Metalanguage

Contents
Phonetics and Phonology:.....................................................................................................................2
Morphology and Lexicology:..................................................................................................................3
Syntax:...................................................................................................................................................5
Discourse:..............................................................................................................................................7
Semantics:...........................................................................................................................................10
Other:..................................................................................................................................................12
Phonetics and Phonology:
 Prosodic Features:
o Pitch: How high/low the voice is => reflecting how fast the vocal chords vibrate
o Stress: How loudly/softly & how long/short different syllables are uttered
 Can differentiate stressed & unstressed, light & heavy stress
o Volume: Degree of loudness
o Tempo: Rate of speed of speech
o Intonation: Way pitch changes across an utterance
 Vocal Effects (E.g. Coughs laughter, breath): Noises made during speech
 Connected Speech Processes:
o Assimilation: Process of altering sounds so that it is closer to neighbouring sound
 E.g. 'sandwich' to 'samwich'
o Vowel Reduction: Omission of unstressed vowels in every day speech
 E.g. 'library' to 'libry'
o Elision: Omission of certain sounds in connected speech
 E.g. 'fish 'n chips'
o Insertion: Addition of sounds in speech which ease articulation
 E.g. 'drawing' to 'drawring'
 Accents in Australian English:
o Broad: Accent identified with the 'Australian twang'
o General: Accent used by great majority of Aus pop
o Cultivated: Accent used by around 10% of Aus pop & is more rounded in articulation
of vowels than Broad or General
 Phonological Patterning:
o Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonants
o Assonance: Repetition of same vowel sounds within words
 E.g. 'get' and 'better'
o Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds within words
 E.g. 'white gate'
o Onomatopoeia: Words with pronunciations that echo natural sounds of the world
 E.g. 'splash'
o Rhythm: Regular recurrence pf stresses or prominent units in speech
o Rhyme: Recurring pattern of identical/similar sounds at end of 2/more different
words
 IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
Morphology and Lexicology:
 Word Classes:
o Nouns: Name of a person, place or thing
o Verbs: Used to describe an action, state or occurrence, & forming main part of
predicate of sentence
o Auxiliary Verbs: Very that precedes main verb
 E.g. 'be', 'have', 'do'
o Modal Verbs: Verbs that convey necessity, possibility, obligation or probability
 E.g. 'may', 'will', 'could', 'would', 'should'
o Adjectives: Qualities or states which can either modify a noun phrase, or
complement a verb phrase
 E.g. Modify noun phrase 'a tall person'
 E.g. Complement a verb phrase 'that person is tall'
o Adverbs: Refers to time, frequency, place, manner, etc.
 Many derived from adjectives via '-ly' suffix
 E.g. 'quickly'
o Prepositions: Express spatial relations, & is also infinitive marker, indirect object
marker, agent marker in passive clause (by), possessive marker
 E.g. 'in', 'at', 'under'
o Pronouns: Used in place of noun phrase
 E.g. 'it', 'they', 'him, 'I'
o Conjunctions: Link clauses/parts of clauses, subordinators & coordinators
 E.g. Subordinators 'white', 'when', 'but', 'if'
 E.g. Coordinators FANBOYS
o Determiners: Express definiteness, quantity, number & possession
 E.g. Articles 'a', 'an', 'the'
 E.g. Demonstrative 'this', 'that',. 'these', 'those'
 E.g. Quantifiers 'few', 'some', 'six', 'no'
 E.g. Interrogatives 'what', 'who', 'whom', 'which', 'whose'
 E.g. Possessive pronouns 'my', 'your', 'his', 'their'
o Interjections: Words that have emotional meaning & stand by themselves outside
clause
 E.g. 'wow!'
 Function Words: Words that have purely grammatical meaning and does not refer to
anything in the real world
o E.g. 'the', 'to'
 Content Words: Words that have a real word/dictionary meaning
o E.g. 'table', 'leg'
 Affixation: Type of bound morpheme
o Prefix: Precedes root
 E.g. 'anitclockwise'
o Suffix: Follows root
 E.g. 'happiness'
 E.g. Australian English 'avo', 'arvo', 'barbie', 'ambo'
o Infix: Placed in middle of word
 E.g. 'fanbloodytastic'
 Inflection: Signal grammatical relationships
o E.g. Tense, plural, possession
 Derivation: Changes word meaning/class
o E.g. 'unhappy', 'relaxation'
 Morphemes: Smallest possible unit of meaning in language
o Root: Main free morpheme
o Bound: Appear only as part of words
o Free: can function independently as words
 Word Loss & Formation Processes:
o Blends: Word composed of elements of other words
 E.g. 'vlog' from 'video blog'
o Acronyms: Pronounceable set of initials formed from initial letter of other words
 E.g. 'ANZAC' from "Australian New Zealand Army Corps'
o Initialisms (abbreviation): Non-pronounceable set of initials formed from 1st letter of
each word in name/phrase
 E.g. 'TTYL' from 'talk to you later'
o Shortenings: Reduction of word to 1 of its parts
 E.g. 'exam' from 'examination', 'pop' from 'popular music'
o Compounding: Combination of 2/more free morphemes
 E.g. 'homework'
o Contractions: Omission/elision of internal sounds/letters within word
 E.g. 'y'know', from 'you know', 'where'd' from 'where did'
o Collocations: Words that routinely combine with each other
 E.g. 'round of applause', 'black and white', 'committing suicide', 'make a
difference', 'go bankrupt'
o Neologisms: Newly coined word
 E.g. 'sharenting' - action of sharing responsibilities of caregiver
o Borrowing: Process of adopting linguistic features from another language
 E.g. 'art' from French
o Commonisation: Conversion of proper noun/name to common noun
 E.g. 'esky', 'elevator', 'escalator'
o Archaism: Word or construction that no longer employed/transferred from earlier
phrases of language
 E.g. 'manifold', 'ere', 'prithee'
Syntax:
 Phrases: Group of words that is smaller than a clause & behaves like a structural unit
o Named after most important word in string
o E.g. Noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase
 Clauses: Structural unit that is larger than a phrase & may constitute a simple
sentence/constituent of a complex sentence
o E.g. 'I eat cake'
 Sentences: String of words that contain subject & predicate
o E.g. I eat cake
 Sentence Structures:
o Sentence Fragments: Phrases without subject/predicate
 Predicate: Stand alone subordinating clause
 E.g. 'he is', 'Harry's book', 'eat cake', 'if I die'
o Simple: Single independent clause
 E.g. 'I eat cake'
o Compound: 2 coordinated clauses joined by coordinating conjunction
 E.g. 'I eat cake and I drink coffee'
o Complex: 1 coordinating & 1 subordinating clause joined by subordinating
conjunction
 E.g. 'I eat cake because I like it'
o Compound-Complex: 2+ coordinating & 1+ subordinating clauses joined by
conjunctions
 E.g. 'I like to eat cake and drink coffee because I like it'
o Ellipses: deletion of items in sentence because they either appear elsewhere/can be
reconstructed from context
 E.g. 'call?'
o Nominalisation: Process that turns whole clauses into noun-like structures =>
becomes more abstract
 E.g. 'the self-destructing device' from 'the device that self-destructs'
o Coordination: Combination of 2/more elements (words, phrases, clauses) that are
equal in function & status
 Elements linked by coordinators/coordinating conjunctions (and, or)
o Subordination: Combination of clauses that are syntactically non-equivalent
 Subordinate clause is part of another clause (main clause) & is introduced by
subordinator/relative pronoun
 E.g. 'I bought that book because I liked it', 'here's the book that I
recommended'
 Sentence Types (& Communicative Functions):
o Declarative: Making a statement & subject + predicate
 E.g. 'I like cake'
o Imperative: Issuing directive & implied subject (you) + predicate
 E.g. '(you) eat your cake'
o Interrogative: Posing a question & auxiliary + subject + rest of predicate
 E.g. 'does he like cake?'
o Exclamative: Making an exclamation & what/how + predicate
 E.g. 'what a big cake that is', 'how delicious that cake looks'
 Clause Structure (& Basic Function):
o Subject: Clausal constituent about which something is stated/predicated
 E.g. 'Fred never eats cake'
o Object: Clausal constituent that follows verb in basic clauses
 E.g. Noun phrases 'Fred never eats cake'
 E.g. Subordinate clauses 'Fred says that he never eats cake'
 E.g. Subject in passive clause 'Cake is never eaten by Fred'
o Complement: Generally, an obligatory element in grammatical construction &
completes what is said about subject
 E.g. 'That cake looks delicious'
o Adverbial: Phrase that is optionally included in predicate, has flexibility of word
worder & adds more info to subject/predicate
 E.g. 'Fred at cake five minutes ago'
 Voice Types:
o Active: Most common type of 'grammatical voice', whereby actor/agent of
transitive clause = subject, patient = object
 E.g. 'Fred ate the cake'
o Passive: Discourse strategy whereby original object becomes grammatical subject,
while original subject moved to optional prepositional phrase
 E.g. 'The cake was eaten by Fred'
o Agentless Passive: Passive without agent/'doer' of action (subject in active voice)
 E.g. 'The cake was eaten'
 Syntactic Patterning:
o Antithesis: Kind of parallelism that involves juxtaposition of contrasting phrases
 E.g. 'many are called, but few are chosen'
o Listing: Often involves coordinated phrases/lists of words => more captivating way to
present info
 E.g. 'unmoved, unchanged, undefeated'
o Parallelism: Use of similar sounds, words, or grammatical constructions & expresses
dieas that are equally important
 E.g. 'the sun rises, the sun sets'
Discourse:
 Code-Switching: Practice of alternating between 2/more language/dialects in conversation
 Coherence: Semantic connections that exists within text to make it meaningful => if text is
coherent makes sense
o Cohesion
o Inference: Additional info assumed by hearers/readers in order to make a connection
between what has been said/written & what is meant (speakers/writers imply what
readers infer)
o Logical Ordering: E.g. Chronological ordering
o Formatting: E.g. Title, date, by-line, opening & ending phrases, bolding, italics,
underlining
o Consistency: Consistent viewpoint
o Conventions: E.g. Letter has a greeting and a sign off, recipe breaks process down
into simple, manageable steps => what is expected of text types
 Cohesion: Linguistic connections & ties that exist between words & sentences to give
structure to a text
o Lexical Choice:
 Synonymy: Using synonyms throughout text
 E.g. 'dog', 'canine' & 'hound'
 Antonymy: Using antonyms throughout text
 E.g. 'dog' & 'cat', 'happy' & 'sad'
 Hyponymy: Hyponymy is semantic relation between hyponym (subtype)
and hypernym (supertype)
 E.g. 'poodle' is hyponym of 'dog', 'dog' is hypernym of 'poodle'
 Collocation: Involves words that routinely combine with each other
 E.g. 'rotten egg' vs 'expired egg', 'mouldy bread' vs 'rotten bread'
o Information Flow: How speakers/writers go about 'packaging' their messages =>
how provide right sort of cues to help audience interpret text appropriately
 Clefting: Focus device that splits off part of sentence in order to give it
prominence
 E.g. To focus 'last year' in 'I saw him last year', can create a cleft, 'it
was last year that I saw him'
 Front Focus: Moves elements to beginning of sentences giving them greater
prominence
 E.g. 'In June came ponderous heat & mornings like eggshells, pale &
smooth'
 End Focus: Given/old/established info is given before
new/unpredictable/surprising info
 E.g. 'The single most important skill & most unvalued capacity for
exercising adaptive leadership is diagnosis'
o Anaphoric Reference: Expressions that refer back to something that has gone on
before in the discourse (the antecedent)
 Antecedent necessary to provide info for expression's interpretation
 E.g. 'If you want my book, you can take it'
o Cataphoric Reference: Refers forward to another expression that follows it
 E.g. 'If you it, you can take my book'
 o Deictics: Word/expression whose meaning is dependent on context in which it is
used
 E.g. 'here', 'you', 'me', 'that one there', 'next Tuesday'
o Repetition: Using the same word/phrase over & over again
o Ellipses: E.g. 'cake?' vs 'do you want cake?'
o Substitution: E.g. 'do you have a pencil? Yeah I have one.'
o Conjunctions: Word used to connect clauses/sentences/to coordinate words in same
clause
 E.g. 'and', 'because'
o Adverbials: Word/phrase functioning as major clause constituent & typically
expressing place, time or manner
 E.g. 'eventually'
o Conjunctions & adverbials show following relationships:
 Addition: 'moreover', 'besides'
 Cause & effect: 'since', 'because', 'therefore'
 Comparison & contrast: 'similarly', 'however', 'yet'
 Concession: 'although'
 Temporal: 'next', 'before', 'while'. 'then', 'meanwhile'
 Features of Spoken Discourse:
o Openings & Closings: E.g. 'hello & goodbye', 'dear & sincerely/from/regards', 'ladies
and gentlemen'
o Adjacency Pairs: Part of conversation that contains an exchange of turns by 2
speakers & turns related to each other in such way that 1st turn requires certain
types of response
 E.g. Q&A, 'thank you' & 'no worries'
o Overlapping Speech: Simultaneous talk by 2/more conversational participants,
irrespective of its status in participants minds as an interruption
 E.g. 'so like I was talking to my [mum]' '[yeah]'
o Interrogative Tags: Type of reduced interrogative 'tacked' only end of declarative
clause & requests hearer to express agreement/disagreement
 E.g. 'the cake is pretty good, isn't it?'
o Discourse Particles: Features of speech that have discourse functions to do with
focus & change of topic & conversational functions to do with turn-taking
 Also play role in expressing social relationships, personal attitudes &
opinions, conveying sometimes subtle nuances pf meaning
 E.g. 'well', 'yeah-no', 'like', 'y'know'
o Non-Fluency Features:
 Pauses: ...
 Filled Pauses/Voiced Hesitations: Vocalised hesitation
 E.g. 'umm', 'uhh', 'err'
 False Starts: Kind of redrafting feature found in spontaneous/unplanned
speech
 E.g. 'today I, today I want to talk about...'
 Repetition: E.g. 'the the um the y'know'
 Repairs: Process by which speaker recognises speech error & repeats what
has been said with some sort of correction
 E.g. 'toni-today I want to talk about...'
 Strategies in Spoken Discourse:
o Topic Management: Related topic subjects discussed by speakers during turn-taking
o Turn-Taking: Practice of alternating turns from 1 person to another
o Holding the Floor: Act of extending you turn
o Passing the Floor: Act of indicating your turn is over & inviting/allowing another
speaker to start their turn
o Minimal Responses/Back-Channelling: Involves words such as 'yeah', 'ok' & sounds
such as 'mm', 'hmm', 'uh huh' that listeners use while someone else is talking
Semantics:
 Semantic Fields/Domains: Area of meaning that is identified by set of related lexical items
o E.g. 'cake', 'ganache', & 'flour' are under semantic field of cooking
 Lexical Choice & Semantic Patterning:
o Figurative Language: Asking the reader/listener to understand something by virtue
of its relation to some other thing/action/image
o Irony: Language that expresses incongruity between what might be expected & what
actually happens
 E.g. Picking our onions from a burger then eating onion rings, the Titanic
being 100% unsinkable
o Metaphor: Non-literal use of language where people refer to 1 domain by using
language expressions usually associated with some other domain & there is transfer
of meaning from 1 context to another
 E.g. 'emerald eyes'
o Oxymoron: Phrase that combines 2 contradictory terms
 E.g. 'deafening silence'
o Simile: Figurative expression that involves comparison between 2 things, signalled by
'like' or 'as'
 E.g. 'eyes like emeralds'
o Personification: Figure of speech that gives non-humans, human qualities such as
emotions, desires, expressions & powers of speech
 E.g. 'the sun leapt up', 'the moon & the stars, they wept'
o Animation: Figure of speech that gives animals/other non-human beings, human
qualities such as emotions, desires, expressions & powers of speech
o Puns: Type of word play that uses different meanings of word/brings together words
that are similar in sound, but have different meanings
 E.g. 'I like kids (child/goat), but I couldn't eat one', 'why are teddy bears
never hungry? Because they're always stuffed'
o Lexical Ambiguity: Expression with more than 1 meaning => structure of sentence
can also give rise to ambiguity
 E.g. 'my mum won't stop grinding me'
 Lexical Meaning (Sense Relations):
o Synonymy: Using synonyms throughout text
 E.g. 'dog', 'canine' & 'hound'
o Antonymy: Using antonyms throughout text
 E.g. 'dog' & 'cat', 'happy' & 'sad'
o Hyponymy: Hyponymy is semantic relation between hyponym (subtype) and
hypernym (supertype)
 E.g. 'poodle' is hyponym of 'dog', 'dog' is hypernym of 'poodle'
o Idiom: Group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from
those of the individual words
 E.g. 'over the moon', 'under the weather'
o Denotation: Dictionary meaning
o Connotation: Emotional meaning of words that arises from people's personalities,
beliefs, experiences & can differ from person to person
  E.g. 'to urinate', 'go pee pee' & 'go to the loo' all have same denotative
meaning, but different connotative meanings
 Euphemism: Avoidance language that involves sweet-sounding/at least inoffensive
alternatives for expressions that speakers/writers may prefer not to use on a given occasion
o E.g. 'to pass away' instead of 'to die', 'lady of the night' or 'promiscuous girl' for
'prostitute'
 Dysphemism: Involves verbal resources for being offensive, abusive or letting off steam &
motivated by hatred/contempt/fear/distaste
o E.g. 'sl*t' for 'prostitute', 'f*g' for 'homosexual'
Other:
 Register: Any socially defined variety of language that is appropriate for a specific situation,
occupation, or subject matter
 Overt Norms/Prestige: Linguistic features that are recognised by culturally dominant group
(standard features)
 Covert Norms/Prestige: Linguistic features that signal membership within certain subgroup
(kind of 'street cred')
 Standard English: idealised variety that constitutes notional set of norms, generally adopted
by educated speakers of English
o Many standard varieties of English, according to age, generation & especially
according to national origins
 Non-Standard English: Any other form of English outside of Standard English
 Political Correctness: Avoidance of expression/behaviours that perceived to
exclude/marginalise/affront groups of people who are disadvantaged/discriminated against
o PC terms may highlight aspects of particular groups identity
o E.g. 'African American' emphasises historical roots of a group that now forms part of
US, and not their genetics/colour
 Jargon: Language shared by those who belong to profession/trade/some other occupational
group
o Functions:
 Serve technical/specialist language
 Promote in-group solidarity => those outside group can find jargon
unintelligible
 Slang: In-group variety used by people with something in common & often bound by time &
generation
o Is informal
o Usually spoken, not written & involves mainly vocab
o Striking features = playfulness
 Colloquial Language/Colloquialisms: Words/phrases that is not formal/literary & is used in
ordinary conversation
 Double-Speak: Language that conceals true meaning of word/utterance by making -ive seem
+ive & diverts hearer/reader from consequences of utterance/speech act
 Taboo Language: Words/phrases that considered inappropriate in certain contexts
o E.g. Usually in reference to genitalia (pussy), religion (Jesus Christ!), animals (bitch),
excretion (piss, shit)
 Public Language: Variety of language used in open & shared contexts
 Rhetoric: Involves techniques for effective/persuasive speaking/writing
 Positive Face Needs: Desire to be liked/individual's positive consistent
self-image/personality/desire of person to be appreciated & approved of by at least some
people
 Negative Face Needs: Desire to not be pushed around/not to be imposed on/basic claim to
personal territories, rights to non-distraction, to freedom of action & from imposition
 Situational Context: Contextual knowledge & includes knowledge of who is speaking,
listening, what is being discussed & general facts about the world
 Cultural Context: Cultural background of discourse & includes what participants know about
context, reasons for their behaviour & their expectations of others involved in discourse
 Social Purpose: Use language is put within particular social setting
 Ethnolect: Variety that identifies speakers by their ethnicity & and usually influenced by 1st
language/that of their families
o Often employed as in-group codes in addition of mainstream Australian English
 Sociolect: Variety used by people of particular socioeconomic status/educational
background
 Idiolect: Linguistic system associated with an individual speaker