AS-LEVEL ENGLANG COMPLETE GLOSSARY

A complete, full-to-the-brim, ultra super duper glossary for all the terms needed in AS English Language, suitable for all of the examination boards.

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  • Created by: Noid
  • Created on: 15-10-12 21:30
Abstract Noun
A noun that refers to a concept, state, quality or emotion
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Accent
The distinctive way a speaker from a particular region pronounces words
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Acronym
A new word made from the initial letters of all the words in a name or phrase, e.g. NASA
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Active Voice
When the subject of the sentence is directly performing the verb e.g. Steve burst the bubble
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Adjective
A class of words that can appear before (attributive) or after (predicative)
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Adverb
A class of words that modify verbs according to time, place, manner, frequency, duration or degree. They can sometimes modify nouns and adjectives too
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Affixation
The process of adding an affix before (prefix) or after (suffix) an existing word to change either its meaning or grammatical function
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Alliteration
When two or more words close to each other in a phrase begin with the same sound, e.g. down in the dumps
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Anaphoric Reference
When a word, usually a pronoun, refers back to something or someone that has already been mentioned, e.g. Barry can't come because he's ill
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Antithesis
Type of rhetorical language where contrasting ideas or words are balanced against each other, e.g. it's just too good from Green, and just too bad for the goalkeeper
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Antonyms
Words with opposite meanings
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Article
A kind of determiner that shows if the reference to a noun is general (a / an) or specific (the)
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Aspect
A verb's aspect shows whether the action it refers to is already completed, or if it is still taking place
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Assimilation
When sounds next to each other in a spoken word or sentence are pronounced in a different way to normal to make them easier to say
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Assonance
When the main vowel sounds of two or more words that are close together in a text are similar or the same, e.g. low smoky holes
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Audience
A person or group of people that read, view or listen to a text. A writer or speaker can aim to reach a certain type of audience by using specific literary techniques and language choices
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Auxiliary Verbs
Verbs used before the main verb in a sentence to give extra information about it, e.g. I have seen him
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Babbling
The productiom of short vowel / consonant combinations by a baby acquiring language
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Back-Channelling
A kind of feedback in spoken language that supports the person speaking and shows that what is being said is understood
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Behaviourism
A theory of language acquisition that suggests children learn language through a process of imitation and reinforcement
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Blending
When parts of two words are combined to make a new one, e.g. netizen
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Buzz Words
Words that are fashionable in a particular occupational group
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Cataphora
A reference in a text to something that follows in later phrases or sentences, e.g. These are the directions...
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Characterisation
The way that a writer conveys information about a character relating to their appearance, speech, etc.
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Child-Directed Speech (CDS)
The way that caregivers talk to children - usually simplified and / or exaggerated language
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Clause
The simplest meaningful unit of a sentence
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Cliché
An expression that has lost its novelty value due to being overused
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Clipping
When a shortened version of a word becomes a word in its own right, e.g. demo, phone
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Cognitive Theory
A theory of language acquisition that suggests children need to have acquired certain mental abilities before they can acquire language
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Cohesion
The linking of ideas in texts to ensure the text makes sense
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Coining
The general term for creating new words
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Collective Noun
A noun that refers to a group f people, animals of things, e.g. team
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Collocation
Words that commonly appear together in order, in specific lexical units, e.g. done and dusted
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Common Noun
A noun that refers to a class of things or a concept. Every noun is a common noun except those that refer to unique things, e.g. the names of particular people or places
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Comparative
An adjective that makes a degree of comparison, normally by adding an -er suffix, e.g. faster
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Complement
A word or phrase that gives more information about the subject or object in a sentence, e.g. the boy is actually a cow (NOTE: not "Your dress is lovely")
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Compound
A new word created by combining two or more existing words, e.g. skyscraper
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Concrete Noun
A noun that refers to the things that you can physically touch or see, e.g. a chair
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Conjunction
A linking word that connects phrases and clauses to each other to form sentences, e.g. but
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Connotation
The associations that are made with a particular word
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Context
The circumstances that surround a word, phrase, or text, e.g. time and place produced, intended audience
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Conversion
When a word becomes part of a different word class in addition to its original sense
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Cooing
The earliest sounds that children are able to make as they experiment with moving their lips and tongue
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Coordinate Clause
An independent clause that's linked to another independent clause in the same sentence
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Count Noun
Nouns that can be proceeded by a number and counted, e.g. one book, two books etc.
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Critical Period Hypothesis
A theory popularised by Lenneberg (1967), which states that if a child does not have any linguistic interaction before the ages of 5-6, their linguistic development will be severely limited
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Declarative Sentence
A sentence that makes a statement to give information, e.g. she enjoyed her scampi
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Deixis
A reference to something that is outside the text or conversation (e.g. location, time) that cab't be understood unless you know the context
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Demonstratives
Words that refer to specific objects that only those in the discourse can see. They can be pronouns, e.g. I like this, or adjectives, e.g. I like this bike
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Denotation
The literal meaning of a word
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Determiner
A word that goes before a noun to give information about it, e.g. to show possession or number (his, two)
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Dialect
The distinctive lexis, grammar and pronunciation of a persons spoken English, usually affected by the region they're from and their social background
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Dialogue
Any exchange between two or more characters or speakers
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Difference Model
Tannen's (1990) theory about gender and conversation which states that men and women have different objectives when they interact
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Discourse
An extended piece of written or spoken language
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Dominance Model
Zimmerman and West's (1975) theory of gender differences in conversation are due to male dominance in society
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Double Negetive
When negatives are used twice in a phrase, e.g. I didn't do nothing
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Egocentric
The early mental state of a chil in which they can only understand things existing in relation to themselves, i.e. things they can see or touch
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Elision
When sounds or syllables are slurred together in speech to make pronunciation easier and quicker
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Elipsis
When part of a grammatical structure is left out of the sentence without effecting the meaning
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Estuary English
An accent that was originally from the Thames Estuary area in London but is not heard outside the area and may be replacing RP as the country's most widespread form.
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Euphemism
A word or phrase that is used as a substitute for harsher or more unpleasant sounding words or concepts
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Exclamative
A sentence that has an expressive function and ends with an exclamation mark
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Exophoric Reference
Referring to something outside a text, e.g. that tree over there
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Feedback
Verbal or non-verbal sings that a person is listening to a speaker
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Figurative Language
Language that is used in a non-literal way to create images and form comparisons, e.g. metaphor
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Filler
A sound produced by speakers to keep up a conversation going avoid silence, e.g. mmm
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Genre
A group of texts with a particular form pr purpose, e.g. letters, poems, adverts
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Grammar
The system of rules that govern how words, clauses and sentences are put together
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Grapheme
The smallest unit of writing that can create contrasts in meaning, e.g. individual letters or symbols
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Graphology
The study of the appearance of a text, how it looks on the page and how the layout helps get the meaning across
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Head Word
A word that has the same grammatical function as the phrase that has been built around it, e.g, in a noun phrase, the head word is a noun
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Hedging
Word choices that show uncertainty in conversations, e.g. maybe, probably
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Holophrases
In language acquisition, single words that expreaa a complete idea, e.g. ball, which could mean the child wants iy, or has found it, etc.. Caregivers need contextual clues to interpret them
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Hyperbole
When exaggeration is used for effect
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Hypernym
A general word that is a term for many hyponyms, e.g. vehicle is a hypernym of car, bys, lorry etc.
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Hyponym
A word that refers to a specific type of a hypernym, e.g. car, bus, lorry are all hyponyms for vehicle
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Ideology
A set of ideas and beliefs
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Idiolect
An individual's accent and dialect features, which a result of their personal upbringing and experiences
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Imagery
Describing something in a way that creates a picture of it in the audience's mind
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Imperative
A sentence that gives orders, advice or directions. It starts with a main verb and doesn't have a subject.
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Implication
When a meaning is suggested, rather than explicitly described
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Infinitive
The base form of a verb, preceded by to
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Inflection
An affix that is attached to a base word and gives extra information about it
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Internalisation
When a child learning language starts to apply one of the language's roles consistently, even to words they've never seen before
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Interrogative
A sentence or utterence that asks a question
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Intertextuality
When a text makes a reference to another existing text or effect
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Intonation
The pitch of a speaker's voice, e.g. rising intonation shows it's a question
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Jargon
Specialist words that are used by a particular social or occupational group that may not be understood by a non-member
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Juxtaposition
Positioning words, ideas or images next to each other in a text to create certain effects
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Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
The innate ability of children acquiring language to take in and use the grammatical rules of the language they can hear where the live, according to Chomsky (1965)
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Lexical Field
A group of words that relate to the same topic, e.g. hotel and destination are in the lexical field of travel
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Lexis
A general term for the words of a language
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Liaison
When a consonant is pronounced between words or syllables to make the run together
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Loan Words
Words that are taken from other languages
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Main Verbs
Words that identify the action of a sentence
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Management Speak
A way of communicating in the workplace designed to sound up-to-date and formal, but usually overly complex
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Mass Noun
A noun that can't be counted and doesn't have a plural, e.g. information
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Metaphor
Words or phrases that describe something as f it actually was something else, e.g. the heart of the matter
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Metonymy
Using a part of something, or one of its attributes to describe the whole thing, e.g the press to refer to journalists in the news industry
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Modal Auxiliary Verbs
Verbs that give more information about the main verb but can't occur as main verbs themselves, e.g. can, will
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Mode
A way of classifying texts (e.g. written or spoken or a combination of different media.)
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Monologue
The utterances of one speaker or performer to an audience
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Monosyllabic
Words with only one syllable
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Morpheme
The individual meaningful units that make up words (although they don't always make sense on their own)
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Morphology
The study of the internal structure of words
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Multimodal Text
A text that involves elements of different modes, e.g. text messages are a mixture of written and spoken language
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Narrative Voice
The point of view a text is written from, e.g. a first person narrator tells the story from their personal point of view
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Neologisms
New words that enter a language
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Non-Verbal Communication
Using gestures, expressions and body language to communicate instead of or as well as words.
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Noun
A word used as the name or a person, place, thing or concept
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Object
The part of the sentence that ther verb acts upon, e.g. in I broke a plate, the plate is the object and ends up broken
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Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like the noise it's describing
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Overextension
When a child acquiring language uses a word too generally to refer to different but related things, e.g. calling everything with four legs a dog
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Oxymoron
A phrase that brings two conflicting ideas together, e.g bittersweet
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Parallelism
The repetition f structual features in a sentence or throughout a text , e.g. repeated use of the past tense in a sentence - he came home, ran upstairs and jumped in the bathe
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Parody
Subverting traditional expectations of a text's features to produce humour or satire
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Passive Voice
When the object of the verb is described first, rather than the subject (e.g. the bubble was burst by Steve)
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Personification
When an object, concept or situation is given human qualities
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Phatic Language
Expressions that have a sociable function rather than expressing serious meaning
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Phoneme
The smallest unit of language built around a head word
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Phonology
The study of sound systems of languages, particular the patterns of sounds
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Phrase
A meaningful unit of language built around a head word
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Polysyllabic
Words with more than one syllable
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Post-Modifier
Words that come after the head word in a phrase that tell you something about it.
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Pragmatics
The study of how language functions in social sutuations
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Pre-Modifier
Words that are used before the head word of a phrase (often determiner + adjective) that tell you something about it
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Prefix
An affix that comes before the base form, e.g. unfortunate
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Preposition
A word that defines the relationship between words in terms of time, space or direction, e.g. the toy was in the box,he was behind you
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Primary Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs that can also occur as main verbs (do, be and have)
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Pronoun
A word that can take the place of a noun, e.g. he, she, it
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Proper Noun
A noun that is the name of a specific person, place or brand
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Prosody
Non-verbal aspects of speech like pace, stress, pitch, intonation, volume and pauses
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Proto-Word
A combination of sounds that a child uses that actually contains meaning, rather than just being a random utterance like cooing or babbling
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Pun
Replacing a word or phrase with one that sounds the same or similar for creative or humerous
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Received Pronunciation
An accent traditionally associated with educated people and the upper class. its characterised by lots of long vowels and the pronunciation of /h/ and /t/ in words where people with regional accents might leave them out
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Referential Language
Spoken language that gives information by referring to objects or concepts. It usually only makes sense if the listener understands the context, e.g. the vase is over there
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Register
A type of language that's appropriate for a particular audience or situation e.g. formal language is appropriate for a political speech
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Rhetorical Language
Language with phonological or structural features used to provide extra effects or meanings
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Semantics
The study of how the meanings of words are created and interpreted
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Sentence
An independent grammatical unit made up of one or more clauses
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Similes
Comparisons that use the words like or as
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Simplification
When a child learning to speak drops consonants or consonant clusters to make words easier to pronounce or swaps the consonants for others that are easier to pronounce
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Slang
Informal, non-standard vocabulary usually used in casual speech
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Sociolect
A variety of language used by a particular social group
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Standard English
A dialect of English considered 'correct' and 'normal', because it has distinctive and standardised features of spelling, vocabulary and syntax. It's the form of English usually used in formal writing
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Sub-Genre
A group of similar texts that create a complete genre, e.g. tragedy and comedy are types of drama
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Subject
The focus of a sentence - the person or thing that performs the action described by the verb, e.g. Billy ate a sandwhich
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Subordinate Clause
A clause that gives extra information about the main clause, but can't stand alone and still make sense
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Subtext
The implied meaning behind what's actually being said or described
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Suffix
An affix that comes after the base form, e.g sadness
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Superlative
And adjective that states the noun it's describing is beyond comparison, usually by adding -est, e.g. fastest
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Syllables
A word's individual units of pronunciation
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Symbolism
When a word or phrase represents something other than its literal meaning
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Synonyms
Words that have similar meanings
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Syntax
The order and structure of sentences
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Tag question
A question added to the end of a statement to encourage a response, e.g. don't you think so?
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Telegraphic Stage
The stage of language acquisition at which children begin to create three or four word utterances containing mainly subjects, verbs, objects and complements
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Tense
Grammatical inflections on verbs that show the time and action took place, e.g. in the past or present
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Transactional Language
Spoken exchange aimed at making some sort of deal
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Turn-Taking
A feature of orderly conversations when the chance to speak switches back and forth between participants
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Underextension
When a child uses words in a very restricted way, e.g. using one word like hat to refer only to the one the child is wearing
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Verb
A class of words that describe the action or state that a sentence refers to
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Word Classes
How words are categorised according to the function they can perform in a sentence
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

The distinctive way a speaker from a particular region pronounces words

Back

Accent

Card 3

Front

A new word made from the initial letters of all the words in a name or phrase, e.g. NASA

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

When the subject of the sentence is directly performing the verb e.g. Steve burst the bubble

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A class of words that can appear before (attributive) or after (predicative)

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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Can this be used for AQA Eng Lang B? 

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