Language Terms Glossary
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Terms in blue font in left column are either AO2 theories, ideas or concepts, or likely to be viewed as
such by an examiner depending on context of usage.
A
back
Abstract nouns
Accent
names of ideas and concepts rather than
tangible, physical things.
distinct pronunciation patterns of groups of
people, such as regional or social class related.
Love, happiness, bravery
Scouse, RP.
See ‘dialects’ and ‘regional variations’ below.
Accommodation
(Giles) the convergence with or divergence
from one speaker’s accent/dialect/sociolect
with another’s.
See ‘convergence’ below.
Acronym
Active voice
An abbreviation made up from the initial
letters of a group of words that is pronounced
as a single word.
In a clause, the subject of the verb is also the
agent (or actor) of the verb (the person or
thing who actually does the action of the
verb).
NASA, NATO, LOL
Jane kicked the ball
See ‘agent’, patient’ and ‘passive voice’ below
Adjacency pair
Two utterances in a conversation that often go
together.
A - Hi, how are you?
B - I’m fine.
Adjective
Words that modify nouns only.
blue sky; cheerful student;
Adjunct
Elements in clauses that are not essential to
convey its main meaning, and could safely be
left out. They’re often adverbials.
I’m happy to help, whenever you need
me.
See ‘disjunct’ below.
Revise well
(modifies the verb revise)
Adverb
Words that modify verbs, adjectives and other
adverbs.
Unusually large house
(modifies the adjective large)
Revise really well
(modifies the adverb well)
We revised effectively
(single word adverbial)
Adverbial
a clause element that is a word, phrase or
other clause that modifies the verb element of
the clause.
We danced under the moonlight
(phrase adverbial)
We danced after eating lunch
(clause adverbial)
Affix
A bound morpheme that cannot stand on its
own, but must be added to another word to
convey meaning.
See ‘prefix/suffix’ below.
Un + happy = unhappy
Affordance
Opportunities for language use provided by
technology.
See ‘constraints’ below.
Agenda setting
Instant texting; emails; email
attachments; inclusion of pictures, sound
clips, video clips, etc., in web pages and
online documents; etc…
The setting of the main topic of conversation
by a speaker (linked to power).
See ‘topic management’ below.
Agent
The subject in the active voice (the person or
thing that performs the action of the noun).
Tracy opened the door.
Amelioration
A word whose meaning has shifted to become
more positive than before (the opposite of
pejoration – see below).
nice originally “foolish or absurd”; now it
means “kind and caring”
Analogical
overextension
Extending a word’s referents to include things
which are not actually related, but have
something in common, such as both being
heavy, or blue.
Anaphoric reference
Referring back to something already
mentioned in a text, often through the use of
pronouns referring back to a previously cited
noun.
The student looked for the book. She
found it by her computer.
See ‘cataphoric reference’ below.
Antonym
Words that have distinctly contrasting or even
opposite meanings.
Hot/cold; happy/sad
See ‘synonym’ below.
Archaism
A word that is no longer in general modern
usage, or a particular meaning of a word that
is no longer generally used.
Click hyperlink to left for list of examples.
Article
A type of determiner that conveys the level of
definiteness of a noun. A and an are indefinite
articles, as they can refer to any example of a
noun (a dog is not referring to a specific dog);
the is a definite article as it always refers to a
specific example of a noun (the dog refers to a
specific dog, not just any dog).
Aspect
A modification to a verb that indicates
whether its action is ongoing (progressive or
continuous – they mean the same thing) or
completed (perfect). It can also indicate that
an action began in the past, but is still ongoing
(perfect progressive or perfect continuous –
they mean the same thing).
Assimilation
Joining together adjacent phonemes for ease
of uttering
Asymmetrical power
In a conversation, where different participants
have different levels of power, usually with
someone dominating the other(s).
Asynchronous
discourse
In an online conversation (for example), a
situation in which there is a delay between
Apothecary – medical chemist
(no longer generally used)
Fervent – hot or glowing
(a meaning no longer used, although the
word is still in use)
A, an, the
They have called
(present perfect)
They are calling
(present progressive/continuous)
They have been calling
(present perfect progressive/continuous)
Got you → gotcha
utterances and their responses, perhaps even
by months.
See ‘synchronous discourse’ below.
Audience
The person or people any text (spoken tor
written) is aimed at, or the actual people
reading/hearing it.
Audience positioning
Language that implies the text receiver already
does or should accept a particular set of beliefs
or opinions.
Auxiliary verb
Added to main verbs to “help” or add meaning
to them. They form tenses, moods and voices.
Be, do, am
(primary auxiliaries)
See ‘modal auxiliaries’ below
may, might, can, could, must, ought to,
shall, should, will, would
(modal auxiliaries)
Backchannelling
In a conversation, to make reassuring,
supportive comments to show interest and
attentiveness.
Really, uhuh, oh, of course…
Back-formation
Removing a morpheme that was never
actually affixed in the first place to form a
new word, usually creating a verb from a
noun.
donation → donate; editor → edit
B
back
Balanced sentence
Sentences that use two (or more - parallelism)
similarly constructed clauses to create
emphasis.
In the nineteenth century the revolution
was industrial, but in the twentieth it was
electronic
See ‘loose/periodic sentences’ below.
Bald on-record
Behaviourism
Politeness strategy where absolute bluntness
is used, generally only with close friends and
family, or hierarchically inferior employees, or
else it will actually cause offence.
Give me that salt, son.
(Skinner) Language acquisition theory
suggesting language is acquired by copying
others’ usage vis positive/negative
reinforcement.
See ‘positive/negative reinforcement’ below.
Bleaching (or
weakening)
Where a word’s original meaning is reduced
over time.
awful used to mean “worthy of respect or
fear”, but now just means “bad”
Blend (or
portmanteaux) words
Two words fused together to make a new
one.
chill + relax = chillax; shop + alcoholic =
shopaholic
Borrowing (or loan)
word
A word that has been taken directly from
another language and used.
Chocolate (Eng)/chocolat (Fr)
Bound morpheme
See affix above.
Broadening
The opposite of narrowing, where a word
adds extra meaning to its original meaning.
See ‘narrowing’ below.
cool originally genre of jazz; now means
admired/respected, as the jazz genre was.
C
back
Categorical
overextension
The extension of a word to refer to all items
within a category (so, a hyponym is used to
function as a hypernym).
Referring to all animals as cats
Catenative
Often used by younger children, a series of
statements joined together in a chain-like
way: and then..., then…, and then..., so we…,
and…
I chased him, and then he fell over, so he
got up, and he’d cut his knee, so we went
to the teacher, and…
Cataphoric reference
Referring forward to something yet to occur
in a text
See ‘anaphoric reference’ above.
When he left, Zak said goodbye
In example to the right, he refers forwards to Zak.
Child directed speech
(CDS)
A way that carers and parents speak to young
children that focuses on a sing-song
intonation, slower pace, exaggerated pitch
modulation, repetition, use of simple
questions, etc…
Example to the right indicates exaggerated stressed (/)
and unstressed (U) syllables (sing-song intonation)
Clause
A grammatical unit that contains at least a
subject and verb, but can also include other
elements (objects, adverbials, complements).
Clipping
A new word created by shortening a longer
one, usually of the same word class
Code switching
Where a speaker of two or more languages
switches between each in general language
use.
Codification
Language standardisation process.
See ‘standardisation’ below.
advert, from advertisement; lunch from
luncheon
Specifying spellings in dictionaries;
teaching standard grammar, etc…
Cognitive theory
(Piaget) Theory that language acquisition can
only take place when the cognitive needs of
the child require it.
Cohesion and
coherence
Various features used in texts to keep
everything clearly linked together (cohesion),
following a well signposted structure
(coherence) and part of a recognisable whole.
Coin
The creation of a completely new word (to
coin a new word)
Collocation
Two or more words often used together.
Salt and pepper; upside down; time to
spare
Words and phrases that are informal and
most often used in everyday conversation,
including idioms. Slightly different from slang
as used more broadly (i.e. not just by specific
groups or in specific contexts).
Can’t for cannot
Colloquialism
See ‘slang’ below.
Linking sentences and paragraphs with
connecting words/phrases (moreover,
another example, a further, and, etc…); use
of pronouns to refer back anaphorically;
use of synonyms to refer to the saem thing,
etc..
Hopping mad
Comparative
(adjectives and
adverbs)
Adjectives or adverbs that compare one thing
with another, created either by adding the
suffix -er or adding the words more or less.
big→bigger; quick→more/less quickly
Complement
Any part of a clause that is essential to
complete its meaning.
The girl was strong
Complex sentence
Contains one main clause and at least one
subordinate clause.
Example to right begins with subordinate clause,
followed by main clause in bold
Compound word
Two words (or even three, rarely) joined
together to form a new word.
Compound sentence
Contains two or more main clauses joined
together with and, but, or, so, yet, nor, for or
a semicolon.
Compound-complex
sentence
Concrete nouns
This is a compound sentence with at least one
subordinate clause added.
When you revise carefully, you learn most
effectively.
race + horse = racehorse
out + doors + man = outdoorsman
I revise carefully, so I can remember the
facts.
I revise carefully, so I can remember the
facts because I want to pass the exam.
Example to right shows subordinate clause in bold
Names of tangible, physical things rather than
ideas and concepts.
Girl, table, ship.
See ‘abstract nouns’ above.
Conjunction
Words that join clauses together
And, because
Connotation
Associated meanings we receive from
particular words that are not denoted
semantically, but are often conveyed owing to
the context in which a word is used.
Red can connote blood, passion, love,
anger, etc…
Consonant
A phoneme produced by some sort of
restriction/release of the breath (e.g.
fricatives).
/p/, /f/ /s/ etc…
See ‘phonemes’ and ‘vowels’ below.
Consonant cluster
Constraints
Context
Two or more consonants adjacent to each
other in a word, which are more difficult for
children to utter, so often appear later on in
speech acquisition.
Prostrate; umbrella
See ‘affordance’ above.
Absence of spoken mode emotional
paralinguistic information from text
conversations (hence the development of
emojis partially to replace it).
The situation in which a text is produced
and/or received, which has an impact on what
meanings are communicated and what
language choices are made by the text
producer.
Refers to when, where, who’s present,
what’s happening at the time, what has
just happened or is about to happen, social
mores and expectations at the time,
significant contemporary/recent events,
such as wars, etc…
Restrictions for language use provided by
technology.
Convergence
(Giles, accommodation theory) Where one
speaker adjusts their accent, dialect or
sociolect to become closer to the
person/people they’re speaking to. It occurs
when they like, respect or admire the person
they’re speaking to, or want to show
deference to them or accord with them (e.g.
friends talking, or an employee converging
with their boss, or vice versa).
See ‘accommodation’ above, and ‘downward/upward
convergence’ below.
Conversion
Where a word changes class without
affixation
text; microwave; download
Examples to right all began as nouns and became verbs.
Cooing
Early sounds made by babies (6 – 8 weeks) as
they begin to explore their vocal chords’
capabilities, prior to forming actual
phonemes.
Coo, gaga, ooo
Maxim of quantity –
saying not too much and not too little
Cooperative
principles
(Grice) the idea that speakers tend to
cooperate with each other in conversations
on thigs such as when to take a turn, the topic
being discussed, etc.
Maxim of quality –
telling the truth
Maxim of relevance –
fits the topic
Maxim of manner –
is clear, brief and orderly
Coordinate clause
In a compound sentence (or a compoundcomplex sentence), one of two or more
clauses of equal importance, joined with
coordination conjunctions or a semicolon.
I revise carefully, so I can remember the
facts.
Example to right shows coordinate clauses in bold.
Coordinating
conjunctions
The 7 conjunctions that can join together
coordinate clauses. Using one of them to join
two or more clauses is what signals the text
receiver to treat both clauses as of equal
importance.
and, but, or, so, yet, nor, for
You seem happy
Copular (or linking)
verb
Covert marking
A verb that has to have a complement added
to it in a sentence for it to make sense.
Sarah is clever
In both the examples above, the
complements (in black bold) are essential
to complete the meaning of the verb.
Marking where the deviation from the norm is
tacitly understood rather than explicitly made
clear through affixation or modification. For
Young/old with old being the norm and
example, antonyms often display covert
young the deviant (we ask how old
marking, whereby one of the antonym’s
someone is, normally, not how young).
referents is seen as deviant from the other
(which is seen as the norm).
See ‘overt marking’ below.
Covert prestige
(Trudgill) high social status gained by using
non-stadard language (grammar, lexis,
pronunciation, etc…), often sought by men
from other men, or by working classes
diverging from middle/upper classes, or
indigenous regional speakers versus
newcomers, etc…
See ‘overt prestige’ below.
Critical discourse
analysis
Using linguistic analysis to explore and
challenge the positions, ideologies and values
represented in texts by their producers.
Crumbling castle
parody
(Aitchison) Describes prescriptivists’ view that
language is sacrosanct and in need of
protection, like a stately home.
D
back
Damp spoon
syndrome
(Aitchison) suggests change often happens
owing to laziness or sloppiness with words.
Decay
(Aitchison) prescriptivist belief that any
language changes are actually negative signs
of decay, making language worse than it used
to be.
Declarative
A type of sentence that makes a statement of
fact or opinion
Deficit model
A theory that assumes something is deficient
(Lakoff)
I love chips (opinion)
Fish live in water (fact)
A determiner (the) that indicates a specific
referent.
Definite article
Example to right specifies a particular ball, not just any
ball.
The ball
See ‘indefinite article’ below.
Words that refer to things that can only be
properly understood if the context is clear.
Deixis
Example to right only makes sense if you know which
chair is being referred to by that, perhaps because
you’re present, or know something about which chair
already.
Denotation
The dictionary definition of a word (literal
meaning)
Deontic modality
Modal auxiliary verbs (can, could, may, might,
must, ought to, shall, should, will, would) that
clarify how necessary a verb’s action is or how
obliged someone is to perform it.
Descriptivists
Grab that chair.
I said he could go to the party if he wanted
to.
People who understand that language is in a
constant state of inevitable change.
See ‘prescriptivists’ below.
Determiner
add extra clarity to a noun (sometimes
referred to as limiting adjectives).
A, an, the, my, its, his, her, our, you, their,
this, that, these, those, many, every,
first/second, etc…
Diachronic change
The study of changes in language taking place
over time.
See ‘synchronic change’ below.
Dialect
A version of language that varies from the
standard and is particular to a region or social
group.
Geordie, scouse, etc…
See ‘accent’ above and ‘regional variations’ below.
Dialect levelling
The process whereby features from various
dialects are becoming subsumed into a more
general language usage, or are dropping out
of use in particular dialects.
Difference model
The idea that men and women use language
differently, owing to differing social demands,
but with neither deficit or dominance.
Diminutive
A word or suffix that indicates the smallness
of something.
Diphthong
A vowel glide, where two vowel sounds are
joined together.
Sheep → lamb
Drop → droplet
Loud → pronounced l + aa + oo + d
See ‘triphthong’ below
Direct object
In a clause, the person or thing that is directly
acted upon by the subject/agent.
Tony broke the vase
See ‘indirect object’ and ‘object’ below.
Discourse 1
An extended text, either spoken or written
(usually considered to be anything longer
than a single sentence).
Discourse 2
Can also refer to language modes
(spoken/written discourse), or register (legal
or educational or medical discourse), or
language that represents something (the
discourse of tragedy; the discourse of conflict,
etc…)
Discourse marker
A word or phrase that indicates a movement
from one topic or focus to the next in a
discourse
Disjunct
Non-essential adverbial additions to
sentences that focus on the writer’s/speaker’s
attitude or feelings about something.
However, although, moreover, on the
contrary…
Unfortunately, I fell over.
See ‘adjunct’ above.
Discourse structure
Divergence
The content included in a text and the order
in which it appears, often following generic
conventions.
(Giles, accommodation theory) The act of
adjusting speech to accentuate its difference
from those being spoken to, often to
reinforce separateness owing to
annoyance/dislike.
See ‘accommodation’ and ‘convergence’ above, and
‘downward/upward convergence’ below.
In an essay, an introduction, a series of
PEA points and a conclusion, in that order.
Dominance model
Downward
convergence
Dysphemism
The idea that males dominate mixed gender
conversations (Zimmerman and West).
(Giles, accommodation theory) Where one
speaker adjusts their accent, dialect or
sociolect to become less formal and closer to
the person/people they’re speaking to.
Consciously blunt, unpleasant language
choices.
Do-gooder; idiot
See ‘euphemism’ below.
E
back
Is not it → Isn’t it
Glottal stops
Ease of articulation
Changes to language that occur because it’s
easier to say it a certain way.
Omission (‘appy)
Assimilation (donchu)
Etc…
Eponym
Elaborated code
A word used to refer to something using a
person’s actual name (often its inventor or
discoverer)
Sandwich, wellington.
(Bernstein) the use of more sophisticated
language forms by middle/upper class people.
See ‘restricted code’ below.
Epistemic modality
Modal auxiliary verbs (can, could, may, might,
must, ought to, shall, should, will, would) that
clarify whether a verb’s action is possible,
probable or certain to occur.
Estuary English
A mixture of RP and London English,
spreading from London and the south east,
with its frequency on mass media
(Eastenders) helping to propagate it
nationally. An example of dialect levelling.
Ethnicity
Connection with others of a similar cultural
heritage (e.g. Caribbean, Asian, etc.)
Etymology
The history of a word, charting its spelling and
meanings as they change over time.
Exclamative
A type of sentence that’s actually a
declarative with an exclamation mark added
to show emphasis, often beginning with a whoperator.
Exophoric reference
A reference to anything outside the text.
He could go to the party, depending on his
other commitments.
I hate cheese!
What a great idea!
In Jaws, Spielberg had his first major
success.
Look at that.
Eye dialect
Using the normal alphabet to represent
accents in printed texts (rather than IPA).
F
back
The idea that we have a self-image (face) that
we want to protect, or that we try not to
threaten the self-image of others. We try to
avoid “losing face”.
Face theory
See ‘face threatening acts’, ‘negative politeness’,
‘positive face’ and ‘positive politeness’ below.
Face threatening act
(FTA)
Any language that might threaten someone’s
face (such as using bald on-record strategies
with people you don’t know very well).
See ‘face theory above and ‘negative politeness’,
‘positive face’ and ‘positive politeness’ below.
Figurative language
Foregrounding
Similes and metaphors and other language
techniques that describe things in a nonliteral way
Bringing to the foreground key ideas in texts
by repetition, or deviation from an
established pattern to make something stand
out.
It was clean, mean, pristine and missing
Example to right breaks the pattern of assonance
(repeated ea sound) to make the idea of missing stand
out.
Part of register – how informal/informal a text
is (more formal characterised by longer, more
sophisticated words and sentences; less
formal characterised by shorter, simpler
words and sentences and colloquialisms,
slang, etc.)
Formality
Incorrectness
(anything not SED/RP is wrong)
Freeborn, Dennis
Suggests society views non-standard varieties
of spoken langue in one of three ways.
Ugliness
(some accents don’t sound nice and have
negative stereotypes re their speakers)
Impreciseness
(some accents are lazy)
Functional theory
G
Idea that language changes because society
changes according to its needs.
back
Gender
The social expectations associated with being
male/masculine or female/feminine, (lately
extending beyond those two genders).
Generic pronouns
Pronouns that do not mark gender
Genre
A type of text, identifiable through adhering
to a set of conventions regarding purpose,
content, etc..
Global English
The idea of English as a language used
internationally.
One, they
Glottal stop
The closing of the vocal chords to replace the
/t/ sound, especially prominent in London and
Estuary English, but also in other accents.
Grammar
The structural features of language, including
morphology, words, phrases, clauses, syntax,
tenses, etc…
Grapheme
Visual symbols that represent meanings, such
as letters of the alphabet, numerals,
punctuation marks, pictorial symbols, etc…
Graphology
All visual aspects of texts, such as layout,
colour, font size and styles, pictures,
headlines, etc…
H
A, 2, ?, etc…
back
My old guitar
(head noun in noun phrase)
In a phrase, the word that carries the main
meaning and which can be modified by the
addition of adjuncts.
Head word
...ate quickly
(head verb in a verb phrase)
…very tasty
(head adjective in an adjective phrase)
Hegemonic
Culturally dominant.
Hierarchy
A “pecking order” of importance and
authority in a conversation, group or
organisation of some kind.
Head teacher is at the top of a school’s
hierarchy.
Holophrase
A single word representing a more complex
set of meanings, used by children in early
language acquisition (holophrastic stage).
Bottle – actually meaning, I am hungry,
please feed me.
Homophonic
representation
In electronic texts (e.g. texts), using single
letters and numerals to represent sounds.
2L8 = too late
Hybrid
The combination of two or more elements,
such as texting, which combines features of
both spoken and written modes.
Hypernym
A term that refers to a group of things.
Sport refers to football, rugby, hockey,
etc…
Hyponym
A term referring to one of the constituents of
a group of related things.
Football is a hyponym under the sport
hypernym
The belief system (set of values) that people
or groups hold.
Environmentalism, law and order is good,
etc…
An expression where the meaning is different
from the denotative meanings of its
constituent words.
Pull your socks up.
I
Ideology
Idiom
back
Example to right means, do something better rather
than actually change the height of your socks.
Idiolect
An individual’s particular way of speaking.
Illocutionary act
The act of saying something that contains a
meaning intended by the person saying it.
See ‘locutionary act’ and ‘perlocutionary act’ below.
Imperative
Indefinite article
A type of sentence that issues a command or
instruction.
A determiner that refers to any example of its
noun’s referent. Either a or an.
See ‘definite article’ above.
Indirect object
In a clause, the person or thing that receives
the action, rather than having it actually
performed upon them.
Pass the salt; open the box.
Pass me a spoon
(refers to any spoon)
Give me an apple
(refers to any apple)
I gave Sarah some flowers
See ‘direct object’ above and ‘object’ below.
Infectious disease
parody
(Aitchison) Suggests that we pick up language
change from our social interactions with
others.
Inference
The act of drawing an associated, implied
meaning from something, or the name we
give to the inferred meaning itself.
Chips
Inflection
A suffix (bound morpheme) added to words
to make them plurals (s), or change tense
(ed), or show possession (‘s), or create
comparatives/superlatives (er/est) or create
the third person singular (s).
Skipped
Bigger
Biggest
John’s
He hopes
Influential power
Influencing or persuading others, rather than
using any kind of actual authority.
(Fairclough) the idea that written language
Informalisation (or
now includes many more informal spoken
conversationalisation)
mode features than it used to.
Initialism
Abbreviations formed from the first letter of
each main word. They are not pronounced as
a word on their own, but each letter is said
separately.
FBI, DVD
Instrumental power
Official hierarchical authority over others.
Employer/employee
Interlocutors
People engaged in a conversation
Interrogative
A sentence that asks a question.
Interruption
The act of cutting through someone else’s
utterance during a conversation, often to
control the topic and become the powerful
participant.
See ‘powerful participant’ below.
How are you?
Intertextual reference
References to other texts within a text in
order to add layers of associated meanings.
Can be quite subtle or quite obvious.
Intonation
The use of varied pitch to create patterns of
stressed and unstressed syllables to
emphasise meanings.
IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet - a set of
symbols referring to the ways phonemes are
pronounced.
Irregular verb
Verbs that do not use the -ed suffix when
changing to past tense.
The boy was subjected to Dickensian
learning of fact after fact.
(subtle reference to Dickens’ teacher,
Gradgrind in ‘Hard Times’, synonymous
with cold cruelty)
Like Shakepseare’s Hamlet, he was
wracked with indecision.
(a more obvious reference)
Eat → ate
Hit → hit
Buy → bought
The divisions drawn on maps by linguists to
identify areas in which particular dialects are
spoken.
Isogloss
Example to right shows vowel symbols with example
words to show usage.
J
ɒ → pop, sock
back
Expert or very occupationally specific
language designed to exclude the less
knowledgeable so that they confer power to
the text producer.
Jargon
See ‘subject-specific lexis’ below.
Juxtaposition
K
ʌ → hut, cup
Situating two words or phrases or clauses, or
discourse elements next to each other in
order to contrast them, especially when they
are unexpected combinations.
back
Knowledge power
Where a participant has knowledge that
others do not, so takes control of the
conversation.
Let’s keep the face time heavy lifting with
our top-drawer unit to realise positive
end-user perspectives
Let’s have our best people do all of our
meetings with clients so that they feel
good about our services.
Children teach parents on tech.
(children/parents contrasted in a role
reversal)
Or
In a story, the combination of one good
and one evil character as key actors in the
plot.
L
back
Attaching words to objects as part of early
language acquisition.
Labelling
See ‘packaging’ and ‘network building’ below.
Language acquisition
device (LAD)
Chomsky’s theory that we are all born with an
innate ability to learn language, based on a
universal grammar (see below).
Bruner’s theory that adults and older children
help younger children to acquire language
Language acquisition
through their interactions with them, which
support system (LASS) was a development of Lev Vysgotsky’s earlier
theory of language acquisition via social
interaction.
Layout
The physical structure of a text on a page.
Lexical (or semantic)
field
Two or more words used close together the
focus on the same topic/meaning.
Lexicon
The vocabulary used in a language.
Lexis
Words.
Linear text
A text structured into a sequence that
requires reading from beginning to end.
Lingua franca
A language used by two or more people who
don’t share the same language, so use one
they all know instead.
Loanword (or
borrowed word)
A word borrowed from a different language
but which has now become part of ours.
Locutionary act
The act of saying something.
Loose sentence
The most common type, where the main
clause comes at the beginning.
Happiness + joy + excitement
Novels
Restaurant
See ‘periodic sentence’ below.
M
back
Main clause
A clause that can stand and make sense on its
own.
Main verb
The verb containing the main meaning (re
action, state or process) in a clause.
Mainstream dialect
The dialect spoken across the UK (RP).
Manner of
articulation
When producing a consonant sound, the way
in which the air flowing through the mouth is
modified via interruption and release.
She was hoping for a win.
The /s/ fricative sound, where airflow is
restricted by the tongue forcing air down a
central groove and up towards the top
teeth and alveolar ridge.
The /p/ plosive sound, where the air is
stopped by closed, then opened, lips.
Etc…
Actor/actress
Marked
Words ascribed less prestige than unmarked
forms.
Matched guise
technique
Research technique where the same text is
spoken using different accents to gauge the
response to accent in listeners.
Material verb process
Physical actions or events.
Jane caught the ball
Mental verb process
Actions that are perceptions (including
experiencing emotions), or thoughts.
John felt happy
Metaphor
Comparing one thing to another by describing
it actually as that thing. As a result, the
qualities of the compared item are associated
with what is being described.
He was a thunderbolt, blasting his rivals
aside in the pursuit of winning the baking
competition.
Minor sentence
A sentence with some grammatical element/s
missing, leaving it grammatically ‘incorrect’.
But John, I. Just give me the menu, please.
Mismatch statement
A connection made by a child acquiring
language based upon normal expectations,
but which is not the case on that occasion, or
is just not related at all.
Calling a chair a tree
Mixed mode
Where a text includes features of both spoken
and written modes.
Texting, emails, forums…
Modal auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb (can, could, may, might,
must, ought to, shall, should, will, would) that
indicates a level of possibility, probability,
necessity or obligation regarding the action of
the main verb.
Young/old
I might be persuaded to come.
Example to tight shows level of possibility (epistemic)
See ‘deontic’ and ‘epistemic modals’ above.
Conversation (spoken)
Mode
Texts are either spoken or written in mode, or
sometimes mixed.
Letter (written)
Mixed (email, text)
Tall tree (adjective)
Run quickly (adverb)
Modifier
Adjective or adverb words, phrases or clauses
that describe other words, phrases and
clauses. They can also be infinitive, participle
and prepositional phrases. Called premodifiers if before the head word and postmodifiers if after.
The girl who ate the olive had gone
(adjective clause)
As she ate the olive, she walked to the
door
(adverb clause)
To achieve his objective, he studied hard
(infinitive phrase)
Hopping with rage, she left the room
(participle phrase)
Beneath the table, an olive was lurking
(prepositional phrase)
Morpheme
The smallest grammatical unit, either a single
free morpheme (a word), or a bound
morpheme (affixes that have to be added to
words to provide meanings).
Small (free morpheme)
er (bound morpheme)
Morphology
Pat of grammar focusing on how different
morphemes are joined together to form
words.
Multicultural London
English (MLE)
A fairly recent language variety in which
elements of Afro-Caribbean, London, Indian,
south-eastern and a range of other dialects
are mixed.
Multimodal
A text using more than one mode.
Multicultural Urban
British English
A reference to the spread of MLE across other
large conurbations in the UK.
N
Small + er = smaller
See ‘mixed mode’ above.
back
Narrowing
Nativism
Where a word’s meaning becomes more
specific over time.
meat used to refer to all food, but now just
refers to animal flesh
(Chomsky) Theory suggesting language
acquisition relies on an inbuilt capacity or
system for language in humans.
See ‘language acquisition device’ above.
Negative face
The need not to feel like someone else is
imposing on us by making us do something
we don’t want to.
See ‘face threatening acts’ above and ‘negative
politeness’, ‘positive face’ and ‘positive politeness’
below.
Negative politeness
Strategies designed to reduce the chance that
someone will feel imposed upon by a request,
such as using hedges, using questions rather
than commands and showing deference.
See ‘negative face’ and ‘face threatening acts’ above
and ‘positive face’ and ‘positive politeness’ below.
Negative
reinforcement
It may be that we need your help
(hedge for – help us)
Is the door open?
(question for – please help me)
Could I ask you for some help please sir?
(deference – sir, plus hedge – could I, plus
question)
(Skinner – operant conditioning) Where a
behaviour is punished in some way and,
therefore, not repeated. Skinner suggested
that we learn to avoid ‘incorrect’ speech acts
vis this and positive reinforcement (see
below).
See ‘positive reinforcement’ below.
Neologism
Network building
A newly formed (coined) word
(Aitchison) In language acquisition, after
labelling objects and packaging words’
meanings, the act of drawing connections
between objects according to similarities and
differences.
See ‘labelling’ above and ‘packaging’ below.
Nonce
A word coined for a single usage.
Before revising, saying to one’s friends:
I need to get my revisehead on.
Non-linear text
A text that doesn’t have a specific sequence
required for reading, such as some web
pages.
Non-standard
Differing from generally expected usage
(applied to aspects of language such as
grammar, dialect, spelling, syntax, etc., where
they vary from SED and RP norms).
Noun
Words that name people, places, things, ideas
and concepts.
John, tree, hope, call
Noun phrase
Two or more words that function as a noun
The big tree
Number homophones
The use of numeral to replace parts or all of a
word, commonly used in electronic texts.
Gr8 = great
O
back
Object
A clause element that usually comes after the
verb and receives the action of the verb
(unless indirect – see above).
The parrot ate the seed
See ‘direct/indirect object’ above.
Object permanence
The ability of a baby to recognise that an
object still exists even when it can’t be seen
(cognitive theory), which indicates that the
baby is able to represent it mentally.
Occupational register
The lexis used for a specific
occupation/activity.
Homework, classwork, marking and
assessment, revision, seating plan, learning
objective are all examples from the
educational occupation.
Onomatopoeia
Words whose pronunciation is similar to the
sound they describe.
Bang, crash, boom
Opener
An expression used to open a conversation.
Up to anything this weekend?
Oppressive discourse
strategy
(Holmes & Stubbe) Direct ways of exercising
power and control in a conversation.
A: Morning Tom. Can we talk about the
money you owe me please?
Orthography
The spelling system of a language, along with
its use of punctuation and capitalisation.
Overextension
See ‘repressive discourse strategy’ below.
The use of a word to refer to other things
with similar attributes.
A child saying car to refer to any vehicles,
such as lorries, vans, motorbikes, etc…
See ‘analogical/categorical overextension’ above.
Overgeneralisation
Over-applying the rules of word formation,
not understanding that there are exceptions
(such as irregular nouns and verbs).
Example to right shows application of adding -ed to
make the past tense to an irregular verb.
See ‘virtuous error’ below.
Overt prestige
The use of standard forms to gain prestige
(usually dialect/accent related).
Eated instead of ate.
P
back
Pace
Packaging
The speed at which someone speaks.
(Aitchison) In language acquisition, after
labelling (ascribing words to referents),
packaging refers to children beginning to
understand how words can have a range of
meanings (often leading to over/under
extension errors).
See ‘labelling’ and ‘network building’ above.
Paralinguistics
Aspects of spoken communication that do not
involve the words themselves.
Body language, gestures, facial
expressions, tone, pitch, etc…
See ‘prosodics’ below.
Passive voice
In a clause, where the subject of the verb is
not the actor/agent (as it is for the more
common active voice), but the patient (the
thing that receives the action of the verb).
The agent (person or thing that performs the
action of the verb) can be left out entirely in
the passive voice.
The dog was held by its owner
Example to right shows the dog as the patient receiving
the action of being held by its owner (the agent)
Patient
In a clause, the person or thing that receives
the action of the verb (in the object position
in active voice, but subject position in passive
voice).
See ‘agent’ and ‘active/passive voice’ above.
Pejoration
Words shifting to now mean something worse
than earlier (the opposite of amelioration –
see above).
Silly used to mean blissfully happy, but
now means stupid
See ‘semantic deterioration’ below.
Perfect aspect
Periodic sentence
The condition of a verb in which its action is
represented as still complete.
A complex sentence in which the main clause
is kept until the end, which forces people to
pay attention to the subordinate clauses that
go before it (a persuasive technique).
Example to right shows main clause in bold at the end.
I have seen the film.
After eating my dinner, putting out the
rubbish and locking the house, I will join
you for a game of chess.
See ‘loose sentence’ above.
Perlocutionary act
What is actually understood after receiving an
illocutionary act (i.e. either the understanding
of the intended meaning of an utterance or
the misunderstanding of it).
Personal power
Power that is held because of an individual’s
occupation or role, such as teachers,
employers, etc…
Phatic talk (or small
talk)
Conversation elements that are only really
uttered to start a conversation and to check if
it’s o to continue with it.
A – Hi, how are you?
B – Fine, you?
Etc…
Phoneme
Smallest unit of sound in a word (consonants,
vowels, diphthongs, triphthongs).
The sounds /p/ + /a/ + /t/ = the sound of
the word pat
See ‘consonants’ above and ‘vowels’ below.
Phonetics
The physical production/reception of sounds
in language.
Phonetic spelling
Spellings that reflect the sound of a word
rather than its actual spelling
Phonology
The sound system of language, and study
thereof (pace, intonation, phonemes, accent,
patterns of sound, etc.).
Luv, cos
Labial (lip)
Dental (teeth)
Place of articulation
The position in the mouth where a sound is
produced.
Alveolar ridge (upper palate ridge just
behind teeth)
Laminal (tongue blade)
Apical (tongue tip)
Glottal (glottis)
Etc…
Point of view
The filtering of events/experiences through a
particular person’s perspective (providing
their version of reality).
See ‘audience positioning’ above.
Politeness
Theory that focuses on how text producers
(especially spoken) try to avoid threatening
others’ face, and how ew as text receivers try
to avoid having our face threatened.
Political correctness
The social expectation that we should avoid
language that disparages or stereotypes
people or groups within society. A significant
cause of language change.
Political power
Power held by people or groups conferred on
them by the law (politicians, police, legal
workers, etc…).
Polysemy
A word having multiple meanings in a text.
Positioning
See ‘audience positioning’ above.
Fireman has now become firefighter to
avoid gender stereotyping.
Our need to maintain our self-esteem.
Positive face
See ‘negative face’, ‘negative politeness’ and ‘face
threatening acts’ above and ‘positive politeness’ below.
Strategies designed to maintain others’ needs
to feel valued and esteemed, often through
complimentary language, humour, positive
tag questions, etc...
Positive politeness
Example to right starts with compliment (positive
politeness strategy), then moves to a question (negative
politeness strategy).
See ‘positive face’, ‘negative face’, ‘negative politeness’
and ‘face threatening acts’ above.
I love your coat. Would you mind popping
it on the peg please?
Positive
reinforcement
(Skinner – operant conditioning) Where a
behaviour is rewarded in some way and,
therefore, repeated. Skinner suggested that
all speech acts are learned this way.
See ‘negative reinforcement’ above.
Possessive
determiner
A determiner indicating something is
possessed by someone/thing
Your, her, his, my, its, our, their
In language acquisition, children’s
understanding and use of grammar expands
Post-telegraphic stage
to include auxiliaries, prepositions, articles,
etc..
Power in discourse
(Fairclough) The way language used in a text
exerts/enforces/exercises power.
Power behind
discourse
The context that enables the text to
exert/enforce/exercise power (owing to
status, authority, hierarchies, etc…).
Powerful participant
In an asymmetrical conversation, the person
or persons who exert more power than the
rest, often by constraining what others say,
perhaps through interruptions (see above).
Pragmatics
Prefix
Preposition
Prescriptivists
Meanings that are conveyed owing to the
context in which something is produced and
received.
An affix that goes in front of the word.
When asked out, someone saying they are
washing their hair that night is understood
to mean they don’t want to go out with
the text producer, even though the words
don’t semantically mean that. It’s
understood via the context of previous
experience, be that the text producer’s
own, or others’ they know of.
Un + happy
See ‘affix’ above and ‘suffix’ below.
A word that denotes a spatial, temporal or
logical connection between two or more
items in a clause.
Under the table (spatial)
After the meal (temporal)
I come from England (logical)
Those who believe that the English language
has reached a perfect state and that any
changes that occur to it are errors which
make it less perfect.
See ‘descriptivists’ above.
Well…
Pre-start
A word or phrase to clear the air before the
next turn takes place
OK…
Right…
Primary verbs
Be, have and do. They can function either as
main or auxiliary verbs.
Progressive (or
continuous) aspect
The condition of a verb in which its action is
represented as still continuing or progressing.
Production/producer
The act of speaking or writing a text/the
person who writes or speaks it.
I have eaten (auxiliary)
I have some food (main)
Sarah is doing her homework
Pronoun
Words that are used in place of nouns.
She, he, they, I, we, you, your my, our, her,
him, etc…
Proper noun
A noun that is a given name for a person,
place or thing.
David, London, Rex (the dog)
Proprietary name
A product commonly referred to using the
name of the organisation that produced it.
Hoover, sellotape
Rhythm, intonation, volume, stress, pace etc.,
used when speaking.
Prosodics
See ‘paralinguistics’ above.
Proto-word
A cluster of word-like sounds used by babies
acquiring language.
doodoo
Pun
A play on words, usually achieved through
drawing attention to one of the alternative
meanings to a clause/phrase/word, often for
humour.
Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses
Purpose
The reason why a text was uttered or written
– the specific “job” it was intended to do in
the mind of the text receiver. A primary
purpose is the main reason, while there may
be one or more secondary purposes too (e.g.
in a text designed to inform you about how to
play a sport (primary purpose), trying to make
you laugh at the same time (secondary
purpose 1), while persuading you that the
sport is easy to learn (secondary purpose 2).
Inform, entertain, cause humour, explain
how to do something, etc…
R
back
Random fluctuation
theory
(Hockett) idea that language changes over
time owing to random errors that occur as we
interact with each other, which get passed on
(especially when we are converging with
others), and become the new norm.
Recast
Where a child’s utterance is repeated, usually
in a more standard form and perhaps
extended (a method of demonstrating
standard usage by parents/caregivers.
Received
pronunciation (RP)
The standard prestige English accent. Its
precise form (often referred to as
conservative RP) is only spoken by about 2-3%
of the UK. Its broader variants (mainstream
and contemporary RP) are much more widely
used and characterised by the neutrality of
their pronunciation (i.e. a person’s regional
origins are not discernible from its
pronunciation). Mainstream is the most
widely used, and is least indicative of a user’s
age, occupation, etc... Contemporary is used
more by younger speakers.
See ‘standard English’ below.
Child: I bringed foods
Adult: you brought the sandwiches, did
you, James?
Reduplicated
monosyllable
In language acquisition, the repetition of a
single syllable.
mamama
Referent
The object or concept that a word refers to.
Chair refers either to an actual chair or to
the concept of a chair, depending on
context of its usage.
Regional variation
Refers to the different accents and dialects
used in different regions of the country.
See ‘accents’ and ‘dialects’ above.
Register
Refers to the level of formality of language
and/or variety/type of language used.
Slang, very formal, medical register, legal
register, etc…
Regular verb
A verb that can take the -ed ending to form its
past tense.
Hop → hopped; jump → jumped
Representation
The use of language to present a particular
version or impression of someone or
something.
Representing all young people to be
rebellious, for example.
Repressive discourse
strategy
(Holmes & Stubbe) Indirect ways of
controlling a conversation through
constraining other participants.
Example to right shows participant ignoring phatic
utterance and moving directly to a particular
conversation topic.
A: Hi. How are you?
B: Have you got my money?
See ‘oppressive discourse strategy’ above.
Rhetoric
Figurative and rhetorical devices used to
make language more persuasive.
Role
The function of a person within a
conversation, group or organisation.
S
metaphors, similes, alliteration, repetition,
parallelism, rhetorical questions,
hypophora, hyperbole, anaphora, etc…
back
Adult – shall we clean our teeth now?
Scaffolding
(Bruner & Vygotsky – social interactionist)
Idea that adults provide structures in their
conversations with children that enable them
to acquire new language.
See ‘zone of proximal development’ below.
Child – don’t want clean teeth.
Adult – you don’t want to clean your
teeth? You need to clean your teeth.
Child – Don’t want to clean teeth.
Etc…
S-curve model
(Chen) idea that language change starts off
slowly, but then speeds up, and then slows
down again, creating an S-curve shape on a
graph as the change becomes embedded and
the norm.
Semantic derogation
(Schultz, Cameron, Mills) idea that some
terms have negative meanings and
connotations assigned to them, often with
female gender marked terms being more
derogatory than male.
Master/mistress; bachelor/spinster.
Semantic
deterioration
(Mills) a shift in meaning over time to mean
something less positive, often with female
gender marked terms deteriorating while
male forms don’t.
Lord is still high status (upper
class/nobility), while lady can refer to any
social class.
See ‘pejoration’ above.
Semantic field
See ‘lexical field’ above.
Semantic reclamation
Form of amelioration whereby words with
negative connotations are consciously used
more positively to bring them back into
usage.
Semantic shift/drift
Changes to meanings of words over time.
Semantics
The meanings of words.
Semiotics
The study of signs and symbols and how they
communicate meanings.
Simple sentence
A sentence with a single main clause.
Slang
Overtly informal language, usually used in
spoken mode by a particular group of people
or in a particular context.
English patriotism, once shunned as a
phrase owing to connotations of National
Front racism, but now part of the Brexit
discourse.
I enjoy eating food.
Muck meaning mortar in the building trade
See ‘colloquialism’ above.
Social group power
(Wareing) Power someone has because of the
social group they belong to, often owing to
social class, gender, ethnicity, age, etc…
Social interactionist
theory
(Bruner) Theory that suggests language
acquisition occurs owing to the social
interactions a child experiences within their
environment.
Social prestige
The respect afforded to language usage by
society
Socialisation
The process by which society influences and
shapes our ideas and behaviours.
Sociolect
A variety of language used by a particular
social group.
Speech act
A speech event that carries meanings beyond
the words and phrases used owing to being of
a recognisable type.
Standard English
dialect (SED)
The prestige form of English, and the one
codified in dictionaries and grammar guides.
It’s the one prescriptivists consider ‘correct’,
but descriptivists consider just one variant
form.
See ‘received pronunciation’ above.
Standardisation
The process whereby language usage
(spelling, semantics, grammar, etc.) becomes
more uniform as governments, educational
institutions, prestige social groups, etc., codify
it in dictionaries, grammar books, and so on.
See ‘codification’ above.
Apologies, promises, greetings, etc…
Status
The level of authority or significance someone
has within a conversation, group or
organisation.
Stereotype
The false idea that whole groups of people
conform to the same set of limited
characteristics.
Stress
The raising of volume and perhaps pitch to
emphasise a syllable.
Stress-timed
Language where there is a repeated pattern
of stressed syllables, with unstressed syllables
shorter than stressed syllables.
That nurses are women and doctors are
men are gender stereotypes, for example.
English is a stress-timed language.
See ‘syllable-timed’ below.
The girl opened the box
Active voice (agent performs the action of
the verb)
Subject
A clause element (usually before the verb)
that, in active voice, performs the action of a
verb as its agent/actor (replaced with the
patient of the verb in passive voice).
Subordinate clause
A clause added to at least one main clause,
and which cannot stand on its own.
When eating apples, remember to leave
the pips.
Subordinating
conjunction
Can be used to start a subordinate clause.
When eating apples, remember to leave
the pips.
Substratum theory
The way non-native language users (or
regional users) influence change by their
variations from standard English being
adopted by others.
Suffix
Superlative
Syllable
An affix that goes at the end of a word.
The box was opened by the girl
Passive voice (patient has action of verb
performed upon it)
Tall + er
See ‘affix’ and ‘prefix’ above.
Either an adjective or adverb that expresses
that something is the most or least of
something. Usually formed by adding -est
suffix or adding most or least.
In a word, a unit of pronunciation. Each
syllable can contain more than one phoneme.
Tallest tree
Smallest stone
Most happy person.
Least sad person.
Re + mem + ber = 3 syllables
See ‘phoneme’ above.
Syllable-timed
Language where each syllable takes about the
same time to utter and does not feature a
regular stress pattern. Syllable-timed
language speakers often have difficulty
adding stresses to English when speaking it.
Spanish is a syllable-timed language.
See ‘stress-timed’ above.
Synchronic change
(variation)
Synchronous
discourse
The study of language changes occurring
across society at the same time in history.
See ‘diachronic change’ above.
Discourse that occurs in real time with
little/no delay.
See ‘asynchronous discourse’ above.
Face to face conversation; telephone
conversation; skype/facetime
conversation.
Words with similar meanings.
Synonym
Syntax
The order we put clause elements in within a
sentence.
Synthetic
personalisation
(Fairclough) Any technique used in a text to
create an imaginary “personal relationship”
with the text receiver so that they can be
positioned to accept the ideology of the text
producer.
T
Warm, hot, balmy, toasty, etc…
See ‘antonym’ above.
Subject + verb + object + adverbial
(and other variations) etc…
back
Taboo
Words that are viewed as extremely rude or
offensive.
F**k
Tag question
A question added at the end of a statement
It’s hot today, isn’t it.
Saying the same thing twice (or more)
unnecessarily.
I myself am very happy.
Tautology
Example to right doesn’t need myself to be inserted
after I.
Telegraphic stage
In language acquisition, where children’s
speech omits auxiliary verbs and determiners,
focusing on lexical essentials (verbs and
nouns).
Daddy get milk.
Tense
Changing verbs to indicate when they occur.
Hop → hopped = past tense.
Textspeak
Non-standard lexical, grammatical and even
graphological language variations used in
texts.
Topic management
The way a topic is controlled in a
conversation, sometimes by a powerful
participant, or by many/all participants.
See ‘agenda setting’ above.
Turn-taking
The process of taking turns in a conversation,
rather than interrupting.
Two-word stage
In language acquisition, where a child begins
to use two words (usually subject + verb, but
can vary).
Typographical
features
Font type, size and colour, etc..
U
Mummy teddy
Mummy, please pass me the soft toy.
back
Underextension
Universal grammar
In language acquisition, where children apply
a label to fewer referents than they should.
(Chomsky - nativist) the idea that all human
languages share common grammatical
features that are “hardwired” into the brain.
See ‘language acquisition device’ above.
Referring to their own bottle, but not
referring to pictures of others’ bottles with
the same term.
Upward convergence.
V
(Giles) Changing your speech (accent/dialect)
to be similar to someone whose language you
see as more prestigious when speaking to
them (such as your boss’s).
back
In a clause, the word or phrase that indicates
an action (dynamic) or state of being (stative).
Verb
Virtuous error
In language acquisition, where a child applies
a rule that is normally correct, but isn’t in a
particular case (such as adding -ed to make
past tense to an irregular verb, or -s to an
irregular noun to make a plural).
He caught the ball (dynamic)
She loves football (stative)
He eated the food.
There ar3e lots of sheeps in the field.
See ‘overgeneralisation’ above.
Vocal fry
An effect in speech where the speaker creates
a sharp vibrating sound, or creaking rasp.
Vocative
In speech or direct speech (in writing), adding
the name of the person being addressed.
Sit down, James.
Vulgarism
A word or phrase considered mildly rude, but
not as bad as taboo.
Bloody, crap, bugger
W
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Wave theory
Model of language change that suggests, as
with a stone causing ripples in water, changes
start strong, but get weaker as they move
away from the source of the change.
World Englishes
Varieties of English used across the world
British English, American English, etc…
Word class
The grammatical categories of words, defined
by their grammatical functions
Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs,
determiners, pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions.
Z
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Zone of proximal
development
(Vygotsky – social interactionist) Idea that
children acquire language just at the point
where their own language skills become
insufficient to participate in a conversation.
At that point, adults tend to use scaffolding in
their interactions with them to enable
children to acquire the language element not
yet achieved.
See ‘scaffolding’ above.