Glossary

B

bound morpheme (see → morpheme)

blend: a blend occurs when  shortened forms of words are combined to form a single new word. For example: smog (a blend of smoke and fog); blog (a blend of web and log).

C

cataphoric: (see → reference)

clause: a clause is a part of sentence. A clause normally consists of a subject and a verb and a main clause must contain a verb indicating tense (also called a finite clause see →finite).  For example: I went to Vietnam on holiday is a main clause. Main clauses can be joined by a co-ordinating conjunction such as and or but. For example: We decided not to have a holiday abroad this year and to stay at home.

A subordinate clause cannot normally form a sentence on its own. Subordinate clauses are dependent on main clauses. A main clause and a subordinate clause are commonly joined together with a subordinating conjunction such as although, because and when. For example: We decided to take the dog for a walk, although it was raining.

Subordinate clauses can also be non-finite (see → finite) For example: Entering the hall in a large black hat, she was obviously trying to be the centre of attention. (see also →sentence)

cohesion: cohesion is a term which describes the  patterns of language created within a text, mainly within and across  sentence boundaries or speaking turns. Cohesion can be both lexical and grammatical. Lexical cohesion is established by means of chains of words with related meanings linking across utterances and sentences; grammatical cohesion is established mainly by grammatical words such as the, this, it linking across utterances and sentences. A cohesive text is one in which the smaller lexical and grammatical parts of the text collectively organise the larger units of the text such as paragraphs or conversational turns between speakers.

collocation: a collocation is two or more words that often go together. For example: lean and meat or fat and cheque occur together more frequently than by chance and more frequently than other possible patterns and combinations such as ‘skinny’ and ‘meat’ or ‘heavy’ and ‘cheque’.  Certain words keep closer company with some words than with others.

concord/subject verb concord (see → subject)

concordance line: line of text from a corpus, showing where the searched item occurred within a sentence or utterance.

conjunction: a conjunction links words, phrases, clauses and sentences. The two main types of conjunction are coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions are words such as and and but and they link main clauses. Subordinating conjunctions such as because, if, when, in order to link a subordinate clause to a main clause. Some subordinating conjunctions such as when, while, before, after, until, once, as soon as are words which link a main clause and a subordinate clause by a time sequence.  (See also → clause).

connotation: the  connotations of a word are the associations it creates. For example, the connotations of December, mainly within British and North American culture, would be of ‘cold’, ‘dark nights’ and ‘Christmas’.

corpus: a corpus (plural ‘corpora’) is a collection of texts, often consisting of millions of digitally stored words, utterances and sentences – tagged in order for them be electronically searchable -  that are judged to be representative of the way people write and speak. Corpus linguistics is a significant and rapidly growing approach to the study of language.

critical discourse analysis (CDA): is a sub-discipline of discourse analysis aimed at uncovering belief systems and ideologies as they are conveyed through language and texts.

D

definite article: (see → article).

deixis: deictics are words which point backwards, forwards and extra- textually and which serve  to situate a speaker or writer in relation to what is said.  For example, in the sentence ‘I’m going to get some wine from that shop over there’, the main deictic words are ‘that’ and ‘there’.

derivational morpheme (see → morpheme).

determiner: a determiner specifies the kind of reference a noun has. Determiners include: the, those, my, her, both, all, several, no. The term ‘zero determiner’ is used to refer to phrases where no determiner is used (for example: eat fruit).

dialect: dialect refers to the grammar and vocabulary used when people speak a language. (see also → accent). A dialect is normally characteristic of a particular geographical region or social group.

discourse: a term used  to describe the  rules  and conventions underlying the  use of language in extended stretches of text, spoken and written. The academic study of discourse is commonly referred to as ‘discourse analysis’. The  term is also  used to refer  to the  patterns which characterise particular types of language or – in its plural form, discourses – to refer to habitual ways of talking and thinking about a topic, for example, discourses about food or discourses about travel.

discourse marker: a discourse marker is a word, phrase or clause which organises or comments on what we are saying. Discourse markers include: right, well, so, I mean, at the end of the day.  For example: So, let’s decide where we are going at the weekend (marking a conclusion to previous discussion).

E

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language for purposes of communication by speakers of different first languages.

ellipsis: ellipsis is used when we omit words or phrases which can be understood from the context. For example: She went to the office and worked until it was very late in the evening. (the pronoun she is ellipted in the second clause). Ellipsis is also used in informal contexts of speaking when speakers share knowledge of what is referred to or when it is obvious in the situation (commonly called ‘situational ellipsis’). For example: Want some tea? (Do you is understood).

etymology: the study of word origins.

exclamation: an exclamation (or exclamative) is a sentence or utterance in which we express strong emotion or feelings. They are commonly accompanied by punctuation marks which highlight the expression, for example Ouch!! Wow! That’s SHOCKING…….

expressive: language that connects with our emotions and sensations.

eye dialect: using the regular alphabet to represent sounds, rather than a phonetic or phonemic alphabet.

F

finite verb/finite clause: a finite clause is a clause that has a modal verb or a main verb marked for tense. A non-finite clause contains a verb that is not marked for tense and does not include a modal verb. Examples:  I waited for them (finite clause); Born in Beijing (non-finite clause), she was educated in Melbourne.

foregrounding: the capacity of a piece of discourse to make something (words, sentences, or even an entire text) stand out and be noticeable to the reader.

free morpheme: (see → morpheme).

G

genre: in language study, a type of text in any mode which is defined by its purpose, its features, or both. In literary fields, genre tends to refer primarily to the literary genres of prose, poetry and drama, but it can also refer to types of content (for example, crime or romance).

globalisation: refers to a process whereby business and commerce see increased trade in more countries world-wide. It can have the effect that goods, business, services and culture appear very similar. English is a globalised language with different varieties in different parts of the world and contributes to communication world-wide. (See →  English as a lingua franca; see also → World Englishes).

graphology: graphology refers to the physical characteristics and patterns of written text such as typeface and layout. See Part 2, Section 1 for detailed exploration. Grapho-phonemics refers to the relationship between symbols and sounds.

grammatical cohesion (see → cohesion).

grammatical words: refers to words which have a primarily grammatical function. Words such as the, an, you, on, which are grammatical words.  Grammatical words are the glue which hold texts together structurally. They contrast with lexical words such as house, bottle, wrong, happiness, riskily, sport which have a primary function of referring to content (objects, ideas, entities). Grammatical words are finite (there is only a limited number), whereas lexical words are an open class; that is, the class is potentially infinite and new lexical words can be added to a language all the time.

H

half-rhyme: (see → rhyme).

headword: the headword is the key word in a word family, usually the root word (or lexeme) that will form the key point of entry in a dictionary. For example: the word break is a headword in a family of words consisting of related words broken, breakable, unbroken, as well as related phrases such as  break (a promise) break (a record).  Headword is also sometimes used in grammar to refer to the most important word in a phrase. For example: the noun phrase the old man in the park consists of the headword (a noun man), the pre-head (old) and the post-head  (in the park).

hedge(s): hedges  are words and phrases which regularly soften or weaken the  force  with which something is said.  Examples of hedges are: ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’, ‘by any  chance’, ‘as it were’ and ‘admittedly’ (see also → vague language)

hybrid: a blend of two or more elements. For example, new forms of communication are often seen as having some of the characteristics of both spoken and written language..

I

iconic: in semiotics, the term iconic refers to an image that is a picture of its referent, as in a photograph, for example.

indefinite article (see → article).

ideograph: a graphic symbol that represents an idea.

ideology: refers to a set of conscious and/or unconscious opinions or belief systems of a group or an individual and sometimes of a whole society or political culture. It is the aim of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to uncover ideologies. (See →  critical discourse analysis CDA)

idiom: An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning that is independent of the meaning of the words that it consists of. For example: over the moon = delighted, thrilled.  (see also → lexis).

inflectional morpheme (see → morpheme).

intertextuality: intertextuality refers to the ways in which the meaning of a text can be shaped by its relationship to another text.

intransitive (see → transitive).

L

lexis: lexis is another term for vocabulary and the terms lexeme or ‘lexical  item’  are sometimes used  in order to avoid difficulties of defining what a word is. For example, the  abstract lexeme ‘walk’ underlies all the  separate instances ‘walks’, ‘walked’,  ‘walking’; the  idiom ‘smell  a rat’ is also  a lexeme in so far as it functions in the  manner of a single word ( I smelt a rat = I suspected something). An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning that is independent of the meaning of the words that it consists of. (see also → idiom).

lexical cohesion  (see → cohesion).

lexical word: (see →grammatical word.

M

metaphor: a word or phrase which establishes a comparison or analogy between one  object or idea  and another. For example, ‘I demolished his argument’ suggests that arguments are like buildings that can be destroyed.

metonym/metonymic: a metonym entails the  association of two things (such as objects and ideas) with one  thing referred to as though it were  the  other. So, for example The White House is the official home of the  president of the USA. By metonymic association, a reference to The White House can  stand for a reference to the  president and his government. For example: ‘The White House announced new plans for health care’.

minor sentence: (see → sentence)

modality: modal verbs have only one form and do not indicate person, number, voice or aspect. They are placed first in the verb phrase and are followed by a verb (either an auxiliary verb or a main verb) in the base form. Modal verbs such as can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would express two main kinds of modal meaning: degrees of certainty and degrees of desirability or obligation.  For example: I might decide not to vote. (the speaker says something is possible, but is not certain); I must text her to find out how long she’s away from the office (the speaker says that she is obliged to do something and that it is necessary).  Adjectives (possible) and adverbs (probably, definitely) are also modal in meaning.

modification: a modifier is a word or phrase that indicates further meaning about a head word (commonly a noun) either before the head word (pre-modification) or after the head word (post-modification). The head word here is the noun hotel:

pre-modifier     postmodifer

It’s a large hotel at the end of the village.

morpheme:  a  morpheme is a basic  unit of grammar in that it can  function to mark a grammatical feature or structure. For example, ‘walks’ contains two morphemes:  ‘walk’ and ‘s’, the  latter morpheme marking the  tense and person of the basic  or root morpheme ‘walk’. Morphemes are normally divided into free morphemes and bound morphemes: bound morphemes occur as single words and normally only acquire meaning when joined to the  free morpheme. For example: unfriendly is a word made up  from three morphemes, a free morpheme ‘friend’ and two  bound morphemes ‘un’ and ‘ly’.  Morphemes are often studied as ‘inflectional’ or ‘derivational’ forms: inflectional morphemes are morphemes such as ‘s’ and ‘ed’ (bound morphemes) which indicate grammatical meanings; derivational morphemes are morphemes such as ‘ship’  and ‘dom’  which can  form specific grammatical categories (here friendship; kingdom). The general term for the study of morphemes is morphology.

multimodal: multimodal is a term which describes communication systems which use more than one  mode For example, Skype is a multimodal communication system in that a written text can be accompanied by visual signs, by pictures and by sound.

N

narratee: a fictional receiver; the person that the text appears to be aimed at.

narrative: a story-like construction that involves characters operating in a sequence of events.

narrator: the fictional teller of a story.

nasal:  nasal sounds are produced by sending a stream of air through the nose. Sounds such as /m/ and /n/ and /ŋ/ (for example, in the words swim, born, sing) are classified as nasal sounds.

nominalisation: refers to a process by which a word is converted from one class to another. For example, decide → decision; close → closure.  The nominalised form is usually more formal and can be used to conceal a subject and to make a process more impersonal.  Compare, for example: (1) We closed the factory and had to sack fifty people. (2) The closure of the factory led to the loss of fifty jobs..

non-finite (see → finite verb/clause)

O

observer’s paradox: The paradox that the only way to collect natural speech is to observe it, but that the very act of observation is likely to destroy its naturalness..

onomatopoeia: onomatopoeia refers to the use of words whose sound suggests the sense of the words. For example, the wind murmuring softly in the valleys imitates the sound of the movement of the wind.

P

participle: a participle is the -ing and -ed forms of the verb. Singing is the present participle form of sing; walked is the past participle form of walk.

passive (see → voice).

phonology/ phonetics: phonetics and phonology are branches of linguistics. Phonetics deals with the production and articulation of speech sounds by humans, whereas phonology deals with underlying structures and patterns of sounds such as, for example, different patterns of sounds in different positions in words. Some of these sounds are covered in this glossary (see → plosive, voiced, nasal) but more related terms such approximant, affricate, lateral, glottal stop are explored in Part II, Section 1. An individual sound is called a phoneme and the range of sounds in an accent or possessed by a speaker is termed a phoneme inventory.

plosive: a plosive is a sound made by a consonant when air is stopped from flowing out of the mouth and is then suddenly released.  The /p/ in the word stop or the /d/ in the word bad are examples of plosives.

plural: a coding in grammar that indicates more than one person or entity is being referred to,  for example, singular ship, woman; plural ships, women.

point of view: the position of the narrator of a text in relation to the text’s ideas or storyline.

postvocalic r: pronouncing an /r/ after a vowel where there is an r in the spelling. For example, ‘farm’, ‘sir’, ‘horse’.

pragmatics: assumptions made about what is meant, or the inferences drawn from what is said or written. Pragmatics is most easily revealed in the unspoken cultural rules that underlie our everyday routines, from our greetings and farewells in face to face interactions to rules about food, hygiene and public behaviour.

prefix: a prefix is a series of letters added to the beginning of a word which alters the meaning in some way, e.g. impossible, rewrite.

preposition: A preposition is a word or phrase such as after, to, on, next to, with, in front of Prepositions are usually used before nouns or pronouns and they show the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They can mark the position of something, the time it took place or how something was done. For example, we went to London by car. Shall we meet after work?

pronoun: pronouns are words like he, she, yourself, mine, who, this, these.  Pronouns commonly refer to or fill the position of a noun or noun phrase. Personal pronouns are I, you, he, him, her etc. Relative pronouns are: which, who, whom, whose, that. Demonstrative pronouns are: this, these, that and those. Reflexive pronouns are: yourself, myself, themselves. Indefinite pronouns are words such as someone, anyone, no-one.

Q

qualitative research method: a method concerned with understanding the nature of a phenomenon. Often applied in the areas of arts and humanities to studies of human behaviour and typically drawing insights from closely focussed, limited but rich data..

quantitative research method: a method concerned with collecting numerical data and drawing insights from large scale studies. Often used in the field of social science and science.

R

rebus: a system whereby a word or part of a word is represented by a picture. Commonly used for fun in modern-day puzzles but was also a serious form of representation in medieval heraldry.

received pronunciation (RP): An accent traditionally associated with high social status. ‘Received’ refers to the idea of social acceptance in official circles.

reference: reference is the  act  of referring to something (often called a referent). Many words also allow reference to each other and establish cohesive links and patterns across a text (see also → cohesion). Different types of reference include anaphoric and cataphoric reference. Anaphoric reference points backwards; for example, the grammatical word ‘he’ in the following sentence: ‘I saw the man. He was wearing a black jacket’. Cataphoric reference points forwards; for example, the  word ‘here’  in the following sentence: ‘Here is the  nine o’ clock  news’. Reference within a text is generally referred to as endophoric reference; reference to the world outside the  text  is generally referred to as exophoric reference. ‘Demonstrative reference’ involves deictics such as ‘these’, ‘those’, ‘here’ and ‘there’ which refer back and forth within a text or speech event. ‘Comparative reference’ involves reference within a text when one thing is compared to another; for example, ‘Ann  is stronger than William.

reflexive verb: a reflexive verb is a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject, for example, ‘They prepared themselves’; ‘he injured himself badly when he was skiing’. The direct object here is a reflexive pronoun (themselves; himself; myself etc).

register: register is used to describe particular varieties or styles of speaking and writing. Registers vary because the language is used for different purposes, in different contexts and for different audiences. Registers are recognised because of their specialised vocabulary and grammar. The term is often used to refer to occupational varieties of English; for example, there is a legal register, a register of advertising, registers of science and so on.

reverse rhyme: (see → rhyme).

rhyme: a rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, commonly in the final syllables of lines in poems and songs. For example the words hall and ball rhyme.

reverse rhyme: this occurs when parallel sounds occur at the beginning rather than at the end of words. For example, grating gravel or choosing cheese are examples of reverse rhyme.

Half-rhyme or pararhyme or partial rhyme occurs when words almost rhyme (for example: hall and howl)..

S

semantics: the study of meaning. This can refer to meaning in a more limited sense - such as the meanings of individual words and phrases - or meaning in a more holistic sense, the overall meaning of a text.

semantic field: a group of words which are related in meaning, normally as a result of being connected with a particular context of use.  For example, ‘chop’, ‘sprinkle’, ‘salt’, ‘dice’, ‘wash’, ‘simmer’, ‘boil’, ‘herbs’  are all part of a ‘word family’ in being connected with the  semantic field of cookery.

semantic profile: describes the way in which certain seemingly neutral words can be perceived with positive or negative associations (sometimes referred to as ‘semantic prosody’ or ‘lexical profile’). For example, the verb set in has a negative semantic profile, as can be seen from structures such as the bad weather set in; a deep crisis set in.  By contrast, a verb such as provide normally has a positive attitudinal meaning. They provided support to her when she was ill.

semiotics/semiology: The study of how signs work within human communication. A sign consists of the relationship between a ‘signifier’ which refers to something, and a ‘signified’, which is the thing or person or idea being referred to. Signs are culturally determined and so their meanings are never fixed. An iconic sign involves a picture of a referent, while a symbolic sign has no logical connection with the referent, beyond that established by cultural convention.

sentence:  sentence is a difficult term to define because the  structure of sentences differs according to whether spoken or written language is used. Traditionally, a sentence has a subject and a main verb, though in poetry or SMS texts, for example, sentences can commonly be a minor sentence. A minor sentence is a sentence without a main verb and can consist of just a single word. Minor sentences are commonly found in written texts where writers have limited space. Another example of this is recipes - ‘egg custard slice: a  light pastry case with egg custard dusted with nutmeg’. In spoken English, utterances such as ‘over here’, ‘if you like’ and ‘perhaps’ are not structurally sentences but as minor sentences can function as a sentence. (See also →clause).

shibboleth. A language item used as a marker or test of group membership.

singular: (see → plural).

sound symbolism: the way in which sounds are used to represent ideas - for example, in onomatopoeia, where sounds represent noises. There is no logical connection between the sounds and the ideas they represent.

subject: the subject of a sentence is the word or phrase that agrees with the main verb. This is also referred to as ‘subject verb concord’.  The city is the capital of the country has correct subject verb concord and the word city is the subject.  (In the sentence The city are the capital of the country there is … is an incorrect subject verb agreement or concord).

subject deletion: subjects are deleted when we cannot tell what the subject or agent in a sentence or utterance is. For example: (1) Malaysian taxi drivers block bridge in Southern Thailand. (2) Bridge blocked in Southern Thailand. In the second sentence (which is in the passive voice) the subject has been deleted.  (see → voice).

subordinate clause (see → clause).

substitution: substitution means that words, phrases and clauses do not need to be repeated. For example, the word do can be used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase. For example: A: Are you going to the match? B: I might do. The word so can be used to substitute for a clause. A: Will Jenn be at the meeting? B: I think so (so here substitutes for ‘that Jenn will be at the meeting’.

suffix: a suffix is a series of letters added to the end of a word which changes its meaning in some way, usually changing the word-class. For example: statement; talkative.

symbolic: a symbol is something that stands for something else, with no logical connections between the items.

tense: tense refers to the verb form that shows the time of an action or event or state. The present simple tense walks contrasts with the past simple tense walked..

T

transitive:  a transitive verb is a verb that needs an object (I enjoyed the concert); an intransitive verb does not need an object (An hour elapsed).

V

vague language:  vague language refers to words and phrases that are purposefully unspecific in meaning. Using vague language such as kind of, that sort of stuff, and things like that can  be an  important part  of social communication (see also → hedges), softening the force of utterances in order to be more polite or more indirect.

verb: a verb is commonly used with a subject as the basis of a clause: The old man smiled. A verb phrase may contain more than a single verb: I might have forgotten.  A finite verb is a verb marked for tense. (see →finite; see →tense).  (see also → reflexive verb)

voice: voice refers to verb forms that are said to be either in the ‘active’ or ‘passive’ voice. The passive voice is formed by be + the past participle form of the verb and often involves a by-phrase. Examples: She broke the 200 metres world record is active voice; the 200 metres world record was broken by her is passive voice. In the second sentence the focus is on what is broken (the world record) and the performer of the action is identified in the phrase ‘by her’. This phrase can be left out (see also → subject deletion).

voiced: some consonants can be voiced or unvoiced depending on whether or not the vocal chords vibrate when making the sound.  For example, the consonant /s/ in the word cups is voicelesss but the consonant /s/ in the word pens is voiced.

voiceless:  (see → voiced).

W

word:  (see → lexis).

word family:  (see →  semantic field).

word formation:  (see → morphology).

World Englishes: varieties of English that are used in different countries around the world, mainly in areas that were formerly colonised, such as India and Singapore. These countries have their own versions of standard English.