eng lang

• morphology


  the study of words and their parts | ‘-ology’ meaning ‘study of..’
• Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in the language. These are sections of letters that cannot be broken down even further. Words contain letters, and may contain one or more morphemes
• Free morphemes: are standalone units of meaning which make sense by themselves. They don’t need to attach to any other word to make sense. They cannot be made smaller (i.e cat [when refer to animal]; play, dog)
• Bound morphemes: units of meaning which cannot stand alone. They need to attach to root/free morphemes to make sense. (i.e ‘playful’ → play (free morphemes) + ful (bound morphemes) ⇒ playful)
• Affixes: used to describe prefixes, suffixes, and infixes. Any addition that can be ‘affixed’/added onto a root word
• Prefix: attached to the front root/stem
• Suffix: attaches to the end of a root/stem
• Infix: an addition into the middle of a root/stem (i.e un-bloody-believable ~ tend to be more casual)
• lexicology: study of words | parts of speech/word class
• A lexicographer studies the words in a language and compiles dictionaries
• A lexicon is a person’s vocabulary or the vocabulary used in a branch of learning, such as engineering, law, medicine
• Lexemes are individual vocabulary items covered by a single dictionary entry but which may encompass more than one form of word.
• Independent clauses: sentences that make sense on their own [sentences need subjects, verbs, and objects]
• Dependent clauses: sentences that don’t make sense on their own ~ [missing a subject or verb]
• noun

  used to describe a name, person, thing or idea
• pronoun


  used to replace the name of a person, place, thing or idea [so you dont you the noun all the time]
• verb

  a verb is a doing word, action word [i.e Jackson is eating apples]
• adverb

  modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It tells how (often), where, when. [i.e YesterdayI ate my lunch quickly]
• adjectives

  describes, modifies, or gives more information about a noun or pronoun
• prepositions


  shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word [i.e I left my keys on the table]
• conjunction


  joins two words, ideas and phrases together, and shows how they are connected [i.e and, or, but, because, yet, so, while, although, hence, furthermore]
• interjection

  a word or phrase that expresses a strong emotion. It is a short exclamation [i.e Ouch! Hey! Oh! Wow!]
• articles

  i.e the, an, A
• demonstrative


  this, that, these, those
• quantifiers

  some, any, few, little, more, much, any, every
• numbers


  one, two, three, four, twenty, hundred
• possessive adjectives

  i.e my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
• ordinals (order)

  first, second, third, last, next
• language


  a meaning making system that allows humans to convey information to one another, it can be written, spoken or signed.
• referential function

  Purpose: To share and convey information, whether it be true or false. A ‘reference’, is facts, hence referential is presented in an objective and factual manner. Declarative sentencing (sentences which function as statements as opposed to questions or commands), are more commonly used.
• emotive function


  Purpose: Users of language can express their feelings, desire and emotions. It usually relates to the addreser and their presentation of emotion, whether it is real or not.
• conative function

  Purpose: This function involves directions (declaratives), questions (interrogatives), and commands (imperatives). This aim of conative function is to cause the addressee to react in some kind of way or manner
• phatic function

  Purpose: The establishment of a relationship between teh addresser and the addressee.
• metalinguistic function

  Purpose: A text which describes itself. It may use metalanguage terms such as ‘onomatopoeia’ or ‘vowels’ but not in every instance. This function enables users to check whether they have been understood or the right code has been used in the conversation
• poetic function

  Purpose: The construction of the message is focused on, rather than the addresser or addresee. It is more focused on the aesthetic due to the wit, humour or beauty of the message’s construction.
• Functions of language don’t just exist alone. Rather they operate together, almost seamlessly and simultaneously within texts. Often, the conative function can be poetic in texts such as advertising
• register

  Register is the stylistic version of language, defined by its use. One text can have multiple registers, as it can change. It can involve all features of language and levels of formality. Essentially refers to formality. Register of the text can be described in terms of its vocabulary, its formality as well as its syntax.
• tenor

  Tenor is the relationship between the participants in a communicative exchange.

  • i.e Level of consideration (respectful, appreciative, polite, hostile, cold etc.)
  • i.e Social distance (very close, intimate, socially distance, some social distance, etc. )
• field

  Field is used to describe the subject matter/content being discussed. Words are grouped by their meaning, and is good to consider when thinking about register
• cultural context

  Cultural context: including attitudes, values and beliefs of the author and their audience (i.e someone caring for the environment will construct texts in a manner that suppors their environmental beliefs)