Unit 1 - Course Basics

• Phrases

  1. noun phrase
  2. verb phrase
  3. adjectival
  4. adverbial
  5. prepostional
• Noun phrase

  • a phrase that identifies a thing

  structure:

  determiner/adjective + noun
• verb phrase

  • a phrase describing an action or state

  structure:

  auxillary verb/ adverb + verb
• adjectival

  • phrase that modifies a noun

  structure:

  adverb + adjective
• adverbial

  • phrase that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb

  structure

  adverb + adverb
• prepositional

  • phrase that communicates position/ location

  structure:

  preposition + noun/ noun phrase
• Lexical subclasses

  • concrete noun
  • abstract noun
  • proper noun
  • collective noun
  • dynamic verb
  • stative verb
  • comparative adjective
  • superlative adjective
  • compound adjective
  • degree adverb
  • manner adverb
  • frequency adverb
  • time adverb
• pronouns

  • singular pronoun: refers to one person/thing

  • plural pronoun: refers to multiple people/things

  • inclusive pronoun: pronoun collectively including both text producer and audience

  • exclusive pronoun: pronoun distinguishing audience and text producer as separate

  • indefinite pronoun: pronouns not referring to a specific known entity
• Semantic Terms

  1. connotation
  2. simile
  3. metaphor
  4. hyperbole
  5. personification
  6. oxymoron
  7. semantic field
  8. collocation
  9. fixed expression
  10. emotive lexis
  11. symbolism
  12. synonym
  13. antonym
  14. hyponym
• semantic field: words related by topic/ theme/ meaning
• collocation: words frequently occurring together
• fixed expression: a set phrase/ structure
• emotive lexis: expressing (or encouraging) emotion
• symbolism: when a thing is used to symbolise a concept
• synonym: words having similar meanings to each other
• antonym: pair of words that mean the opposite to each other
• hyponym: words that are all the same / belong to the same category
• Discourse features

  1. discourse structure
  2. discourse marker
  3. framing move
  4. topic/ tonal shift
  5. intertextuality
  6. references
  7. person
  8. speech
  9. direct address
  10. tense
• discourse structure: the way in which information in a text is organised/presented
• discourse marker: words/phrases that section a text into different segments

  framing move: like a discourse marker, but bigger phrases

  topic/tonal shift: change in subject/ attitude of text
• intertextuality: a text referencing another text

  direct address: language directly targeting audience
• Pragmatics

  1. implicature
  2. irony
  3. presupposition
  4. allusion
• Implicature - expressions of meaning, where text differs from meaning

  Irony - meaning and expression being directly opposite

  Presupposition - expressions that make an implicit assumption

  Allusion - yep of reference without explicitly stating what the reference is to
• Syntax

  1. sentence mood
  2. sentence function
  3. masked function
  4. declarative
  5. interrogative
  6. exclamatory
  7. conditional
  8. interrogative verb
  9. interrogative pronoun
  10. imperative verb
  11. minor sentence
• sentence mood - the structure of a sentence and the tone that it conveys (the expression)

  sentence function - the purpose of the sentence (the meaning)

  masked function - when the purpose and function don’t match
• Sentence Moods

  1. declarative - gives information, and starts with the subject
  2. interrogative - asks a question, and starts with a verb or pronoun
  3. imperative - a command, request, or instruction, that starts with a verb
  4. exclamatory - expresses strong emotion, starts usually with ’ what ‘ or ‘ how ‘
  5. conditional - expresses a hypothetical that is dependent on another variable
• Syntax clause properties

  • tense
  • aspect
  • negation
  • modality
• progressive aspect -signals an action or state is ongoing

  perfect aspect - action is now finished

  negation - inverting the meaning of sentence through not or never

  modality - expressing attitudes and possibility
• Other syntax features

  • tripling: organising information into threes

  • polysyndeton: multiple connectives in a list

  • asyndeton: a list with no connectives

  • post/ pre modification: whether a modifier comes before or after a word

  • parallelism: similar structures repeated
• Discourse is a framework at the text level, exploring sequence and structure of language.
• Pragmatics is a framework at the text level exploring relationship between the expression of language and the meaning.
• Syntax is a framework at the sentence level exploring relationship between function and mood, considering how grammatical structures can influence meaning and tone.
• Lexis is a framework at the word level exploring word choice
• Semantics is a framework at the word and phrase level that focuses on exploring meaning and relations in language