word formation in which two or more existing words are combined to create a new word with its own meaning.

derivation

A process of word formation in which affixes, such as prefixes or suffixes, are added to a root or stem to create a new word.

eponym

A word derived from the name of a person, place, or other proper noun, such as "sandwich" from the Earl of Sandwich.

etymology

The study of the origin and historical development of words and their meanings.

narrowing

A process of semantic change in which a word's meaning becomes more specific and applies to a smaller range of things than it originally did.

neologism

A newly created word or expression, especially one that has recently entered a language.

pejoration

A process of language change in which a word develops a more negative, unfavorable, or derogatory meaning.

prefix

An affix added to the beginning of a root or stem that can modify the word's meaning or grammatical function.

reduplication

A process of word formation in which all or part of a word is repeated to create a new word or expression.

root/stem

The basic part of a word to which prefixes or suffixes can be added; a root generally carries the core meaning, while a stem is the form to which an inflectional affix can be added.

suffix

An affix added to the end of a root or stem that can modify the word's meaning or grammatical function.

telescoping

A process of word formation in which a word or phrase is shortened by combining or omitting parts, often resulting in a compressed form.