English Language 7

Terminology

The basic terminology that

one needs to know for AS
English Language.
By Aimee
The Six Constituents of
English Language
 Grammar
 Lexis
 Semantics
 Phonology
 Morphology
 Mode and Concept - this looks at the type of text
in which you are looking at; what factors may
effect the writer’s view; the context to the piece
of text; the formality; etc…it is always dependant
on the text in which you are looking at.
Grammar
 When we look at grammar, we need to consider
the following things:
 Word Classes
 Pre & Post Modification
 Phrases & Clauses
 Active and Passive Voice
 Subject, Verb and Object
 Although the majority of what is in this
PowerPoint is considered to be part of
Grammar, they can be categorized in a further
hyponym(you will learn what a hyponym is later
in this PowerPoint).
Grammar…
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 There are many different word classes, e.g.

Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, etc...
 The word classes are very important as they
are the basis of a sentence, without them,
we wouldn’t be able to form sentences.
 There are nine word classes which are most
relevant to you.
 They are: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs,
Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions,
Conjunctions and Determiners.
Grammar…Nouns
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Nouns are known as ‘naming words’.

 We can get different types of nouns.
 A common noun is a generalised term for
something. E.g. city.
 A proper noun is normally a name. It has two
distinctive features; 1. it will name a specific
item and 2. it will begin with a capital letter no
matter where in a sentence. E.g. London.
 A count noun also known as a countable noun is
something which we can count. E.g. dogs and
cats.
 A non-count noun is something which we
cannot count. E.g. water and air.
Grammar…Nouns
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 A collective noun is a word which defines a group of

objects. Collective nouns are usually applied to
animals, e.g. flock. However, they can be used to
describe other things such as people and inanimate
objects. E.g. team.
 Nouns can be split into concrete or abstract nouns.
 A concrete noun is a noun which can be either seen,
heard, touched, smelt or tasted. E.g. ice cream or apple
tree.
 An abstract noun is the opposite of a concrete noun, it
cannot be sensed – you cannot see, hear, smell, taste or
touch it. E.g. bravery or intelligence.
Grammar…Pronouns
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Pronouns are used to substitute a noun or another

pronoun.
 There are different types of pronouns.
 A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or
thing and changes its form to indicate person,
number, gender, and case. Personal pronouns can be
split into subjective personal pronouns or objective
personal pronouns. The subjective ones are: I, you,
she, he, it, we and they. The objective ones are: me,
you, her, him, it, us and them.
 A possessive pronoun is used to replace a noun to
show possession or ownership of an object. They
include: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours and theirs.
Grammar…Pronouns
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 An interrogative pronoun is used to ask a question,

they do not establish whether it is singular or plural,
thus only has one form. E.g. which, what or who.
 A reflexive pronoun refers back to the subject of the
clause or sentence. E.g. He did it himself.
 An intensive pronoun is very similar to a reflexive
noun. However, it is a word used to sympathise the
subject of the sentence. Intensive nouns usually
appear right next to the subject of the sentence. E.g.
I myself am sick of the heat.
 A demonstrative pronoun points to and identifies a
noun or a pronoun. E.g. this, that, these or those.
Grammar…Pronouns
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 An indefinite pronoun refers to one or

more unspecified beings, objects, or
places. E.g. another, everything, some
or all.
 A relative pronoun is used to link one
phrase or clause to another phrase or
clause. E.g. The cat which was injured
was sent to the vet.
Grammar…Verbs
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Verbs are known as ‘doing’ words. However, if

you look at ‘love’ ‘hate’ and ‘think’, you will
notice that these are verbs but the definition of ‘a
doing word’ does not quite cover the whole
picture.
 Verbs can be split into different categories.
 Verbs can be split into the active and passive,
however, because it depends on the structure
of the sentence, we refer to them as the active
or passive voice rather than the active or
passive verb. (The active and passive is later
introduced in this PowerPoint.)
Grammar…Verbs
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 A dynamic verb is the type of verb we mean when

we say it is a ‘doing’ word. It is a verb which is
physically happening. E.g. run.
 A stative verb is the opposite to a dynamic verb. It
is a verb which is difficult to see what exactly is
being done. E.g. remember.
 There are primary auxiliary verbs. These are the
main verbs which are used to make sentences. They
are be, have and do. E.g. I am eating bread. ‘am’ is
the present participle of be.
 There are modal auxiliary verbs too. These are used
to express modality. They are generally used in
conjunction with another verb. E.g. can or might.
Grammar…Verbs
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Linking verbs do not express action, but they connect the

subject of the verb to additional information about the
subject. E.g. Kelly is a shopaholic. They seem very happy.
Another way to find out if one is a linking verb is to see if
you can substitute am, is, or are into the sentence. If the
sentence still sounds logical, you have a linking verb in the
sentence.
 Verbs can be split into transitive or intransitive too. Whether
they are one or the other, depends on the context of a sentence.
 A transitive verb is a verb which is directed at an object.
Therefore, the sentence requires a subject, verb and one or
more objects. E.g. The dog chased the cat.
 An intransitive verb is the opposite, it is not directed at an
object. E.g. He arrived.
Grammar…Adjectives
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Adjectives are known as ‘describing’ words. They are used to

describe a noun. E.g. The brown table.
 A positive adjective is the simple form of the adjective
without expressing increase or diminution of the original
quality. E.g. big.
 A comparative adjective is one which expresses an increase
or diminution of the quality. It involves the comparison of
two things. E.g. bigger.
 A superlative adjective is one which expresses the greatest
increase or diminution of the quality. It involves the
comparison of three or more things. E.g. biggest.
 However, you must be careful of certain adjectives as when
they are used to compare, they do not follow the rule of
adding –er or –est to the end of the positive adjective. E.g.
good becomes better or best.
Grammar…Adverbs
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Adverbs are used to modify a verb or any

other part of a text other than a noun.
 Most adverbs are formed by adding –ly to
the end of adjectives. However, there are
some which do not have –ly at the end, e.g.
quite, well or fast. These ones that don’t
follow the main rule of adding –ly on the
end are called irregular adverbs.
Grammar…Prepositions
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Prepositions indicates the relationship

between the words in a sentence.
 There are specific prepositions relating to
position (at, on, opposite), direction (into,
past, to) and time (before, during, after).
Grammar…Conjunctions
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 A conjunction is a word or a phrase which connects two

words, sentences, phrases or clauses together.
 There are different types of conjunctions.
 A coordinating conjunction joins two or more items of
equal importance, i.e. words, main clauses or sentences.
E.g. and.
 A correlative conjunction are pairs of conjunctions that
work together to coordinate two items. E.g. neither…
nor…
 A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction which
introduces a dependant clause. It is used in complex
sentences, as the subordinating clause would not work
without the main clause. The two sentences are joined
together by a subordinating conjunction. E.g. because.
Grammar…Determiners
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Determiners are always followed by a noun

and usually we cannot use more than one
determiner in the same noun phrase.
 There are different types of determiners.
There are articles, possessive adjectives
and further determiners.
 ‘The’ is a determiner which is referred
to as the definite article. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are
also determiners but are referred to as
the indefinite articles.
Grammar…Determiners
Wo r d C l a s s e s

 Possessive adjectives include my, your,

his, her, its, our, their and whose. These
are adjectives and must not be confused
with possessive pronouns even though
they are similar.
 Further determiners include each, every,
either, neither, some, any, no, much,
many, more, most, little, less, least, few,
several and enough.
Grammar…
Pre & Post Modification

 Pre-modification is where one or more

words are placed in front of a word in
order to further describe or define the
word. E.g. a left-handed writer.
 Post-modification is where one or more
words are placed after the noun in order to
describe or define the word. E.g. The book
with the green cover.
Grammar…
Phrases and Clauses

 A phrase is a short, single piece of

information. E.g. The big dog. We use
phrases to make a clause.
 A clause is a larger word group that
includes a little more information. It
consists at least two phrases - one is a noun
phrase known as the subject, and the other
is the verb. E.g. The big dog barked.
Grammar…
Phrases and Clauses

 There are two different types of clauses.

 You can get a main clause which can
stand alone as a sentence and makes
sense on its own. Every sentence must
have a main clause and every main
clause will include a subject and a verb.
E.g. We were all really hungry.
 Otherwise, you can have a subordinate
clause which does not make sense on its
own. E.g. Although I was afraid.
Grammar…
Phrases and Clauses

 There are different types of sentences too which

are created with the two clauses.
 A minor sentence is the only sentence which
does not necessarily have a main verb in it,
but which can be understood as a complete
unit of meaning.
 A simple sentence is also know as a main
clause, it contains a subject and a verb and
expresses a complete thought.
 A compound sentence contains two main
clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.
Grammar…
Phrases and Clauses

 A complex sentence has a main clause

connected to one or more subordinate
clauses which always has a
subordinating conjunction in it.
 You can get compound-complex
sentences too, which are basically a
mixture of the two in one sentence. E.g.
Although I like to go camping, I haven't
had the time to go lately, and I haven't
found anyone to go with.
Grammar…
A c t i v e a n d P a s s i v e Vo i c e

 Sentences can be spoken in the active or

passive voice.
 In the active voice, the subject of the
sentence acts upon something or someone
which is known as the object. E.g. The boy
kissed the girl.
 However, in the passive voice, the subject
is acted upon. E.g. The girl was kissed by
the boy.
Grammar…
S u b j e c t , Ve r b a n d O b j e c t

 The subject in a sentence can be a person, place

or thing, but basically it is the agent attached to
the verb. E.g. The children went to school. The
subject is the ‘children’.
 The verb as you have learnt is the doing word, in
this case it is ‘went’.
 The object can be a person, place or thing too,
but it is basically the item which is receiving the
verb rather than performing it. Therefore, in the
above example, the object is the ‘school’.
Remember though, not all sentences contain an
object but most do.
Lexis
 When we look at lexis which means the word bank of a language, it
doesn’t mean we need to know every word of the dictionary. We look
at the changes in language as well as the vocabulary that is in
existence and was in existence.
 The following are things which need to be considered when looking at
lexis in AS Language:
 Colloquial Language
 Slang
 Jargon
 Mono/Poly syllabic words
 Formal/Informal
 Scientific/Technical
 Foreign
 Archaic
 and Neologisms
Lexis…
Colloquial Language

 Colloquialism is the language used in everyday, unconstrained

conversations. This language can depend on one’s region but also
it may not.
 The most known examples are: gonna, wanna and y’all. You may
notice if you take some time to think about it, that these are
popular in a lot of regions.
 However, ‘the regional term used by people when describing a
carbonated soft drink. In the Upper Midwestern United States, it
is commonly called "pop," while in other areas, notably the
North-eastern and extreme Western United States, it is referred to
as "soda" or "mix". In New England it is occasionally called
"tonic.”’
 However, colloquialism is not restrained to just single words,
‘raining cats and dogs’ is also an example of colloquial language.
 Linguists refer to colloquialism as informal speech, but you need
to be careful as this can sometimes be hard to distinguish against
slang.
Lexis…
Slang

 Slang is the technical term used to define the language

used by a specific social group, e.g. teenagers.
 Slang is a very informal type of language which is more
popular in utterance than in writing. Some of the words
or phrases considered slang can be described as taboo
language (words and phrases which are considered
inappropriate, e.g. swearing).
 Slang terms can often be regional, e.g. in Northern
California, ‘hella’ is used in place of the words: "really,"
"a lot," "totally,“ and "very”, whereas in England, you
would not really hear this phrase being used.
 Slang is often much more metaphorical in order to
suggest resemblance to ordinary words.
Lexis…
Jargon

 Jargon is the technical term used to define the

vocabulary that a certain group of people use.
E.g. medical jargon would be used within a
hospital.
 Jargon is different from colloquial language and
slang as jargon does not have to be paired up
alongside informal speech. The jargon used by a
certain group or profession can be formal and
therefore it is essential to be able to distinguish
the difference in the three.
 Slang and colloquialism is more likely to be
mistaken for one another.
Lexis…
Mono/Poly syllabic words

 Monosyllabic words are just words with

one syllable in them, whilst polysyllabic
words are words with more than one
syllable in them. That’s it!
 E.g. Cat is monosyllabic and Elephant is
polysyllabic.
Lexis…
Formal/Informal

 Use the following web link in order to help

you with the formal/informal:
 http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/
15doms/frameworks.html
Lexis…
S c i e n t i f i c / Te c h n i c a l

 Scientific and technical communication can

be defined as a process of gathering,
organizing, presenting and refining
information.
 It is also a process of persuasion which
often appeals to objectivity to convince an
audience.
 Finally, it is a process inevitably shaped by
its contexts, and which is improved when it
recognizes its contexts.
Lexis…
S c i e n t i f i c / Te c h n i c a l

 ‘When faced, for instance, with writing a proposal for

the first time you are likely to follow a pre-established
form slavishly. And although you satisfied with the
result, you may have ideas for adapting the proposal to
make it more persuasive. Next time you may not rigidly
follow a standard format; you may accent certain
sections, downplay others; you may use different sources
of information; you may prepare different versions of the
same proposal. Eventually you may come to see proposal
form as a rough outline to which you make adjustments
as you learn more about its purpose, the needs of the
audience and your relationship to them. Although the
formal elements of the proposal are constant, they are
neither permanent nor should they dictate content.’ -
http://www.faculty.english.vt.edu/Collier/stc/ch1pt1.htm
Lexis…
Foreign

 Foreign language is the language

associated with another country. It is also
considered to be not spoken by the native
country of the person being referred to.
 E.g. if the person being referred to is
Canadian, then to this person, the
Portuguese language would be a foreign
language.
Lexis…
Archaic

 Archaic language is the technical term for

words and phrases that where used regularly
in a language, but are now less common.
 Archaic means ancient or old, therefore
illustrating the words or phrases were
popular in the past but are no longer.
 E.g. Thou is an archaic word, we rarely use
it nowadays however, in Romeo and Juliet,
it was common as it was written in the 16 th
century.
Lexis…
Neologisms

 Neologism is the opposite to archaic language. Neologism

is the technical term for words or phrases which are
entering the process of common use, but have not yet been
acknowledged as part of the mainstream language.
 A good example of a neologism is the Internet, which was
only recently established. Before there was network
connection, there was no such thing as Internet. The
creation of network connection lead to the neologism –
Internet which has now been accepted into language due
to the increased usage of the word.
 Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific
person, publication, period, or event. Many neologisms
are formed due to the advancement of technology, the
discoveries within science and the creations of phenomena
by the mind.
Semantics

 Semantics is the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with

meaning.
 In the semantics section, there is:
 Denotation
 Connotation
 Implication
 Ambiguity
 Metaphorical language
 Collocation
 Euphemism and Dysphemism
 Synonymy and Antonymy
 Hyponymy, Meronymy, Polysemy, Homonymy, Homophones and
Homographs
 Semantic Fields
Semantics…
Denotation

 Denotation refers to the literal meaning of

a word, the "dictionary definition."
 E.g. A spinster is an unmarried woman.
 What is the denotation of these words?
Bachelor; Menu; Snake;
Semantics…
Connotation

 Connotation refers to the associations that are

connected to a certain word or the emotional
suggestions related to that word. The connotative
meanings of a word exist together with the denotative
meanings.
 E.g. the connotations of ‘youth’ are juvenile,
youngster, adolescence, etc.
 Certain words have more positive or negative
connotations depending on the denotation of that
word. For example, a snake would have more
negative connotations, whilst a dove has more
positive connotations even though they are both
organisms.
Semantics…
Implication

 Implication is the meaning in which a

speaker or writer intends but cannot
communicate directly. Where a listener is
able to deduce or infer the intended
meaning from what has been uttered, this is
known as implicature.
 For example: the utterance is ‘Time,
gentlemen, please! The implicit meaning is
‘It’s time to leave, we have to shut.’
Semantics…
Ambiguities

 Ambiguity occurs when a language has more than

one meaning.
 When ambiguity occurs in a single word, this is
called lexical ambiguity. If the ambiguity occurs
within a phrase or sentence, then this is called
grammatical or structural ambiguity.
 For example: the utterance is ‘Meet me at the
church, and I’ll give you a ring.’ this could be
translated as ‘meet me at the church and I’ll ring
your phone.’ or ‘meet me at the church and I’ll
bring a ring and place it on your finger.’
 Therefore, ambiguity can cause confusion.
Semantics…
Metaphorical language

 Metaphorical language is the language used to compare the

context against something which is (normally) irrelevant.
 Metaphorical language includes – metaphors, similes and
idioms.
 A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is
applied to something in which it is not literally applicable in
order to suggest a resemblance. For example: ‘her eyes were
glistening jewels’ to describe ones eyes as beautiful.
 A simile is when one thing is described to be similar to
another. The words ‘like’ or ‘as’ are used frequently in
similes to suggest comparison. For example: ‘as red as blood’
 An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable
from the usual meaning of the constituent elements of the
expression. For example: ‘kicked the bucket.’ means one has
passed away.
Semantics…
Collocation

 Collocation is the technical term used when words habitually

go together. For example, fish and chips.
 Collocation gives us ‘ready-made’ language which we can
usefully recall as needed. As it’s a well recognised feature of
language it gets the job done much quicker than longer
phrases would.
 For example, ‘I’m going for some fresh air.’ is immediately
understood as the need to go outdoors for a non-specific
period of time. Consider how you would express this
intention without using the phrase ‘fresh air’ but still
communicating the exact action.
 These combinations just sound "right" to native English
speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other
combinations may be unnatural and just sound "wrong". For
example, ‘a quick shower’ is changed to ‘a fast shower’.
Semantics…
Euphemism and Dysphemism

 A euphemism is a figure of speech used to

make the harsh reality of the concept of
speech or text less harsh.
 A dysphemism is the opposite of a
euphemism, in which it makes the concept of
speech or text more harsh.
 For example, the neutral saying of one with
not a lot of money is ‘poor’, whereas the
dysphemistic way of saying someone is poor
would be ‘beggar’ and the euphemistic way of
saying someone is poor is ‘disadvantaged’.
Semantics…
Synonymy and Antonymy

 Synonyms are words with a similar meaning.

 Antonyms are words with opposite meanings.
 The synonyms of ‘happiness’ include: contentment,
satisfaction, delight, enjoyment, laughter, jubilation,
etc.
 Whereas the antonyms of happiness would be sadness,
misery, sorrow, etc.
 You can search up the synonyms of a word using a
thesaurus, however different lexis has different
meanings and therefore you cannot always substitute a
word with a synonym as it may not always make
sense.
Semantics…
H y p o n y m y, M e r o n y m y, P o l y s e m y, H o m o n y m y, H o m o p h o n e s a n d H o m o g r a p h s

 Hyponymy is the semantic relation which a word can

be represented by different categories covered by a
superordinate. E.g. if the word ‘flower’ is the
superordinate, then the hyponyms of this word would
be rose, tulip, daisy…
 Meronymy is the semantic relation that holds between
a part and the whole. E.g. the meronym ‘faces’ would
mean people.
 Polysemy is the existence of more than one related
meaning in a word. For example, the polysemous word
‘leaf ’ could mean 1) the green foliage of a plant or 2)
a page in a book. The connection between both of
these words could be that they both come from the
same place originally and are both flat.
Semantics…
H y p o n y m y, M e r o n y m y, P o l y s e m y, H o m o n y m y, H o m o p h o n e s a n d H o m o g r a p h s

 Homonymy is the existence of more than one unrelated

meaning in a word which is spelt the same and has the
same pronunciation. For example, the homonym is
‘bank’ which could mean 1) a financial institution or 2)
a slope bordering a river. There is no connection
whatsoever between these two meanings therefore the
word ‘bank’ is a homonym, and is not polysemous.
 Homophones are words which share the same
pronunciation but are spelt differently. For example,
two, too, to.
 Homographs are words which shares the same spelling
but have different pronunciations. For example, dove –
a king of bird and dove – the past tense of dive.
Semantics…
Semantic Fields

 A Semantic Field is the technical term used when

a set of words can be grouped together by means
of relation.
 E.g. A semantic field of war will include lexemes
such as soldiers, weapons, fighting, deaths,
patriarchy…
 For AS, you will need to be able to look through a
piece of text and be able to identify any semantic
fields within the text itself. To test yourself, try it
with a piece of text – normally short stories
consist of a semantic field for a certain theme or
occurrence.
Phonology

 Phonology is the study of sounds within

language. The phonological aspect of
textual language includes looking at the
following:
 Onomatopoeia
 Alliteration
 Sibilance
 Assonance
 Consonance
Phonology…
Onomatopoeia

 Onomatopoeia is the use of words or

phrases that sound like the thing in which
they refer to.
 E.g. bang, sizzle, pop, clash, hiss – these
are all examples of onomatopoeic words.
Phonology…
Alliteration

 Alliteration is the occurrence of the same

letter or sound at the beginning of words
neighbouring each other.
 E.g. the fickle finger of fate
 Alliteration is like rhyming, but with
alliteration the rhyming comes at the front
of the words instead of the end.
Phonology…
Sibilance

 Sibilance is the sound characterized by

pronouncing words which cause almost a
hissing sound or similar.
 The presence of strongly emphasized s, sh,
ch, z, j sounds are all categorized as
sibilance.
 E.g. sing a song of sixpence
Phonology…
Assonance

 Assonance is the repetition of identical or

similar vowel sounds in neighbouring
words.
 E.g. ‘fleet feet sweep by sleeping geeks’
the assonance is the apparent double ‘e’
which appears in the centre of the words in
this quote.
Phonology…
Consonance

 Consonance is the repetition of consonant

sounds.
 The majority of the time, the consonance
occurs due to the repetition of the final
consonant sounds of accented syllables of
important words.
 E.g. he struck a streak of bad luck.
Morphology

 Morphology is the study of morphemes; a

morpheme can be defined as a unit of
language.
 Within the morphology section, it comprises
of:
 Root Morphemes
 Free and Bound Morphemes
 Affixes, Prefixes And Suffixes
 Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes
Morphology…
Root Morphemes

 A root morpheme is the part of the word

that cannot be reduced into smaller
constituents.
 E.g. the root morpheme of the word
‘shopping’ is shop.
 What are the root morphemes of the
following?
Dogs, Computer, Marker, House

Dog, Compute, Mark, House

Morphology…
Free and Bound Morphemes

 A morpheme which can stand alone is known as

the free morpheme, hence the name ‘free
morpheme’.
 A morpheme that needs to work alongside other
morphemes is known as a bound morpheme and
cannot stand alone.
 E.g. the word ‘forgiving’ has ‘forgive’ as the free
morpheme and ‘ing’ as the bound morpheme.
 Try to split the following into free and bound
morphemes:
Remainder, Smiling, Freedom, Attractive
Key: Free Morpheme and Bound morpheme – Remainder, Smile-ing, Freedom, Attractive
Morphology…
Affixes, Prefixes and Suffixes

 An affix is a morpheme that is attached to

a root morpheme.
 They are divided into prefix (which comes
before a root morpheme) and suffix (which
comes after the root morpheme).
 E.g. the word ‘dislike’ contains a prefix –
dis.
 E.g. the word ‘forgetful’ contains a suffix –
ful.
Morphology…
Inflectional and Derivational Morphemes

 When using a bound morpheme, it can often change a

certain aspect of the free morpheme (apart from the
spelling) in which it is being added to.
 Inflectional morphemes signal plurality or tense, but do
not usually change the grammatical class of the word of
the basic meaning.
 Whilst, derivational morphemes create new words,
sometimes very different in meaning from their root
word, and often belonging to a new grammatical class.
 E.g. ‘months’ the bound morpheme is ‘s’ which is
inflectional as it just signals plurality.
 E.g. ‘unkind’ the bound morpheme is ‘un’ which is
derivational as it changes the meaning.