English Language Glossary - P

Passive voice:

When the subject of a verb is the element  affected by the action e.g. the burglar was caugth by the police.

Pejoration:

A shift in the meaning of a word so that it becomes less positive

Phrase:

A word or group of words that function as a unit in a sentence

Polysyllabic:

Words with three or more syllables

Pragmatics:

The study of the part that language plays in social situations and social relationships

Prefix:

A group of letters commonly found at the beginning of a word e.g. 're-, un-'

Preposition:

A word that relates one word to another e.g. 'in, at, under'

Prescriptivism

Favours rules identifying correct and incorrect language use

Pronoun:

A word that takes the place of a noun, e.g. he, she, it

Presodic features:

Non verbal aspects of speech such as volume, intonation and pitch