terminology

• colloquialism

  slang
• jargon


  specific words to a certain group
• register


  how formal/informal a text is
• address


  ways in which a text producer addresses a text reciever
• inclusive address


  we, we've
• direct address


  you
• spoken language


  proper pronouns
• euphemism


  something said to soften the impact
• dysphemism


  something said to cause offence and shock
• collocation


  words that are often put together, e.g fish and chips
• figurative language


  similes, metahpors
• emotive language


  words that have an impact
• literal language


  literal
• neology


  process of new word formations
• neologisms


  modern words
• conversion


  when a word changes the word class it belongs to and moves it to another to have a different meaning.
• eponym


  object is given the same name as an inventor e.g dyson
• affixation


  when affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added to an existing word
• prefixes


  letters commonly added to the beginning of an existing word
• suffixes


  letters commonly added to the end of an existing word, e.g disappear/ing/ed
• initialism


  a set of letters as such and standing for an idea, group/institution e.g BBC. (you just say the letters, you don't say it as a word)
• proper names


  when the product becomes synonymous with the product itself. e.g. hoovering
• compounding


  when two words are stuck together in their entirety to make a new word e.g. skateboard
• blending/blends


  two words put together usually, cut off the start of one word and replace it with the end of another, e.g. chillax, mocktail, brunch
• shortening


  a bit has been chopped off from the end of the word e.g. ad, phone
• acronym


  formed by pronouncing a set of initial letters as a word e.g. radar, aids (becomes a word)
• semantics are…


  the study of how meanings are constructed and interpreted
• denotation


  straight forward meaning or definition of a word (semantic)
• connotation


  the associations a word has or emotions raised by the word (semantic)
• ambiguity 


  where a word or phrase can be understood/interpreted in more than one way (semantic)
• implication


  an implied or suggested meaning rather than stated directly (semantic)
• synonym


  a group of words that carry the same meaning e.g. smart and intelligent (semantic)
• atonym


  a word that means the opposite to a given word e.g. cold and warm (semantic)
• hypernym


  general term (category heading)(semantic)
• hyponym


  specifics to the hypernym (semantic)
• broadening

  the meaning of a word gradually extending to a wider sense than the original meaning e.g. wife, woman, married woman

  (semantic)
• narrowing


  meaning gradually becomes more specific e.g. liquor, liquids, alcoholic drinks

  (semantic)
• amelioration


  very severe/taboo connotations become less negative. e.g. pretty = sly to attractive

  (semantic)
• pejoration


  words with neutral connotations/positive become less positive e.g. silly meant happy now means foolish

  (semantic)
• abstract noun


  nouns you can’t physically see e.g. hate, love, happy