English Language vocab 61-80

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Synonymy
Words with very similar semantic value.
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Antonymy
Words with opposite semantic value.
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Hyponymy
The term for the hierarchal structure that exists between lexical items.
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Euphemism
A socially acceptable word or phrase used to avoid talking about something potentially distasteful.
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Dysphemism
A harsh, 'to-the-point' and perhaps taboo term, sometimes used for a dark humorous effect.
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Complementary
Truly opposite antonyms.
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Gradable
Antonyms that are not exact opposites but can be considered in terms of degree of quality.
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Subordinate
A 'lower' word in the hyponymic chain; a more specific lexical item.
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superordinate
A 'higher' word in the hyponymic chain; a more general lexical item.
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Under-specificity
The inappropriately vague, rather general answer to a question.
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Over-specificity
The giving of an inappropriately too specific answer, sometimes with absurd effects.
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Conceptual metaphor
The way in which abstract terms are mapped on to physical entities through an underlying conceptual structure.
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Morphology
The area of language study that deals with the formation of words from smaller units called morphemes.
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Morpheme
The smallest unit of grammatical meaning. Morphemes can be words in their own right or combine with other morphemes to form lexical units.
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The Linguistic Rank Scale
A system for showing the relationship between levels of language units. The movement from left to right indicates that a unit is structured from that which precedes it, e.g. clauses are structured from phrases.
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Prescriptive approach
An approach that concentrates on how language should be structured (written or spoken).
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Descriptive approach
An approach to language study that focuses on actual language use.
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Noun phrases
A group of words centred around a head noun.
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Constituent structure
The key components of a phrase.
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Pre-modification
Modifying that occurs before the head noun.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Words with opposite semantic value.

Back

Antonymy

Card 3

Front

The term for the hierarchal structure that exists between lexical items.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

A socially acceptable word or phrase used to avoid talking about something potentially distasteful.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A harsh, 'to-the-point' and perhaps taboo term, sometimes used for a dark humorous effect.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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