English Terminology

• Sociolect


  A variety of language that is characteristic of the social background or status of the user
• Telephony


  The working or use of telephones
• Topic management


  The way topics in a conversation are organised or handed from speaker to speaker
• Transition relevance place (TRP)


  The point at which one turn is ending and another turn is signalled
• Turn construction unit (TCU)


  A fundamental segment of speech in conversation analysis
• Two-word stage


  Usually occurs around the age of 18 months to two years and refers to the child's ability to start producing utterances which use words in combination
• Stages of CLA

  Phases that have been identified by linguists during which particular significant characteristics can be identified
• Standardization

  The process of forming a uniform language codified in dictionaries, educational and government texts that demands conformity by all variant language forms
• Stress


  Where volume is raised to place emphasis on a particular syllable
• Subject

  This normally performs the action of the sentence or clause and can be a single word or phrase
• Subordinate clause


  Depends on the main clause to exist
• Subordinating conjunctions


  These signal the start of a subordinate clause
• Superlative adjectives


  Expresses the highest level of the quality represented by the adjective, generally made by adding -est to its base form
• Synchronicity


  Events that occur simultaneously, such as communication
• Synchronous


  At the same time; a face-to-face conversation would be an example of a synchronous discourse
• Synonym


  A word that has a similar meaning to another word
• Syntax

  The order of the elements in a clause or sentence (subject, verb, object, etc.)
• Tag question

  An interrogative clause added to the end of a declarative to make it into a question
• Telegraphic stage

  Usually associated with language development in infants of approximately 24-36 months, speech that resembles an old-fashioned telegram
• Underextensions


  When the meaning ascribed to a word is narrower than the meaning it has in adult language
• Upward convergence


  Changing your accent or lexical choices to something you perceive as more prestigious
• Utterance


  A term for vocal expression; it can take the form of one or more words or even a single sound
• Valediction


  Expression of farewell
• Verb


  The action or state in the sentence or clause
• Verbal nouns


  Nouns that are formed from a verb and partly share their construction
• Vernacular


  Everyday regional language spoken by people
• Vernacular writing

  Informal, non-standard writing
• Violates a maxim


  Subtle failure of someone to observe a maxim
• Vocative


  Directly addressing someone via their name
• Post-telegraphic stage


  In the post-telegraphic stage, the child's early reliance on lexical (content) words gradually expands to include auxiliaries, prepositions, and articles
• Recasting


  Rephrasing and extending of a child's utterance
• Received Pronunciation (RP)

  A prestige form of English pronunciation
• Pragmatic failure is where the meaning that is implied is not the meaning that is understood by the listener
• Pragmatics


  What we really mean by what we say or write given context
• Predicate overextension


  Conveying meaning that relates to absence
• Pre-modified


  Modification that comes before the head noun (or before a phrase or clause)
• Pragmatics is what we really mean by what we say or write
• Predicate overextension conveys meaning that relates to absence (e.g., making the utterance 'cat' when looking at the cat's empty basket)
• Preposition


  A word which shows how elements in a sentence or clause relate to each other in time
• Pre-start


  A word or phrase made to clear the air before a turn begins (e.g., "Well...")