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Emotive function
People often use language to express emotion, using exclamation marks, emojis or words and phrases that indicate feelings.
- - social harmony
- - intimacy
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Conative function
As this function is oriented toward the receiver of the message, it is about persuading, requesting or demanding. In informal contexts, this might involve inviting a friend to a party or asking someone to do a favour.
- - intimacy
- - in-group membership
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Phatic function
This function is about creating bonds, and involves small talk, greetings, or checking in with someone.
- - social harmony
- - positive politeness
- - solidarity
- - social intimacy
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Metalinguistic function
The discussion of language itself could involve asking someone the meaning of a slang term or talking about how a particular emoji is used.
- linguistic innovation
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Referential function
The communication of information might occur in casual conversation about everyday life, when gossiping or through the sharing of news.
- - in-group membership
- - rapport
- - social harmony
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Poetic function
This function involves focusing on the aesthetic features of language, such as rhymes, puns or interesting phrases. This can be found in playful texts.
- linguistic innovation
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Definition of Semantics
The study of understanding and meaning-making when we consider words, phrases, sentences and texts.
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Definition of Discourse and Pragmatics
- Discourse refers to the written or spoken texts that are longer than a sentence.
- Pragmatics is the study of how language is used within a given context, and how context contributes to meaning.
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Definition of Syntax
The study of how words are ordered in structures that communicate meaning - phrases, clauses and sentences.
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Definition of Phonetics and Phonology
Phonetics is the study of how we make speech sounds and how we organise these sounds. Phonology is the study of the patterns that speech sounds form within a language.
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Definition of Lexicology
The study of the form, meaning, and behavior of words.
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Definition of Morphology
The study of words and their parts. Each word consists of one or more morphemes, which is the smallest unit of meaning in a word.
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Negative face
The desire to be free from imposition and constraints on autonomy. It reflects an individual's need for independence, privacy, and freedom to act. Concerns the desire to maintain one's sense of individuality and personal space.
Invading privacy = threatening negative face
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Positive Face
The desire to be seen as competent and liked by others. It reflects an individual's need for social recognition, appreciation and inclusion. Concerns the desire for favourable social interactions and maintaining a positive self-image.
Implying incompetence = threatening positive face
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Negative politeness strategies
- Hedging
- Being indirect and ambiguous
- Using low modality verbs
- Apologising
- Mitigating strategies
reduces imposition, maintains social harmony
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Positive politeness strategies
- Emphasising similarity
- Showing interest
- Using humour
- Offering compliments
- Inclusive language
maintains social harmony, builds rapport, solidarity, inclusiveness, and interest
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Semantic patterning
- Repetition of:
- Figurative language
- Irony
- Metaphor
- Oxymoron
- Simile
- Hyperbole
- Personification
- Animation
- Lexical ambiguity
- Puns
aids coherence and cohesion, maintains audience attention
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Syntactic patterning
- Repetition of:
- Parallelism
- Antithesis
- Listing
supports function, creates rhythm, draws attention, reinforces meaning
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Phonological patterning
- Alliteration
- Assonance ("fleet of jeeps")
- Consonance ("bees in trees")
- Onomatopoeia
- Rhythm
- Rhyme
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Word formation processes (Morphological patterning)
- Affixation
- Abbreviation
- Shortening
- Compounding
- Blending
- Backformation
- Conversion of word class
- Initialism
- Acronym
- Contraction (aren't)
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Lexical word classes
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Prepositions (position words)
- Conjunctions (fanboys)
- Determiners (this that those)
- Interjections (bam! whoops!)
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Word formation processes (lexicology)
- Neologism (mansplain)
- Borrowings
- Commonization
- Nominalization (words into nouns eg: reaction to react)
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Textual Cohesion
Grammatical and lexical techniques to link words together to create a text that is both engaging and meaningful.
- Ellipses (omission of words and phrases)
- Repetition
- Substitution (alternative words replace original)
- Collocation (strong or weak tea?)
- Adverbials (firstly, then)
- Conjunctions (but)
- Front focus
- End focus
- Anaphoric reference (previously mentioned)
- Cataphoric reference (not yet mentioned)
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Textual Coherence
The logical and meaningful organisation of a text.
- Cohesion
- Inference
- Logical ordering
- Formatting
- Consistency and conventions
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Textual purposes and intent of Informal
- create rapport (familiarity and solidarity between people)
- Promote/maintain social harmony
- Build social intimacy
- Create an in-group membership
- Employ positiveness politeness
- Linguistic innovation
- Showing friendliness and inclusiveness
- Decrease social distance
- Engage audience in a way that feels authentic and relatable
- Establish equality
- Negotiating social taboos
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Semantic features
- Semantic domain
- Idiom
- Denotation (literal meaning of a word)
- Connotation
- Euphemism (sound nicer)
- Dysphemism (sound worse)
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Register
Levels of formality
- Highly informal
- Somewhat informal
- Somewhat formal
- Highly formal
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Tenor
The relationship between the participants
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Informal Linguistic terms
- Jargon
- Idioms
- Colloquialisms (informal - slang, swearing, figure of speech)
- Slang
- Personal and Impersonal pronouns
- Taboo
- Swearing
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Colloquial language
- Connected speech processes (gonna)
- Idiomatic expressions (chuck a sickie)
- Contraction (aren't)
- Abbreviation
- Informal syntax of grammar
- Ellipses (you going too?)
- Shortening of names
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Features of Spoken discourse in Informal texts
- Spontaneous, dynamic, casual
- Genuine and unscripted interactions
- Embraces natural ebb and flow of conversation
- Authenticity and relatability of dialogue
- Openings
- Closings
- Adjacency
- Minimal responses
- Overlapping speech
- Discourse markers
- Non-fluency features
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Sentence Types (syntax)
- Declarative sentences
- Imperative sentences
- Interrogative sentences
- Exclamative sentences
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Linguistic features
Elision (removal of sound - kinda)
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Prosodic features
- Intonation
- Stress
- Rhythm
- Pauses
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Standard and non standard English
- Non standard:
- "they ain't got nothing."
- standard:
- "they haven't got anything."
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