Glossary for Critical Reading

Page 1

Glossary

· Accent - The distinctive way a speaker

from a particular region pronounces words

· Acronym - A new word made from the

initial letters of all the words in a name or phrase, e.g. NASA

· Active

Voice - When the

subject of the sentence is directly performing the verb e.g. Steve burst the

bubble

· Adjective

- A class of

words that can appear before (attributive) or after (predicative)

· Adverb - A class of words that modify

verbs according to time, place, manner, frequency, duration or degree. They can

sometimes modify nouns and adjectives too

· Affixation - The process of adding an affix

before (prefix) or after (suffix) an existing word to change either its meaning

or grammatical function

· Alliteration - When two or more words close

to each other in a phrase begin with the same sound, e.g. down in the dumps

· Anaphoric

Reference - When a

word, usually a pronoun, refers back to something or someone that has already

been mentioned, e.g. Barry can't come because he's ill

· Antithesis - Type of rhetorical language

where contrasting ideas or words are balanced against each other, e.g. it's

just too good from Green, and just too bad for the goalkeeper

· Antonyms - Words with opposite meanings

· Article - A kind of determiner that

shows if the reference to a noun is general (a / an) or specific (the)

· Aspect

- A verb's

aspect shows whether the action it refers to is already completed, or if it is

still taking place

· Assimilation

- When

sounds next to each other in a spoken word or sentence are pronounced in a

different way to normal to make them easier to say

· Assonance

- When the

main vowel sounds of two or more words that are close together in a text are

similar or the same, e.g. low smoky holes

· Audience - A person or group of

people that read, view or listen to a text. A writer or speaker can aim to

reach a certain type of audience by using specific literary techniques and

language choices

· Auxiliary

Verb - Verbs

used before the main verb in a sentence to give extra information about it,

e.g. I have seen him

· Babbling

- The

production of short vowel / consonant combinations by a baby acquiring language

· Back

Channeling - A

kind of feedback in spoken language that supports the person speaking and shows

that what is being said is understood

· Behaviorism

- A theory of

language acquisition that suggests children learn language through a process of

imitation and reinforcement

· Blending

- When parts

of two words are combined to make a new one, e.g. netizen

· Buzz

Words - Words that

are fashionable in a particular occupational group

· Cataphora

- A reference

in a text to something that follows in later phrases or sentences, e.g. these

are the directions...

· Characterization

- The way

that a writer conveys information about a character relating to their

appearance, speech, etc.

· Child-Directed

Speech - The way that

caregivers talk to children - usually simplified and / or exaggerated language

· Clause

- The

simplest meaningful unit of a sentence

· Cliché

- An

expression that has lost its novelty value due to being overused

· Clipping - When a shortened version of a word becomes a word

in its own right, e.g. demo, phone

· Cognitive Theory - A theory of language acquisition

that suggests children need to have acquired certain mental abilities before

they can acquire language

· Cohesion - The linking of ideas in texts to ensure the text

makes sense

· Coining - The general term for creating new words

· Collective Noun - A noun that refers to a group f

people, animals of things, e.g. team

· Collocation - Words that commonly appear together in order, in

specific lexical units, e.g. done and dusted

· Common Noun - A noun that refers to a class of things or a

concept. Every noun is a common noun except those that refer to unique things,

e.g. the names of particular people or places

· Comparative - An adjective that makes a

degree of comparison, normally by adding an -er suffix, e.g. faster

· Complement

- A word or

phrase that gives more information about the subject or object in a sentence,

e.g. the boy is actually a cow (NOTE: not "Your dress is lovely")

· Compound - A new word created by

combining two or more existing words, e.g. skyscraper

· Concrete

Noun - A noun

that refers to the things that you can physically touch or see, e.g. a chair

· Conjunction - A linking word that connects

phrases and clauses to each other to form sentences, e.g. but

· Connotation - The

associations that are made with a particular word

· Context - The circumstances that surround a word, phrase, or text, e.g.

time and place produced, intended audience

· Conversion - When a word becomes part of a different word class in addition to

its original sense

· Cooing - The earliest sounds that

children are able to make as they experiment with moving their lips and tongue

· Coordinate

Clause - An

independent clause that's linked to another independent clause in the same

sentence

· Count

Noun - Nouns that

can be preceded by a number and counted, e.g. one book, two books etc.

· Declarative

Sentence - A sentence

that makes a statement to give information, e.g. she enjoyed her scampi

· Deixis

- A

reference to something that is outside the text or conversation (e.g. location,

time) that can't be understood unless you know the context

· Demonstratives - Words that refer to specific

objects that only those in the discourse can see. They can be pronouns, e.g. I

like this, or adjectives, e.g. I like this bike

· Denotation

- The

literal meaning of a word

· Determiner - A word that goes before a noun

to give information about it, e.g. to show possession or number (his, two)

· Dialect

- The

distinctive lexis, grammar and pronunciation of a persons spoken English,

usually affected by the region they're from and their social background

· Dialogue - Any exchange between two or

more characters or speakers

· Difference

Model - Tannen's

(1990) theory about gender and conversation which states that men and women

have different objectives when they interact

· Discourse - An extended piece of written

or spoken language

· Dominance

Model - Zimmerman

and West's (1975) theory of gender differences in conversation are due to male

dominance in society

· Double

Negative - When

negatives are used twice in a phrase, e.g. I didn't do nothing

· Egocentric

- The early

mental state of a child in which they can only understand things existing in

relation to themselves, i.e. things they can see or touch

· Elision

- When

sounds or syllables are slurred together in speech to make pronunciation easier

and quicker

· Ellipsis - When part of a grammatical

structure is left out of the sentence without effecting the meaning

· Estuary

English - An accent

that was originally from the Thames Estuary area in London but is not heard

outside the area and may be replacing RP as the country's most widespread form.

· Euphemism

- A word or

phrase that is used as a substitute for harsher or more unpleasant sounding

words or concepts

· Exclamative

- A sentence

that has an expressive function and ends with an exclamation mark

· Exospheric

Reference - Referring

to something outside a text, e.g. that tree over there

· Feedback

- Verbal or

non-verbal sings that a person is listening to a speaker

· Figurative

Language - Language

that is used in a non-literal way to create images and form comparisons, e.g.

metaphor

· Filler

- A sound

produced by speakers to keep up a conversation going avoid silence, e.g. mmm

· Genre

- A group of

texts with a particular form or purpose, e.g. letters, poems, adverts

· Grammar

- The system

of rules that govern how words, clauses and sentences are put together

· Grapheme

- The smallest

unit of writing that can create contrasts in meaning, e.g. individual letters

or symbol

· Graphology

- The study

of the appearance of a text, how it looks on the page and how the layout helps

get the meaning across

·

Head Word - A word

that has the same grammatical function as the phrase that has been built around

it, e.g., in a noun phrase, the head word is a noun

·

Hedging

- Word choices that show uncertainty in conversations, e.g. maybe, probably

·

Holophrases

- In language acquisition, single words that express a

complete idea, e.g. ball, which could mean the child wants it, or has found it,

etc.… Caregivers need contextual clues to interpret them

·

Hyperbole - When exaggeration is used for effect

·

Hypernym - A word that refers to a specific type of a

hypernym, e.g. car, bus, lorry are all hyponyms for vehicle

·

Hyponym - A general word that is a term for many hyponyms,

e.g. vehicle is a hyponym of car, bus, lorry etc.

·

Ideology - A set of ideas and beliefs

·

Imagery - Describing something in a way that creates a

picture of it in the audience's mind

·

Imperative - A sentence that gives orders, advice or

directions. It starts with a main verb and doesn't have a subject

·

Implication - When a meaning is suggested, rather than

explicitly described

·

Infinitive - The base form of a verb,

preceded by to

·

Inflection - An affix that is attached to a base word and

gives extra information about it

·

Internalization - When a child learning

language starts to apply one of the language's roles consistently, even to

words they've never seen before

·

Interrogative - A sentence or utterance that asks a

question

·

Intertexuality - When a text makes a reference to another

existing text or effect

·

Intonation - The pitch of a speaker's voice, e.g.

rising intonation shows it's a question

·

Jargon - Specialist words that are used by a particular

social or occupational group that may not be understood by a non-member

·

Juxtaposition - Positioning words, ideas or images next

to each other in a text to create certain effects

·

Language Acquisition Device (LAD) - The

innate ability of children acquiring language to take in and use the grammatical

rules of the language they can hear where the live, according to Chomsky (1965)

·

Lexical Field - A group of words that relate to the same

topic, e.g. hotel and destination are in the lexical field of travel

·

Lexis - A general term for the words of a language

·

Liaison - When a consonant is pronounced between words or

syllables to make the run together

·

Loan Words - Words that are taken from other

languages

·

Main Verbs - Words that identify the action of a

sentence

·

Management Speak - A way of communicating in the workplace

designed to sound up-to-date and formal, but usually overly complex

·

Mass Noun - A noun that can't be counted and doesn't have a

plural, e.g. information

·

Metaphor - Words or phrases that describe something as f it

actually was something else, e.g. the heart of the matter

·

Metonym - Using a part of something, or one of its attributes

to describe the whole thing, e.g. the press to refer to journalists in the news

industry

·

Modal Auxiliary Verbs - Verbs that give more information about

the main verb but can't occur as main verbs themselves, e.g. can, will

·

Mode - A way of classifying texts (e.g. written or spoken

or a combination of different media.)

·

Monologue - The utterances of one

speaker or performer to an audience

·

Monosyllabic - Words with only one syllable

·

Morpheme - The individual meaningful units that make up words

(although they don’t always make sense on their own)

·

Morphology - The study of the internal structure of words

·

Multimodal Text - A text that involves elements of

different modes, e.g. text messages are a mixture of written and spoken

language

·

Narrative Voice - The point of view a text is written

from, e.g. a first person narrator tells the story from their personal point of

view

·

Neologisms - New words that enter a language

·

Non-Verbal Communication - Using gestures, expressions and body

language to communicate instead of or as well as words

·

Noun - A word used as the name or a person, place, thing

or concept

·

Object - The part of the sentence that the verb acts

upon, e.g. in I broke a plate, the plate is the object and ends up broken

·

Onomatopoeia - A word that sounds like the noise it's

describing

·

Overextension - When a child acquiring language uses a

word too generally to refer to different but related things, e.g. calling

everything with four legs a dog

·

Oxymoron - A phrase that brings two conflicting

ideas together, e.g. bittersweet

·

Parallelism

- The repetition of structural features in a sentence or

throughout a text, e.g. repeated use of the past tense in a sentence - he came

home, ran upstairs and jumped in the bathe

·

Parody

- Subverting traditional expectations of a text's features

to produce humor or satire

·

Passive

Voice - When the object of the verb is described first, rather

than the subject (e.g. the bubble was burst by Steve)

·

Personification

- When an object, concept or situation is given human

qualities

·

Phatic

Language - Expressions that have a sociable function rather than

expressing serious meaning

·

Phoneme

- The smallest unit of language built around a head word

·

Phonology

- The study of sound systems of languages, particular the

patterns of sounds

·

Phrase

- A meaningful unit of language built around a head word

·

Polysyllabic

- Words with more than one syllable

·

Post-Modifier

- Words that come after the head word in a phrase that

tell you something about it

·

Pragmatics

- The study of how language functions in social situations

·

Pre

modifier - Words that

are used before the head word of a phrase (often determiner + adjective) that

tell you something about it

·

Prefix - An affix that comes before the base form, e.g.

unfortunate

·

Preposition - A word that defines the relationship between

words in terms of time, space or direction, e.g. the toy was in the box, he was

behind you

·

Primary Auxiliary Verbs - Auxiliary verbs that can also occur as

main verbs (do, be and have)

·

Pronoun - A word that can take the place of a noun, e.g.

he, she, it

·

Proper Noun - A noun that is the name of a specific person,

place or brand

·

Prosody - Non-verbal aspects of speech like pace, stress,

pitch, intonation, volume and pauses

·

Proto-Word - Pun

·

Received Pronunciation - An accent traditionally associated

with educated people and the upper class. It’s characterized by lots of long

vowels and the pronunciation of /h/ and /t/ in words where people with regional

accents might leave them out

·

Referential Language - Spoken language that gives information

by referring to objects or concepts. It usually only makes sense if the

listener understands the context, e.g. the vase is over there

·

Register - A type of language that's appropriate for a

particular audience or situation e.g. formal language is appropriate for a

political speech

·

Rhetorical Language - Language with phonological or

structural features used to provide extra effects or meanings

·

Semantics - The study of how the meanings of words are

created and interpreted

·

Sentence - An independent grammatical unit made up of one or

more clauses

·

Similes - Comparisons that use the words like or as

·

Simplifications - When a child learning to speak drops

consonants or consonant clusters to make words easier to pronounce or swaps the

consonants for others that are easier to pronounce

·

Slang - Informal, non-standard vocabulary usually used in

casual speech

·

Sociolect - A variety of language used by a particular social

group

·

Standard English - A dialect of English considered

'correct' and 'normal', because it has distinctive and standardized features of

spelling, vocabulary and syntax. It's the form of English usually used in

formal writing

·

Sun-Genre - A group of similar texts that create

a complete genre, e.g. tragedy and comedy are types of drama

·

Subject

- The focus of a sentence - the person or thing that

performs the action described by the verb, e.g. Billy ate a sandwich

·

Subordinate

Clause - A clause that gives extra information about the main

clause, but can't stand alone and still make sense

·

Subtext

- The implied meaning behind what's actually being said or

described

·

Suffix

- An affix that comes after the base form, e.g. sadness

·

Superlative

- And adjective that states the noun it's describing is

beyond comparison, usually by adding -est, e.g. fastest

·

Syllables

- A word's individual units of pronunciation

·

Symbolism

- When a word or phrase represents something other than

its literal meaning

·

Synonyms

- Words that have similar meanings

·

Syntax

- The order and structure of sentences

·

Tag

Question - A question added to the end of a statement to encourage

a response, e.g. don't you think so?

·

Telegraphic

Stage - The stage of language acquisition at which children

begin to create three or four word utterances containing mainly subjects,

verbs, objects and complements

·

Tense

- Grammatical inflections on verbs that show the time and

action took place, e.g. in the past or present

·

Transactional

Language - Spoken exchange aimed at making some sort of deal

·

Turn-Taking - A feature of orderly

conversations when the chance to speak switches back and forth between

participants

·

Underextension

- When a child uses words in a very restricted way, e.g.

using one word like hat to refer only to the one the child is wearing

·

Verb

- A class of words that describe the action or state that

a sentence refers to

·

Word-Classes

- How words are categorized according to the function they

can perform in a sentence

Page 2

Nouns

Abstract Noun - A noun that refers to a concept, state, quality or emotion

Collective

Noun - A noun that refers to a group f people, animals of things, e.g.

team

Common Noun - A noun that refers to a class of things or a concept. Every noun

is a common noun except those that refer to unique things, e.g. the names of

particular people or places

Concrete Noun - A noun that refers to the things that you can physically touch or see,

e.g. a chair

Count Noun - Nouns that can be preceded by a number and counted, e.g. one book, two

books etc.

Mass Noun - A noun that can't be counted and doesn't have a plural, e.g. information

Noun - A word used as the name or a person, place, thing or concept

Proper Noun - A noun that is the name of a specific person,

place or brand

Page 3

Clauses

Clause - The simplest meaningful unit of a sentence

Coordinate Clause - An independent clause that's linked to another independent clause in the

same sentence

Subordinate Clause - A clause that gives extra information about the main clause, but can't

stand alone and still make sense