English Terminology

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phoneme

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The basic unit of sound used to create words. There are 44 phonemes in the English language.

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morpheme

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The smallest grammatical unit.

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syllable

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A unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound with or without surrounding consonants forming the whole part of a word.

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lexeme

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A word.

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semiotics

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Study of how signs and symbols work in human communication.

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pragmatics

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implied meaning and context.

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lexis and semantics

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vocabulary

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diphthong

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when two adjacent vowel sounds occur within the same syllable.

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sibilance

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hissing sound produced by s, sh or z.

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consonance

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the repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern especially at the end of words ie think and blank.

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assonance

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the repetition of similar vowel sounds especially in stressed syllables with changes to the intervening consonants.

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iambic

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a verse consisting of a short syllable followed by a long one.

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anapaestic

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consists of two short syllables followed by one long syllable or of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one ie unaware.

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hypernym

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a subordinate (something that denotes a class)

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phonological approximation

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writing that tries reflect pronunciation

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sound iconicity

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the use of sound to mirror form or meaning(onomatopia, alliteration, assonance etc)

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narrowing

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a word that's meaning has changed to become more specific

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broadening

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a word that's meaning has changed to become less specific

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amelioration

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where a word becomes more acceptable

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pejoration

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where a word becomes less acceptable

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semantic reclamation

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where a social group reclaims a word/ phrase which has been used as an insult towards them and uses it in a positive way

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blends

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Words that are joined together

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acronyms

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abbreviation of words but pronounced as a word ie NASA

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initialisms

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abbreviation of words that are pronounced separately ie BBC

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idiom

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a common saying

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semantic deviation

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when a word(s) has been used out of context (let your fingers do the walking)

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antonym

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words that have opposite meanings

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elision

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words that are shortened ie they are -> they're

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synecdoche

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metonymy

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where a word is used that links to a concept but isn't actually a part of the concept

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Adverbs

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describe verbs

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pronouns

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used to replace a noun

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Personal pronoun examples

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I you she me they him us

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possessive pronoun examples

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mine yours theirs

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possessive adjective examples

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my her your

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reflective pronoun examples

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myself yourself ourself

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Intensive pronoun

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where a reflective pronoun is used to give emphasis to the subject (I did it myself)

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reciprocal pronoun examples

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each other, one another

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relative pronoun

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pronouns which refer to a noun already mentioned in a sentence

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demonstrative pronoun

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a pronoun that points to a thing(s)

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relative pronoun examples

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who whom whose

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demonstrative pronoun examples

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this that those these none

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interrogative pronouns

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pronouns that introduce interrogative sentences (who are you?)

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indefinite pronoun

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pronouns that act as nouns

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indefinite pronoun examples

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none somebody nobody all each any most

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determiner examples

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a the

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preposition

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a word that shows the relationship between two nouns(under, over)

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definite article

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the

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indefinite article

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a

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subordinating conjunction

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a conjunction that links to a main and subordinate clause (although, despite)

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coordinating conjunction

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a conjunction that links two clauses (and)

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pre-modifier

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an adjective/ adverb used before a noun

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stative verb

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describing someone's state (love, hate)

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dynamic verb

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shows an action(walk)

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modal auxiliary verb

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expresses possibility or necessity (could)

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non-finite verb

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verbs ending in -ing

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transitive verb

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verbs which have to be followed by an object (he knitted a jumper)

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intransitive verb

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verbs which do not need to be followed by an object (he laughed)

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abstract noun

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a noun that isn't a physical object

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concrete noun

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physical objects

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common noun

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any noun that isn't proper

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count noun

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a noun that can be counted

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non-count noun

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a noun which can't be counted

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collective noun

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a noun used to describe a group (flock)

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proper noun

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a name or a place or person

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modification

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where words are added to a noun in order to modify, change or develop it's meaning

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pre-modification

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indicates the modifier comes before the head word

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fronting

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this is where the object is placed at the start of the sentence

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foregrounding

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general term used to indicate that a writer has placed an emphasis on a particular word.

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inversion

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word order that has been changed

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deviation

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where any aspect of a text deviates away from the genres expectations

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parallelism

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the repetition of grammatical structure within a sentence

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right-branching

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sentences which have the subject and primary verb at the start of the sentence

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anaphora

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reference that is made to something within a text that has been previously mentioned

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cataphora

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reference is made to something that has not been identified ( He was cold so David put on a coat)

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syndetic lists

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lists containing connectives

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asyndetic lists

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list that doesn't contain connectives

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exclamatory sentences

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sentences that end in an exclamation mark

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exophoric reference

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a reference to outside the conversation (over there)

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disjointed constructions

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constructions which would look clumsy if written down

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monitoring features

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utterances which ensure the listener understands (you know what I mean)

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repair

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where we realise our utterance makes no sense so we repeat what has been said

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hedges

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used to lessen the impact a word has on a sentence