Abbreviations

letter(s) or shortened word used instead of a full word or phrase

Accent

the features of pronunciation which indicate the regional or the social identity of a speaker

Acquisition

the process by which language skills are developed - particularly in infancy

Adjectives

a word which modifies a noun or a pronoun

Adverbs

a word which modifies a verb, an adverb, or an adjective

Agreement

the grammatical logic and coherence between parts of a sentence

Alliteration

the repetition of consonant sounds - usually at the beginning of words

Apostrophes

a raised comma used to denote either possession or contraction

Articles

a word that specifies whether a noun is definite or indefinite

Assonance

the repetition of vowel sounds

Audience

the person or persons receiving a speech or piece of writing

Brackets

Curved or square punctuation marks enclosing words inserted into a text

Capitals

Upper-case letters used to indicate names, titles, and important words

Clauses

a structural unit of language which is smaller than the sentence but larger than phrases or words, and which contains a finite verb

Clich?

an over-used phrase or expression

Colons

a punctuation mark indicating a pause ranking between a semicolon and a full stop

Commas

a punctuation mark indicating a short pause in a sentence

Conjunction

a word which connects words or other constructions

Consonant

an alphabetic element other than a vowel

Context

the setting in which speech or writing takes place

Dialect

a form of speech peculiar to a district, class, or person

Diglossia

the existence of two official languages in a society

Diphthong

two vowel characters representing the sound of a single vowel

Ellipsis

the omission of words from a sentence

Figure of speech

expressive use language in non-literal form to produce striking effect

Form

the outward appearance or structure of language, as opposed to its function, meaning, or social use

Full stop

a punctuation mark indicating the end of a sentence

Function

the role language plays to express ideas or attitudes

Grammar

the study of sentence structure, especially with reference to syntax and semantics

Grapheme

the smallest unit in the writing system of a language

Graphology

the study of writing systems

Homonyms

words with the same spelling but with different meanings

Hyphen

a short horizontal mark used to connect words or syllables, or to divide words into parts

Idiom

a sequence of words which forms a whole unit of meaning

Irony

saying [or writing] one thing, whilst meaning the opposite

Intonation

the use of pitch in speech to create contrast and variation

Jargon

the technical language of an occupation or group

Language change

the development and changes in a language

Lexis

the vocabulary of a language, especially in dictionary form

Metaphor

a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which an attribute is substituted for the whole

Morpheme

the smallest unit of meaning in grammar

Morphology

a branch of grammar which studies the structure of words

Narrator

the person (named or unknown) who is telling a story

Noun

a word which names an object

Onomatopoeia

a word that sounds like the thing it describes

Oxymoron

a figure of speech which yokes two contradictory terms

Paradox

a figure of speech in which an apparent contradiction contains a truth

Paragraph

a distinct passage of writing which is unified by an idea or a topic

Parenthesis

a word, clause or even sentence which is inserted into a sentence to which it does not grammatically belong

Participle

a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective or a noun

Phonetics

the study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds

Phonology

a study of the sounds in any language

Phrase

a group of words, smaller than a clause, which forms a grammatical unit

Point of view

a term from literary studies which describes the perspective or source of a piece of writing

Preposition

a word which governs and typically precedes a noun or a pronoun

Pronoun

a word that can substitute for a noun or a noun phrase

Punctuation

a system of marks used to introduce pauses and interruption into writing

Received pronunciation

the regionally neutral, prestige accent of British English

Semantics

the study of linguistic meaning

Semicolon

a punctuation mark which indicates a pause longer than a comma, but shorter than a colon

Sentence

a set of words which form a grammatically complete statement, usually containing a subject, verb, and object

Simile

a figure of speech in which one thing is directly likened to another

Slang

informal, non-standard vocabulary

Speech

the oral medium of transmission for language

Spelling

the convention governing the representation of words by letters in writing systems

Standard English

a dialect representing English speech and writing comprehensible to most users

Structure

the arrangement of parts or ideas in a piece of writing

Style

aspects of writing (or speech) which have an identifiable character generally used in a positive sense to indicate 'pleasing effects'

Stylistic analysis

the study of stylistic effects in writing

Symbol

an object which represents something other than its self

Synonym

a word which means (almost) the same as another

Syntax

the arrangement of words to show relationships of meaning within a sentence

Tense

the form taken by a verb to indicate time (as in past-present-future)

Text

any piece of writing or object being studied

Tone

an author's or speaker's attitude, as revealed in 'quality of voice' or 'selection of language'

Verb

a term expressing an action or a state of being

Vocabulary

the particular selection or types of words chosen in speech or writing

Vowel

the open sounds made in speech - as (mainly) distinct from consonants

Writing

the use of visual symbols to represent words which act as a code for communication

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