LC Key Features EP

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Simple Sentence
A sentence consisting of a single clause with a subject -verb-object construction.
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Compound Sentence
A sentence consisting of two or more clauses joined by conjunctions, such as: and, but, or.
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Complex Sentence
A sentence consisting of two or more clauses, there will be a main clause and a subordinate clause (or clauses). The subordinate clause does not make sense on its own.
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Co-ordinating conjunctions
A conjunction placed between words or phrases of equal value e.g. and, but, or.
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Subordinating conjunctions
Conjunctions which are used to introduce a subordinating clause. You would have called these connectives in school. E.g. whereas, however, although etc.
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Passive voice
A construction where the 'agent' is not identified. i.e. we do not know who has performed an action. E.g. The Easter egg was stolen. One way of identifying passive voice is by adding 'by zombies' to the end.
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Active voice
A construction where the 'agent' is identified i.e. we know who has performed an action. E.g. Emma stole the Easter eggs, although she returned them when she found out they weren't dairy free.
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Epistemic Modality
The use of modal auxiliaries to show possibility. E.g. might, may, could, would.
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Deontic Modality
The use of modal auxiliaries to show obligation or certainty. E.g. will, must, can, should.
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First person
The use of pronouns such as I (singular) or we (plural). First person singular possessive pronouns - my. First person singular object pronouns - me. First person plural possive pronouns - our and First person plural object pronouns - us.
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Second person
Second person subject pronoun - you. Second person object pronoun - you. Second person singular possessive pronoun - your. Second person plural possessive pronoun - yours.
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Third person
3rd pers. sing. subject pronoun he or she. 3rd pers. plur. subject pronoun - they. 3rd pers. sing. object pronoun him/her. 3rd pers. plur. object pronoun - them. 3rd pers. sing. possessive pronoun - his/hers. 3rd pers. plur. poss. Theirs.
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Prepositions
Constructions which indicate where something is in terms of time or space. E.g. in, under, on, over, as, at, before, after etc.
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Articles
Articles are classed as adjectives because they modify nouns. There are two types, Definite Article - 'The' and Indefinite Article - 'A' or 'An'. Definite is specific, indefinite is non-specific.
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Syntax
The order of words in a sentence. The standard construction is subject-verb-object order, e.g. There is a book on the table. Older texts may have inverse syntax, or non-standard syntax, e.g. A book on the table there is.
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Field specific lexis
Lexical choices that are linked to a specific topic.
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Archaic terms
Words which are used infrequently and are considered to be, for want of a better term, 'old-fashioned'. e.g. Dapper or dashing, current terms for your age-group are likely to be 'fit' or 'buff'.
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Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. e.g. happy. Comparatives are used to describe a comparison between two things e.g. happier. Superlatives are used to indicate the highest degree of description e.g. happiest.
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Nouns
Common nouns = words that name people, places, animals, things or ideas. Proper nouns = specific names of places/people. Concrete nouns = nouns you can experience through the 5 senses. Abstract nouns = ideas, states or concepts.
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Amelioration
When a word's meaning changes from negative to positive over time. E.g.the word 'nice' used to mean foolish or silly in the 1300s.
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Pejoration
When a word's meaning changes from positive to negative over time e.g. In Old English, 'silly' meant happy, blissful or blessed, but by the 1500s the meaning had changed to weak, feeble or insignificant.
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Broadening
This is when a word's meaning becomes more generalised e.g. the word 'mouse' merely meant a small mammal, now it still means that, but it also means an item of computer hardware.
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Narrowing
This is when a word's meaning becomes more specific e.g. the word bread used to be a general term for food, but now it means an item of food made out of flour, yeast and water that is baked in the oven.
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Weakening
This is also known as semantic bleaching and it is where a meaning loses its strength. A good example is 'sh*t' meaning excrement and used in a derogatory way. Now it tends to mean 'stuff' as in 'get my sh*t together'.
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Semantic fields
A group of words that are linked by meaning, you may notice a semantic field in a whole text where words relating to a similar topic are used.
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Euphemisms
A mild or indirect way of expressing a harsh term which reduces the potential for offence. e.g. saying 'passed away' instead of 'died'. You may find higher frequencies of euphemisms in older texts - although not always!
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Drop-cap
The larger initial letter at the beginning of a block of text. It usually spans two or more lines of regular text.
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Pointing
The frequent use of semi-colons (or commas) in texts with high levels of complexity. The punctuation is used to mark clauses in multiple clause complex sentences.
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Justification of text
This is how text is aligned on the page. Left-hand. Right-hand. Centred. Full justification = text is flush with both left and right margins.
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Register
A variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. E.g. academic, journalistic, advisory, direct, educational, legal etc.
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Structural conventions
The particular 'rules' in terms of how texts are set out. Compare texts across different time periods to see how conventions have changed e.g. in newspapers.
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Long s
An alphabetic symbol which was used in printing until the mid 1800s when it was deemed unnecessary. It is said to denote a longer sound, and may have originated from the German ß symbol due to the origins of the printing presses.
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Eye-dialect
The phonetic spelling of words which represents how they sound. This can be used to indicate accent in a text or to confirm the pronunciation of a particular word in an explanatory/advisory text.
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Graphology
Remember in LC this covers punctuation, italics, brackets and pointing as well as the general layout and use of bold/images.
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Obsolete terms
These are words which have completely fallen out of use. Be careful, you may describe a term as obsolete when it is merely archaic. Wiktionary has a collection of obsolete terms and you can find out the meanings too. This would be helpful research.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

A sentence consisting of two or more clauses joined by conjunctions, such as: and, but, or.

Back

Compound Sentence

Card 3

Front

A sentence consisting of two or more clauses, there will be a main clause and a subordinate clause (or clauses). The subordinate clause does not make sense on its own.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

A conjunction placed between words or phrases of equal value e.g. and, but, or.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Conjunctions which are used to introduce a subordinating clause. You would have called these connectives in school. E.g. whereas, however, although etc.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
View more cards

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