English Language Terminology

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Dialect

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a regional or social variety of language
e.g. dropping some letters
e.g. Cockney is an English dialect

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Idiolect

Back 2

variety or form of language used by an individual

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Sociolect

Back 3

variety of language used by a social group
e.g. youth language

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Prosodic features

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rhythmic and intonational elements of speech which are essential to its sound
e.g. emphasis, speed, volume, stress, intonation (falling and rising), rhythm, ...

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language fingerprint

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a unique language profile

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received pronounciation / The Queen's English

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standard accent of standard English in England

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accent

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distinctive mode of pronounciation of a language

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Covert prestige

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speaker who chose not to adopt a standard dialect.
prestige associated with that choice is gained from within social group identification

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Overt prestige

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speakers of non-standard varities who adopt (to some degree) the standard variety.
speaker is trying to associate self general prestigious dialect within a society

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Intonation

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falling and rising

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paralinguistic features

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features outside the words
e.g. quality of voice - making it breathy
- changing the tone
- whispering

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back-channelling

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to show support, attention or agreement
non-verbal utterances
e.g. mmh, yeah, ok

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discourse marker

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signal in conversation, can also announce a counterargument
e.g. at the beginning or end of an answer
e.g. ok, right then, so, but

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fillers

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non-verbal sounds as pauses in speech, either naturally or to give thinking time. can signal uncertainty
e.g. er, um

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hedging

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strategy used to avoid directness or to minimise a potenially face-threatening act
e.g. kind of, sort of, maybe, perhaps, possibly, modal verbs like will or could

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false starts/ repairs

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false starts are when a speaker begins to speak, pauses then recommences
e.g. it began ...er... arsenal kicked off...

a repair returns to correct previously stated phrase or sentence
e.g. he sorry she...

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skip connectors

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a kind of discourse marker to return to previous topic
e.g. anyway, coming back to our original conversation...

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fixed expressions

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routine expression in colloquial communication, sometimes metaphorical
e.g. in a football interview... as a matter of fact, basically, at the end of the day,...

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vague expressions

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similar to hedging, deliberately non-committal expressions in informal contexts
e.g. anything, something, thing

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ellipsis

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omission of words
e.g. (I've) just seen Jack, (I'd like to buy) a return ticket please,...

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Tag questions

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to keep conversation going and get attention, can be a sign of speaker support
e.g. It was today, wasn't it?

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deixis

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pointing words in a perceptual, temporal or spatial dimension
e.g. I , you, me, now, today, here, there, these, those

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non-fluency features

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pauses, hesitations and repititions,...

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pragmatics

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the study of what you actually mean to say (sub-text) and the words you carefully choose to say it (speaker meaning)
IMPLIEd meaning
e.g. your bedroom is a mess! - Tidy up!

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Grice's conversational maxims

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Maxim of Quality (Truth)
Maxim of Quantity (Information)- not more than required
Maxim of Relevance - keep it relevant to topic
Maxim of Manner (Clarity) - avoid ambiguity

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classification

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the process in which items are put into categories or groupings

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monologic talk

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speech by one person addressing itself or an audience,
mainly thoughts or feelings

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positive reinforcement

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encouragement
e.g. well done

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personal pronoun

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a pronoun designating the person speaking (I, me, us), the person to (you) or the person/thing speaking about (she, it)

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declarative sentence

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statement

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interrogative sentence

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asking for a reply
question

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indefinite pronoun

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e.g. everyone, anyone,...

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lexis

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words

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synonym

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word with similar meaning
e.g. drama and theatre

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antonym

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word with opposite meaning

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semantics + semantic fields

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study of the meaning of words
phrases and words referring to one topic (e.g. smell in the Perfume)

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hypernym

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words whose meanings includes the meanings of others
e.g. red for scarlet

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hyponym

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whords whoe meanings are included in meanings of others e.g scarlet for red

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idioms

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expressions whose meanings can't be worked out by taking the words literally e.g. metaphors

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denotation

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specific, direct meaning

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connotation

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associated, indirect meaning