LANGUAGE TERMINOLOGY CHECKLIST
MODE – spoken or written- though there can be mixtures e.g. a speech that is partly
written down before it’s spoken or a written report sent via email with additional
comments attached as recorded speech.
MEDIUM – how communicated –e.g. newspaper, radio broadcast, email, dramatic
monologue, natural speech
(TARGET) AUDIENCE – whoever the language is received by, usually targeted
( i.e. knowingly aimed at a particular audience) and in language adapted to be effective
for that audience but in spontaneous conversation there may be no readily identifiable
purpose and the language will not usually be consciously crafted!
LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS OR PURPOSE
Inform
Instruct
Persuade
Entertain
Phatic – only in speech really – “Lovely morning” “How do you do?” language meant to
make human contact without conveying much else.
Interactional – carrying on a relationship – conversation for conversation’s sake –like
phatic only longer, more extended, applied to whole discourse
LEXIS (words, vocabulary)
LEXICAL FIELD (also semantic field)– words from the same area of meaning –e.g. sad,
mournfully, lament ,tragic, despair all belong to the (rather broad) field of negative
human emotion, feelings produced by loss or defeat
“…the extract uses many lexical items from the field of negative human emotion”
LEXICAL DOMAIN – words/ lexical items from a particular activity or profession e.g.
favourite, two year old, filly, outsider, furlong, odds on – from the domain of horse
racing.
“naturally there is much use of vocabulary from the lexical domain of horse racing”
LEXICAL ITEM (or LEXEME) a word or words making a single item of meaning e.g.
cover up, glandular fever, ginger beer, matter of fact, in a way. (LEXEME is also used to
mean the root or base of a range of related words e.g. vis as root for visual, vision, visor,
visible, invisible.)
COLLOCATION words tending to occur together or calling each other to mind – e.g.
“heavy” connects commonly in collocations like “heavy going”, “heavy duty”, “heavy
weather”, “heavy sarcasm” but you can of course have heavy anything e.g. “a heavy
potato” or “a heavy Englishman” ; these are not collocations because the word “heavy”
doesn’t bring “potato” or “Englishman” readily to mind.
CONNOTATION – wider associations of a word e.g. the verb “soar”, has positive, even
romantic connotations of noble, effortless flight, eagles, exaltation, heights of
achievement and feeling.
DENOTATION - the exact meaning or Definition of a word e.g. “soar” = rise, fly
IDIOM a lexical item which has a meaning that can’t be worked out from the meaning of
its constituent words (except by inspired guesswork) and which can’t lose or change any
parts without losing its meaning e.g. “red herring”, “put a sock in it”, “washed up”,
“throw up”, “throw in the towel”, “make a meal of”
CLICHÉ a tired collocation – a group of words that are overused - the rich tapestry of
life – the happy couple – undying love –
MONOSYLLABIC – having one syllable e.g. pet, dud, coarse, gross, fine
POLYSYLLABIC – Having more than one syllable –but best used of many long words
“The use of many polysyllabic words adds to the formality of the register”
LATINATE – words of Latin origin, usually quite long. They tend to sound formal.
e.g. discrimination (and most –ation abstract nouns), incorrigible, (and most –ble words),
complacent (and most longer –ent words),
“The latinate lexis (examples) adds to the formality of the register”
ANGLO-SAXON usually simple, short words from the language before Latin came into
it. e.g. hag, mud, egg, glum, year, day, sword, shield
“The short, largely anglo-saxon lexis gives an earthy directness to the register”
REGISTER (how formal/informal)
From very formal indeed, possibly archaic, at one extreme through Standard English with
some idiomatic and mildly colloquial usage in the middle to dialect, then slang and mild
swearing and finally taboo, argot, offensive and obscene.
Lexis, syntax and (in speech) paralinguistic things like tone of voice, accent and
intonation all add to the impression of register.
SYNTAX (grammar)
How sentences are constructed and connected
CLAUSES MAIN, COORDINATE, SUBORDINATE
Clauses have a finite verb (In ‘He adores her’, “adores” is finite; in ‘it is my nature to
adore them’ “to adore” is not finite; it is an infinitive); in ‘adoring anyone is childish’
“adoring” is not finite
.
MAIN CLAUSE
Every respectable sentence has a main clause.
MAIN followed by SUBORDINATE
He loves her even though she knocks him about.
SUBORDINATE followed by MAIN
As you have forgotten your homework, you can wash the teachers’ feet after school.
COORDINATE MAIN CLAUSES
They live together but they’re not lovers.(2)
They live together and they sleep together but they’re not lovers. (3)
COORDINATE SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
I don’t like you because you smell and (because) you are ugly
A LONG STRING OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES AFTER ONE VERY SIMPLE
MAIN CLAUSE
This is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that
chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
Each “that” clause explains something about the noun at the end of the previous clause
and so is subordinate to that clause (it depends on it or hangs off it). There are six “that”
clauses so there are six levels of subordination. Many levels of subordination are usually
found in writing which conveys complex ideas or feelings and are less common in speech
but note that my example comes from a simple children’s rhyme.
Here is an example of a fairly complex, complicated mixture of clauses with many
levels of subordination and with coordination at different levels.
Although correct grammar is used with ease by all native speakers and despite the fact
that they can read and write the most complex constructions and ideas without help
from linguists or grammarians, the truth is that if asked to describe the syntax which
they are using they will find that they have neither the vocabulary nor the analytical
knowledge that is required before a systematic classification of their own language can
be attempted.
Minor Sentences are missing one or more vital grammatical ingredients e.g.
“This sentence no verb”
“Me too.”
“As if!”
“has no subject.”
“A long, long time.”
“Sliding down the razor blade of life.”
“Me Tarzan, you Jane!”
VOICE Active or Passive
The bear chased him up a tree. Active
He was chased up a tree by a bear Passive
The student insulted his teacher Active
The teacher was insulted by his student Passive
She won the competition Active
The competition was won by an outsider Passive
She won him in a competition Active
He was won (as a prize in the competition) Passive
He is cooking the dinner. Active
The dinner is being cooked. Passive
They are cooking her. Active
She is being cooked Passive
Repeated use of the passive tends to make language sound formal, impersonal and even
pompous or authoritarian.
Types of sentence and how many of them
Statements (most common) (declarative form)
Directives (commands, invitations, suggestions,
encouragement, exhortation etc.), (imperative form)
Questions (various functions and forms inc. rhetorical and
tag) (interrogative form or tag or intonation)
Exclamation (short, minor sentences)(expression of feeling
(Bravo! Christ! Phew! What a woman/man! interjection,
swearing, bits of prayer etc. usually with exclamation
mark)
Elliptical, ellipsis – leaving bits out – he was hunted by
the Mafia, the police,his wife- but never found.
(leaves out “he was” and “by” several times.
Parataxis – leaving out joining words and placing elements
side by side –I came, I saw, I conquered
Cohesion
Cohesion refers to the way language is linked together at
all levels by reference, joining words etc.
Explicit cohesion, where all the linking references are
fully stated, both within the sentence and without,
suggests formality, precision, written form, logical
argument or exposition- though speeches and certainly
lectures may well be like this as well. Perhaps the most
explicit form of cohesion repeats the major topic words
without substitution or variation. E.g. “……may result in a
series of minor cerebral episodes. These minor cerebral
episodes are not in themselves…..”
Loose or elliptical cohesion suggests the opposite –
informal, spoken, interactive, humorous or some types of
fiction and poetry.
Note that most written language will not usually have
demonstrative or deictic reference – where a speaker could
point or make some other gesture- e.g. look at this, we are
gathered here, my friend in the first row etc.
Anaphoric and cataphoric reference – anaphoric refers back
and cataphoric refers forward (think of catapult)
anaphoric “……may result in a series of minor cerebral
episodes. These minor cerebral episodes are not in
themselves…..” “these” refers back to end of the last
sentence.
Cataphoric ”the results of your enquiry are as follows:
Species – gremlin
Threat level – harmless (unless wet)” “as follows” refers
forwards (so does “the results” actually!)
Parts of speech e.g. verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions,
conjunctions, modal verbs (can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must,
ought to )
Modal verbs are important in politeness strategies and an essential part of many verb
phrases
Determiners
definite article the
indefinite articles a, some, any
demonstratives – that, those, this, these
possessives (adjectives and pronouns) my mine, your yours, (thy thine) his his, her
hers, its its, our ours, their theirs
TALK
Types of Utterance questions, answers, statements, orders, requests, jokes, threats, story
telling, explanation. Are they typical of the speaker? Of the conversation?
Politeness Strategies – avoiding directness –perhaps, maybe, may, might, can, shall,
should, could, would, questions and suggestions instead of statements or directives, I
wonder if, and many others
Phatic Talk How do you do, how are things, weather talk, had a good Christmas? Talk
for the sake of relationship, without any other purpose or content
Turn Taking – regular or not, equal? overlap? Latching? Interruption? Length
cooperative? Competitive? Controlled by?
Fillers um, er, well, actually, you know, etc. showing usually that the speaker hasn’t
finished their turn but is forced to pause for thought. normal in spontaneous speech but
can show nervousness or low status
Back Channelling - yeah, uh huh, mmm, I see, etc. showing attention/participation
without contributing anything
LANGUAGE CHOICES(in talk)
Register – how formal/informal
Syntax – sentence construction, (complex, complete, standard, clear or confused??)
Lexical choices, fields and domains – what kind of words?
STATUS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Dominance – who has most to say, most turns, longest turns
Turn Control – anyone controlling?
Topic Control and Agenda Setting - who controls the direction of talk, the subject
matter
Forms of address – Christian name? rank or title? Sir? Madam? Miss? Pet name?
nothing?
Evaluation and Correction – who comments on other speakers’ contributions, corrects
or rephrases them –“That’s a good idea” “ “Tuesday, you mean” “You must be joking”