| Term | Definition |
|---|
| acronym | word of phrase derived from or consisting of a series of initial letters |
| active voice | form of the verb in which the agent of the action is also the subject of the verb |
| amelioration | language change, the process whereby a word gradually takes on more favourable connotations |
| anaphoric reference | any word/phrase in a text/discourage that refers back to something previously mentioned |
| auxiliary verb | verb (is/have/can) used alongside a 'main' verb in the formation of tenses |
| broadening | in language change, the process whereby the range of meaning of a word gradually extends |
| cataphoric reference | any word/phrase in a text that refers forward to what is to follow |
| cohesion | the interconnection within a text/discourse |
| coherence | the sense of a text/discourase 'flowing' following on logically and creating overall sense |
| coordination | the linking of clauses within a sentence, usually using the conjunctions 'and' 'but' or 'or' |
| deixis/deictic reference | inexplicit reference within a text/discourse to things/people outside the text/discourse |
| demonstrative pronouns | the class of words including this, that, these, those |
| diachronic variation | variation of language over time |
| digraph | combination of two letters that represents a single phoneme |
| ellipsis | omission of one or more words in a phrase/sentence |
| holophrase | in child language, a one-word utterance that expresses a meaning equivalent to that of a whole adult phrase |
| language acquisition devide | the term used to describe the hypothetical genetic programming that enables humans to acquire language |
| modal verb | indicate degrees of certainty and other attitudes towards action |
| morpheme | the smallest meaningful part of a word |
| narrowing | in language change, the process whereby the meaning of a word gradually becomes more restricted |
| object | in clause analysis, the recipient of the action |
| overextension | in the acquisition of semantics, the tendency of children to extend the meaning of a word beyond its adult sense |
| overgeneralisation | the tendency in children to over-apply a general grammatical rule |
| passive voice | form of the verb in which the receiver of the action is made the subject of the verb |
| pejoration | in language change, the process whereby a word gradually takes on less favourable connotations |
| affix | a meaningful part of the word attached either to the beginning or end |
| prefix | a meaningful part of the word attached to the beginning |
| suffix | a meaningful part of the word attached to the end |
| subject | the agent of the verb |
| synchronic variation | variation within language at any given moment |
| tags | short questions such as 'isnt it?' usually attached to the end of phrases/utterances |
| telegraphic speech | in child language, speech that tends to include the 'content' words but omits unessential grammatical words 'i want play' |
| backtracking | returning to a previous state to try an alternative strategy as a form of politeness and empathetic awareness |
| backchannel | not a normal speaker's turn, but acknowledges the current speaker and encourages elaboration |
| egocentrism | the characteristic of regarding oneself and one's own opinions or interests as most important |
| emotive language | phrasing which creates a strong emotional response |
| empty adjective | a word that expresses an attribute of something non-specifically |
| hedges | an intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement (well, so, um) |
| intonation | the ways in which the voice pitch rises and falls in speech |
| negative face needs | the presentation of thes elf which you would like to project for others maintaining politeness and avoiding feelings of imposition |
| pragmatic | implied meaning |
| qualifier | adjective which attaches to nouns to convey a sense of magnitude |
| subtext | the meaning beneath the words |
| turn taking | help conversation take place smoothly, regular contributions to conversation |
| verbal fillers | hedges used to buy time for thought processes |
| determiners | the, a, these, those, some, my |
| modals and auxiliaries | may, might, should, would, to have, had, will have |
| intensifiers | quite, really, fairly |
| conjunctions | and, but, so |
| subordinatives | after, because, if, until |
| prepositions | by, on, for, over |
| personal pronouns | I, me, mine, theirs |
| articles | a, the, some |
| prepositions | on, with, through etc. |
| deletion | in language acquisition, when a child drops a consonant altogether (e.g. ca instead of cat) |
| substitution | in language acquisition, a child replaces a consonant with one that's easier to say (e.g. wegs instead of legs, or tup instead of cup) |
| assimilation | in language acquisition, when one consonant in a word is changed because of the influence of another in the same word (tub becomes bub because of the final b) |
| reduplication | when a phoneme is repeated (moomoo-cow, mama-mother) |
| voicing | when voiceless consonants like p, t, f, s (sounds produced without use of vocal chords) are replaced by their voiced equivilants (b, d, v, z) so instead of sock, zock |
| de-voicing | when voiced consonants (sounds produced using vocal chords) are replaced by their voiceless equivalents (so instead of bag, pag) |
| instrumental language | Halliday - to get something |
| regulatory language | Halliday - to make requests/give orders |
| interactional language | Halliday - to relate to others, build relationships |
| personal language | Halliday - convey a sense of personal identity and express views and feelings |
| heuristic language | Halliday - learning |
| representational language | Halliday - to convey information |
| phatic talk | 'small talk' at the start of a conversation; politeness 'how are you?' |
| prosodic features | the sound features of talk, such as rhythm, pitch, speed |
| para-linguistic features | the movements that go with talk, such as facial expressions, gestures, posture |
| fillers | sounds which fill up pauses in speed (er, um etc) |
| back channel noises | sounds which the listener makes to encourage the speaker and indicate that they are actively listening |
| false starts | when a speaker begins an utterance then re-starts |
| topic change | refers to points in a conversation where one of the participants clearly changes the subject and alters the direction of the conversation |
| turn taking | speakers working together to carry a conversation forward |
| adjacency pairs | the kinds of utterance and response that usually occur together (question/answer, request/denial or agreementa, invitation/refusal or acceptance |
| ellipsis | where some words in a sentence are omitted but speakers understand what is meant from the context |
| elision | refers to the way sounds are omitted in speech "fish 'n' chips" |
| non-fluency features | parts of speech such as pauses, repetitions, hesitations |
| premodifiers | words that appear between the postdeterminer and the head of the noun phrase - mostly adjectives (a lovely day) some participles (a crumbling wall, a stolen car) and some nouns (those country roads, a tourist spot) and some phrases (we have a round-the-clock service, she asked I don't know how many people) |
| postmodification | any words appearing after the head noun within the noun phrase |
Combine with other sets
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