A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term abstract noun accent acronym active additive conjunctions address adjacency pairs adjectives adverbial adverbs adversative conjunctions agenda alliteration ambiguity antithesis archaic language assonance auxiliary verb backtracking Definition refers to qualities; states and other things that cannot be observed e.g. beauty; pain; politics how words are pronounced; indicates the region or social class of a speaker word formed from the initials of words in a phrase or title e.g. NATO from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation usual grammatical structure in which the subject of the verb is placed first (see passive) conjunctions that add e.g. and; in addition; furthermore how people address each other e.g. mum; mother; madam; indicates status; relationship; class; role; gender etc. exchanges between different speakers that are connected and have expected responses (a question; for example; expects an answer); sustains/disrupts pattern of conversation (see turn-taking); indicates power; co-operation etc describe and classify nouns e.g. green giant; mad situation; strong tea; unusual building sentence element that situates the action or state in place or time; can also indicate quality of the action or state e.g. up the hill; on Thursday; in her quiet way; angrily add information to verbs (and sometimes adjectives) about how; when; where e.g. she walked slowly; she did it yesterday; today he went; (in the case of adjectives it tells you how much e.g. so lovely) conjunctions that introduce a contradictory idea e.g. but; yet; though; however; on the contrary topic or subject of conversation the repetition of consonant sounds - especially at the beginning of words e.g. by the bang of blood words and phrases that have more than one meaning e.g we will fight the war on drugs the use of contrasting ideas e.g. nothing/all; dark/light language that is no longer in use but is out of date or old-fashioned; can be used deliberately by writers to create an effect the repetition of vowel sounds - usually close together e.g. down some profound dull tunnel helps the main verb usually to express tense; e.g. he has gone shopping; they will see her soon Interruption of an utterance to include information that should have been included earlier; indicates how speakers monitor what they say

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term ballad clause clich cohesion collective noun colloquial language common metre common noun comparative adjective complement complex sentence compound sentence concrete noun conjunctions connotations context Definition a song or poem that tells a story; some are from the popular oral tradition; some are more literary; usually uses a form of common (or ballad) metre a unit that forms a sentence or part of a sentence; always has a verb; simple sentences have one clause e.g. The plogs glorped bliply an overused phrase or word that has lost its original force; usually metaphors or idioms e.g. a long shot; the writing on the wall patterns of language within a text that help organise and unite it; can be through grammatical or lexical features refers to groups of people; animals etc; e.g. herd of cows language that is in everyday use; particularly language used in informal speech e.g. that dodgy bloke; ok (sometimes called ballad metre) a traditional poetic form which uses a four line stanza (or quatrain) containing lines with three or four stressed syllables each; the rhyme scheme is usually alternate (abab or abcb) word used to define all members of a large class of people; animals; things; states or qualities e.g. friend; tree; apple; sentence; building the form of an adjective that compares two things either by adding the word more or by adding -er to the adjective e.g. this track is better than the other one; this group is more enthusiastic than the other one sentence element that gives more information about the subject e.g. He is happy a sentence which has a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses e.g. The tourist - who came from Russia - was enjoying his stay. (Main clause is The tourist was enjoying his stay; subordinate clause is who came from Russia) a sentence which has two or more main clauses linked by a co-ordinating conjunction e.g. She walked to the shops and she bought an ice-cream. refers to things that can be observed e.g. table words which link words; phrases or clauses e.g. and; but; or; because (see also additive; adversative; co-ordinating; subordinating) associated meanings linked to a word; they are often individual or cultural e.g. the connotations of December (but only if you are from a particular place and culture) could be coldness; Christmas widely used term for the situation in which any language is produced or received; the context has an influence on language choices and meanings

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term contractions cooperative signals co-ordinating conjunctions declarative definite article deixis determiner deviant spelling dialect dialogue direct speech discourse Definition a shortened form of a word or phrase that is used in speech and informal writing; in writing letters that have been left out are replaced by an apostrophe signals which indicate that a listener agrees or want to hear more eg. ok; go on; yes; mmm conjunctions that link two or more main clauses: and; but; or; so; neithernor; eitheror sentence mood that makes a statement (the most common sentence mood) e.g. Running is your life. shows that the noun refers to one thing in particular e.g. the apple language that points either to the real world e.g. that one over there; or forwards and backwards in a text e.g. pronouns, such as, Tom was ill. He really was word that determines the reference of the noun e.g. the exam; an exam; some exam unconventional spelling that breaks accepted rules grammar and/or vocabulary that is distinctive to a region or social group; Indicates social or regional background of a speaker a passage of scripted speech shared by two speakers words spoken are put in speech marks and a phrase such as he said is used; only applies to written texts (note that this is a difficult term to define and can have different meanings in different contexts) generally used to refer to the ways language is used in extended sections of text - both spoken and written; also refers to how language operates to create meaning in particular contexts e.g. the discourse of advertising words and phrases that signal the connections between utterances or different parts of a text e.g. first; now; on the other hand; anyway feature of non-Standard English using two terms to create a negative e.g. I dont have none a verb that is a doing word; they describe an action e.g. eat; throw; walk leaving out a sound (vowel or syllable) in a word where a word or phrase has been left out in a spoken or written text; frequently occurs in speech and informal texts e.g. Are you going? Might be (instead of I might be) when a speaker quotes the words of another speaker e.g. she tells me that she wants to go

discourse markers double negative dynamic verb elision ellipsis embedded speech

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term emoticons end focus end stop enjambment exclamatory eye-rhyme false start fiction figurative language filler first person first person narrator font foregrounding formal language framing narrative free indirect style Definition an icon or visual representation to convey emotion (emotion + icon); used in informal texts e.g. :-) the placing of words or phrases at the end of a sentence in order to give them more attention when a line of poetry ends with a strong punctuation mark such as a full stop (compare enjambment) when the meaning of a line of poetry continues to the following line without strong punctuation (compare end stop) a sentence that uses an exclamation mark at the end e.g. She loves you! words that appear to rhyme but do not rhyme when spoken e.g. love/move when a speaker begins an utterance; then either repeats or reformulates it; indicates self-correction and monitoring a text produced from the imagination or made up or invented; usually refers to prose works such as novels; novellas and short stories e.g. Address Unknown; Mister Pip language that uses features such as metaphor or simile e.g. He ran like a bolt of lightning or his lightning speed; can be compared with literal language e.g. He ran very fast and powerfully sound or word inserted into an utterance to enable a speaker to keep their turn or to have time to think etc e.g. er; um; well refers to the use of the pronouns I (singular) and we (plural) and their related forms; a text using these forms is said to be written in the first person in fictional texts - a narrator who tells a story in speech or writing from their own point of view using the pronoun I; note that in fiction the first person narrator is not necessarily the author style of print e.g. upper/lower case; bold; Times New Roman etc the placing of words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence in order to give them more attention lexis and grammar that is suited to a formal context e.g. Good evening ladies and gentlemen a narrative that contains another narrative within it e.g. I met a man in the pub the other night and he told me this story. Once upon a time where a third person narrator seems to express the thoughts and feelings of a character; freely taking on the views and often the language of that character (narratives often slide between conventional third person narration and free indirect style) sounds made by the following: f/v; th;s/z; sh a type of text e.g. advertisement, film script, novel, spontaneous conversation

fricatives genre

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term grammar half-rhyme hedges homophones hyperbole idiolect idiom imperative indefinite article indirect speech informal language intensifiers internal rhyme interrogative interruptions irony Definition how language fits together to make meaning e.g. use of sentence elements or sentence mood; tense (sometimes called near-rhyme) where words almost rhyme but the sounds are not identical e.g. fish/dash; smiling/falling words or phrases used to soften the force of how something is said; indicates politeness uncertainty and cooperation e.g. perhaps; maybe; sort of words that have the same pronunciation (they sound the same) but have different meanings e.g. threw/through use of exaggeration e.g. You have been ages features that make up a personal individual style of speaking. a commonly used metaphorical phrase which is widely understood e.g. over the moon (meaning very happy) sentence mood that commands or orders e.g. Go to school shows that the noun refers to any one of a group or class e.g. an apple; a car words spoken are reported by the narrator or writer and are NOT put into speech marks; only applies to written texts (also called reported speech) e.g. She said that she was tired grammar and/or vocabulary that is appropriate for or creates an informal context pre-modifies an adjective by intensifying its meaning e.g. so; very; such rhyming words used within a line of poetry e.g. His only cloak it was the smoke sentence mood that questions e.g. Are you going to the shops? when one speaker interrupts another saying or writing something different from what you mean so that your audience understands what you really mean more forcefully; it can apply to a particular word or phrase or to the tone of an entire work which is then said to be ironic; sarcasm is one extreme form of irony when you say the opposite of what you mean specialist terms used in particular fields e.g. medical or scientific terms putting two words or phrases near to each other in unusual ways to create an effect e.g. a grief ago; also putting two incidents or scenes together so that they create an effect a speaker continues another utterance smoothly; speaker latches on to the previous turn; indicates engagement and cooperation design of text through use of colour; illustrations; columns etc.

jargon juxtaposition latching lay-out

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term lexis listing metaphor metre minor sentence modal verb modifier monitoring talk monologue monosyllabic lexis narrative poem narrative stance narrator neologism Definition words or vocabulary; also includes semantics (or the meanings of words) occurs in many genres in different forms; items in a list can be separated by commas or semi-colons as well as being placed in a vertical list a comparison between one idea and another established in a word or phrase e.g. I demolished his argument; the living sea of waking dreams (compare with simile) pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry short sentence - sometimes only one word - which does not follow the normal rules of sentence structure conveys ideas such as possibility; certainty; probability; control e.g. can; could; will; must; may; shall; might a word or group of words which add information to another word; usually a noun e.g A fearful man; all in coarse grey words or phrases used to check or comment on what is being said e.g. do you see what I mean? a substantial passage of scripted speech by one speaker words with only one syllable; usually straightforward in meaning e.g. dog; gone; red a genre of poetry that tells a story the point of view from which a story is told the character or person telling a story; there are different types of narrator such as first/third person a new word or a new meaning in a language; can be an existing word acquiring a new meaning e.g mobile (for mobile phone) or an invented word e.g. hippy in the 1960s; or a new combination of existing words or elements e.g. camcorder (combining camera and recorder) a text based on the real world; not invented or made-up; usually refers to all genres that are not fiction e.g. journalism; biography all forms or dialects of English excluding Standard English a word used to name any person; animal; thing; state; idea or quality e.g. woman; table; moon; Razna; quietness; Africa; aggression; peace a noun used to modify another noun e.g. kitchen chair a group of words which contains a noun (and no main verb) e.g. A fearful man sentence element that identifies what receives the action of the verb e.g. He hit me.

non-fiction non-Standard language noun noun modifiers noun phrase object

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term obsolete lexis omniscient narrator onomatopoeia oxymoron paradox paralinguistic features parallelism parenthesis passive past continuous past tense pause persona personification phatic talk phonetic spelling phonology plosives polysyllabic lexis Definition words that are no longer in use though they may still be understood or used to create an archaic effect e.g. verily in fictional texts - a narrator who is assumed to know everything connected with the story narrated. a link between the sounds of words and the actions to which they refer e.g. pop a phrase that contains a contradiction e.g. darkness visible (from Milton Paradise Lost); O brawling love! O loving hate (from Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet a statement that seems to contradict itself but which contains a truth e.g. I must be cruel only to be kind (from Shakespeare - Hamlet) non-verbal communication using gestures; posture; facial expressions; can also include non-verbal utterances such as laughter a repeated pattern in a text - often a rhetorical text - to develop a key idea e.g. Let both sides. (John F. Kennedy Inaugural address 1961); also examples in Nooligan by Roger McGough use of brackets (or a pair of commas or dashes) to separate a phrase from the rest of the text grammatical structure in which the recipient of the action of the verb is foregrounded e.g. The ball was chased by the dog (see active) verb form that indicates an action was continuing in the past e.g. they were walking to the shops verb form that indicates that an action or state happened in the past e.g. he walked; she has walked; they were walking a silence in speech lasting from less than a second - a micropause - to several seconds used to refer to a first person narrator - for example in a poem - to distinguish the narrator in the text from the author a metaphor that gives human qualities to a non-human entity or feature e.g. the clammy cement/sucks formulaic utterances with stock responses used to establish or maintain personal relationships e.g. How are you? Fine thank you spelling that represents the sounds of a word rather than the conventional spelling (note that in English - unlike other languages - spelling is rarely phonetic) e.g. fonetic (for phonetic) refers to the sound system of a language sounds made by the following: p/b; t/d; k/g words with several syllables; usually complex e.g. quadruped; departed; symbiosis

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term possessive pronouns post-modification pragmatics pre-modification preposition present continuous present tense pronouns proper noun prose pun punctuation quatrain Received Pronunciation refrain register repetition rhetorical questions rhyme Definition pronouns that show someone or something belongs to someone e.g. my book; the book is yours when modifiers come after the word being modified e.g man; all in coarse grey how language creates meanings in the way that it is used when modifiers come before the word being modified e.g. A fearful man usually a short word introducing a noun or pronoun; often relating to position e.g. with someone else; across the road; for her; in debt verb form that indicates an action is in the present and in continuous e.g. they are walking to the shops verb form that indicates that an action or state is happening in the present e.g. he walks; they are walking short words that refer to people and things; used to avoid repeating the noun itself e.g. we; you; it; they; me; him; hers etc the name of a particular person; place; thing etc; always has a capital letter e.g. Razna; London; The Sixth Form College all types of language excluding poetry a play on words usually created by using one word to mean two different things e.g you will find me a grave man (the dying Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet) symbols used in written text e.g. ! ? . ; : a four line stanza can be referred to as RP; a high status accent usually associated with Standard English a phrase, line or lines of a poem that is repeated at intervals through the poem, usually at the end of each stanza any variety of language used in a particular setting e.g. the register of science; an informal register occurs in many genres in different forms; can create cohesion in a text questions used for persuasive effect; not intended to receive an answer two words with identical patterns of sound e.g. cat/mat; lying/dying (can be used in many different genres of text not only poetry)

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term rhyming couplet rhythm satire script second person address semantic field semantics sentence sentence elements sentence moods sentence types sibilance simile simple sentence simultaneous speech slang sonnet stanza Definition two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a text; often consciously used in poetry but can be present in other genres a text that criticises some aspect of society by making it ridiculous; often political and/or social e.g. the poem Nooligan by Roger McGough which mocks attitudes to hooligans a written text designed to be spoken aloud, usually by an actor, uses conventional punctuation e.g. a play where a text addresses its audience (listeners or readers) using the second person (you) a group of words which are related in meaning because they are all used in a similar context e.g. the semantic field of cooking would include: chop; boil; herbs; sprinkle; recipe relates to the meaning of words starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop; usually contains at least one main verb different parts of a sentence identified by their function rather than word class: Subject; Verb; Object; Complement; Adverbial (SVOCA) the different functions of sentences: declarative; imperative; interrogative; exclamatory different types of sentence structure: minor; simple; compound; complex repetition of s sounds in a text to create an effect a comparison between one idea and another established in a word or phrase using like or as to draw attention to the comparison (compare with metaphor) e.g. strut/Like cheap tarts (from The Jaguar by Ted Hughes) has only one clause (because only one verb) e.g. He gave me his word occurs when two people say the same thing at the same time; usually in the form of overlap; can indicate engagement; cooperation and impatience. language used by a particular group of people which tends to exclude others who are not part of the group e.g. cool, tit for tat or titfer (meaning hat in Cockney rhyming slang) a poetic form using 14 lines, usually with 10 syllables in each line and a particular rhyme scheme a verse or section of a poem, separated from other stanzas by a space on the page

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term stream of consciousness stress subordinating conjunctions superlative adjective symbol syntax taboo tag questions tense terms of address terms of reference third person third person narrator topic shifting transcript tripling turn-taking unreliable narrator Definition narrative style that makes the reader feel as if theyre inside someones head; the language used suggests the fragmentary nature of thought; can be either third person or first person (compare interior monologue) in poetry, the use of emphasis on particular syllables that creates rhythm or metre; in spoken language, the natural or deliberate emphasis that the speaker places on certain syllables conjunctions that introduce a subordinate clause (a clause that is less important than the main clause) e.g. because, although form of adjective that gives the highest degree of comparison, formed by adding -est to an adjective or putting the word most before the adjective e.g. tallest, most beautiful a word or image that is agreed to represent something else e.g. a dove represents peace the arrangement of words and elements in a sentence language that is considered unacceptable e.g. shit familiar questions; sometimes rhetorical; that are normally added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question e.g. dont you? isnt it? the time of the action (a different ending or another verb is added to the main verb) (sometimes called vocatives) words or phrases directly addressed to someone e.g. Hi Kate words or phrases used to refer to people (but not directly addressed to them) e.g. I saw Kate yesterday refers to the use of the pronouns s/he/it (singular) or they (plural); a text using these pronouns is said to be written in the third person in fictional texts, a narrative voice in which the narrator isnt a participant but stands outside the events, referring to the participants as he or she occurs when a speaker tries to change the topic of conversation; introducing their own agenda an accurate record of a passage of speech made by a listener pattern of three words or three phrases; often used rhetorically, with a persuasive purpose pattern of exchanges between speakers in a conversation; indicates power; co-operation etc a narrator whose view of events is understood by the reader to be untrustworthy or unreliable in some way e.g. Pip in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

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A Level Language and Literature: Glossary of terms

Term utterance verb vocatives voice vowels word classes Definition a complete unit of talk; bounded by the speakers silence. describes a state or action e.g. eat; be; sleep; get; throw; walk see terms of address the sound produced by human speech organs; also, the mode of expression and point of view that is distinctive to a particular person, or narrator or character the vowel sounds are created by the letters aeiou and most can be pronounced with a long or short sound e.g. neat (long e); net (short e) the names given to different types of words; depends on the function of the word in its context e.g. nouns; pronouns; adverbs; comparative and superlative adjectives etc

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