AICE Eng Lang AL Section 7 Vocabulary

Colonialism – When a country takes control of another land, often to exploit its resources or people.
British English – The variety of English spoken and written in the United Kingdom.
Archaic – Belonging to an earlier time; old-fashioned but not entirely obsolete.
Obsolete – Out of use; no longer current or understood.
Lexis – The complete set of words in a language (its vocabulary).
Derivation – The process of forming a new word from an existing one by adding prefixes or suffixes.
Coinage – The invention of a completely new word that enters common use.
Neologism – A newly invented word or expression.
Eponym – A word derived from the name of a person or place.
Prefix – A group of letters added to the beginning of a word to alter its meaning.
Suffix – A group of letters added to the end of a word to alter its meaning.
Early Modern English – English used roughly between 1500–1800 CE, marked by major pronunciation and vocabulary changes.
Graphology – The study of written symbols and handwriting styles.
Grammar – The system and structure of a language, governing word forms and sentence order.
Pragmatics – The study of how context influences the meaning of language in social situations.
Semantics – The study of the meaning of words and phrases.
Old English – The earliest form of English, spoken roughly 450–1100 CE, very different from modern English.
Middle English – The stage of English used from around 1100–1500 CE, after the Norman invasion.
Great Vowel Shift – A series of changes between 1350–1700 CE in English pronunciation, particularly vowels.
Late Modern English – English from about 1800 CE to the present, shaped by scientific, industrial, and global developments.
Root/Stem – The main part of a word that carries meaning and can take affixes.
Conversion – Creating a new word by changing the word class without altering its form.
Telescoping – The blending of parts of two or more words into one.
Compounding – Forming a new word by combining two or more whole words.
Blending – Forming a new word by merging parts of other words.
Coalescence – When two sounds merge into one in pronunciation.
Backformation – The creation of a new, simpler word by removing what looks like a suffix or prefix from an existing word.
Reduplication – The repetition of sounds or words, sometimes with slight changes, often in playful or informal speech.
Borrowing – Taking words or structures from another language.
Neuter – In grammar, a category that is neither masculine nor feminine.
Inflection – A change in the form of a word to show grammatical features like tense, number, case, or gender

Archaism – An old word or phrase not used much anymore. Example: thou for you.

Etymology – The history of a word and where it came from.

Amelioration – A word’s meaning becomes more positive. Example: nice (from “foolish” → “kind”).

Pejoration – A word’s meaning becomes more negative. Example: silly (from “happy” → “foolish”).

Broadening – A word’s meaning gets wider or more general. Example: holiday (from “holy day” → any break).

Narrowing – A word’s meaning gets more specific. Example: meat (from “any food” → “animal flesh”).

Prescriptivism – The belief that language has strict rules people should follow.

Descriptivism – The belief that language should be studied as people actually use it.

Discourse genres – Different types of speaking or writing. Example: texting vs. essays.

Computer-mediated discourse – Language used online or through technology. Example: emojis in chat.

Transmission – Passing language or habits from one person to another. Example: parents teaching kids to say “thank you.”

Estuary English – An accent from southeast England, a mix of “posh” and local speech.

Proto-language – The ancient “parent” language that later languages grew from. Example: Latin → Spanish, French, Italian.

Language family – A group of languages that all come from the same parent language.

Pidgin – A simple language made so people who don’t share a language can talk, usually for trade.

Creole – A full language that develops from a pidgin and becomes a native language. Example: Haitian Creole.

Hypothesis – A guess or idea you test in research.

N-gram – A sequence of words or items that appear together. Example: ice cream (2-gram).

N-gram graph – A chart showing how often words appear over time. Example: tracking “internet” in books.