English Language

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Abstract Noun
Existing only as a mental concept
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Active
The burglar smashed the window = the person doing the action is the main focus
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Accent
The ways in which words are pronounced
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Adjective
A word which gives more information about a noun or pronoun - e.g. the ANGRY horse; she is HORRIBLE
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Adverb
A word which gives more information about a verb - e.g. the boy ran CLUMSILY.
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Agreement
A verb is altered to match the number, person and gender of its subject or object: he smells (not smell) vs. they smell (not smell)
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Apostrophe
Compressed (did + not = didn't) informal situations. Belongs to somebody (Sarah's money)
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Auxiliary verb
Before the main verb to change its meaning: I have eaten = verb phrases (eaten = main verb, have = auxiliary verb)
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Back-channelling
Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances used by a listener to give feedback to the speaker that the message is being followed or understood, e.g. 'I see' 'uh huh'
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Clause
A group of words formed around a verb, used to make up a sentence
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Colloquial
Chatty and informal language, e.g. 'like' 'you know' 'yeah right'
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Colon
Punctuation mark which shows something else follows within the sentence
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Compound
Word formed by joining two words together - e.g. babysitter, blackbird
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Conjunction (connective)
Words used for joining sentences and ideas together - e.g. and, but, or, because
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Connotations
A idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing: Hollywood holds connotations of romance and glittering success
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Contexts
The situation/conditions in which you are communicating with your audience.
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Contraction
A reduced form often marked by an apostrophe in writing - e.g. I can't = cannot, she'll = she will
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Deixis
Words such as 'this' 'that' 'here' there' which refer backwards or forwards or outside the texts - cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information
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Determiner (article)
Word class containing articles and similar words before nouns and noun phrases - e.g. a, the, their, more, many, my
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Dialect
The distinctive grammar and vocabulary wich is associated with a regional or social use of a language - e.g. I will teach you that later = I'll learn you that later
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Discourse
How text is organised - beginning, middle, end. Spoken or written.
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Discourse markers
Words and phrases which are used to signal the relationship and connections between utterances and to signpost that what is said can be followed by the listener of reader. e.g. 'first' 'on the other hand' 'now' 'what's more' 'so anyway'
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Dynamic and stative verbs
Dynamic verbs describe actions (to hit, to travel, to jump). Stative verbs describe state of mind (to think, to hope, to be).
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Elision
The omission or slurring of one or more sounds or syllables - e.g. gonna = going to, wassup = what is up
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Ellipsis
The omission of part of a grammatical structure - e.g. 'You going to the party?' 'Might be'.
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False start
The speaker begins an utterance, then stops and either repeats or reformulates it
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Field
The topic of communication
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Fillers
Items which do not carry conventional meaning but are inserted in speech to allow time to think, create a pause or hold turn in a conservation - e.g. 'er' 'um' 'ah'
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Function
The reasons for communicating
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Genre
A type or category of writing - e.g. science, fiction, horror
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Gerund
Noun formed out of a verb by adding -ing (e.g. his constant WHINING)
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Graphology
The form or visual appearance of text and how this adds to shapes or implies meaning
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Grice's Maxims
4 basic conventional rules of conversation. Quantity, Relevance, Manner, Quality
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Hedge
Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force with which something is said - e.g. 'perhaps' 'maybe' 'sort of' 'possibly' 'I think'
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Homophones
Words that are identical in sound (their/there; sea/see)
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Hypen
Join two words together ( hat-trick means something different to hat trick). Also, shows where words have been split at the ends of lines.
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Idiolect
An individually distinctive style of speaking
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Imperative
Verb used to give a command - e.g. LEAVE now!
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Infinitive
Form of a verb that lacks a tense and stands for the verb as a whole - e.g. to eat/we can eat
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Inflection
The way words change their shape to show, for example, that they are singular or plural (e.g. table becomes tables) and change of tone in voices
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Interactional talk
Language in conversation used for interpersonal reasons and/or socialising
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Interrogative
Question
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Intonation
The pitch pattern of a sentence, which distinguishes kinds of sentences or speakers of different language cultures
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Intransitive
Verb that can appear without an object - e.g. we dined (as opposed to be 'He devoured the steak' - devoured cannot stand without the object)
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Irregular form
Word with an unusual inflected form rather than the following the usual rules of inflection (e.g. brought not bringed, mice not mouses)
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Juxtaposition
When images and/or texts are placed side by side to create new meanings
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Lexis
Word choice - vocabulary
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Minor sentence
A sentence which contains no verb. Often includes exclamations, 'Never!'
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Modal auxiliary verb
Indicates the necessity of something and comes before the main verb, 'shall' 'will' 'never'
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Mode
The format of communication
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Morphology
The structure of words and how they are formed
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Morpheme
A group of letters which cannot stand on their own, but they can be added to root words to change their meaning (e.g. un, dis, -ness) suffixes and prefixes
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Noun
Four types: COMMON: computer, PROPER: Pepsi, Russia, ABSTRACT: death, hunger, COLLECTIVE: Pack of dogs
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Overlapping speech
As one person starts before another ends
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Paralingustic features
Related to body language - use of gestures, facial expressions and other non-verbal elements like laughing to add meaning to the speakers message beyond the words being spoken
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Participle
Verb which needs another verb in front: he has EATEN (perfect participle); he was EATEN (passive participle); he is EATING (present participle)
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Passive voice
Emphasis on what happened rather than who did it: 'The window was broken by the burgular'
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Phatic talk
Conversational utterances that have no concrete purpose other than to establish or maintain personal relationships. e.g. 'How are you?'
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Phonological features
Use of sound
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Phonology
Organisation of sounds in a language
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Phrase
A group of words which makes sense within a sentence but cannot stand alone - e.g. Thinking carefully, The old grey overcoat
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Pluperfect
A past tense showing an action that has already been completed - when I had arrived, John HAD FAINTED
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Pragmatics
An approach to discourse analysis which focuses on contexts and purposes of people talking to each other. The factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choices on others
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Prefix
Letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning - e.g. un+happy
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Preposition
A word used chiefly to show where something or someone is - e.g. 'in' 'under' 'next to'
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Progressive
Verb form that shows an ongoing event - e.g he is WAVING
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Pronoun
A word which can be used in place of a noun - e.g. Did YOU see HIM?
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Purpose
Reason for communicating - inform, instruct, persuade, entertain
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Prosodic features
Includes features such as stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and intonation - which are used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message
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Register
Changing language in different situations: 'Good morning' = formal situations, 'Hi' = informal situations
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Relative pronoun
Words such as who, which and that used at the start of relative clauses
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Root words
Words which we can add prefixes and suffixes in order to change their meaning
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Repairs
An alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker, the addressee, or audience in order in correct or clarify a previous contribution
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Salutation
A polite expression of greeting or goodwill
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Semantics
The study of word meanings
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Semi-colan
Punctuation mark somewhere in strength between a full stop and a comma. Often replaces the word and between clauses and phrases
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Sentence types
Simple, compound and complex
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Simile
Comparison or likeliness that compares two things trough connectives
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Sciolect
A social dialect or variety of speech used by a particular group, like the working-class
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Subject and object
The person/thing doing the verb action
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Subjunctive
Verb form that indicates an imaginable state of affairs - e.g. if I WERE you ...; let it BE
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Suffix
Letters added to the end of a word to change a meaning e.g. hope+less
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Synonym
A word which has a similar meaning to another word - e.g. Home, abode, pad etc.
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Syntax
Word order/how they are arranged together
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Taboo (vulgarism)
Deeply unacceptable, offensive language. Subjects you avoid like incest.
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Tag question
Strings of words normally added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question - e.g 'isn't it?'
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Tenor
The relationship between those communicating
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Text-image cohesion
Text and image work together to create meaning
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Transactional talk
Language to get things done or to transmit content or imformation
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Turn Taking
A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks, within a typical orderly arrangement in which participants speak with minimal overlap and gap between them
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Typography
The planning and selection of fonts for printing
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Utterance
A complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker's silence
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Vague language
Statements that sound imprecise and unassertive
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Verb
A word which tells us what someone or something is doing
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Word classes
A group of words with a particular function in a sentence - nouns, verbs, prepositions
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

The burglar smashed the window = the person doing the action is the main focus

Back

Active

Card 3

Front

The ways in which words are pronounced

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

A word which gives more information about a noun or pronoun - e.g. the ANGRY horse; she is HORRIBLE

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A word which gives more information about a verb - e.g. the boy ran CLUMSILY.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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