Language Levels

Semantics

• metaphor: referring to something as something else
• simile: explicit comparison ("like", "as")
• personification: attributing human characteristic/personal nature to something nonhuman
• connotation: associated, symbolic meaning of a word (often relies on culturally shared conventions)

Phonology

• onomatopoeia: a sound written down
• phonetic spelling: written like it sounds
• prosody: "!"
• rhythm
• contribute to entertainment & character portrayals & show emotions of subjects

Graphology

• genre usually determines the visual choices of how to construct a text
• texts can deviate from their genre by using the conventions of another genre: INTERTEXTUALITY

Word Classes

• open classes:
• nouns: naming word (put 'the'/'a' in front)
• verbs: doing word (inflections ('s'/'ed') change tense)
• adjectives: describe the noun (before or after)
• adverbs: describe verb (manner, time, frequency, place, reason)
• closes classes:
• pronouns: stand in place of noun (personal pronouns = biggest category)
• determiners: add detail/clarity to noun ('the', 'an', 'a', 'mine', 'his', 'her')
• conjunctions: words that link clauses (coordinating, subordinating)
• prepositions: express relationship between 2 parts of a sentence (in, on, under, to)

Nouns

• Proper
• denoted by use of Capital Letter
• 'The Queen', 'Christmas', 'Amsterdam'
• Common
• refer to whole class of things
• 'house', 'animal', 'fruit'
• Abstract
• general ideas & concepts
• 'kindness', 'difficulty', 'truth'
• Concrete
• can be seen or touched
• 'pig', 'computer', 'table'

Adjectives

• Base
• describes quality of a noun
• 'big'
• Comparative
• comparison of a quality between 2 nouns
• 'bigger'
• Superlative
• 3 or more are contrasted with the 1 optimum of that quality
• 'biggest'

Adverbs

• Manner: How?
• Time: When?
• Place: Where?
• Frequency: How often?
• Reason: Why?

Verbs

• Main Verbs:
• dynamic: express physical action/event
• stative: express states of being/internal processes
• Auxiliary Verbs:
• primary auxiliary verbs: BE // HAVE // DO
• modal auxiliary verbs
• epistemic: express degrees of possibility/certainty/probability
• deontic: express degrees of obligation/permission/ability/necessity in terms of freedom to act

Personal Pronouns

• (person, number, case)
• I - 1st person - singular - subject
• He - 1st person - singular - subject
• They - 3rd person - plural - subject
• Us - 1st person - plural - object
• You - 2nd person - singular/plural - subject/object
• Him - 3rd person - singular - object

Conjunctions

• Coordinating Conjunctions
• AND
• BUT
• OR
• Subordinating Conjunctions
• where
• before
• after
• until
• since
• when
• whenever
• while
• although
• though
• whether
• as
• because

Voice

• Active
• the subject is ACTIVELY doing what the verb denotes.
• Passive
• subject is RECEIVING the
• action denoted by the verb.
• less direct
• shifts focus to
• the object

Mood

• Declarative
• (statement) – eg “The car is parked there
• Imperative
• (command) – eg “Park the car there”
• Interrogative
• (question) – eg “Where is the car parked”
• Exclamatory
• (exclamation) – eg “Oh damn!”

Rhetoric

• used to persuade/influence
• Rhetorical Questions
• Interrogatives that don't expect a reply
• Desired response obvious from proceeding statements
• - heightens argument
• - fully involves audience
• Syntactic Parallelism
• similar grammatical patterns that create a rhythm
• "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"
• Tricolon
• three repeated things
• highlights key messages
• "Education, education, education"
• "we offer quality, affordability, and reliability"

Phrases

• one or more words functioning as a unit in a sentence
• head word w/ accompanying modifiers (pre/post. describe/give more info)
• Noun Phrases
• group of words built around a noun
• Verb Phrases
• group of words built around a verb
• Adverb Phrases
• group of words providing info on the verb (where, when, how, how often, why)

Sentences

• Simple Sentence
• a clause that makes sense on its own
• Compound Sentence
• 2+ clauses joined by COORDINATING conjunction (and/but/or)
• Complex Sentence
• 2+ clauses joined by SUBORDINATING conjunction (and/but/or)
• 1 main clause + subordinating clause(s)
• Minor Sentence
• not complete clauses: lack a VERB or SUBJECT
• Compound-complex Sentence
• mixing coordinating & subordinating clauses