Terms and Gender Theory

• Discourse event


  An act of communication occurring in a specific time and location involving writers/speakers and readers/listeners
• Text Producer


  The person or people responsible (through writing or speaking) for creating a text
• Text Receiver


  The person or people interpreting (through reading or listening to) a text
• Implied Reader


  A constructed image of an idealised reader
• Actual reader


  Any person or groups of people who engage with and interpret a text
• Semantics


  Meaning of words and sentences
• Lexis


  vocabulary
• Phonology


  Study of sound
• Pragmatics


  Actual meaning in context. (eg. Taxi - difference between saying this at the side of a road or a kid pointing out a taxi in a picture book.)
• Implied producer


  Readers and listeners construct a version of the implied producer of a text if not co-present (face to face).
• Actual producer


  The actual producer of the text, may be different than the Implied producer.
• Discourse community


  Group of receivers who might be drawn to reading texts in particular ways: similar beliefs, interest etc. eg. skaters.
• Proper noun


  Names a specific person, place, thing, or idea
• Concrete noun


  Objects that have a physical existence
• Abstract noun


  states, feelings etc., with no physical existence
• Mode


  the way in which language is communicated between the text producer and receiver eg. image, writing, speech etc.
• Blended Mode (continuum model)


  Many texts do not fit into a box of one Mode, instead they fit on a spectrum between Spoken mode and Written mode.
• Oppositional view of mode

  The idea that a text either fits into the category of 'spoken mode' or 'written mode'.
• Prototype model


  A model of looking at differences within a category or mode by thinking about typical and less typical examples.
• Material verbs


  Describes actions or events (hit, run, eat)
• Relational verbs


  Describes a state of being or to identity properties (be, become, appear).
• Mental verbs


  Describe internal processes (think, believe, love)
• Verbal verbs


  Show external processes of communicating through speech (shout, scream).
• Dynamic verbs


  Processes where there is a change in state over time (point, remove, eat).
• Stative verbs


  Processes where the situation remains constant (love, hold, believe).
• What are the two types of verbs?

  Lexical and Auxillary
• What is a Lexical verb?


  A single verb expressing an action (the main verb in a sentence)
• What are the two types of auxiliary verb?

  Primary and Modal
• What is a primary verb?

  be, have, do (needed to form a sentence)
• What is a modal verb?


  A verb which expresses necessity or possibility.
• What are the tenses?

  Past participle, past perfect, present continuous, future
• What pronoun is the first p. singular?

  I am/have/do
• Second p. sing?


  you are/have/do
• Third p. sing?


  he/she/it is/has/does
• First p. pl.


  we are/have/do
• Second p. pl.


  you are/have/do
• Third p. pl.


  they are/have/do
• Deontic modality


  Concerned with obligation and permission (will, must)
• Epistemic modality


  Constructions that express degrees of possibility, probability or certainty eg. can, could.
• Boulomaic modality


  concerned with wishes and desires (want, would).